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"The Importance Of Recruiting" (Mario Cristobal)

QB - Big question mark due to TVD's play over the last 4 games.
WR- Chance, Carr, Trader is near elite with two top 15 kids on top of the likelihood of our top 6 returning (Young, X, JG, BS, Horton, Ray Ray)
OL- Are we really going to question Mario? I do expect one kid to get exchanged in the class. Cooper, Samson, McCoy, Francis, Kinsler and we don't even know what we will get out of Tripp, Frankie, and the 24 kids.
TE- throw to TEs more and we land a SECOND elite kid. Lofton could be lethal in the O.
RB- What isn't to like about the two we have committed? Lyle is also listening AND we just landed CJ & Fletcher.

DE- Mesidor, Bain, Wayne, Lightfoot, Harvey, Kelly, plus Rudolph and Pickett is **** near elite
DT- JHH, Burroughs, Moten, Horton, Jones, Collins, Gore, and Campbell could be top 20. Sure, it would be nice to land one more elite DT.
LB- We could return every one and the '23 group isn't exactly BAD kids. Plus we add Pruitt & Shavers.
CB- Brown, Brown, Porter, Stafford, Richard aren't exactly crap. Yes, it would be nice to land a plug-in 3-year starter that is Day 1 material but we can win a ton of games with the kids here.
S- This will all come down to Kam/JW. ZP is elite and will fill JW's spot in '24 or '25. Harris has played well at S.



The single biggest issue/concern:
TVD, Emory, Brown, Judd- can one of them lead this team to the playoffs in 2024. If no, can we find a kid who can that has experience?

Beyond that one question, it will come down to who returns/leaves and do we have BIG shoes to fill?

Can we upgrade the current class? Yes. Is the recruiting cycle over? No, It really starts in November/December.
 
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Cajuncane said:
Not sure how Mario can recruit a decent QB with the way he wants to be run heavy….any portal kid isn’t coming here to hand the ball off 30-35 times a game.They’re coming ( at least the better ones) to up their draft status and right now I don’t see us with much to offer.

Mario will have to do one **** of a sell job to get a top notch QB in here…jmo
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Mario isn’t running a lot just because he wants to. We are running a lot because we have a turnover machine at QB and a true freshman. We have to run. A lot. But that hasn’t stopped us from receiving commitments from 3 really good WR’s.
A team needs to play to its personnel and win. That is that we have been forced to do because TVD simply can not succeed against a zone defense. So Mario’s is telling future QB’s that this offense will pass more if we have the talent to pass more. Right now we do not.
 
BS85 said:
I was. You can get QBs but CBs and DTs seem.to.be hard to come by in the portal.
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Stevenson- NFL
Porter- future NFL
Davis- starter
Richard- potential starter

DT
Deen
Burroughs

QB
I mean 16 of the top 25 teams start a portal QB.
 
Canesince02 said:
Bain is producing better than any of those dudes in his current role why mess that up? He’s been phenomenal and he’s the one we move? Nah sounds like them other dudes adjust they role or grab some bench
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You could be right and it's what makes following the off season fun.I just see Bain growing some more into a DT.
 
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There's a **** load of schools who can move the chains far better than we're showing lately with far less talent.

Recruiting is just an excuse for his *** and the rest of the offensive staff not getting it done. His jumbo set bringing Hunt out totally gave away our play, **** is dumb.

Does talent matter? Of course it does. They went away from what was working and literally don't even have plays in certain parts of the field. That's not a talent issue, that's a coaching, playbook, and play calling issue.

Mario is 100 percent a this is my system coach. He wants it that way and damned we are if it doesn't work. Thought he was adaptable earlier in the year, but now we're back to square pegs in round holes. We're so uncreative at this point, you might as well just call the play out before it happens. The OL is stout or we'd have games where we'd be lucky to hit 100 yards like last year's Clemson game.

Before someone goes and blames the QB solely, asking for Kaaya or whoever the heck else, know what you're looking at. Out WR's often times run routes to the same area. We don't stretch the field or even challenge the middle of it much. We're content with low risk bubble screens or a few plays with Smith running around. The rest, 3 yards and a cloud of dust and with as much pace as an ox.
 
