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Ethnicsands

Ethnicsands

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Anyone think we could be pleasantly surprised here?

We have seniors/fourth year guys in mcgee, vt, rra, highsmith amd rodgers. I'm not claiming they'll become high nfl picks, but historically, many guys who were lost for much of their careers have had the light go on their final season. Maxey was an example. Nicolas last year. It happens. And these guys have enough aletic ability for it to happen to them, too.

We also have some talented newcomers amd younger guys, including gunter, finnie, howard, bush, jenkins etc.

If (IF) the light goes on for two of the seniors, we could have a legit secondary, at least compared to our past several seasons.
 
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I am cautiously optimistic. I think we may see some pretty big years from RRA and VT. Just a hunch.
 
I like the direction we are going at CB. Think Howard and Crawford will contribute immediately. I personally don't expect anything out of McGee, will be pleasantly surprised if he has a Marcus Maxey like Senior season though. There will be youthful mistakes, but the talent is there.

S still scares the crud out of me. VT and RRA should be solid, but not special, maybe Gunter moves there from CB, but there just isn't a lot of quality depth at the position. We are screwed if RRA or VT get hurt for any significant amount of time. I like K. Rodgers, but I feel like he is more of a ST depth kind of guy. Would love to see AJ Higsmith blow up, kid deserves it after wasting 2 seasons at QB because of Shantards terrible recruiting.
 
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I think we'll see improvement over the **** show that was 2011 (our secondary only had 5 INTs last year).

However, I'm not expecting a quantum leap. The biggest improvement will probably be from Finnie.

After the (non) play Rodgers made in the FSU game, I don't have high hopes for him. Maybe it was just stage fright, but you'd think a guy with experience on defense would instinctively make a play on the ball.
 
Canesfan1899 said:
I like the direction we are going at CB. Think Howard and Crawford will contribute immediately. I personally don't expect anything out of McGee, will be pleasantly surprised if he has a Marcus Maxey like Senior season though. There will be youthful mistakes, but the talent is there.

S still scares the crud out of me. VT and RRA should be solid, but not special, maybe Gunter moves there from CB, but there just isn't a lot of quality depth at the position. We are screwed if RRA or VT get hurt for any significant amount of time. I like K. Rodgers, but I feel like he is more of a ST depth kind of guy. Would love to see AJ Higsmith blow up, kid deserves it after wasting 2 seasons at QB because of Shantards terrible recruiting.
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I agree with ESF's logic. Between the number of seniors we have and the new talent coming in, the pressure is really on to perform. As to RRA and McGee, both have been singled out positively by AG, so maybe the light bulb did in fact go on for them.
 
Seniors have a way of stepping up. If we're worried about youth elsewhere on our team, which makes sense, you'd think we'd be optimistic about our maturity at DB. Maturity is a separate issue from talent, I realize. But we're talking abotu guys who have the athletic ability to contribute if the light goes on.
 
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A lot of their success relies on the d-line getting pressure quick. But I am excited about the db's for the next 3 years.
 
Love the optimism, but I'm afraid this isn't a situation like Shields/Maxey where the light went on upstairs and physical potential was finally tapped for those safeties... I think it's more that the cast of characters we have simply has physical limitations that can be hidden or mitigated at best. But - maybe I'm overly pessimistic. It's not like RRA and VT are horrendously untalented, there's as much there as there was with Nicholas. We'll see I guess. McGee is a guy who would fit the profile of a "light come on" type season more than the guys we have at safety though, I think. With those young kids pushing him, his senior year focus, the new emphasis on being physical and his natural tools, there's no reason he shouldn't take a humongous step forward. I'm just kinda burned with all those guys in the secondary and in "show me" mode.

I think best case scenario is VT has some James Lewis-esque consistency without doing anything outstanding, RRA's highlights outnumber his head-slapping moments at least a little, McGee has a 3rd team all-ACC type season, and two of the young kids have a season that puts them on the national "Underclassmen to Watch" lists in 2013.
 
I don't know if anyone else noted, but on four separate occasions, when Golden was talking about progress and what he was seeing and would throw out a couple names off the top of his head, he specifically mentioned Rayshawn Jenkins.

