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The CIS Portal WR Begging… Is it finally over yet?

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Look our guys are definitely unproven, but they also have talent. We absolutely need 3 of them to step the **** up. That's all there is to it - Josh Gattis gotta coach them up. **** do what Joe Brady did too - make all of them catch 10k balls on the jug machine this summer. Clearly they've been having drop issues.

I'm confident Restrepo will be a solid starter and hopefully a 3rd down machine. His main problem will likely be drops. Hopefully Brashard Smith is good for 3-5 plays a game. And on the outside I think the 2 we need to step up are Keyshawn Smith and Jacolby George as they have the most deep threat ability that could really open up the game for Mallory and Arroyo.
 
252cane said:
You don’t think mello can get it done?
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Eventually...

But that’s not really the issue...

You don’t bet the house on eventually & potential, you take the sure thing in order to increase your odds.

Yall are essentially hoping that a group of Red Frosh/Sophomores that have barely played & will be in a brand new offense that is a lot more difficult for WR’s to suddenly go Super Sayian & play well above their means.

It’s not impossible to do, it’s just not the most likely scenario, especially for Miami because we really haven’t produced highly productive WR’s on an annual basis.

Everyone harkens back to “no one thought Rambo would put up big numbers, but he did, therefore (insert WR) will do the same”, the irony in that fallacy is that Rambo was a TRANSFER lol & not everyone thought he wouldn’t do well here, I for one in January of 2021 was one of the main people who said he would be our best WR last year & my reasoning was become of the system, not because he was some elite WR.

It’s not about the WR’s themselves, it’s about their fit in the system & the maturation process it takes to adjust in it.
 
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Liberty City El said:
Eventually...

But that’s not really the issue...

You don’t bet the house on eventually & potential, you take the sure thing in order to increase your odds.

Yall are essentially hoping that a group of Red Frosh/Sophomores that have barely played & will be in a brand new offense that is a lot more difficult for WR’s to suddenly go Super Sayian & play well above their means.

It’s not impossible to do, it’s just not the most likely scenario, especially for Miami because we really haven’t produced highly productive WR’s on an annual basis.

Everyone harkens back to “no one thought Rambo would put up big numbers, but he did, therefore (insert WR) will do the same”, the irony in that fallacy is that Rambo was a TRANSFER lol & not everyone thought he wouldn’t do well here, I for one in January of 2021 was one of the main people who said he would be our best WR last year & my reasoning was become of the system, not because he was some elite WR.

It’s not about the WR’s themselves, it’s about their fit in the system & the maturation process it takes to adjust in it.
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Well with Landers choosing Arkansas and Robinson choosing Ole Miss, I think we're out of options unless someone graduates in the next month and hadn't already entered the portal. Possible, but probably unlikely. We gotta role with what we got most likely, so hopefully they step up.
 
AtlAtty said:
Let me make one more “Homer” argument. I loved Rambo last year but according to the NFL, he really wasn‘t special at all. So is it possible that the NFL is right about Rambo and TVD made him look a lot better than he really was? TVD certainly made Harley look pretty **** good.

‘My point being that like some others on here have commented, maybe the QB is making the WRs instead of the other way around. And if the QB made Rambo and Harley into record breaking receivers, maybe he will make the current crop look better than they really are. If that is correct, then that allows UM to de-value the WR position for next year from An NIL perspective and focus funds elsewhere.

Like you I was disappointed with how the WR’s looked in the spring game. Smith and Ladson dropping passes, George reaching up with only one hand. And Mario was clearly disappointed. And we know he wants to being in more talent at WR for next year. So my answer for why we did not do so thus far thru the transfer portal is that I don’t think our staff saw the value in who was available AND I beleive the staff thinks that with TVD, the TEs and RB’s, we will be OK for this season.

in the end, I am not trying to be a homer as much as I am trying to find a rational answer for UM not bringing in a portal WR.
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Whoa my dude, let's not revise history just because he wasn't drafted. Rambo had an incredible year. Not just statistically. He made an incredible amount of really tough catches in good coverage, especially on deep balls. Rambo doesn't project as well in the NFL because he will have trouble separating, but god **** he was one of the best 50/50 ball kids I've seen here in a long while. I'm not sure he didn't make TVD look good as much as TVD made him look good.

