The Illusion & The Reality Of This Team

[Ayeplus]

I don't give a **** what Coach D would do at FSU or Bama or what Smart or Pruitt would do at Miami. D is at Miami, and with these players, his scheme sucks. So instead of being a stubborn arrogant piece of **** that throws 18-22 year olds under the bus, how about the guy making six figures, adapts his scheme? Of course our talent is nowhere near Bama or FSU, but you're not going to convince me that he couldn't run a scheme that produced better results than this ****show.

You're either going to think and react like a fan, or someone that really talks and understand sports. The reality is you can't have it both ways. You can't agree and say the Miami defense doesn't have the right nucleus of talent, experience, leadership and depth, then on the other hand still want Miami to be somewhat dominant on defense. Bottom line is, it is somewhat unfair to expect D'Nofrio to grill steak when he just has ground beef to work with. Golden still has some grocery shopping to do.

Bull****. First, there is no proof that his scheme will ever work. Second, as a coach you're paid to win and build a program. Are you honestly sitting there saying we're sacrificing the winning part now for maybe winning in 2-3 years?

Not at all. The objective is to always win. What I'm saying is the defense for example is not fully equipped right now, in my eyes, probably a notch below 50% equipped. At the end of the day, you have to judge D'Nofrio when he has all the components that I spoke of, not when his hand only has like 3 spades in it. Look at Mark Stoops when he was at FSU, he had a top 5 defense. Not because he was such a defensive wizard, but because he had the horses. He had elite talent and depth at every single position. How can you judge a dcoordinator when he doesn't even have half of that?

 

[Coach Macho]

The "lack of talent" excuse would hold more weight if guys weren't always wide open against our defense. The truth is, we often don't even have guys in position to make play. We've had the same exact problems on defense for the past 3 seasons. The main one being: WE CAN'T COVER ANYBODY INTERMEDIATELY.

We don't have guys in the right spots, and THAT is not talent.

 

[Ayeplus]

no one expects the defense to be elite right now. We do, however, expect the defense to not suck as bad as it does right now. Is it fair to expect this defense, with this talent, to be better than awful?

No excuse for the last four weeks. NONE. They have been historically awful once again.

I really believe that it's a compound problem. It's not like we have a poor run defense, we have been giving it up through the air. When you don't have a disruptive front four, it makes QB's like Logan Thomas look like he's all world for one game.

 

[Ayeplus]

The "lack of talent" excuse would hold more weight if guys weren't always wide open against our defense. The truth is, we often don't even have guys in position to make play. We've had the same exact problems on defense for the past 3 seasons. The main one being: WE CAN'T COVER ANYBODY INTERMEDIATELY.

We don't have guys in the right spots, and THAT is not talent.

You don't think that's a compound problem when the front four can't get a consistent pass rush?

 

[mydas77]

I don't give a **** what Coach D would do at FSU or Bama or what Smart or Pruitt would do at Miami. D is at Miami, and with these players, his scheme sucks. So instead of being a stubborn arrogant piece of **** that throws 18-22 year olds under the bus, how about the guy making six figures, adapts his scheme? Of course our talent is nowhere near Bama or FSU, but you're not going to convince me that he couldn't run a scheme that produced better results than this ****show.

You're either going to think and react like a fan, or someone that really talks and understand sports. The reality is you can't have it both ways. You can't agree and say the Miami defense doesn't have the right nucleus of talent, experience, leadership and depth, then on the other hand still want Miami to be somewhat dominant on defense. Bottom line is, it is somewhat unfair to expect D'Nofrio to grill steak when he just has ground beef to work with. Golden still has some grocery shopping to do.

Bull****. First, there is no proof that his scheme will ever work. Second, as a coach you're paid to win and build a program. Are you honestly sitting there saying we're sacrificing the winning part now for maybe winning in 2-3 years?

Not at all. The objective is to always win. What I'm saying is the defense for example is not fully equipped right now, in my eyes, probably a notch below 50% equipped. At the end of the day, you have to judge D'Nofrio when he has all the components that I spoke of, not when his hand only has like 3 spades in it.

This Defense is not devoid of talent. There is no rational reason for being as bad as hit has been since North Carolina. Teams are converting on third down at **** near 80%. That is ridiculous. There are very few linebackers in the game of football capable of running across the field with a slot wr. That is not talent, that is scheme.

