Wednesday, October 28, 2009

Part 2 of Screenshots and More

First, we'd like to let everyone know that the Chick-fil-A bowl representatives will be at the Wake game. Seems like the right bowl game we can end up in, if we play well and win out (worst case scenario). Here's some information on the bowl:


The Chick-fil-A Bowl is the ninth-oldest bowl game in the country and hosts the longest-running rivalry series between the ACC and SEC. Now in its 42nd year, the Chick-fil-A Bowl has established itself as one of the nation’s elite bowl games with a string of 12 consecutive sellouts and has earned a reputation as one of the most competitive bowls in the nation. Ten of the last 17 games have been decided by a touchdown or less. The Chick-fil-A Bowl has disbursed more than $90 million in team payouts over its 41-year history and has increased team payout every year since 1996. The Bowl also leads all other bowl games in charitable and scholarship contributions, giving more than $1.2 million to organizations in need in 2008 alone.




Second, here's the overtime TD by Clemson. Sorry about the confusion in yesterday's screenshot. Again, thanks to Rusty on Grassy (Daniel). Props to his magnificence on the keyboards.


Personnel:



DE: Robinson

DT: Joseph

DT: Holmes

DE: Bailey



LB: Sharpton

LB: McCarthy



CB: Harris

CB: Van Dyke

CB: Shields

S: Phillips

S: Telemaque



Telemaque is on Ford. Ford is the inside guy at the top. McCarthy appears to be leaning back. I don't know if he is suppose to get deeper than Sharpton in coverage or spy on Spiller. Sharpton takes the underneath route. Either McCarthy isn't deep enough or Telemaque is playing too soft on Ford.












Tuesday, October 27, 2009

Clemson Screenshots

Thanks to our friend Rusty for doing all the legwork. Not much we can add to what he has added, so we pretty much copy and pasted his work here. Props to him, and hopefully it helps show you how our players are missing assignments. At some point, coaches just can't have all the blame chucked on them because their players refuse to execute.

First Part: Clemson's First Touchdown

Personnel:



This TD is on Jared Campbell (go figure). Let's break this down.



DL: Vernon

DL: Holmes

DL: Joseph

DL: Wesley



LB: McCarthy

LB: Sharpton

LB: Buchanan



CB: Harris

CB: Van Dyke

S: Campbell

S: Phillips




McCarthy showing blitz at the top. Cookie showing blitz at the bottom.

Palmer, TE, goes in motion. Campbell moves with him, it's his man. We're in man coverage. Phillips has the TE at the top. Campbell goes after Spiller (and so does Sharpton), ignores Palmer


















Monday, October 26, 2009

Clemson Breakdown

We couldn't get around to a UCF breakdown, but in all honesty...there wasn't much to break down. We played sloppy, continued our inconsistent play on both sides of the ball (offense moreso this time) and it carried over into the Clemson game.

This kind of stuff happens when you come out unmotivated, playing with a lack of aggression and killer instinct over teams you are clearly better than. Some think it's playing down to your competition and I think it's true as well. Is it because we are still a young team? Is it because we have glaring holes on either side of the ball? Is it depth? Is it coaching?

Yes to all the above and the things we left out. We really do have a lot to pick apart, but the best way to sum it up is to say this. The team lost as a team. From the coaching to the backups. Tomorrow we'll post up a screenshot of a touchdown, which will show a breakdown of their first touchdown frame by frame and how we blew an assignment (courtesy of Rusty on Grassy, same person who makes all the youtubes).

Tonight, we'll give you our grades.

Offense

Quarterback

Jacory threw 3 interceptions. Never a reason for that. Just unexcusable. What killed us the most was the fact that he threw a pick 6. It was just one of the worst reads and forced passes I've ever seen. Credit to Jacory for bouncing back and hitting Travis on a nice throw, but the interceptions are momentum killers.

Score - 5

Runningback

A bright spot in the game. From blocking to the running between tackles, they played very, very well. Baby J, Coop, and Berry all did well.

Score - 9

Tight Ends -

Epps is injured, and we are waiting to see on how the MRI comes out for him. But both him and Jimmy played well. T. Johnson had a little miscommunication with Jacory on our third and goal play in overtime, but we don't know who that blame falls upon.

Score - 7

Offensive Line

They blocked well in the running game for the most part, except for that final drive in regulation. We can't really blame them though. Jason Fox said after that they were playing us in goalline formation, practically daring us to throw on them. That falls upon the coaching staff. Pipho even had a good game in pass protection, as did most of the O line.

Score - 7

Wide Receivers

They played phenomenally as well. It's not their fault Jacory played poorly, locked in on some receivers, and our coaches didn't keep them as involved (I remember reading a stat saying that we threw the ball 7 times after our initial score in the second half). Hankerson and Benjamin both came to play.

