The same finish

[Confidence1000]

& errbody on this board & Twitter stop blaming Cam! He had nuthin to gain & EVERYTHING to lose in this game but he still suited up, gave us 31 points, & a lead goin into Halftime! This game ain’t really mean **** to him about momentum goin into next yr bc he wouldn’t be here! He broke all the records, gave u a 21 point lead at Syracuse & ur defense **** the bed! He gave u 31 & a 3 point lead today going into HT but ur RS Freshman kouldn’t deliver & ur ALL-TIME terrible defense Kant stop Konstruction traffic wit 3 guys having a stop sign standing up! Cam brought u back against VT & Cal! So stop all dat **** bout Cam! If it wasn’t for him this team is 6-6/5-7

 

[bornagaincane]

We lost the game on defense and penalties. Defense is on Guidry. Penalties is on Mario.

Mario has not fielded a smart and disciplined team going back to Oregon. His Oregon teams were amongst the most penalized. It continues here. Does it mean that Mario the man is not smart and disciplined? He talks like he is, but the actions say something else. This is why I’ve tuned him out lately. I used to like hearing him talk, but now I don’t listen to him again.

 

[mavericksouth]

We are improving on multiple fronts under Cristobal but as you said, critical season in year 4. I’m okay with this year(which should have been more) but the defense has serious issues that needs to be addressed starting with Guidry who continues to have his unit look unprepared every week.

Improving on multiple fronts with Cristobal? What??? We are clearly watching two different teams. The entire defense is worse under Cristobal than it was under Manny. And I hate Manny Diaz. The o-line is better. But, your top two WRs (Restrepo and George) are Manny's players. Your best TE (Arroyo) is Manny's player. Your kicker is Manny's player. Mario rented Cam for one season and he was/is terrific. He gets credit for that. But behind Ward is Williams, Anderson, Poffenbarger (gone to portal), and Nickel. That is a below average QB room now that Ward is done here. D-line is below average, linebackers are bad, and the secondary is atrocious. Mario has improved very little.

 

[Hold My Beer]

- We should be further along at linebacker after three years. That group has been average

Our LBs were miles below average this season by any measure: Lousy tackling, bad angles/wrong fits, overmatched in pass coverage

Complete failure in both recruiting and development

 

[mavericksouth]

Dawson is trash. Can Ward making that bum look good. Dude thinks Judd and Emory are those dudes. Nah.

Wish we could rid of the whole staff

Including Mario? You could make the argument that Cam made him look better than he is as a head coach as well. Cam left the game and the team crumbled. Where is the three years of culture building Mario has yammered on about? Dudes fighting each other on the sideline in the middle of a game....oh boy. Some culture that he is building. And after that, the defense played WORSE! He's a joke.

 

[Hold My Beer]

Gonna be a broken record here, but what was there on 53-year old Lance Guidry’s undistinguished résumé that made Mario believe he was the pick for DC?

One of my greatest fears about remaining in the third-rate ACC is that lesser financial resources would limit our ability to pay a proven staff. Couple that with Mario’s struggles in consistently identifying and hiring top-flight coordinators and position coaches and we’d never get off this merry-go-round of mediocrity.

 

[Alex Del Piero]

There seems to have been a coordinated disinformation campaign regarding Emory. I base this on Dmoney and other insiders saying for a while that he has a lot of fans within the program (staff and players) who think he could be the guy. Reportedly one of Mirabals relatives posts on Ferman’s site and said he’s looked really good.

It’s clear from the first drive they don’t believe this, so why is this messaging been pushed most of the season?

Have you ever heard a coach saying “Yeah, my players suck”?

Everyone is sunshine pumping his guys, I’d focus on the facts and the fact is that they didn't trust Emory to make one single forward pass last night. That’s all we need to know about the coaches opinion of him.

My question is: why they didn’t ******* attack AGGRESSIVELY the portal QBs market if this was the situation in our QB room?

Why they only went after a player who everybody knew was going to Oklahoma without ANY plan B-C-D etc.? Many players way better than Williams came and passed.

That’s what bothers me because we, as fans, didn't really know what we had in Emory but they, the coaches, ******* did and they also did nothing.

Bunch of bums.

 

[mavericksouth]

Beyond the obvious coaching issues... I think this is something everyone of our failed coaches has had to deal with and failed to fix.
For some reason our players get convinced that they are above doing the dirty work.
Everyone wants ro get upfield but nobody wants to take on a block..JMO

I agree. I think every coach that comes in here falls in love with Florida athletes but they don't do proper player evaluation. They recruit great athletes but not intelligent and coachable football players that fit in a scheme. Iowa State does not have better athletes than Miami, but what they do have are smart and coachable football guys. Contrary to popular belief, smart players tend to beat physically gifted ones most of the time. Miami needs a coach/gm that really can create a culture change. Not a guy like Mario who recruits based on athletic ability in hopes their ability makes him look like he knows what he is doing on gameday. It worked with Cam Ward. It didn't anywhere else.