Shayon Green and chick are not good pass rushers; AQM and McCord are, but they rarely play during early down passing situations. That's not talent, that's scheme.

The decisions he is making are not masking the players defficiencies, they are MAGNIFYING them. He can use our personell better. He can figure out a way to cover the dam drag route and the backs out of the backfield.

It is no coincidence that qbs turn into Joe Montana against us. EVERY QB!!!! That doesn't happend to all cfb teams, but it happens to us. Either we have the worst defensive team in the country or the scheme is playing a large role in the results. To argue otherwise is foolish.

 

[mydas77]

no one expects the defense to be elite right now. We do, however, expect the defense to not suck as bad as it does right now. Is it fair to expect this defense, with this talent, to be better than awful?

No excuse for the last four weeks. NONE. They have been historically awful once again.

I really believe that it's a compound problem. It's not like we have a poor run defense, we have been giving it up through the air. When you don't have a disruptive front four, it makes QB's like Logan Thomas look like he's all world for one game.

over the last four weeks teams have attacked our philosophy of staying in base on early downs to stop the run by passing on early downs. Plenty of slot slants, drags and outs in addtion to RBs out of the backfield. The issue is compounded by the lack of talent, but the Coach is leaving his guys out there in unfavorable matchups.

Highsmith one on one with a wr??? no good. DP one on one with a wr??? no good. CORNELIOUS one on one with a wr. no good.

How many elite safeties are there that can play in his scheme? How man LBs can cover a shifty wr? not many, that is why it rarely happens.

So yah, we can stop the run fine. We are selling out, personnel wise, to stop the run. Problem is that THE OTHER TEAMS ARE NOT RUNNING THE **** BALL.

 

[Ayeplus]

I don't give a **** what Coach D would do at FSU or Bama or what Smart or Pruitt would do at Miami. D is at Miami, and with these players, his scheme sucks. So instead of being a stubborn arrogant piece of **** that throws 18-22 year olds under the bus, how about the guy making six figures, adapts his scheme? Of course our talent is nowhere near Bama or FSU, but you're not going to convince me that he couldn't run a scheme that produced better results than this ****show.

You're either going to think and react like a fan, or someone that really talks and understand sports. The reality is you can't have it both ways. You can't agree and say the Miami defense doesn't have the right nucleus of talent, experience, leadership and depth, then on the other hand still want Miami to be somewhat dominant on defense. Bottom line is, it is somewhat unfair to expect D'Nofrio to grill steak when he just has ground beef to work with. Golden still has some grocery shopping to do.

Bull****. First, there is no proof that his scheme will ever work. Second, as a coach you're paid to win and build a program. Are you honestly sitting there saying we're sacrificing the winning part now for maybe winning in 2-3 years?

Not at all. The objective is to always win. What I'm saying is the defense for example is not fully equipped right now, in my eyes, probably a notch below 50% equipped. At the end of the day, you have to judge D'Nofrio when he has all the components that I spoke of, not when his hand only has like 3 spades in it.

This Defense is not devoid of talent. There is no rational reason for being as bad as hit has been since North Carolina. Teams are converting on third down at **** near 80%. That is ridiculous. There are very few linebackers in the game of football capable of running across the field with a slot wr. That is not talent, that is scheme.

Shayon Green and chick are not good pass rushers; AQM and McCord are, but they rarely play during early down passing situations. That's not talent, that's scheme.

The decisions he is making are not masking the players defficiencies, they are MAGNIFYING them. He can use our personell better. He can figure out a way to cover the dam drag route and the backs out of the backfield.

It is no coincidence that qbs turn into Joe Montana against us. EVERY QB!!!! That doesn't happend to all cfb teams, but it happens to us. Either we have the worst defensive team in the country or the scheme is playing a large role in the results. To argue otherwise is foolish.

Never said that they were devoid of talent. As far as Shayon Green and Chick, they get the nod on early downs because they have the size for run support that AQM and McCord don't have right now.

As far as the whole crossing route thing I get it. We have been burned all year with those plays which does raise a lot of doubt about D'Nofrio and I have to evaluate objectively. My question is, has he failed miserably to make adjustments to those plays, or are we continually burned by those plays due to the lack of a consistent pass rush?

