Tuesday, November 10, 2009

Recruiting News

Over the weekend we had a big commit from our CB target out of the country's #1 team, St. Thomas Aquinas. Long rumored to be a silent commit, he's 6ft, 165lbs. with a 4.46 40 and has offers from FSU, UF, OSU, Tenn. and more. He's a true shutdown corner who should get some playing time right away on special teams and can see limited action at CB next year. We'll link up video to him the second we get our hands on it.

Also, rumors are swirling that Miami Carol City Wr Allen Hurns called our coaches last night and committed. He went up to Friday Night Lights in Gainesville and dominated in that camp. He's injured this year, with a torn miniscus, but we do have film on him from last year.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tizZjTNkRJw

As always thanks for reading and Go Canes!

Virginia Breakdown

I think it's easy to say this was our best game of the year. We'll get to special teams, but offensively and defensively we played very sound. Off to the grades.

Offense

Quarterback - B+: Jacory played well. He did have a really stupid interception. It's not so much the bad throws, that happens, and physically every QB makes them. While every QB makes dumb throws as well, it's not quite as bad as Jacory's. He seems to be forcing throws. Most of his interceptions are deep passes with double or even triple coverage. He has to get that corrected if we are to take the next step and truly be an elite team. AJ Highsmith got in and threw for a touchdown as well. Congratulations to AJ

RB - A-: Cooper had a big day, Berry also ran hard in between the hashmarks. Not much action/contribution from James and even less from Baby J, who is still recovering from an injury. Lee Chambers also ran well and deserves credit for running tough and with great vision.

OL - A-: Dominated a team they needed to dominate. Not much more can be said, but when you put up over 500+ yards, that's a clear indication that your Oline had it's way that day.

TE - B+: Graham had a beautiful catch for an early touchdown. The blocking from the group was even better, and they deserve a lot of praise for that.

WR - A: Hankerson had a big day, Byrd lead the corps with 3 for 56 yards, and Hankerson had a great touchdown catch to get us rolling. Great job by them.

Coaching - A: One of Whipple's more balanced games. He does throw a bit too much on first, but overall he's done great.


Defense:

Dline - A: Similar to the offense, when you hold the other team to 150 yards, you dominated. Allen Bailey was unblockable, and our younger players in Micanor Regis (interception) and Jeremy Lewis stepped up and had solid games.

LB - Nothing earth shattering, but Cookie had himself another solid game. If he keeps growing and getting better we should have a lot of depth and very little weaknesses next year in our linebacking corps.

DB - You didn't hear Shields, Harris, or DVD mentioned much. That's a good thing for DBs. Vaughn played well, as did Jared Campbell, who made two good plays to start off our defensive series.

Special Teams:

Punt/Kick Coverage - F: We almost had one blocked last week against Wake. Well, this week one was blocked, and to make things worse they blocked another one. Almost unheard of. Panunzio should be embarassed.

Return - B+: We returned a kick for a touchdown, although not by design. Collier deserves all the credit for breaking 3 tackles and reversing his field after we went for the punt block and failed.

Coaching - D: Like we said before, Panunzio should be embarassed.

Thanks for reading and Go Canes.

Tuesday, November 3, 2009

Big RB Commitment

Eduardo Clements, RB out of Booker T. Washington in Miami, has been a silent commit for months. Many schools thought they had a shot at him, including FSU, Michigan, and Tenn. Today, he decided to make his commitment public, saying he was tiring of all the hoopla that comes with recruiting and that he's 100% committed to Miami and is as solid as solid can be. He has good speed, great cutting ability, and can catch the ball out of the backfield. Think of himas a more complete Cooper, who hits the whole better. Here is a link on him:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uChpS2WlH8M

Monday, November 2, 2009

Wake Breakdown

Another game, another flat effort. More of the same from this team, at least the past 4 games. Our team didn't quit, but I'm not sure it's quite the learning experience everyone has proclaimed it to be (I'm looking at you Don Bailey Jr.). This same game happened last year against Virginia. So do we have to learn every year, with the same core players, on how not to quit? If so, sign me up for consistent 8-4 seasons.

