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Transition years

Goulds Cane said:
I started reading this board around the time Mark Richt got hired. His hiring had given me hope that the administration had gotten serious about UM football
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Richt got us out of the dark and operating like a real program. It was still a step below optimal. Then we took a step back with manure hiring. Now we’re actually putting forth effort
 
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DMoney said:
When a coach gets fired, the next coach inherits some of the reasons he got fired. Below are the blue-chip ratios for each transition year of the past 15 years. The blue-chip ratio uses the final three classes of the prior coach and the first class of the new coach. While recruiting rankings are flawed, they have progressively gotten more accurate. I also listed the returning quarterbacks to provide a fuller picture of the roster.

2007 Randy Shannon

Blue Chip Ratio- 54%

QBs- Kyle Wright and Kirby Freeman

Shannon inherited three overrated Coker classes and two disastrous quarterbacks. The culture was at its lowest point in history. The best thing Shannon did was sign a lean '07 class with guys like Leonard Hankerson, Allen Bailey and Orlando Franklin. This roster proved that rankings had a long way to go.

2011 Al Golden

Blue Chip Ratio- 38%

QBs- Jacory Harris and Stephen Morris

Golden paid for Shannon’s lack of recruiting effort his final two years. To make matters worse, Golden’s own transition class was bloated with 20 players. Many were evaluated in a rush after the high school season. This was before the Portal was a consistent option.

2016 Mark Richt

Blue Chip Ratio- 35%

QBs- Brad Kaaya and Malik Rosier

Five years and a cloud left Richt with a bunch of coal-shovelers. Some of Golden's evals landed, though, including a good QB and 15 NFL players. This core allowed Richt to turn it around fast with professional coaching.

2019 Manny Diaz

Blue Chip Ratio- 48%

QBs- Jarren Williams, N’Kosi Perry and Tate Martell

Diaz walked into a busted quarterback room. The football was bad and the leadership was worse. The offensive line was also barren, plagued by an empty ’16 class and some blue-chip misses. This combo led to catastrophe. We lost to FIU.

2022 Mario Cristobal

Blue Chip Ratio- 55%

QBs- Tyler Van Dyke, Jake Garcia, Jacurri Brown

The quarterback room is light-years ahead of before. It’s also much better than what Mario left behind at Oregon. The ratio above does not include the blue-heavy '18 class (which has an extra COVID year), nor does it account for transfers like Tyrique and Ladson. More blue-chip transfers are on the way after spring.

This roster is ready to compete in the ACC. It should have competed last year. And it's only getting better. Mario is never going to stop recruiting. He pulled Cyrus Moss across the country with a one-day visit. He flipped Skinner from Bama. He beat LSU for a Louisiana running back. These things do not happen to us.

Clemson’s roster is going in the wrong direction. Florida State is broke and sad. We have the best recruiter in the state. Legal money is flowing. It's been long enough. Let's win this conference.

Congrats to all the new Canes and their families.
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Need some more transfers at OL, DT and LB.

With good health, this team has to win the coastal. Anything short of that is a failure for Mario. There is enough talent to beta UNC, Pitt, Va Tech and Virginia.

The Clemson crossover in year 1 sucks but it’s a great opportunity to see where we stack up with them now verse two years ago.
 
BeastMode said:
Need some more transfers at OL, DT and LB.

With good health, this team has to win the coastal. Anything short of that is a failure for Mario. There is enough talent to beta UNC, Pitt, Va Tech and Virginia.

The Clemson crossover in year 1 sucks but it’s a great opportunity to see where we stack up with them now verse two years ago.
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We need a CB, too.
 
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BeastMode said:
Need some more transfers at OL, DT and LB.

With good health, this team has to win the coastal. Anything short of that is a failure for Mario. There is enough talent to beta UNC, Pitt, Va Tech and Virginia.

The Clemson crossover in year 1 sucks but it’s a great opportunity to see where we stack up with them now verse two years ago.
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UNC has been neck and neck with us in recruiting the last 4 cycles. They are as talented as we are

I still think we should win I just wanna throw that out there as people are forgetting the amount of talent they have. It's different than Pitt, VT, and UVA who we should beat off talent alone
 
407cane said:
I rem

UNC has been neck and neck with us in recruiting the last 4 cycles. They are as talented as we are

I still think we should win I just wanna throw that out there as people are forgetting the amount of talent they have. It's different than Pitt, VT, and UVA who we should beat off talent alone
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Who is their QB? They have lost a lot of talent to the NFL recently
 
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407cane said:
no idea. I'm not saying we lose to them I just don't think we're to the point where we can confidently say we *should* beat UNC because of talent we're bringing in. They have just as much of it, if not more over the last 4 years
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I would have to look at their roster I honestly have no clue who they have. They barely beat us last year and I think we are bringing back more talent and we get them at home. It “should” be a win
 
407cane said:
UNC has been neck and neck with us in recruiting the last 4 cycles. They are as talented as we are

I still think we should win I just wanna throw that out there as people are forgetting the amount of talent they have. It's different than Pitt, VT, and UVA who we should beat off talent alone
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UNC has recruited well under Mack. They have beaten us 3 years in a row, Howell was a big reason for 2 of those wins. He is gone, we have them at home, we need to win that game.