 

[Coach Macho]

The "lack of talent" excuse would hold more weight if guys weren't always wide open against our defense. The truth is, we often don't even have guys in position to make play. We've had the same exact problems on defense for the past 3 seasons. The main one being: WE CAN'T COVER ANYBODY INTERMEDIATELY.

We don't have guys in the right spots, and THAT is not talent.

You don't think that's a compound problem when the front four can't get a consistent pass rush?

No, because the ball often comes out of the QB's hand before any decent pass rush can get there.

Offenses are nick-and-diming us all the way down the field. The QB's aren't sitting the pocket while WR's are working to get open.

 

[mydas77]

You're either going to think and react like a fan, or someone that really talks and understand sports. The reality is you can't have it both ways. You can't agree and say the Miami defense doesn't have the right nucleus of talent, experience, leadership and depth, then on the other hand still want Miami to be somewhat dominant on defense. Bottom line is, it is somewhat unfair to expect D'Nofrio to grill steak when he just has ground beef to work with. Golden still has some grocery shopping to do.

Bull****. First, there is no proof that his scheme will ever work. Second, as a coach you're paid to win and build a program. Are you honestly sitting there saying we're sacrificing the winning part now for maybe winning in 2-3 years?

Not at all. The objective is to always win. What I'm saying is the defense for example is not fully equipped right now, in my eyes, probably a notch below 50% equipped. At the end of the day, you have to judge D'Nofrio when he has all the components that I spoke of, not when his hand only has like 3 spades in it.

This Defense is not devoid of talent. There is no rational reason for being as bad as hit has been since North Carolina. Teams are converting on third down at **** near 80%. That is ridiculous. There are very few linebackers in the game of football capable of running across the field with a slot wr. That is not talent, that is scheme.

Shayon Green and chick are not good pass rushers; AQM and McCord are, but they rarely play during early down passing situations. That's not talent, that's scheme.

The decisions he is making are not masking the players defficiencies, they are MAGNIFYING them. He can use our personell better. He can figure out a way to cover the dam drag route and the backs out of the backfield.

It is no coincidence that qbs turn into Joe Montana against us. EVERY QB!!!! That doesn't happend to all cfb teams, but it happens to us. Either we have the worst defensive team in the country or the scheme is playing a large role in the results. To argue otherwise is foolish.

Never said that they were devoid of talent. As far as Shayon Green and Chick, they get the nod on early downs because they have the size for run support that AQM and McCord don't have right now.

As far as the whole crossing route thing I get it. We have been burned all year with those plays which does raise a lot of doubt about D'Nofrio and I have to evaluate objectively. My question is, has he failed miserably to make adjustments to those plays, or are we continually burned by those plays due to the lack of a consistent pass rush?

you are not going to have a good pass rush on first down or second down with Chick and Green. Teams have decided to throw on first and second on us because chick and green are in the game along with the rest of the base d. Donofrio must adjust. He is not adapting to what is happening on the field. The qb sees two lbs and highsmith in the game against their 3 and 4wr sets. Makes for a very simple decision.

Here is a thought...can AQM or McCord play with green or chick on first down??? Can we line up with crawford on the slot wr on early downs?

 

[Coach Macho]

Every defense I ever coached had mediocre talent. Every single one of them. If we were lucky we would have one D-1 caliber player at a spot. (had a D-1AA DT a couple seasons ago and last year had a D-1 Corner) I'm talking 5'8" Linebackers who run 4.9-5.1 forties, 6'0" 190lb Defensive Ends who run 4.9-5.0 forties, 5'8" Corners who run 4.7-4.8 forties, 5'9" 210lb Nose Tackle, etc etc etc. The only time that the lack of talent truly showed is against teams that were FAR superior, such as Miramar and Cypress Bay, who are loaded with D-1 kids. And even against those teams, we played them tough and held them in check for roughly 3 quarters before the talent took over. Against teams who were equally talented, or had slightly better talent, we shut them down. This allowed us to rank in the top-10 in Total Defense and top-5 in Scoring Defense pretty much every season until we played Miramar or Cypress Bay. (and we always held them below their offensive averages)

The type of things that would happen to us against superior teams:

*WR catches a bubble screen and you have a defender right in his face but the D-1 WR makes him miss anyway and blows past your slow pursuing defenders
*Your small D-linemen get blown into the LB's laps by bigger/stronger O-linemen
*You call a deep coverage but the D-1 WR runs right by your DB's anyway cause they're too slow
*Your CB is in proper position to make a play on a pass but the 6'2" D-1 bound WR out-jumps your 5'7" Corner
*Missed tackles in space against superior athletes
*You call a blitz that gets to the QB but he shakes 1 or 2 of your defenders and takes off

The common occurrence with defenses that lack talent but are well coached is that they're always in the right spot but sometimes can't make the play. (due to lack of talent) They get "out athleted" by superior offensive players. THIS IS NOT WHAT I'M SEEING WITH MIAMI'S DEFENSE. They look poor against almost everybody they play not just teams with superior offensive talent.

