ESPN: Bill Connelly's ACC Coastal season preview

slugboy

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Ouch that last chart is historically fugly.

The point for last year is bad. The big thing is that it’s variable.

There are some other schools that don’t have any of the “highs” you see on that chart. Being a Tech fan is a crazy roller coaster swooping from elation to despair and back again.

That graph just shows it.


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Augusta_Jacket

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Bill was pretty accurate in his prediction last year. Had tech with 3.7 wins and called out a lot of the weaknesses in the team

https://es.pn/2LSKBBj

Heh. This was eerily prescient..

"Threat: Morale. The season begins with a Week 1 ritual sacrifice at Clemson. Maintaining composure after that might be difficult, and moving on quickly will be important, as the two most likely wins on the schedule (USF and The Citadel) come in Weeks 2 and 3. Lose either of those, and you're looking at a long slog of a season, one in which "creativity" and "willingness to try different things" turn into "we have absolutely no idea what might work.""
 

slugboy

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While we’re on Bill Connelly, we’re not the only place where a QB is better on long passes than short and midrange




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jacketup

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We had one single title-worthy team in the last 50 years. One.

And we won a National Championship with it.

Suck it, dwags.

O'Leary built us into the second best ACC team. We could never get past FSU, which was a juggernaut in those days.

We can get back to being the second best team. I believe Collins will take us there. I don't see getting past Clemson. We don't have the money to do so.

(1998 was the first year of a single NC playoff game. FSU lost to the orange people from Knoxville.)
 

Gtswifty81

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O'Leary built us into the second best ACC team. We could never get past FSU, which was a juggernaut in those days.

We can get back to being the second best team. I believe Collins will take us there. I don't see getting past Clemson. We don't have the money to do so.

(1998 was the first year of a single NC playoff game. FSU lost to the orange people from Knoxville.)

I think the most telling thing about that chart is how close O’Leary had us to being relevant on the national stage during the joe Hamilton years. We couldn’t quite sustain the improvement and get over the hump but it’s possible.
 

Augusta_Jacket

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O'Leary built us into the second best ACC team. We could never get past FSU, which was a juggernaut in those days.

We can get back to being the second best team. I believe Collins will take us there. I don't see getting past Clemson. We don't have the money to do so.

(1998 was the first year of a single NC playoff game. FSU lost to the orange people from Knoxville.)

Getting back to the being the second best team depends on FSU and Miami, which spend a good bit more money on football than us, staying down for an extended period of time. We're gonna have to start raising money and spending ourselves if we truly want to be competitive with the big boys again.
 
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Getting back to the being the second best team depends on FSU and Miami, which spend a good bit more money on football than us, staying down for an extended period of time. We're gonna have to start raising money and spending ourselves if we truly want to be competitive with the big boys again.

I get what you are saying, but we have been competitive with both fsu and Miami ever since Miami joined the conference.
 

gtrower

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https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-college-football-daily/id1369206983?i=1000477173057

Was listening to this ACC preview podcast. It’s linked with 247. Interesting that he lists UNC as the Coastal favorite and then says “Miami, VT, GT could all be my #2.” He walks it back later a bit saying we’re a few years away from “consistently contending for the Coastal.” But he took notice of CGC’s 2020 class. Although (like every other reporter) he seemed oblivious to the transfers becoming eligible for this season.

That’s essentially predicting 3-5 ACC wins and finishing ahead of at least Duke, Pitt, and UVA (who he thinks takes a big step back this year). I think most of us would take that right now if offered.
 

jacketup

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Getting back to the being the second best team depends on FSU and Miami, which spend a good bit more money on football than us, staying down for an extended period of time. We're gonna have to start raising money and spending ourselves if we truly want to be competitive with the big boys again.

It may be better to state "Getting back to the being the second best team depends on FSU or Miami." UF will get its share of Florida talent, especially when they have a good coach. Mullen is a good coach. FSU and Miami are left to split the recruits. There have been times where they are both very good but generally not (candidly, we were the third best team in 1990--behind those two, but not Colorado). However, Miami manages to screw up a lot and FSU is on that path at the moment.

I agree that one of them will be our competition for number 2 in the ACC. Hard to say which one. UNC could be there too, but Mack Brown won't be around too awfully long. Not as long as Coach Collins. The state of North Carolina doesn't produce enough talent to feed 5 FBS teams, plus occasional raids by Clemson. Football is the second sport at UNC which is a factor.