Once, I'd say it was good, but insignificant. Twice, and I started to wonder. Third time, I began looking and listening. In his most recent radio interview, once again, he mentioned Rayshawn Jenkins.

That's not coincidence nor because he couldn't remember any other players names.

I suspect that there's some promise in Rayshawn Jenkins that Golden is aware of that posters seem to either be unaware of, or are keeping it to themselves.

DMoney - do you or others have the means to poke around and find out if Rayshawn is likely to be one of our (looking like several) secret weapons we break out on kickoff?
 
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McGee is a key guy. If he becomes a solid starter (big, big if), you have a nice complementary top four with McGee, Gunter, Finnie and Howard.
 
Not worried about the defense. I think we'll be solid. Not dominant or anything, but overall much better than last year(at least the first half of the season). I think pass rush is going to be the biggest question mark this year. Not sure where we're gonna get that from. Maybe have to get a little creative.
 
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UMFarArcher said:
I don't know if anyone else noted, but on four separate occasions, when Golden was talking about progress and what he was seeing and would throw out a couple names off the top of his head, he specifically mentioned Rayshawn Jenkins.

Once, I'd say it was good, but insignificant. Twice, and I started to wonder. Third time, I began looking and listening. In his most recent radio interview, once again, he mentioned Rayshawn Jenkins.

That's not coincidence nor because he couldn't remember any other players names.

I suspect that there's some promise in Rayshawn Jenkins that Golden is aware of that posters seem to either be unaware of, or are keeping it to themselves.

DMoney - do you or others have the means to poke around and find out if Rayshawn is likely to be one of our (looking like several) secret weapons we break out on kickoff?
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Rayshawn's a guy i liked when we took the commitment, but some knowledgable posters on other sites (mf and fishbein) are 100% certain he's too soft to play at UM. In my experience, when they're that vocal on a kid, they've tended to be right. BUT, they based their entire view on one game (state title). Everyone agrees the kid has the athletic ability to play here. The question will be will he hit and take hits. We'll see. If he will, he has great potential and upside for us.
 
Same as the canesareable thread about the O--depends on where you set the bar. If you expect horrendously bad, they might be surprisingly good. If you expect mediocre, I doubt they'll best that. Telemaque has probably gone from overrated to underrated here and I think he'll have a solid year. He's not a clueless guy but he's not a great athlete. Unfortunately, we're in a spot here where the guys with more physical talent are freshmen and guys with more experience are physically limited. Personally I wish Telemaque was about 15 lbs lighter because he can't cover right now with the mass he's put on through his career. He's not braindead but he just can't always get where he needs to be. Ray Ray is just limited. He's not fast enough and isn't very bright. He's not a good tackler, he's not durable, he's not reliable, makes too many mental errors--he's just not very good at anything at least to this point. Freshmen are freshmen. They are going to make bad errors and generally be no better than average. Their play is likely to be HIGHLY overrated because that's the nature of the boards but a good freshman is a mediocre player GENERALLY. Overall I think we're looking at average corners due to inexperience and average safeties due to physical ability. Keep in mind that the LBs will also likely be young. My biggest hope is that this doesn't morph into one of those situations where everybody tries to do the other guy's job and the whole back 7 falls apart at times.
 
UMFarArcher said:
DMoney - do you or others have the means to poke around and find out if Rayshawn is likely to be one of our (looking like several) secret weapons we break out on kickoff?
Click to expand...

Don't know, but he has the size to handle kickoff duty. He had the ball in his hands a lot in high school and made some plays.

I don't get a defensive vibe from him even though he probably should stay at safety.
 
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Ray Ray was 2nd team ALL ACC his soph year with 80 tackles 4 int so he has done something his career. Last year was a wash for him with the 5 missed games because of suspensions. I think he will make ALL ACC this year and be a 2nd-3rd round pick next year. As for VT i think he will be solid as well but i look for Rayshawn Jenkins to take some of his time imo. The starting cb should be Gunter and McGee week 1 with Tracy rotating with Gunter and Finnie playing Nickle..
 
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