As a DC it's your job to put your players in position to make plays. If they don't make the plays then that's on them. But if you often don't even have players in position, that's on you.


Sorry for using my personal experience to chime in but it's the best way that I can explain what I think is going on with Miami's defense. I watch WHS's defense this year and it reminds me of Miami's. Very stagnant pre-snap, easy reads for QB's, poor personnel decisions, guys playing out of position, players confused, WR's running wide open, flats totally un-covered, etc. SAME EXACT CALIBER OF TALENT that we had the last 4 years, but their new DC has them ranked dead last in defense. From 7-3 with a top-10 defense to 0-10 with a defense ranked dead last.

 

[OBLIVION]

There's enough talent to be better on D than we are.

Tell me about it, but like with anything else. There is no grey area in conversations. It's gotta be black or white.

People just don't understand, that we have enough talent on this defense. To not give up 500 yards a game, and allow 3rd and longs all game long.

 

[drifters1234]

I want to give my perspective as far as the state of this current team. First off, lets start with the defense. I want to remind a lot of fans on here where this team was a year ago in 2012. It was full of freshmen and sophomores in the two deep, which was one of the worst defenses in school history. There was going to be some improvement but there was not going to be a quantum leap in improvement. Look at our front seven right now. There is not a single player in the front seven who would go in the first round of the NFL Draft, ****, not even in the second round.

Perryman is a pretty good LB, but in my eyes I see 3rd round. Look at players like Shayon Green, Jimmy Gaines and Cornilius, they actually START for Miami and would be on the scout team at FSU or Bama. The rest of the front seven, except for maybe Chick, MIGHT BE second team guys for FSU/BAMA, and I might be reaching. Now you do have some young elite talent like AQM, McCord, Fig and maybe even Grace and Kirby, but they are still young, growing and learning. Look at it this way. I bet every last poster on here would trade our DT's for VT's DT's.

We don't have a disruptive front four or a group of LB's that impose their will. We just do not have the personnel and Golden needs time to get his guys in here. Look at it another way. I will bet the house that if you put D'Nofrio as FSU's DCoordinator right now, he will have the same success as Pruitt is having right now, you know why? Because he has the right nucleus of talent, speed, experience, leadership and depth that Miami just doesn't have right have right now. I would bet on the other hand that Pruitt would look exactly like D'Nofrio is right now because he wouldn't have all the components to make his scheme work.

I haven't even begun to talk about the secondary. I know I'm preaching to the choir, but there is no way in **** Highsmith has any business starting for this program. He has not made a single play all f*****g year while giving them up all year. This is what attrition and the NCAA mess has done to this program up to this point. It caused us to miss out on key guys the past two recruiting cycles and left us with the worst situation at free safety and the front seven in probably 16 years. In all I would say D'Nofrio, because he doesn't have the horses yet, deserves a little more time.


As far as the offense, I think Coley has been somewhat limited. He has to work with a QB in Morris who he had to simplify things down to two reads everytime he throws the ball. Over the past two years, Morris has been able to mask his inability to throw intermediate passes with the deep ball. Morris also does not understand all the components on the field, as far as he doesn't know when to dump the ball to the RB, where to find his tight end when he can't find his first two reads, in all he has NEVER demonstrated that he can pick a defense apart. If you look at Morris carefully, you will see that he ALWAYS tries to hit his first read, and if he can't do that, he is handicapped after that. In all, Miami needs that "IT" QB that is a true leader that doesn't say things like "you win some you lose some". A QB who is a field general. I hate to say it, but the top two team in the country have those "IT" QB's who I'm talking about.

I'll conclude this post by saying that, though we expected to at least make it to the ACC title game, which may not happen, I still think Miami under Al Golden is still definitely on the right track. I think that we are still without a doubt missing some crucial pieces to the puzzle that Golden is still assembling. He still needs time people.

