The Bank (4/27)

[BeachCanes]

**** so a young former 3 star guy who’s cracked the DT rotation can make 440k? That’s a nice bag.

 

[GojiraCane]

USC had a horrible roster. Lincoln just didn’t **** around with high school recruiting and invested in the portal. Now he’s about to strike gold again in the portal and potentially be in the playoffs in year 2.

Meanwhile, we’re emphasizing character so we can hopefully eek out 6 wins.

To be fair to Mario, he’s not an OC. He’s not a DC. So he can’t instantly impact one side of the ball. It’s always going to have to be a “process” because of that. Stack talent, develop talent. Just painful to witness.

And the third piece - retain talent.

 

[hoops156]

No because Manny left our roster in worse shape than USCs for one. You dont notice how much bigger, faster, and more athletic the players are that have come to Miami in the last 2 cycles? And again 2 different things....Riley recruited and coached Caleb W for a few years and then took him to USC. Now, examine the dynamic of Mario and Van Dyke...nothing more to say.

Riley turned that roster over when he got there. Mario didnt do **** w the roster last cycle (late to the portal). well eventually be fine w the talent incoming through recruiting.

Riley is also a better coach and you saw it from the moment he arrived in LA. offensively, USC looked like they were with Riley for years

 

[Angry Ibis]

I think we have to look at this not only in who we did not get, but who we did not lose. Let’s presume things stay as is with our current roster. We’re in the Wild West, no contracts. There is nothing - nothing - to stop USC from offering large amounts of money to Leonard Taylor, James Williams, Samson, or Francis Maiogoa to leave. The NIL money may also be used to keep the current team intact. Presently it’s a team that now has a 59% blue chip ratio, and there are people on our team that others would love to raid us for. We may be spending a lot behind the scenes to keep our most needed players here.

A second thing to consider is follow-on spending. Let’s say you offer a wide receiver $1.5M to jump. He agrees. But now Washington, Horton, Jacolby, and Colby theoretically want an increase too. So you have to be willing to spend on the existing players at the position you bring a prominent transfer in.

I think Zo and Mario are taking a more conservative, Pittsburg Steelers type approach to roster building in this era. The Steelers built through the draft and did not rely on free agency heavily.

Steelers haven’t won the Super Bowl in 15 years…

 

[hoops156]

Portal + Talent + Character is going to be a high bar for the most part.

Not that I disagree, but those three severely shrink your pool and also put you in direct competition with programs who are much closer to winning and thus willing to spend more.

I hope Miami’s got the financial support to swim on that end of the pool.

it just sounds like were broke lol. character is a good excuse for saying we dont have the money to compete for high level transfers at positions of need. hopefully this is all wrong though

 

[RVACane]

Mario would have been Vince Lombardi if he coached in the 90’s.

He’d still have clock management issues.

 

[mlw352]

Miami is spending money. Just a month ago, Nick Saban was complaining publicly about the NIL money we threw at Cohen.

And we aren’t above the renegotiation game. We just won that battle against Bama for TVD.

It’s about picking the right battles and spending the money wisely. Let’s see how it works out.

D is Mario not seeing we need to put a better product on the field we love his high school recruiting but man it’s Brutal getting beat by middle Tennessee state and fsu 45-3 I can’t take that again he’s gotta get this teams holes fixed

 

[Allabouttheu95]

Mario’s 1st year portal evals were borderline abysmal. We need the staff to do better in year 2 portal wise. I like the pieces we got in 1st wave but more is needed in 2nd wave… and obviously need more hits and less misses to make this team competitive enough to sell improvement for recruiting.

 

[Gables Cane]

CIS likes to clown f$u, their apparent lack of funds, corny Coach, lackadaisical recruiting efforts, comical social media campaigns, etc. But, here’s the truth:

- That clown school has beaten us two straight years and embarrassed us at home.
- f$u have out recruited us in the Portal for two straight years with better talent identification, acquisition and development.
- f$u are currently out recruiting us for high school players although we did out recruit them the last two years.
- Prison Mike has done an excellent job turning Travis from a one dimensional QB into a weapon and Heisman candidate (he ain’t that good).
- f$u has momentum. Miami is still in the “show me” phase when it comes to the national media.

Not sure why people keep pushing the “broke” narrative because f$u ALWAYS finds ways to pay players under the table, at the table, or in-kind with free shoes, cars, and other goods.

We can continue to mock them, but f$u are “winning” right now and it ****es me off.

 

[The U is back to work]

CIS likes to clown f$u, their apparent lack of funds, corny Coach, lackadaisical recruiting efforts, comical social media campaigns, etc. But, here’s the truth:

- That clown school has beaten us two straight years and embarrassed us at home.
- f$u have out recruited us in the Portal for two straight years with better talent identification, acquisition and development.
- f$u are currently out recruiting us for high school players although we did out recruit them the last two years.
- Prison Mike has done an excellent job turning Travis from a one dimensional QB into a weapon and Heisman candidate (he ain’t that good).
- f$u has momentum. Miami is still in the “show me” phase when it comes to the national media.

Not sue why people keep pushing the “they broke” narrative because they have ALWAYS found ways to pay players under the table, at the table, or in kind with free shoes, cars and other goods.

We can continue to mock them, but they are “winning” right now and it ****es me off.

Thank you Gene Deckerhoff

 

[Fluffhead]

Let’s see what it looks like when the dust settles. I already posted the Portal Shopping List a few weeks ago, so there are no secrets about what we want and need.

I do think people are forgetting about what we already got- Top OL in the Portal, best C in the Portal, arguably the best LB in the Portal, upper-tier Big 10 DT and a starting CB with draftable grades.