Score - 8 and 1/2

Coaching

Poor. Pathetic. Horrific. Why did we get so conservative when they clearly couldn't cover us one on one? Why do we run it three straight times with a 3 point lead and 5 minutes left in the game, despite them daring us to throw and being in goalline formation? Why didn't we throw a fade tou our countless 6'3, 6'4 WRs over their 5'9 CB? Why didn't we call for more deep pass patterns? How do we come out of a timeout with 12 men on the field? So many questions, and so many more that we are afraid we'll run out of bandwidth if we ask them all. This is easily Whipple's worst game in his short tenure with us. He went into a shell, got conservative and predictable, played not to lose and that put us in the coffin.

Score - 2

Defense

Defensive Line

Mixed results. Great in the run game. Prior to Spiller's big, he had 33 yards on 13 carries. Then again, they were on the field a whole lot, weren't they? They were very strong in run defense, but pass protection.... if Allen Bailey isn't doing it, no one is doing it. We just couldn't generate pressure with our front four and that's a big black eye for us.

Score - 7

Linebackers

McCarthy is what he always has been and will be. A stud in run defense, average in pass, but overall a linebacker that's hard to keep off of any team's starting roster. Sharpton, while playing better as of late, is still below average, and on a good day average. Spence was injured, and we are awaiting MRIs on him as well. The backups, Futch excluded due to his season ending knee injury, just dont have it down mentally yet. They have to get it done and cover the tight ends and running backs better

Score - 7

Defensive Backs

More mixed results. Brandon Harris and DVD played well. Shields played horrificly, like usual. Our safeties had some major blunders as well, as we will highlight for you tomorrow. Just a really up and down day, as was the game as a whole, for us.

Score - 7

Coaching

Did you think Whipple did bad? Then how do you feel about Lovett? He can't adjust and cover Rbs and TEs. He has never been able to adjust in his previous tenure as D-Coord. If he wasn't good enough to run Clemson's D 5 years ago, what makes him good enough for Miami ever? He started calling off the blitzes, gave a pedestrian freshman QB all day to throw on us and didn't do anything that can be considered wise.

Score - 2

Special Teams

Coverage - Aside from that one return, it was good. That return falls squarely on Uribe, who ruined a squib kick and proceeded to kick it directly to C.J. Spiller. No excuse and that's why Bosher replaced him from that point on.

Return - Solid, but could have used a bigger return game, especially in the punt game.

Coaching - 6. You have to make sure Uribe doesn't screw up like that.

Thanks for reading and as always, Go Canes!

Friday, October 23, 2009

Canes commit David Perry Highlight reel...

Breaking News! Canes pick up a Big Commit!!!




University High DL David Perry has officially committed to the Canes. The 6-foot-6 230 pounder said it was a "done deal". His only visit will be to the Canes.

Perry will be in attendance for tomorrow's game against Clemson. He will be sitting in the recruiting section.

Keep it coming Miami!!!

GO CANES!!!

Monday, October 19, 2009

Breaking News!!! It's Official...Williams commits

It's official now. After some speculation that he called WVU coaches to let them know about his commitment to Miami, Coach Aubrey Hill received a phone call roughly around 8pm Monday night and it was Travis Williams on the other side. Williams said he was ready and pulled a trigger. Coach Shannon had expressed that if Williams was to commit he didn't want him taking any other visits. Williams agreed he didn't need to make any.

Great pick up by the Canes.


GO CANES!!!

Rumor Mill - Travis Williams Commits

Rumors are that 6'2, 189lb linebacker out of Virginia Travis Williams was telling recruiting services that he was going to commit to Miami this week. Today more rumors swirl, this time saying he called West Virginia and told their coaches that he's comitting to Miami.

He's a 4 star linebacker who holds offers from LSU, FLorida, Virginia Tech, and Notre Dame...amongst others. No film on him yet through public domains, but from what I've seen he has the frame to put on weight and after a year or two in the program, especially if he redshirts, he should be able to come in and help out immediately.

We'll post film on all our recruits that are committed within the next few weeks, if available, and we'll have a post UCF game wrap up.

Thanks for reading and Go Canes!

Wednesday, October 14, 2009

UCF Game Preview

Saturday should be an interesting night game for us. After all, we are 4-0 in night games this year. But it's a bit different than most night games. We are traveling up to Orlando and playing the UCF Knights. They have a small, on campus stadium of 45k that has been known to get loud (and have fantastic tailgating by all accounts). It's sure to be an emotional game for UCF, seeing as they are 0-19 against top 25 teams since becoming a Division 1 program, they'll be hungry. We are an instate school and one of the Big 3. Their fans are doing a whole lot of chirping and we are sure their team is posturing with some of this faux-pseudo confidence too. But hey, any given week any one team can beat any other team, so it should be a good test for us.

Last year, we beat UCF 20-14, but the score was not indicative of the game. UCF did a whole lot of nothing that entire game, scoring on a kickoff return and an interception return for a TD. Long gone is their fantastic kickoff returner and cornerback Joe Burnett, as is most of their secondary. They are very green and inexperienced on the secondary as a whole.

