Name a “under the radar player” for this season

00Burdell

00Burdell

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I remember in previous seasons this question comes up and usually a handful of players come up.

This year, seems 2/3 of the roster is coming up - very encouraging.

I'm going with Tatum. Would have said Blackburn but oh, well.
 

YJMD

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Madison Grant said:
I feel like a good PK has been a large part of the reason Pitt has had so much success against us. It seems like instead of taking the points, we've taken gambles against them that have lost us the game. And they've been able to nail the shot when it counted.
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Blewitt was an ironically named excellent kicker, but he won at least one game against us by excelling even further. We've been on the other side of things with Buttkicker. We need to get back there.
 

yeti92

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Not an exact fit to your criteria, but I think Jordan Yates will pleasantly surprise with his improvement when he gets in the game.
 
Jacket05

Jacket05

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seanfloyd18 said:
I think our entire secondary has flown under the radar for a while now, masked by inferior LB and DLine play. Could see a “breakout year” for many of the DBs.
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I think our secondary was and still is our second strongest personal group (outside of RB) but the production last year didn't show that. After listening to a lot of the player and coach interviews, I think COVID protocols was the biggest thing holding back the secondary last year. To help maintain social distancing, the safety's never met with the cornerbacks during team meetings or film study. This resulted in a lack of communication and coordination on the field. That communication is critical to understand your coverages in the secondary and it killed us.
 

684Bee

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Jacket05 said:
I think our secondary was and still is our second strongest personal group (outside of RB) but the production last year didn't show that. After listening to a lot of the player and coach interviews, I think COVID protocols was the biggest thing holding back the secondary last year. To help maintain social distancing, the safety's never met with the cornerbacks during team meetings or film study. This resulted in a lack of communication and coordination on the field. That communication is critical to understand your coverages in the secondary and it killed us.
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Why was this different for us than anyone else?
 
85Escape

85Escape

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684Bee said:
Why was this different for us than anyone else?
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Just more new players and a much newer scheme. It's not binary, but I do think COVID protocols were tougher on teams with newer coaches and higher turnover than teams playing more juniors and seniors who had been through it for two or three years already.
 
Jacket05

Jacket05

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684Bee said:
Why was this different for us than anyone else?
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85Escape said:
Just more new players and a much newer scheme. It's not binary, but I do think COVID protocols were tougher on teams with newer coaches and higher turnover than teams playing more juniors and seniors who had been through it for two or three years already.
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In addition to what @85Escape said, not every team did things the same way. I think CGC was extra cautious with everything and went above and beyond on the protocols. Also he has basically said that he probably made a mistake by keeping them apart like that.

I can't imagine how hard it was as a head coach last year to balance trying to develop a competitive team and trying to figure out what the best processes were to manage the players safety. In the business world right now CEOs across the board are still struggling to find the right way to achieve that balance.
 

684Bee

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Jacket05 said:
In addition to what @85Escape said, not every team did things the same way. I think CGC was extra cautious with everything and went above and beyond on the protocols. Also he has basically said that he probably made a mistake by keeping them apart like that.

I can't imagine how hard it was as a head coach last year to balance trying to develop a competitive team and trying to figure out what the best processes were to manage the players safety. In the business world right now CEOs across the board are still struggling to find the right way to achieve that balance.
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Bingo. We made it harder on ourselves.
 

YJMD

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Jacket05 said:
In addition to what @85Escape said, not every team did things the same way. I think CGC was extra cautious with everything and went above and beyond on the protocols. Also he has basically said that he probably made a mistake by keeping them apart like that.

I can't imagine how hard it was as a head coach last year to balance trying to develop a competitive team and trying to figure out what the best processes were to manage the players safety. In the business world right now CEOs across the board are still struggling to find the right way to achieve that balance.
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Above and beyond or not, I'm sure we followed the protocols a lot more diligently than other teams. This time last year all we heard from CGC or about CGC (not the other coaches/players) was how much he was taking care of every detail of keeping everyone safe and almost none about any actual coaching he was doing. I think that's a recipe for lack of coordination between pieces. It was also a bit of an intentional sacrifice, prioritizing development even more over results.
 

normant

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Personally, I looking forward to seeing Ayinde Eley play alongside Quez jackson. Their play will go a long way to how well the secondary does and getting our opponents into third and long. But the breakout play will be the play of the entire offensive line.
 

croberts

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Jacket05 said:
In addition to what @85Escape said, not every team did things the same way. I think CGC was extra cautious with everything and went above and beyond on the protocols. Also he has basically said that he probably made a mistake by keeping them apart like that.

I can't imagine how hard it was as a head coach last year to balance trying to develop a competitive team and trying to figure out what the best processes were to manage the players safety. In the business world right now CEOs across the board are still struggling to find the right way to achieve that balance.
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Speaking of not doing things the same way, LSU hand like 35 cases prior to the first game. It went south with multiple NFL hopefuls opting out. I remember reading messages from their fans saying it would be good if everyone would just go ahead and get it.
 

yeti92

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croberts said:
Speaking of not doing things the same way, LSU hand like 35 cases prior to the first game. It went south with multiple NFL hopefuls opting out. I remember reading messages from their fans saying it would be good if everyone would just go ahead and get it.
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I work with a lot of LSU fans who said at one point early last season CEO was asked which players had covid, and he responded that it was easier to list those who didn't.
 
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