More work to do.

I don't think most people are forgetting that we got those guys. I think there are still that many glaring weaknesses and holes on the roster, and as of April 28, we seem to not be casting a wide net and/or locking guys up. Now, the former may be strategic in not being public with our interest, and the latter a matter of a contract requiring the agreement of both parties, but it is disingenuous to say that previously plugged holes diminish concerns about holes that still exist. Especially with positions like WR.

 

[GojiraCane]

Steelers haven’t won the Super Bowl in 15 years…

True, although they were in it 11 years ago and lost. But it's a workable model in the NFL. I'm hoping it has some application in the Wild West world of CFB.

What USC is doing reminds me somewhat of what the Miami Dolphins did in 1995 when they attacked free agency very, very aggressively. At one point they had 19 former first round draft choices on their team, which indeed started out 4-0. But it had horrendous chemistry issues with the perceived "loaded" roster bickering behind the scenes (read Shark Among Dolphins). Unlike Miami of the past, USC has no salary cap so in theory they can do this year after year. But they will have to be willing to get to and ultimately exceed the Golden State Warriors annual payroll, because for every high priced free agent they bring in it sets of a cascading, unseen need to elevate the existing players at that position.

 

[KANE]

We were told we had the talent when we had the coach we did not like…

Now it’s a 5 year rebuild… acquire the talent. The same deficiencies exist from December of 2021. Some of it is rebuild, some of it is absurd.

 

[Gables Cane]

Thank you Gene Deckerhoff

Keep you head in the sand…

 

[Tonio]

it just sounds like were broke lol. character is a good excuse for saying we dont have the money to compete for high level transfers at positions of need. hopefully this is all wrong though

Lol how are we broke yet we have a better transfer class than bag schools like Bama, UGA, TAMU, Tennessee, and ND.

You also don’t get a 5 star DT out of ND and OSU territory by being broke

 

[Cryptical Envelopment]

Miami is spending money. Just a month ago, Nick Saban was complaining publicly about the NIL money we threw at Cohen.

And we aren’t above the renegotiation game. We just won that battle against Bama for TVD.

It’s about picking the right battles and spending the money wisely. Let’s see how it works out.

We are in the era of free agency. HS recruiting, the transfer/portal market, roster retention, holding off others who are trying to poach your staff... they are really all the same thing. Do people believe in you and your program and can you compete financially? You need to be able to say yes to both.

If you zoom out, we just beat Bama for TVD and Cohen, and the NFL for Zo and Jason Taylor.

That doesn't happen here three years ago.

 

[Angry Ibis]

it just sounds like were broke lol. character is a good excuse for saying we dont have the money to compete for high level transfers at positions of need. hopefully this is all wrong though

Broke or not broke, character is the excuse for not getting what we need out of the portal.

We’ll see 1 year from now the “character issues” at the draft and hear how they were a team first player, babysit for free, pack meals for the homeless and care for the elderly, and when you say, ahem, “must have been character issues, snicker snicker” we’ll hear, well it was complicated, and that team dropped a big bag, and tampering and did I hear a 9er in there Tommy Boy as it tails off…

 

[hoops156]

Lol how are we broke yet we have a better transfer class than bag schools like Bama, UGA, TAMU, Tennessee, and ND.

You also don’t get a 5 star DT out of ND and OSU territory by being broke

so were paying the Chicago DT to maybe commit here? he hasn't committed yet.

we have some huge holes that haven't been addressed. so far, Mario seems behind in the portal. hopefully it changes bc we need help at DT, WR, DB

 

[AtlAtty]

Steelers haven’t won the Super Bowl in 15 years…

Hold on now partner you are going too far. The Steelers maybe the best organization in pro football. I admit they have not been able to win the SB since beating Zona but they do things the right way and have remained consistently good. And if Pickett has an upward trajectory (and doesn’t top out at Kirk Cousins), the Steelers will be right back in the hunt. They are in a tough division which does not help but the organizational stability, great ownership and coaching mean they are always good. I will take being always good with an opportunity to be great.

 

[NorthEastCane]

If you add the puzzle pieces together, culture guys + reluctance to spend money =

How did you get reluctance to spend money out of the above. Not overpaying on "depth pieces" is not a reluctance to spend money. People talk as if we are one or two elite players from being a playoff team. They cite USC doing just that as an example of what we should be doing. Reality check, we are not in the same position as USC.

Last year, at the start of the season, the narrative was we have a serviceable OL but no depth, we were in trouble if we had to rely on backups. This year we have a better front line but still no depth (or at least depth we are comfortable with). You can't get all the bodies needed if you overpay for depth pieces. And they will be needed maybe not to the extent of last year, but nagging injuries of various degree always happen particularly in the trenches.

The staff needs to show results this season. If anything, the thinking seems to be to raise the floor on next season rather than raise the ceiling. We can't afford an implosion like last year, if we have to get down to the second level.

Mario wants to build from within. He’s focusing on high school guys.

It seems like the focus is split and everything is being done close to the vest. Everyone's anxious because they see the few elite guys being signed elsewhere (where preexisting terms have already been worked out), while we're bringing in depth. Has any noticed that whenever word gets out about someone we think is more than just depth, a bag school suddenly becomes involved.

We’ll see if it pays off, because this season has to be one of sizable improvement. Don’t care how you get there, but get there.

We just need to get the ones we targeted to commit, as well as the freshman coming in the summer and those that sat out the spring injured. The increased depth would be a sizable improvement. The types that people want aren't likely to commit until they see it on the field. We've waited 20 years; we can wait one more. Rome wasn't built in one day.