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Sign of the times: No elite talent

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bacane

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Is Al Golden the next Knute Rockne or Satan himself, Nick Saban? Probably not. But if you take off the Hurricane green-and-orange tinted glasses, the talent level he inherited was barely better than top MAC teams, if based on draft projects and NFL prospects.

A telling way to decipher the state of the program, as well as the meager talent Randy Shannon left behind, is to look at the upcoming NFL draft and how our Canes project. According to Mel Kiper’s projections of the Top 10 players at each position (not that he’s the ultimate voice) – we have none, zero, zip on offense or defense. Oh wait, we have the fifth-rated punter – a transfer Golden grabbed off the waiver wire just before the start of summer camp from Cincinnati.

Here’s how we stack up against ACC teams and others we played this past season:

Florida State (7 players): defensive tackle (No. 1 rated), safety (3), wide receiver (4), center (5), linebacker (6), fullback (7), safety (8) – not to mention a Heisman Trophy winning QB and a boatload of future draft picks

Louisville (4): quarterback (No. 1 rated), safety (2), linebacker (4), defensive end (6)

North Carolina (4): tight end (No. 1 rated), center (No. 1 rated), defensive end (5), offensive tackle (10) – Butch Davis effect lingers

Florida (4): defensive tackle (4), cornerback (5), center (6), cornerback (7)

Virginia Tech (3): safety (5), quarterback (8), cornerback (9)

Clemson (3): wide receiver (No. 1 rated), guard (9), place kicker (9)

Georgia Tech (2): linebacker (7), fullback (10)

Pittsburgh (1): defensive tackle (5)

Virginia (1): offensive tackle (9)

Boston College (1): running back (10)



KIPER'S RATINGS . . .

Quarterbacks
1. *Teddy Bridgewater, Louisville
2. *Blake Bortles, Central Florida
3. **Johnny Manziel, Texas A&M
4. Derek Carr, Fresno St.
5. AJ McCarron, Alabama
6. Zach Mettenberger, LSU
7. *Brett Smith, Wyoming
8. Logan Thomas, Virginia Tech
9. Jimmy Garoppolo, Eastern Illinois
10. David Fales, San Jose St.

Running backs
1. Carlos Hyde, Ohio St.
2. *Ka'Deem Carey, Arizona
3. *Bishop Sankey, Washington
4. *Jeremy Hill, LSU
5. *Lache Seastrunk, Baylor
6. *De'Anthony Thomas, Oregon
7. *Tre Mason, Auburn
8. Charles Sims, West Virginia
9. Marion Grice, Arizona St.
10. Andre Williams, Boston College

Fullbacks
1. Trey Millard, Oklahoma
2. Ryan Hewitt, Stanford
3. Jay Prosch, Auburn
4. J.C. Copeland, LSU
5. Kiero Small, Arkansas
6. Chad Young, San Diego St.
7. Chad Abram, Florida St.
8. C.J. Zimmerer, Nebraska
9. Jordan Luallen, Cincinnati
10. David Sims, Georgia Tech

Wide receivers
1. *Sammy Watkins, Clemson
2. *Marqise Lee, USC
3. **Mike Evans, Texas A&M
4. **Kelvin Benjamin, Florida St.
5. *Brandin Cooks, Oregon St.
6. *Odell Beckham Jr., LSU
7. Jordan Matthews, Vanderbilt
8. *Allen Robinson, Penn St.
9. *Donte Moncrief, Mississippi
10. **Davante Adams, Fresno St.

Tight ends
1. *Eric Ebron, North Carolina
2. *Jace Amaro, Texas Tech
3. *Troy Niklas, Notre Dame
4. *Austin Seferian-Jenkins, Washington
5. *Richard Rodgers, California
6. *Jake Murphy, Utah
7. *Colt Lyerla, Oregon
8. C.J. Fiedorowicz, Iowa
9. *Xavier Grimble, USC
10. Joe Don Duncan, Dixie St.