I'm not sure why people keep sleeping on Pitt. They return the most well balanced team in the Coastal if you are not including Miami.

Slovis got hurt this past year, but he is a proven power 5 QB who can throw the ball. Pitt returns a solid RB group, and the best WR group in ACC.

On defense they return most of that side of ball including All ACC Calijah Kancey who we passed on. They won 11 games including the ACC last year, and almost beat Michigan State with their 3rd team QB. I know Michigan State didn't have Walker also.
 
gacaneaddict said:
UNC has recruited well under Mack. They have beaten us 3 years in a row, Howell was a big reason for 2 of those wins. He is gone, we have them at home, we need to win that game.

I'm not sure why people keep sleeping on Pitt. They return the most well balanced team in the Coastal if you are not including Miami.

Slovis got hurt this past year, but he is a proven power 5 QB who can throw the ball. Pitt returns a solid RB group, and the best WR group in ACC.

On defense they return most of that side of ball including All ACC Calijah Kancey who we passed on. They won 11 games including the ACC last year, and almost beat Michigan State with their 3rd team QB. I know Michigan State didn't have Walker also.
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We get Pitt and UNC at home.
 
gacaneaddict said:
UNC has recruited well under Mack. They have beaten us 3 years in a row, Howell was a big reason for 2 of those wins. He is gone, we have them at home, we need to win that game.

I'm not sure why people keep sleeping on Pitt. They return the most well balanced team in the Coastal if you are not including Miami.

Slovis got hurt this past year, but he is a proven power 5 QB who can throw the ball. Pitt returns a solid RB group, and the best WR group in ACC.

On defense they return most of that side of ball including All ACC Calijah Kancey who we passed on. They won 11 games including the ACC last year, and almost beat Michigan State with their 3rd team QB. I know Michigan State didn't have Walker also.
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I dont think anyone is sleeping on Pitt but the reality is..we went up there and took it to them when they had a Heisman finalist and the best team they have had in decades. So I would say its fair to think now that they dont have Pickett, that they would take a slight step back. But we will see.

Not to derail the thread, but I am glad to see most have changed their tune and seen this is really a great class for it to be a transition class. Top 15? That is unbelievable and if Jimbo had not stolen the headlines by paying 30M for his recruiting class alot of people would be praising Mario more. Really a remarkable finish. Climbed 50 spots in 2 months.
 
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gacaneaddict said:
UNC has recruited well under Mack. They have beaten us 3 years in a row, Howell was a big reason for 2 of those wins. He is gone, we have them at home, we need to win that game.

I'm not sure why people keep sleeping on Pitt. They return the most well balanced team in the Coastal if you are not including Miami.

Slovis got hurt this past year, but he is a proven power 5 QB who can throw the ball. Pitt returns a solid RB group, and the best WR group in ACC.

On defense they return most of that side of ball including All ACC Calijah Kancey who we passed on. They won 11 games including the ACC last year, and almost beat Michigan State with their 3rd team QB. I know Michigan State didn't have Walker also.
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Pitt will be a tough game. Even with slovis, losing Kenny Pickett and their OC I just feel like we usually match-up well against them.. Call it recency bias I guess

UNC has owned us for 3 years and although I belive you're right that we'll win due to the QB situation, I feel like they can recover from losing Howell and still be decent
 
407cane said:
Pitt will be a tough game. Even with slovis, losing Kenny Pickett and their OC I just feel like we usually match-up well against them.. Call it recency bias I guess

UNC has owned us for 3 years and although I belive you're right that we'll win due to the QB situation, I feel like they can recover from losing Howell and still be decent
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Agreed. It's the first year under a new coach and no matter how outstanding Cristobal is, growing pains will almost definitely ensue. Even the best teams have their slip-ups. What's important is that we're on the right track both in terms of recruiting and developing our new guys
 
Most importantly we fixed our problem from the top and that's where it starts. Mario is an alpha but Rad is his alpha and the chain of command needs to be dominant from top to bottom. 22 crooting class exceeded my expectations with these circumstances so I'm expecting it to only go up from here. GO CANES
 
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BeastMode said:
If steele runs a 4-2-5 I was thinking corners would be Stevenson and Couch/Clarke/Dunson/Ivey

Then we would have Williams, Williams and Kitchens all on the field together a lot.
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Love the idea of getting the 3 safeties on the field, they are going to be a huge strength for the next 2 seasons.
 
Also most of these transition classes wash out cause new coaches try and add new players who are mostly dead weight. Which hurts your roster 2-3 years away when your transition class has not developed or transfer out. Obviously next class is very important.
 
D$ - great stuff as usual and I love how you point out stuff that some may not think about/realize. I keep coming back to this (and this is some credit to Manny and staff but most of it to Mario) but we got one of the top kids in the following states: SC, Louisiana, Georgia, MS and a possible hidden gem from AL. THAT is unheard of around these parts knowing how hard it is to pull top kids from SEC country especially from states like Louisiana and Georgia. And I can't stress enough how big of a signing Citizen is - you nailed it, that state is one of the hardest states to pull top prospects from. We've NEVER done it and Mario did it in a month.
 
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