Can we prioritize current team's weaknesses?

Ancient Reptile

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I know. I know. Everyone just wants to rant that this team is all crap. It's not. There is a lot wrong with it, but not everything. My take:
1) I don't remember ever seeing such horrible kick coverage on a UF team, maybe any team. Both punts and kickoffs. I thought Pinero had probably been instructed to kick high and short of the end zone. We couldn't hold them inside the 25 and Townsend should just punt straight up.
2) QB, but that's been beat to death.
3) Wide receivers. Powell can catch and occasionally Cleveland. Guess the other guys got their stars because they separate so well. Oh, wait...
4) Pass blocking.
 

Swamp Donkey

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Weaknesses:
Off line
TEs
QBs
WRs

DT (though the freshman tackles are nice, we need 4 more tonget a nice rotation)
DEs (all are third and long pass rush specialists, putrid vs run)
LBs
 

rogdochar

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Strength and Conditioning. It all starts there.
Holey moley yes, yes, yes. (So stated 'cause I couldn't click you more likes, NV.)
Increase muscle 5%, lose 5% fat and you still increase weight.
 

Ancient Reptile

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Weaknesses:
Off line
TEs
QBs
WRs

DT (though the freshman tackles are nice, we need 4 more tonget a nice rotation)
DEs (all are third and long pass rush specialists, putrid vs run)
LBs
Sure we could use more DTs, but the defense is better than most parts of the team.
 

Durty South Swamp

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1) Start a thread complaining about ppl complaining about the team.
2) Make list of ways that team sucks.
3) :popcorn:
 

Swamp Donkey

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Sure we could use more DTs, but the defense is better than most parts of the team.
on every sweep or edge run take a look at the defensive end failing to set the edge. that hurts us far more than the occasional sack helps
 

GatorJ

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Weaknesses

#1 - QB
#2 - LB depth and quality
#3 - Oline depth and quality
#4 - Safety - We need a five star safety. Desperately.
#5 DT/NT - We need to get at least one DT this year and continue bringing in those 300 pound monsters. This is not necessarily a weakness next year but it can spiral out of control really quickly the year after.

Immediately fixable:

#1 - ST - Sign Judd Davis’ kid this year to replace Piniero in a year and make ST a coaching priority.

#2 - Strength and conditioning – Bring in somebody who actually knows what they’re doing.

#3 - WR - Get an actual wide receiver coach. We haven’t had one in almost 10 years.

Strengths:

#1 - WR - Will become even stronger this class. Talent is there. Coaching has not been in a long time.

#2 - DE

#3 - CB
 

BMF

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We all know about the ST's disaster and the offensive side of the ball disaster.

So, to tack on....we need something to happen w/ the LB's. Either they miraculously become SEC type players or the coaching staff needs to go to a nickel/dime package as much as possible to prevent the LBs from being exposed.

on every sweep or edge run take a look at the defensive end failing to set the edge. that hurts us far more than the occasional sack helps

Simple solutions:

-better S&C staff is #1 - put on some size on the current crop;
-better coaching (duh!!);
-keep the "bigger" DE's at DE - STOP MOVING THEM INSIDE!

So, if we keep our 'bigger' DE's outside and a couple put on 10-20lbs this off-season we have a solid corps of DE's:

- Polite - get him over 270
- Z. Carter (supposedly he's around 280) - leave him at DE
- Ancrum - get him over 270 (I know he's not the most talented, but he has played a lot this year - that's where the "better coaching" part comes in).
- Clayton - get him over 270. He has a lot of potential as an all-around DE (pass rush and run stopper).

Zuniga, Jefferson, and Davis are all pass rush types...unless they put on more weight (and Davis is still injured/suspended).

At DT, I think Clark returns....so along w/ Conliffe, Slaton, and Campbell we add the UNC transfer Marlon Dunlap (who is 320+). We need another 2 freshman in this class (currently have zero). And we could use a grad transfer. Otherwise we're going to see Polite, Carter, and Ancrum moving inside regularly.
 

GatorFL

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It would be easier to list the strengths because we only have two:

Johnny Townsend
Eddy Pinero
 

Gatorbait25

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Weaknesses

#1 - QB
#2 - LB depth and quality
#3 - Oline depth and quality
#4 - Safety - We need a five star safety. Desperately.
#5 DT/NT - We need to get at least one DT this year and continue bringing in those 300 pound monsters. This is not necessarily a weakness next year but it can spiral out of control really quickly the year after.