Offensive tackles
1. Jake Matthews, Texas A&M
2. *Greg Robinson, Auburn
3. Taylor Lewan, Michigan
4. *Cyrus Kouandjio, Alabama
5. Zack Martin, Notre Dame
6. *Antonio Richardson, Tennessee
7. Jack Mewhort, Ohio St.
8. Ja'Wuan James, Tennessee
9. Morgan Moses, Virginia
10. James Hurst, North Carolina

Offensive guards

1. Cyril Richardson, Baylor
2. *David Yankey, Stanford
3. Gabe Jackson, Mississippi St.
4. *Xavier Su'a-Filo, UCLA
5. Joel Bitonio, Nevada
6. Chris Watt, Notre Dame
7. Ryan Groy, Wisconsin
8. Wesley Johnson, Vanderbilt
9. Brandon Thomas, Clemson
10. Zach Fulton, Tennessee

Centers
1. *Russell Bodine, North Carolina
2. Travis Swanson, Arkansas
3. Weston Richburg, Colorado St.
4. *Marcus Martin, USC
5. Bryan Stork, Florida St.
6. Jonotthan Harrison, Florida
7. Tyler Larsen, Utah St.
8. James Stone, Tennessee
9. Gabe Ikard, Oklahoma
10. Zac Kerin, Toledo


Defense

Defensive ends
1.*Jadeveon Clowney, South Carolina
2. *Stephon Tuitt, Notre Dame
3. *Scott Crichton, Oregon St.
4. *Kony Ealy, Missouri
5. Kareem Martin, North Carolina
6. Marcus Smith, Louisville
7. Jackson Jeffcoat, Texas
8. *Aaron Lynch, South Florida
9. *Demarcus Lawrence, Boise St.
10. *Jeoffrey Pagan, Alabama

Defensive tackles

1. *Timmy Jernigan, Florida St.
2. *Louis Nix III, Notre Dame
3. *Kelcy Quarles, South Carolina
4. *Dominique Easley, Florida
5. Aaron Donald, Pittsburgh
6. *Ego Ferguson, LSU
7. Ra'Shede Hageman, Minnesota
8. *Anthony Johnson, LSU
9. DaQuan Jones, Penn St.
10. Daniel McCullers, Tennessee

Inside linebackers
1. C.J. Mosley, Alabama
2. Chris Borland, Wisconsin
3. Shayne Skov, Stanford
4. Preston Brown, Louisville
5. *Yawin Smallwood, Connecticut
6. Jordan Zumwalt, UCLA
7. Glenn Carson, Penn St.
8. Avery Williamson, Kentucky
9. Max Bullough, Michigan St.
10. Lamin Barrow, LSU

Outside linebackers
1. Anthony Barr, UCLA
2. Khalil Mack, Buffalo
3. *Ryan Shazier, Ohio St.
4. *Carl Bradford, Arizona St.
5. Trent Murphy, Stanford
6. Telvin Smith, Florida St.
7. Jeremiah Attaochu, Georgia Tech
8. Kyle Van Noy, BYU
9. Dee Ford, Auburn
10. *Adrian Hubbard, Alabama


Cornerbacks
1. Justin Gilbert, Oklahoma St.
2. Darqueze Dennard, Michigan St.
3. Jason Verrett, TCU
4. Aaron Colvin, Oklahoma
5. *Marcus Roberson, Florida
6. *Bradley Roby, Ohio St.
7. *Loucheiz Purifoy, Florida
8. Keith McGill, Utah
9. Kyle Fuller, Virginia Tech
10. *Terrance Mitchell, Oregon

Safeties
1. *Ha Ha Clinton-Dix, Alabama
2. *Calvin Pryor, Louisville
3. Lamarcus Joyner, Florida St.
4. *Dion Bailey, USC
5. Antone Exum, Virginia Tech
6. Deone Bucannon, Washington St.
7. Ahmad Dixon, Baylor
8. Terrence Brooks, Florida St.
9. Marqueston Huff, Wyoming
10. Ty Zimmerman, Kansas St.