I was a Donofrio defender until the VT game, but at this point the evidence speaks for itself.

I disagree with the premise of your post. Comparing our defensive talent to FSU and Alabama is irrelevant. No one was reasonably expecting a top 5 defense, given our talent level. But that does not excuse the atrocious play against a pedestrian VT offense.

A better comparison would be the other crappy ACC teams that have played VT and shutdown their offense. Our defensive talent is not markedly worse than Duke and BC.

The problem is that we put zero pressure on Thomas, so he was able to sit back there and kill us on the underneath routes. Worse still, our coach said that was our plan - to keep him in the pocket and make him beat us. That's an indefensible scheme. Logan Thomas is known to be a disaster when he is pressured. Yet we did not pressure him. You'd think at least by the second half we would have changed things up to bring heat and attempt to force him into poor decisions.

But we sat back and allowed VT to shorten the game and just pile up yards up and down the field. It was an indefensible defensive scheme.

 

[CanesAreAble]

If we switch Kirby Smart and Dorito, you think Dorito has the same success at Bama or Kirby has better success here??








I already know my answer, jus wanna hear yours.

Uh, D'Onofrio would have the same success at Bama. Because that's Saban's defense. Kirby Smart isn't some architect. I'm not diminishing his talent as a coach, but let's be real. That defense isn't going to plummet into **** if Kirby Smart leaves. If D'Onofrio started calling stupid ****, Saban would correct that **** immediately and have him do it the way he wants it done.

This is exactly why I don't understand why Golden gets shielded in these scheme debates. If you have a problem with the defense, blame the top man. He's a defensive coach and this is his scheme.


And for the record, I still have faith in Golden, but the VTech game concerned me. He needs to properly implement his defense ASAP.

 

[NoVaCane04]

 

[Notsince1985]

I don't give a **** what Coach D would do at FSU or Bama or what Smart or Pruitt would do at Miami. D is at Miami, and with these players, his scheme sucks. So instead of being a stubborn arrogant piece of **** that throws 18-22 year olds under the bus, how about the guy making six figures, adapts his scheme? Of course our talent is nowhere near Bama or FSU, but you're not going to convince me that he couldn't run a scheme that produced better results than this ****show.

You're either going to think and react like a fan, or someone that really talks and understand sports. The reality is you can't have it both ways. You can't agree and say the Miami defense doesn't have the right nucleus of talent, experience, leadership and depth, then on the other hand still want Miami to be somewhat dominant on defense. Bottom line is, it is somewhat unfair to expect D'Nofrio to grill steak when he just has ground beef to work with. Golden still has some grocery shopping to do.

Bull****. First, there is no proof that his scheme will ever work. Second, as a coach you're paid to win and build a program. Are you honestly sitting there saying we're sacrificing the winning part now for maybe winning in 2-3 years?

Not at all. The objective is to always win. What I'm saying is the defense for example is not fully equipped right now, in my eyes, probably a notch below 50% equipped. At the end of the day, you have to judge D'Nofrio when he has all the components that I spoke of, not when his hand only has like 3 spades in it. Look at Mark Stoops when he was at FSU, he had a top 5 defense. Not because he was such a defensive wizard, but because he had the horses. He had elite talent and depth at every single position. How can you judge a dcoordinator when he doesn't even have half of that?

I already told you. Stop bringing up the talent. You're not going to convince anyone that we don't have enough talent to look like a competent defense out there. Not Alabama or FSU. Competent. You can't tell me Duke has more talent than we do. Marshall and ECU have more talent than we do. Pitt has more talent. All of those teams shut down VT and forced Thomas into turnovers. We can't do that with the players we have?

 

[Mangum]

The "lack of talent" excuse would hold more weight if guys weren't always wide open against our defense. The truth is, we often don't even have guys in position to make play. We've had the same exact problems on defense for the past 3 seasons. The main one being: WE CAN'T COVER ANYBODY INTERMEDIATELY.

We don't have guys in the right spots, and THAT is not talent.

We don't have the right guys on defense but every ACC team has the right guys on offense. How is that the offense has the right guys, in the right spots, at the right times for 3 straight seasons, while Miami still is playing catch up?

Do the other teams not have player turnover, which leads to personnel being added and subtracted through enrollment / graduation?