Cajuncane said:
Not sure how Mario can recruit a decent QB with the way he wants to be run heavy….any portal kid isn’t coming here to hand the ball off 30-35 times a game.They’re coming ( at least the better ones) to up their draft status and right now I don’t see us with much to offer.

Mario will have to do one **** of a sell job to get a top notch QB in here…jmo
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Not sure how fair it is to describe Miami's offense as run heavy. Last night the split was almost 50-50 (30 passes to 26 running), last week almost 50-50 (33 pass to 38 run...Frosh QB).

Run heavy would be 60-40 run to pass, but looks like Dawson seems to be closer to 50-50 even though he's scheming with a hole at QB right now (either the injured vet, or the inexperienced frosh).

Last night I thought Miami should have run the ball considering TVD seemed uncomfortable.
 
AtlAtty said:
Mario isn’t running a lot just because he wants to. We are running a lot because we have a turnover machine at QB and a true freshman. We have to run. A lot. But that hasn’t stopped us from receiving commitments from 3 really good WR’s.
A team needs to play to its personnel and win. That is that we have been forced to do because TVD simply can not succeed against a zone defense. So Mario’s is telling future QB’s that this offense will pass more if we have the talent to pass more. Right now we do not.
[/

I guess we will see what QB believe what when next season rolls around….TVD when he had that great half season under Lashlee played great when he played out of tempo….for the last 2 years since we’ve been at this run to the line and stare at the sideline offense….why not try putting him back in a tempo offense and see if possibly ,just maybe he can revert to what he was under Lashlee.

Just seems we are trying to put a square peg in a round hole.
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Silentobserver said:
Not sure how fair it is to describe Miami's offense as run heavy. Last night the split was almost 50-50 (30 passes to 26 running), last week almost 50-50 (33 pass to 38 run...Frosh QB).

Run heavy would be 60-40 run to pass, but looks like Dawson seems to be closer to 50-50 even though he's scheming with a hole at QB right now (either the injured vet, or the inexperienced frosh).

Last night I thought Miami should have run the ball considering TVD seemed uncomfortable.
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Our passing plays are essentially running plays. Most are dump offs or bubble screens behind the line of scrimmage. There's other safe passes to be made besides just airing it out down the field. A passing chart would be embarrassing to look at.
 
SayWhat said:
Our passing plays are essentially running plays. Most are dump offs or bubble screens behind the line of scrimmage. There's other safe passes to be made besides just airing it out down the field. A passing chart would be embarrassing to look at.
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I agree with that and against Clemson it was necessary to ease Emory into the game especially since TVD was expected to play until he couldn't.

Last night I don't disagree with the horizontal passing game with TVD's issues, but would like diversity in the screen game.

The lack of crossing routes and inconsistency in calling hitches and comebacks is frustrating.

VA played with 7 to 8 guys in coverage making passing windows cloudy which only exasperated TVD's current struggles.

I'm not saying Dawson was perfect in his play calling but I can understand he doesn't trust his QB and his RB stable is hurt (not sure why CJ hasn't gotten some burn) and how these concerns might make him gun shy.
 
SayWhat said:
Our passing plays are essentially running plays. Most are dump offs or bubble screens behind the line of scrimmage. There's other safe passes to be made besides just airing it out down the field. A passing chart would be embarrassing to look at.
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This is what I meant when I said run heavy.I consider these little screens and dump offs running plays.Add those into the runs and then tell me what the % are.

We never seem to throw anything much to the middle of the field but when we do it most often is successful.Putting the ball in a receiver’s hands on a crossing route can turn into a long play a lot more often than these **** WR screens we keep running.

I’m surprised as **** that someone hasn’t picked one of these quick screens we keep running cause we run at least 8-10 of them a game.
I’m with you.I’d love to get a look at our passing chart.
 
Silentobserver said:
Not sure how fair it is to describe Miami's offense as run heavy. Last night the split was almost 50-50 (30 passes to 26 running), last week almost 50-50 (33 pass to 38 run...Frosh QB).