I also agree that we have to raise and spend more money. Homer Rice was a fund raiser, and that had a lot to do with our success in the 90's. We've had some knuckleheads since, of which Braine was the worst. We seemed to have gone a few years (2013-2016) without an AD.
 

jacketup

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https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-college-football-daily/id1369206983?i=1000477173057

Was listening to this ACC preview podcast. It’s linked with 247. Interesting that he lists UNC as the Coastal favorite and then says “Miami, VT, GT could all be my #2.” He walks it back later a bit saying we’re a few years away from “consistently contending for the Coastal.” But he took notice of CGC’s 2020 class. Although (like every other reporter) he seemed oblivious to the transfers becoming eligible for this season.

That’s essentially predicting 3-5 ACC wins and finishing ahead of at least Duke, Pitt, and UVA (who he thinks takes a big step back this year). I think most of us would take that right now if offered.

That's an interesting point. We need to focus on winning our Coastal games this year. Winning 4 in the Coastal is very possible. Add GW and Syracuse and that's six wins.

If we get to play at all. I believe the media misinformation agenda will screw up football.
 

Augusta_Jacket

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It may be better to state "Getting back to the being the second best team depends on FSU or Miami." UF will get its share of Florida talent, especially when they have a good coach. Mullen is a good coach. FSU and Miami are left to split the recruits. There have been times where they are both very good but generally not (candidly, we were the third best team in 1990--behind those two, but not Colorado). However, Miami manages to screw up a lot and FSU is on that path at the moment.

I agree that one of them will be our competition for number 2 in the ACC. Hard to say which one. UNC could be there too, but Mack Brown won't be around too awfully long. Not as long as Coach Collins. The state of North Carolina doesn't produce enough talent to feed 5 FBS teams, plus occasional raids by Clemson. Football is the second sport at UNC which is a factor.

I also agree that we have to raise and spend more money. Homer Rice was a fund raiser, and that had a lot to do with our success in the 90's. We've had some knuckleheads since, of which Braine was the worst. We seemed to have gone a few years (2013-2016) without an AD.

We can restate it however we want, in the end, if we're going to finish second in the ACC with recruiting classes in the 20-25 range, we're going to have to depend on BOTH FSU and Miami, who often finish in the top 10, and almost always in the top 15 in recruiting, and spend at least twice as much on football as us, to be poorly coached.

I tend to agree with UNC, which is why I didn't include them in my post.
 

Jmonty71

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QBs put North Carolina, Miami and Virginia Tech ahead of pack
https://www.espn.com/college-footba...north-carolina-miami-virginia-tech-ahead-pack

2020 projection: 4-8 (3-5), 58th
Five best returning players: RB Jordan Mason, S Juanyeh Thomas, LG Jack DeFoor, LB David Curry, CB Tre Swilling

Some interesting comments on our upside for the year, particularly on D. The big caveat there:
I cannot argue this... Seems pretty close to what I was going with. Not enough experience in. I expect to look better, as the season goes along. But, a brutal schedule will take its toll. I think we are 2 years away from a 7 win season.
 

orientalnc

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I am comfortable that we will be a better team this year (assuming we play) and still have a losing record. The pieces are falling into place for us to return to better results and I am content that Collins and Key can make it happen. Having more talented players is a major element and we are definitely getting more players with talent that other teams are also pursuing. 4 or 5 wins this year will be a reasonable result. We have 4 games that are almost certain losses. So we have to split the remainder to be 4-8.
 

gtrower

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I am comfortable that we will be a better team this year (assuming we play) and still have a losing record. The pieces are falling into place for us to return to better results and I am content that Collins and Key can make it happen. Having more talented players is a major element and we are definitely getting more players with talent that other teams are also pursuing. 4 or 5 wins this year will be a reasonable result. We have 4 games that are almost certain losses. So we have to split the remainder to be 4-8.

What’s the 4th game that’s an almost certain loss? Tiers and realistic guesses:

clemson/uga/nd (0-3)
VT/Miami/UNC (1-2)
UCF/Pitt/Duke/UVA (2-2)
Cuse/GW (2-0)
 

orientalnc

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What’s the 4th game that’s an almost certain loss? Tiers and realistic guesses:

clemson/uga/nd (0-3)
VT/Miami/UNC (1-2)
UCF/Pitt/Duke/UVA (2-2)
Cuse/GW (2-0)
UNC, Clemson, ND, uga will all be losses unless something strange happens to rosters via injuries or c19.
 
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