Al Golden has announced this afternoon that he will be staying at UM. You knew this wasn't going past tomorrow with this. I'll be interested to hear his presser at 12:30 tomorrow and Rose's interview with him in the morning on WQAM.
What happened at the 11th hour that Golden decided to stay?
One clue comes from one of the PSU insiders on their Scout Board: According to someone very close to the spouse of Al's wife, Kelly, Her parents moved down to Florida this past year to be closer to her and to get away from the cold weather, as you can see the last few days, it makes perfect sense. There was serious interest from Al in the Penn State job, however, with the family not wanting to back to the cold of the Northeast, that was a major stumbling block that PSU could not overcome in the end. This same person with knowledge of this that live in Lock Haven, PA and that are close the Hanna's said that any deal was never close and\it was 100% a family decision, which was suspected was going to be the case.
If it turns out to be Franklin, then I have to believe either Al pulled out at the 11th hour, or PSU brass told him that they were going another direction, and PSU probably let Al know that. This is a big blow to PSU who went all-in on Al and came up snake eyes. I believe another reason why Al likely said no was because of the sanctions PSU still has because of the horrors of Sandusky and the cover-up of JoePa in Happy Valley.
With Al now staying, he's going to have to make changes on the staff, and you can better believe, that's going to be something Blake James is going to tell him, namely canning D'Onofrio, ASAP. I still believe that as long as D'Onofrio is still running the defense, we will not get to the elite level, we will be a 9 to occasionally 10 win level team.
With Al now staying, its back to work. GO CANES!
Friday, January 3, 2014
Monday, December 30, 2013
Final Report Card and MVPs for 2013 Season
Here are the final grades for the 2013 season.
Offense: C-
Defense: D+
Special Teams: C
Now for my team MVPs
On offense, it's gotta be Duke Johnson. Before getting hurt in the FSU game, this guy was our big play threat and one that opponents feared. He was well on his way to a possible 1,500 yard season before getting hurt @FSU. Next year, a healthy Duke, could be a darkhorse Heisman contender.
On Defense, its tri-MVPs, Denzel Perryman. 106 tackles, 5 of them for a total loss of 15 yards. Shayon Green with 68 tackles, a team 10.5 of those for a total loss of 30 yards. Tracy Howard with a team leading 4 INTs.
Well, in the end, it was a rollercoaster ride of ups (7-0 start, #7 in the country), and downs (2-4 down the stretch).
Defense: D+
Special Teams: C
Now for my team MVPs
On offense, it's gotta be Duke Johnson. Before getting hurt in the FSU game, this guy was our big play threat and one that opponents feared. He was well on his way to a possible 1,500 yard season before getting hurt @FSU. Next year, a healthy Duke, could be a darkhorse Heisman contender.
On Defense, its tri-MVPs, Denzel Perryman. 106 tackles, 5 of them for a total loss of 15 yards. Shayon Green with 68 tackles, a team 10.5 of those for a total loss of 30 yards. Tracy Howard with a team leading 4 INTs.
Well, in the end, it was a rollercoaster ride of ups (7-0 start, #7 in the country), and downs (2-4 down the stretch).
Sunday, December 29, 2013
Report Card vs Louisville (Russell Athletic Bowl - Orlando)
When the matchup first came out, we knew going in that this was a very good Louisville Team we would be facing in the Citrus Bowl. Defensively, this was a Top 10 Defense in the country we were going to be facing here. They won't beat themselves. I thought one of the keys going in was to try and force some mistakes
For all the storylines going in: Teddy vs UM. The QB we have in Morris vs the one we could have had if Golden had not told him to take a hike when he told he wasn't being promised the starting job like Randy did. We could have had Teddy, Eli, and a couple of others we let get away to Louisville.
What I saw last night was nothing like the Miami Hurricanes I used to know. What I saw in Louisville was the CANES of yesteryear when we would dominate every opponent and beat every opponent down.
The performance Teddy had last night was a microcosm of how this Defense has been a failure on Mark D'Onofrio's watch and why many people believe that Teddy will be possibly the #1 pick in May's NFL Draft. He went 35-45 447 yards, 3 TDs, 0 INTs. He surgically picked apart our secondary. If there was a bright spot with the D, its the fact that we held their running game to 107 yards total. The bad news was that we once again allowed over 500 yards total offense (551 to be exact). They scored on 8 of their 11 possessions. They were 8-14 on 3rd Downs, including 6-8 in the 2nd half (75%).
