Now that we’ve wrapped the regular season, what is your assessment of how we did? I’ll break it down by position/coach.
QB - Cade had a really good year. Over 3000 yards passing, around 3500 total yards and 36 TDs with only five picks. I think maybe only one fumble so cut down on turnovers significantly as well. Still too inconsistent overall though. Missed open guys too much and made dumb mistakes that cost us. He definitely took a big step in his development though and you have to give Riley credit for that too. Overall I’d give this position a B.
RB - Mafah had a thousand yard season and for a big chunk of the year was one of the best in the country. But he wore down throughout the year and was a liability at the end. This is poor management by the coaching staff, either by not recruiting better talent, not developing that talent or not managing snaps better. Inexcusable not to have a second option and use that option. We ran Mafah into the ground and he was a shell of himself the last few weeks. Grade - C
WR - significant improvement from last year. Tonio was the first WR with double digit TD’s since Tee. Still has an outside shot at 1000 yards for the year. Wesco and Moore made significant contributions with both around 30 catches and 500 yards. Again, though, still disappeared for stretches when we really needed them or dropped balls when we absolutely had to have it. Very improved but can’t go higher than a B.
TE - Brinny is who he is. A very good pass catching TE but a liability blocking. Maybe should just include him in the WR category but he had a good year from that aspect. Seemed like OPH was really coming along but then he was non-existent at the end of the year. He looks like he could be a big time threat both catching and blocking in the future. Probably a low B to high C here mainly due to inability to block and not bringing OPH along further.
OL - has to be an A given everything they dealt with. Significant improvement from last year and Luke figured out a way to patch together some units with major injuries in some key games. Really impressed with the job he did under tough circumstances.
DE - Parker had double digit sacks and really flashed a couple games. Hard to be harsh on him when we also found out he was dealing with some medical issues too. Lawson made some strides here too which was encouraging. Overall the group was not great though. I would give it a C only due to Parker having a good year statistically.
DT - this group also dealt with a lot of injuries so it feels harsh to grade them too tough but, man, it felt like this would be the strength of the team and nightmares of teams running straight up the gut over and over still haunt me. C.
LB - honestly I have no idea how Carter is a Butkus finalist. The linebackers were out of place all year, slow to the ball and soft when tackling. Brown at least looked like a physical specimen who would bring the wood but for the most part looked like he had no clue where he was supposed to be. Coaching was abysmal here. D.
CB - again there were some nice flashes by Terrell or Hampton here and there. Anyone else was often a liability and even Terrell seemed to regress at the end of the year. High C to low B.
Safety - other than Mickens just god awful. Venables is way too slow. Griffin has no physicality. Jones appears to have some gifts but has no clue what he’s doing. Just a mess. D.
Offense Overall - again, there was some improvement here but we looked pretty bad against the good competition and that’s not acceptable. C.
Defense Overall - few bright spots in my opinion and looked poorly coached. Low C to D.
Special Teams - punting is god awful. We don’t rush punts or set up a return. SIX field goals blocked and our FG block team regularly puts five guys off the line to protect against a fake so we never actually try to block it. If there was a grade lower than an F this would be it.
Overall - Dabo continues to oversee a program that is trending downward. He has made some changes and some have worked and some haven’t. I won’t pretend like I have the answers but some more major changes likely need to happen if we want to be elite again. Going into the year I said anything less than 10-2, ACC championship and/or playoff appearance would be a failure. We still technically have a shot but it’s hard not to view a year in which we lost every meaningful game, including two at home, as a failure. Overall C.
QB - Cade had a really good year. Over 3000 yards passing, around 3500 total yards and 36 TDs with only five picks. I think maybe only one fumble so cut down on turnovers significantly as well. Still too inconsistent overall though. Missed open guys too much and made dumb mistakes that cost us. He definitely took a big step in his development though and you have to give Riley credit for that too. Overall I’d give this position a B.
RB - Mafah had a thousand yard season and for a big chunk of the year was one of the best in the country. But he wore down throughout the year and was a liability at the end. This is poor management by the coaching staff, either by not recruiting better talent, not developing that talent or not managing snaps better. Inexcusable not to have a second option and use that option. We ran Mafah into the ground and he was a shell of himself the last few weeks. Grade - C
WR - significant improvement from last year. Tonio was the first WR with double digit TD’s since Tee. Still has an outside shot at 1000 yards for the year. Wesco and Moore made significant contributions with both around 30 catches and 500 yards. Again, though, still disappeared for stretches when we really needed them or dropped balls when we absolutely had to have it. Very improved but can’t go higher than a B.
TE - Brinny is who he is. A very good pass catching TE but a liability blocking. Maybe should just include him in the WR category but he had a good year from that aspect. Seemed like OPH was really coming along but then he was non-existent at the end of the year. He looks like he could be a big time threat both catching and blocking in the future. Probably a low B to high C here mainly due to inability to block and not bringing OPH along further.
OL - has to be an A given everything they dealt with. Significant improvement from last year and Luke figured out a way to patch together some units with major injuries in some key games. Really impressed with the job he did under tough circumstances.
DE - Parker had double digit sacks and really flashed a couple games. Hard to be harsh on him when we also found out he was dealing with some medical issues too. Lawson made some strides here too which was encouraging. Overall the group was not great though. I would give it a C only due to Parker having a good year statistically.
DT - this group also dealt with a lot of injuries so it feels harsh to grade them too tough but, man, it felt like this would be the strength of the team and nightmares of teams running straight up the gut over and over still haunt me. C.
LB - honestly I have no idea how Carter is a Butkus finalist. The linebackers were out of place all year, slow to the ball and soft when tackling. Brown at least looked like a physical specimen who would bring the wood but for the most part looked like he had no clue where he was supposed to be. Coaching was abysmal here. D.
CB - again there were some nice flashes by Terrell or Hampton here and there. Anyone else was often a liability and even Terrell seemed to regress at the end of the year. High C to low B.
Safety - other than Mickens just god awful. Venables is way too slow. Griffin has no physicality. Jones appears to have some gifts but has no clue what he’s doing. Just a mess. D.
Offense Overall - again, there was some improvement here but we looked pretty bad against the good competition and that’s not acceptable. C.
Defense Overall - few bright spots in my opinion and looked poorly coached. Low C to D.
Special Teams - punting is god awful. We don’t rush punts or set up a return. SIX field goals blocked and our FG block team regularly puts five guys off the line to protect against a fake so we never actually try to block it. If there was a grade lower than an F this would be it.
Overall - Dabo continues to oversee a program that is trending downward. He has made some changes and some have worked and some haven’t. I won’t pretend like I have the answers but some more major changes likely need to happen if we want to be elite again. Going into the year I said anything less than 10-2, ACC championship and/or playoff appearance would be a failure. We still technically have a shot but it’s hard not to view a year in which we lost every meaningful game, including two at home, as a failure. Overall C.