 
Cryptical Envelopment said:
Whoa my dude, let's not revise history just because he wasn't drafted. Rambo had an incredible year. Not just statistically. He made an incredible amount of really tough catches in good coverage, especially on deep balls. Rambo doesn't project as well in the NFL because he will have trouble separating, but god **** he was one of the best 50/50 ball kids I've seen here in a long while. I'm not sure he didn't make TVD look good as much as TVD made him look good.

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they probably helped each other equally. One guy could not separate but could make contested catches. The other guy was a new QB and needed someone who could make contested, but could absolutely throw to a spot.
 
You're asking a lot from players that haven't proven anything yet.

To his credit, Josh Gattis was able to construct a functional passing game with a bunch of nobodies last year after Ronnie Bell was injured and did so with a scrub at QB.

Now, unless we slip, fall, and land on a portal WR, we're asking TVD to really help elevate a bunch of WRs to re-create a high octane passing offense that gave us any of the success we had last year. Interesting. But, can't say I am not a little worried. We really needed at least one portal WR and swinging and missing on all of'em is tough.
 
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I can understand both sides of the argument here. Simply put, its important to have a proven receiver come in here and take charge with all of the youth and lack of production in question. But also in that retrospect, if all options in the portal have been exhausted (which i doubt w/o even knowing a gotdamned thing), and this staff is worth what we think it is worth, they should get some action out of these young 4 star WRs in tow... Its a catch 22 discussion either way honestly. Nothing i can personally do about it other than to see how it unfolds.
 
BoxingRobes said:
You're asking a lot from players that haven't proven anything yet.

To his credit, Josh Gattis was able to construct a functional passing game with a bunch of nobodies last year after Ronnie Bell was injured and did so with a scrub at QB.

Now, unless we slip, fall, and land on a portal WR, we're asking TVD to really help elevate a bunch of WRs to re-create a high octane passing offense that gave us any of the success we had last year. Interesting. But, can't say I am not a little worried. We really needed at least one portal WR and swinging and missing on all of'em is tough.
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But look at the big picture.

Last year, at this time, we had a transfer who hadn't yet impressed us in practice (Rambo) and a few guys who we wanted to step up (Harley, Pope, Wiggins). As we know, Rambo and Harley set UM records (Rambo a single-season record, Harley a career record) and Pope/Wiggins tanked. In all, we still had a very productive passing game once TVD took over the starting role.

So now, fast forward a year. We lost those 4 guys, 2 of whom were good, 2 of whom were a disaster. So we have a guy who can play the "Rambo" role (Ladson), and we need someone to step up to Harley's role (maybe an as-yet-unidentified Portal kid, maybe someone on the roster). Other than that, we are completely capable of duplicating what we did last year in the passing game.

I definitely think our receiving TEs, at this point, are better than what we had last year. Finally, if the RBs stay healthy, we have a nice complementary piece of the passing game as well.

I'd love to have another Portal WR. And I realize that guys need to PROVE they can step up, we can't just assume it (see, generally, Pope/Wiggins). But I am not nearly as worried about our receivers (all of them, not just the WRs) as I was about DL and LB and OL.
 
Imagine if we had to rely on Harley as WR1 last season...oof.

We better hope the young guns step up, or there's going to be a ton of crow eaten here. None of these big-boy programs rely on "potential" - they want immediate results. If we've got such a deep and talented WR room, why was the staff so desperate to go after a plethora of portal guys?

But, CIS always knows best. It's really worked out the last 15 years or so.
 
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kccanefan said:
Why is everyone counting out Smiff making a jump?
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That's the thing though - do you want to rely on that? And if he doesn't, then what do we have...not much, would have to be other redshirt freshmen or true sophomores carrying the burden.

Don't get me wrong, no one is rooting for our young WRs to fail lol. But to simply say we'll be perfectly fine given none of our WRs have eclipsed over 410 yards in a single season....seems pretty stupid if you ask me.

I started praying the minute Flash went elsewhere that Mallory and Arroyo would be healthy all year long. We are going to have to feed them like we've never seen before.
 