Their defense is by no means exceptional and although they do have some experience, they are by no means strong. They are ranked 51st, despite playing sub par competition at best. They are 95th against the pass and 15th against the run. Despite their high ranking on run defense, I expect us to run for over 125 yards on them. They have little depth and have padded their statistics against no name teams.


On offense they are ranked 100th. They are lead by Brett Hodges, who has completed 61.6% of his passes, but has thrown for 6 TDs and 6 ints. He does appear to be an accurate QB, just seems to struggle with some of his decision making.

Their rush offense is ranked 83rd. Brynn Harvey leads the way with a 4.2 yard per average carry and 536 yards rushing on the season with 6 TDs. He should be easy to bottle up behind a weak offensive line. I would expect 2-3 TFL and an average day at best for him.

Their passing offense is ranked 84th and is led by Rocky Ross and Kamar Aiken, with 17 and 11 catches respectively and are nothing to write home about, and between DVD and Harris, it should be easy to keep them from getting separation and allowing our defensive line a chance to get sacks and force poor throws.

When it's all said and done we expect UCF to hang around for the first quarter or so purely on emotion until Miami's superior speed, talent, and coaching allow us to pull away and coast for another victory.

Our Prediction:

Miami 35

UCF 16

Monday, October 12, 2009

Game Breakdown and Injuries

QB

Jacory started off throwing 2 interceptions early in the game, but settled down. After playing about a half of football, AJ took over for him. He went 3 for 3, and had a beautiful throw to Streeter, but that was pretty much it. Not a lot to be happy about, but still a solid outing where we threw for over 250 yards.

Score 7 and 1/2

Oline

When you rush for 224 yards, you did your job up front in the trenches. We did give up a couple sacks, but that's not completely on the line. We rotated a lot more players in as well, so the experience factor counts for a lot as well.

Score 8 and 1/2

RB

No Coop, and Baby J got only one carry, but Berry and Chambers picked up the slack. Berry especially, by running for 162 yards on 14 carries. They also did a nice job in pass protection. All in all, with no real breakdowns or fumbles, you have to be satisfied with the performance.

Score 9

WR

A heavy rotation, and a new leading receiver (for this game at least) in Tommy Streeter who had 3 catches for 55 yards. Lots of new faces and redshirt freshman that played and got valuable experience. No major breakdowns, and good downfield blocking as well.

Score 8 and 1/2

TE

Not much production from them since the gameplan was run heavy, but Jimmy Graham did add on another TD catch. Even John Calhoun got some playing time, so this was just another position where we looked to give our backups some playing time.

Score 8

Dline

We did a good job of putting pressure on the QB, penetrating, and stoping the run. You really can't ask for much more, especially after being our 3-4 defensive lineman that get heavy playing time in the rotation.

Score 8 and 1/2.

Linebackers

Still missed a few tackles, but overall we played well. We need to see Spence keep improving and reaching last year's form. It would also be nice to see someone replace Sharpton. He still misses a few too many tackles and shoots the gaps wrong.

Score 7 and 1/2

Defensive Backs

We had a nice interception by Brandon and we held them to under 150 yards passing. Even Ray Ray got in with a big hit (that was flagged for a helmet to helmet, which is a bad call). Pretty much what you want to see out of your secondary, especially in a big game like this.

Score 9

Special Teams
We neutralized the return game of one of the better returners in the country, got good hang time and distance on our kicks, and even returned a punt for a touchdown, our first since Cooper did it in last year's home and season opener against Charleston Southern.

Score 9

Coaching

On a body bag game where we want to make sure we don't develop rust, put up points in a hurry, and get valuable experience to our backups, the gameplan was simple and done properly.

Score 8

Injuries

Rumors are going around that Forston, while injured, is lost for the year. This doesn't appear to be true.

Aldarius Johnson has a severe shoulder injury, and he might be gone for the year. Hopefully he can apply for a medical redshirt.

Josh Holmes also suffered a lower leg injury, and he won't play next week. He'll be evaluated on a weekly basis.

Jordan Futch is also gone for the year, rumors say torn ACL.

Finally Randy Phillips, Olivier Vernon, and Cooper should all be back next week for UCF.


As always thanks for reading and Go Canes!

Friday, October 9, 2009

Great Pictures from Northwestern vs Central!!!

Courtesy of Joseph Casal Photography...








Brandon Gainer(left), Jeffrey Godfrey(right)











Jose Jose
















Rashad Gaitor






















Coach Shannon with Joe Rose




Canes from left to right: Javarris James, Kayne Farquharson, Sam Shields, Ray Ray Armstrong, Brandon McGee, Graig Cooper, Thearon Collier, Brandon Harris, Davon Johnson, DVD








Coaches: Aubrey Hill(left), Michael Barrow(Center), Clint Hurtt(Right)












Corvin Lamb(left), Teddy Bridgewater(Center), Michaelee Harris(Right)...Future Canes?