As for Louisville's D, they are the real deal. They swarmed, they pressured Stephen all night, they sacked him 4 times for a total loss of 39 yards. He did go 12-27 160 yards, 0 TDs, 0 INTs. We went three and out 5 times. Our offense was 0-for-11 on 3rd Downs,
I was very disappointed in the Offensive Line's lack of protection for Stephen. They looked lost, confused, and not knowing who to block at times. It was like a Chinese Fire Drill. Utterly disappointed in the O-Line, and that's on Kehoe, whom I've been one of his biggest supporters, but not last night.
Now to the Report Card:
Offense - F (174 yards total offense the whole night, and only 14 yards rushing)
Defense - F (554 yards total offense allowed, could not get stops on 3rd Downs, allowed Teddy to pick it apart all night).
Special Teams - D (Really, one of the few bright spots from Last night, our first points of the game was on Patty O's Punt downed at the 1, which leads to Deon's safety a few plays later. We only had their punter punt just once the whole night).
If you listen to Golden after the game, you can tell how disappointed he was on last night's performance. Listen to Golden's answer at the 6:14 mark. Here's what I take from it, there are going to be changes made in the off-season, make no mistake about it. Also, listen to his answer at the 10:50 mark on that.
He also mentioned there is no timetable for us to be back as a National Power. That to me is a little disturbing. As I said the other night, the #CANES are at a crossroads. Which way do we go from here? That's going to be one of the questions that MUST get answered between now and Spring Practice in March.
Win or Lose, I still stand behind the U.
For all the storylines going in: Teddy vs UM. The QB we have in Morris vs the one we could have had if Golden had not told him to take a hike when he told he wasn't being promised the starting job like Randy did. We could have had Teddy, Eli, and a couple of others we let get away to Louisville.
What I saw last night was nothing like the Miami Hurricanes I used to know. What I saw in Louisville was the CANES of yesteryear when we would dominate every opponent and beat every opponent down.
The performance Teddy had last night was a microcosm of how this Defense has been a failure on Mark D'Onofrio's watch and why many people believe that Teddy will be possibly the #1 pick in May's NFL Draft. He went 35-45 447 yards, 3 TDs, 0 INTs. He surgically picked apart our secondary. If there was a bright spot with the D, its the fact that we held their running game to 107 yards total. The bad news was that we once again allowed over 500 yards total offense (551 to be exact). They scored on 8 of their 11 possessions. They were 8-14 on 3rd Downs, including 6-8 in the 2nd half (75%).
As for Louisville's D, they are the real deal. They swarmed, they pressured Stephen all night, they sacked him 4 times for a total loss of 39 yards. He did go 12-27 160 yards, 0 TDs, 0 INTs. We went three and out 5 times. Our offense was 0-for-11 on 3rd Downs,
I was very disappointed in the Offensive Line's lack of protection for Stephen. They looked lost, confused, and not knowing who to block at times. It was like a Chinese Fire Drill. Utterly disappointed in the O-Line, and that's on Kehoe, whom I've been one of his biggest supporters, but not last night.
Now to the Report Card:
Offense - F (174 yards total offense the whole night, and only 14 yards rushing)
Defense - F (554 yards total offense allowed, could not get stops on 3rd Downs, allowed Teddy to pick it apart all night).
Special Teams - D (Really, one of the few bright spots from Last night, our first points of the game was on Patty O's Punt downed at the 1, which leads to Deon's safety a few plays later. We only had their punter punt just once the whole night).
If you listen to Golden after the game, you can tell how disappointed he was on last night's performance. Listen to Golden's answer at the 6:14 mark. Here's what I take from it, there are going to be changes made in the off-season, make no mistake about it. Also, listen to his answer at the 10:50 mark on that.
He also mentioned there is no timetable for us to be back as a National Power. That to me is a little disturbing. As I said the other night, the #CANES are at a crossroads. Which way do we go from here? That's going to be one of the questions that MUST get answered between now and Spring Practice in March.
Win or Lose, I still stand behind the U.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)