Run heavy would be 60-40 run to pass, but looks like Dawson seems to be closer to 50-50 even though he's scheming with a hole at QB right now (either the injured vet, or the inexperienced frosh).

Last night I thought Miami should have run the ball considering TVD seemed uncomfortable.
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As I posted below add all these little WR screens and dump offs to the running game numbers then tell me what the % are.These plays very rarely gain more than a couple yds and are nothing more than long handoffs…numbers don’t always tell the true story….
 
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Cajuncane said:
As I posted below add all these little WR screens and dump offs to the running game numbers then tell me what the % are.These plays very rarely gain more than a couple yds and are nothing more than long handoffs…numbers don’t always tell the true story….
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Fair point, but how comfortable did you feel last night with TVD pushing the ball up the field and not turning it over?
 
Silentobserver said:
Fair point, but how comfortable did you feel last night with TVD pushing the ball up the field and not turning it over?
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I’m not talking about going back and heaving long …I’m talking about crossing routes,hitches, anything other than those stupid Wr screens and 40-50 yd throws….not sure if the staff realizes there’s a lot of turf between the line of scrimmage and a 50yd post where a completion can be made.

When we use the middle of the field we always seem to do well.You say they don’t trust TVD but long balls are a very low percentage pass to start with as are those stupid screens that usually end up being a loss or At beast a couple yd waste of a down.

I still say ,and I’m no QB savant by any stretch of the word ,why not put him back into the type offense Lashlee ran which was up tempo and see if that works cause it sure can’t be any worse.Guy looked comfortable in that system then Gattis showed up and ran this same type crap as we are running now and he looked terrible…all I’m saying is before we make a final judgement on the guy let’s put him in something he at one time was successful at…

They better figure it out cause I think he’s here for another year unless Mario can bring in someone better and runs him off of which I have my doubts.
 
grover said:
In his post-game presser, when talking about Mark Fletcher, Mario commented that his performance proves "The Importance Of Recruiting".

I have a follow-up question: do you think you are meeting/exceeding your expectations with recruiting with the current class? Because while we're the #11 ranked class, I do not feel we're addressing our needs. QB, CB, DT, TE, LB are all underwhelming. OL is acceptable only when paired with last class.

We just saw these past three weeks how a thin QB depth chart can put the entire season at risk. Yet we're still betting on Judd Anderson? And outside of QB, if we're to blame any one position group for our losses and near losses, it would be CB, where we have a huge number of rotational players but not one guy you can trust to be on an island. It's not Davis' fault he has been targeted and often abused. It's our coaches' fault for not recruiting better options. How do we feel about CB recruiting if/when Ellis doesn't flip?

Fill the holes, coach, and then maybe your words will be prophetic.
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This class isn't good enough. Too many holes at areas of (great) need.
 
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Cajuncane said:
I’m not talking about going back and heaving long …I’m talking about crossing routes,hitches, anything other than those stupid Wr screens and 40-50 yd throws….not sure if the staff realizes there’s a lot of turf between the line of scrimmage and a 50yd post where a completion can be made.

When we use the middle of the field we always seem to do well.You say they don’t trust TVD but long balls are a very low percentage pass to start with as are those stupid screens that usually end up being a loss or At beast a couple yd waste of a down.

I still say ,and I’m no QB savant by any stretch of the word ,why not put him back into the type offense Lashlee ran which was up tempo and see if that works cause it sure can’t be any worse.Guy looked comfortable in that system then Gattis showed up and ran this same type crap as we are running now and he looked terrible…all I’m saying is before we make a final judgement on the guy let’s put him in something he at one time was successful at…

They better figure it out cause I think he’s here for another year unless Mario can bring in someone better and runs him off of which I have my doubts.
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TVD has abandoned the middle of field for some reason. Not sure if it's entirely TVD or a combo of him not trusting what he's seeing or Dawson's play calling.

I will say VA's LBs and their SS who played in the box were excellent in their zone drops (our LBs could learn a thing or two...they are terrible with their depth).
 
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