 

[mavericksouth]

**** sure don’t if they’re propping up Year 3 Mario

How could they? The closest they came to good was Richt who was run out of Georgia for underachieving. They installed Smart, and Georgia hasn't looked back. All this program has known is bum coaches because the folks who makes the hires (the AD and BOT) don't know what it takes. They won't hire Urban because they'll let other factors skew their mindset. Chris Petersen would be great but is Radakovich prepared to entice him by giving him whatever he wants to come out of retirement? Unlikely. So we end up settling for "Miami" guys when that is the very LAST thing this program needs to end the 20-year failed odyssey. The next coach needs to be an objective outsider with a proven winning track record at multiple schools that has their own system proven to win big.

 

[WestEndZone]

D we need to address the elephant in the room. Our conference is a sinking ship. It affects how we recruit, among other things.

 

[Dude]

TVD is in the portal. I'd rather have him than Emory in '25.

 

[passitback]

Fire everyone on the defense. Get a real DC, that brings in his people, and has full autonomy to do what he pleases.

 

[Dude]

I feel like I'm perpetually stuck as Matt Lee in "what the f are we doing?"

You don't say?

 

[AUcane]

Absolute coaching malpractice to waste a championship offense like we just did this year. Has an elite side of a team been wasted like we just wasted one in recent major p4 memory?

 

[Jonnyblaze]

Effing Groundhog Day with this program.

 

[Canestomp]

 

[Cane6]

We've finished the season the same way for 20 years. Our coaches change, but this part stays the same. Another year of blowing it in November and losing December bowl games. Some thoughts from Orlando:

- Cam Ward is a legend in my book. He spotted us 31 points in a half and we still couldn't win. It was symbolic of the whole season, really.

- On Mario, my realistic expectations were a repeat of Oregon- the good and the bad. We're currently running behind that pace. We still haven't made a conference title, and we just missed a golden opportunity with an elite quarterback. Year 4 is critical and there is a ton of work that needs to be done.

- We have some smart players, but we aren't a smart team. One simple example- we're 121st in penalty yards. Iowa State is 1st.

- Not much more to say about the defense. In person, it's jarring how frantic we look pre-snap. This is Game 13. The unit is full of veterans - fourth, fifth and sixth-year players. Something isn't connecting. I'd be shocked if there aren't significant changes on that side of the ball.

- We threw for 1.9 yards per attempt in the second half. This is why I've pushed so hard for a Portal QB. My concern with Emory Williams dating back to high school is athleticism. Nothing looks fluid and easy. I continue to expect us to add a Portal QB and fast-track Luke Nickel.

- Damien Martinez is a horse. Over 1,000 yards, 10 TDs, 6+ yards per carry. It feels like forever ago when people were saying he was the 3rd best back on the team. Sometimes it's important to trust track record.

- It's hard to lose when you run for over 300 yards as a team. The running game is the one area where I feel the floor has been raised significantly.

- We should be further along at linebacker after three years. That group has been average. Forget the elite guys like Vilma and DJ - a Quarterman/Pickney duo would improve our defense significantly. It's worth investing Portal money to land an impactful player here.

- JoJo Trader and Elija Lofton gave us a glimpse of what they've been doing on Greentree. I hope both are featured players in 2025. We're losing a lot of production, but a good chunk of that production can be replaced from within.

- We've been decimated by injury at corner and we were already bad there. OJ Frederique looked OK on the sideline, but when he went left the game we were forced to play Markeith Williams on an island. It's hard to oversign there- we need a lot of help.

- The silver lining for me is that there were no injuries. Thank you to all the players who have put their bodies on the line for the Canes.

@DMoney how do the money guys that have made big investments these first 3 years under Mario, particularly year 3, and say sure let’s keep the money pumping in???

Mario creates ALOT of the problems for himself.

He has to absolutely nail the next DC hire and deliver a legit top 20 defense in 2025 AND find a top 20 QB or the W/L record is gonna look BAD BAD and then see what the recruiting looks like

 

[canefan96]

We have some smart players, but we aren't a smart team.

True statement but they say the team gets their character from their head coach …………………

 

[E1k]

“We have some smart players, but we aren't a smart team.“

Im a believer in you will only be as smart as the head coach he raises the entire building...Not just players but your entire staff’s overall iq will only go as high as the head coaches iq is imo.

 

[ristwasdown]

I really don't know how...but this season took more out of me than the last 20 years.

I don't know if I can do this anymore. I just don't see it with mario. And if we can't reach goals with mario and the money, I'm not so sure this university ever invests enough with the next coach to get it right. Forever regulated to a tier 2/3 program.