Jacory did have a "good" game statistically. But it doesn't take into account the "should have been" interceptions for touchdowns (2) and other dropped potential interceptions. Yes, we got a big fourth down conversion. What we don't discuss is how Hankerson dropped the big 3rd down on the play before, or how Jacory kept going deep despite us having receivers wide open on underneath crossing routes on the first down marker.

Kudos are in order to our defense for playing better and only allowing 7 points in the second half, and for our entire team for not quitting. But our coaching staff has shown an inability to adjust on the defensive side. Offensively, Navy came out and ran all over them. It dumbfounds us why we can't come out and do the same, but that has to fall on the coaching. When your offense doesn't execute and you can't run the ball effectively against an average team, at best, then at some point you have to question the brass. Here are our grades

Offense

QB - B-: Jacory threw for over 300 yards, with 3 TDs and 1 interception, but there were several dropped interceptions and on that final drive he kept forcing the ball deep. He consistently says he has to check down and take what's given to him, but he hasn't really done it yet.

RB - C-: Cooper ran for 27 yards and Berry had 26 yards. Our run game was non existent, totaling 26 yards in total (including sacks). A lot of the blame falls on our Offensive line, but a lot of it falls on our backs as well. Berry ran tough and strong, but Cooper still dances too much and he missed a whole lot of blocks in pass protection..

OL - D: Poor protection, missed assignments, poor run blocking. After play better last weekend, they came out and thoroughly unimpressed.

WR - B+: The only reason they aren't at an A is because of the sporadic drops here and here. We did a good job getting open and blocking downfield. They played very well.

TE - C: Not much action from them, Jimmy ran the wrong routes and Epps was a ghost for most of the game. They need to step up and help exploit the middle of the field better.

Coaching - C-: We didn't really attempt to run the ball consistently on a team that can be run on. Even a 1 dimensional Navy ran the ball on them.

Defense:

Dline - C-: The ran for over 100 yards and they threw for over 400. No pressure was generated at all from our front four, Allen Bailey aside. They need to play better, injuries or not. Even our backups should be able to handle the Wake Forest Oline.

Linebackers- C: Sharpton is horrific in every aspect of the game. He can't get off blocks, he's even worse in coverage, and is trying to be the team's best "worst tackler". He's good at reading a play, but pretty poor everywhere else. Mccarthy struggles in coverage as well, and although he had an off game, he's a great run stopper and reads the plays very well. Cookie played well enough for a young player learning a new position, but we need to see some more growth from our LBs

DB - C-: Vaughn played pretty average, but Randy Phillips was out of position all day. Jared Campbell had an interception hit him in the face and bounce 15 feet into the air into DVD's hands, which was fortunate, but he has to come up with that interception. Speaking of DVD, he had a good day, but Brandon Harris had one of his worst in a Miami uniform.

Coaching D: We played better the second half, but we still have glaring holes and gave up 500 + yards. That's a bad day no matter how you slice it.

Special Teams

Coverage- B+: We recovered a muffed punt and did a good job protecting against returns.

Return- B: We need to start breaking kicks, but there weren't any really "bad" returns. It's time to put in Thompkins for Mike James, or another speedster.

Coaching- B: See above.

Sunday, November 1, 2009

2 Commitments Before The Breakdown

Before us getting to the breakdown in the next 24 hours, we have news on 2 commitments.

The first commitment is RB Storm Johnson, out of Loganville Highschool in Georgia. He's a 6'1, 217 lbs. back with 4.5 speed in the 40. With us losing the often injured Baby J after this year, he can come in and contribute right away. He's working out with a college trainer and is set to come here in January, already having been cleared by the NCAA clearinghouse. We only started recruiting him about a month ago. After having been told to see him while our coaches were on the recruiting trail, we offered. A month later he seems to have found his home. His balance and toughness is unreal, as is his vision. Here's his film:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=18gyupH2W0E

The second commitment is Greg Dent, teammate of current TE commit Clive Walford. He lists offers from Miami, Rutgers, Georgia, and West Virginia amongst others. He's a 5'11, 180lbs athlete who can play both WR and CB, but will come in and be tried out at CB first. Here's his film:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hMkpfZRxAG0


Thanks for reading and Go Canes!