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kccanefan said:
I was talking about K Smiff. He's three years into the program. Obviously his biggest issue like the others has been consistency.
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Yeah I assumed you were. I'm saying you're still banking on him making the jump, which is all a hypothetical as there's no real substance to base that off. In 2021, he had a nice game against UNC and that long TD vs. Pitt if i remember correctly, but he was essentially a ghost for the remaining five of those final seven games...with TVD tossing the rock, mind you. I sure as **** wouldn't want to bank on him being our WR1.
 
TheOriginalCane said:
But look at the big picture.

Last year, at this time, we had a transfer who hadn't yet impressed us in practice (Rambo) and a few guys who we wanted to step up (Harley, Pope, Wiggins). As we know, Rambo and Harley set UM records (Rambo a single-season record, Harley a career record) and Pope/Wiggins tanked. In all, we still had a very productive passing game once TVD took over the starting role.

So now, fast forward a year. We lost those 4 guys, 2 of whom were good, 2 of whom were a disaster. So we have a guy who can play the "Rambo" role (Ladson), and we need someone to step up to Harley's role (maybe an as-yet-unidentified Portal kid, maybe someone on the roster). Other than that, we are completely capable of duplicating what we did last year in the passing game.

I definitely think our receiving TEs, at this point, are better than what we had last year. Finally, if the RBs stay healthy, we have a nice complementary piece of the passing game as well.

I'd love to have another Portal WR. And I realize that guys need to PROVE they can step up, we can't just assume it (see, generally, Pope/Wiggins). But I am not nearly as worried about our receivers (all of them, not just the WRs) as I was about DL and LB and OL.
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If this were just another landscape of college football - pre-portal - I'd agree...this is what we got, lets just ride with it.

If the staff thought we were fine and acquired nothing, I'd feel like they were confident in what they got and we'd be riding. But, they clearly are not happy with what we got. We got Ladson (this slipped my mind tbf), but have been looking for more all off-season...that tells me the staff isn't cool with what we have, so I think that should say something to all of us that...we might be in trouble with this position group. If TVD is really the real deal, he makes all of these guys step up with his command of the offense and making football's easy to catch. Right now, thats my hope...the QB makes all of these guys job easy and they look great as a result. But...we really need a DUDE out there...at this point, I hope someone steps up from our crop...I'm at least mildly hopeful because I like a lot of these guys individually.
 
BoxingRobes said:
If this were just another landscape of college football - pre-portal - I'd agree...this is what we got, lets just ride with it.

If the staff thought we were fine and acquired nothing, I'd feel like they were confident in what they got and we'd be riding. But, they clearly are not happy with what we got. We got Ladson (this slipped my mind tbf), but have been looking for more all off-season...that tells me the staff isn't cool with what we have, so I think that should say something to all of us that...we might be in trouble with this position group. If TVD is really the real deal, he makes all of these guys step up with his command of the offense and making football's easy to catch. Right now, thats my hope...the QB makes all of these guys job easy and they look great as a result. But...we really need a DUDE out there...at this point, I hope someone steps up from our crop...I'm at least mildly hopeful because I like a lot of these guys individually.
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Again, I'm not just looking at this in a binary fashion (unhappy, we need someone vs. happy, we need nobody). There are nuances here.

If the coaching staff felt that we absolutely positively had to sign another WR or we were not ready to play the games in September, I have no doubt that we would have offered more NIL to Addison and/or others.

If the coaching staff felt that we are OK, but could benefit from an upgrade, if we could find the right guy at the right price, then I have no doubt that the coaches are OK if we do NOT sign a second Portal WR.

That's all. I'm not saying that any poster is 100% right or 100% wrong. I'm saying that the coaches are not at "100% we need a second transfer WR" or "100% we are fine as is".

I'm sure that Mario is going to keep working the portal up to about 48 hours before the Bethune-Cookman kickoff. Or 48 minutes before the drop-add deadline, whichever comes first.
 
It's up to the OC, who is also the WR coach to design an effective offense given the talent on hand. I don't want to hear "oh we couldn't do anything because we didn't have a first round pick at WR." Bull****. We had two undrafted guys plus the guys we currently have on hand last year and our passing offense was possibly our best ever. In 2020, with a limited passer and the combination of Mark Pope and Dee Wiggins on the outside, we still had an offense that scored 34 points per game.

Make it work.
 
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