Special teams

Kickers
1. Anthony Fera, Texas
2. Cairo Santos, Tulane
3. Chris Boswell, Rice
4. Zach Hocker, Arkansas
5. Carey Spear, Vanderbilt
6. Mitch Ewald, Indiana
7. Andrew Furney, Washington St.
8. Vincent D'Amato, California
9. Chandler Catanzaro, Clemson
10. Mike Meyer, Iowa

Punters
1. Kirby Van Der Kamp, Iowa St.
2. Richie Leone, Houston
3. Tom Hornsey, Memphis
4. Steven Clark, Auburn
5. Pat O'Donnell, Miami (FL)
6. Cody Mandell, Alabama
7. Cody Webster, Purdue
8. Ben Skaer, New Mexico
9. Tyler Campbell, Mississippi
10. Will Scott, Troy
 
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but I keep seeing that we're so much more talented than everyone on our schedule, wonder why reality doesn't show that to be true.
 
If OP wants to say the talent was bad then you might as well say the development is worse... He's been here 3 years... No excuses... Besides Duke who was committed since his junior year to the previous staff, is there anyone in our roster that would be ranked amongst the best in the draft next year? I think lack of development is showing its ugly head...
 
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This is stupid. So then how did Clemson manage to be top 10 and win 12 games with only an Elite WR, OG and place kicker? They have less "ELITE" talent than UF and UNC AND Louisville...



Absolutely anything to absolve this staff of its failures. Are you guys Canes fans or Golden fans?
 
Probably the same way we managed to win 9 games with only punter brought in last spring. None of this is exact science, but it gives a clue to the talent level in the jr/sr classes.

JackOAT said:
This is stupid. So then how did Clemson manage to be top 10 and win 12 games with only an Elite WR, OG and place kicker? They have less "ELITE" talent than UF and UNC AND Louisville...



Absolutely anything to absolve this staff of its failures. Are you guys Canes fans or Golden fans?
Click to expand...
 
That is depressing. It will take Golden some time to pull us up out of that Shannon mess. This year's draft just shows you how far down we went.
 
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i can't really blame this draft on him...next years draft should have kids from Duke's class and beyond...
All of that is on AL...

I have not heard a single word out of coral gables since the whole Penn State thing...I am guessing they are
just gonna hold on to the class we have and role on..
 
Everyone knows we don't have the talent to be elite.

Everyone should also know we have enough talent to beat VT at home and at Duke (who has 0 on the list). We were blown out in both games, we were embarrassed in the bowl game vs Louisville.
 
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even with the facts dead in our face we still want to pile on Golden.
- The 2011 class was a patch job you cant really count that class. the guy came on-board like 1 month before signing day. which included the dead period, in the middle of the fiasco. C'mon lets be real.
-for the past two seasons the most talented players on the team were freshmen and sophomores. Not best(developed, strength, experience), but most talented(god given talent, innate abilities)

Regardless of how good/bad of a coach he is, its obvious that we are just out manned on the field. Any coach can win with the right talent(Coker, Erickson). and we all know these guys inherited great teams, when they came here.

The guy guided us out of one of the darkest periods of Canes football history, but we turn our backs on him just as quick
 
Last edited:
lauderdaleballer said:
DaU83 said:
Ghandi said:
He's had three years...enough of this ****.
Click to expand...

he's had 2 recruiting classes.. this is his third..
Click to expand...

No he has 3.... You can't discount 2011 he isn't the only one to come on short notice...
Click to expand...
i can absolutely discount 2011.. he had what, 3 weeks to cobble together a class? It's not like randy had a monster class put together that golden just whiffed completely on.. We can't really rely on that piecemeal class to be our "foundation" as normally a senior class would be.. his first real class will be juniors this year, there's something to be said about that.
 
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