Immediately fixable:

#1 - ST - Sign Judd Davis’ kid this year to replace Piniero in a year and make ST a coaching priority.

#2 - Strength and conditioning – Bring in somebody who actually knows what they’re doing.

#3 - WR - Get an actual wide receiver coach. We haven’t had one in almost 10 years.

Strengths:

#1 - WR - Will become even stronger this class. Talent is there. Coaching has not been in a long time.

#2 - DE

#3 - CB

Agree on just about everything. Though I do think Franks played pretty well on Saturday. We had 3 key drops. The big one to Cleveland obviously sticks out, but Massey dropped perhaps the best pass of the night for an easy 25 yarder or so. Then josh drops a would be 3rd down conversion causing us to settle for three . That one in particular Franks come off his first target and delivered a good ball that Hammond has to catch there.After some bad perfomances this was an improvement from Franks , and possibly a step in the right direction. As for the receivers I wouldn't call them a strength. It seems like every game we have a few key drops that are simply unacceptable.
 

Swamp Donkey

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Strengths:

#1 - WR - Will become even stronger this class. Talent is there. Coaching has not been in a long time.

#2 - DE

#3 - CB
Sorry, but there is no way to paint DE as a strength unless it is third and long.

The rest of the time they are more of a liability than the DTs. Could a strength coach fix that? I suppose but TODAY, they are probably the worst part of the defense and we get reminded of it on every sweep.
 

T REX

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I am surprised none of those folks said "the fans".
 

GatorJ

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Sorry, but there is no way to paint DE as a strength unless it is third and long.

The rest of the time they are more of a liability than the DTs. Could a strength coach fix that? I suppose but TODAY, they are probably the worst part of the defense and we get reminded of it on every sweep.

I listed it as a strength because I don’t think it’s a talent issue. I think talent wise it’s a strength on the team. Coaching wise it’s been a nightmare.
 

CaribGator

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You start at the top, the AD office, because they are part of the team effort, Foley went cheap and it cost us dearly. Need to see if Stricklin is an upgrade.

Then next biggest weakness is the staff. Doesn't matter what talent you have, if you don't use it properly. Nor scheme to take advantage of your weapons vs their weakness.

The players... 3*U is gonna rock you
 
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InstiGATOR1

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I know. I know. Everyone just wants to rant that this team is all crap. It's not. There is a lot wrong with it, but not everything. My take:
1) I don't remember ever seeing such horrible kick coverage on a UF team, maybe any team. Both punts and kickoffs. I thought Pinero had probably been instructed to kick high and short of the end zone. We couldn't hold them inside the 25 and Townsend should just punt straight up.
2) QB, but that's been beat to death.
3) Wide receivers. Powell can catch and occasionally Cleveland. Guess the other guys got their stars because they separate so well. Oh, wait...
4) Pass blocking.

The short answer is NO. This is true for a number of reasons. Some players currently on the roster will have been misused even by the best staffs. In this case then entire roster has been under coached. Also some players who contributed under the past staff will not under the future staff either because they don't fit the roster or they will get sideways with a position coach or because again you are talking about 85 players and some of them will be mis-evaluated or misused by the staff. This happens at every program and every program good or bad that has a coaching change has players surprisingly contribute after the coaching change.

The longer answer is that we can evaluate the rosters and see where UF is in terms of bodies who can in theory return for 2017 at each position group. So here goes:

QB: UF has 5, you probably want 4 on the depth chart. Maybe Zaire can come back or maybe not, but it is a high turnover position as these guys usually don't play any other position. Still UF has the players for a good coach to develop a good QB.

RB: UF has 4 returning, you probably want 5 as it is high injury position. Still this is a deep talented group.

WR: UF has 9, you probably want 10ish for this 2+ position, so UF is ok once there is a signee or two. I will say with Robinson's health at issue this could become more of a need.

TE: UF has 4, you probably want 4 so this group is fine if under used in the past.

OL: UF has 14 returning, you probably want 18ish so with a solid recruiting class of 4 OL, UF is right where you need to be in terms of bodies.

DE: UF has 9, you probably want 7, UF has more than enough DEs on it roster right now.

D-Tackle: UF has 5 returning, you want 7 so UF needs to keep adding to this bunch as has been well discussed.

LB: UF has 9 returning, you want 12 so UF is right where it should be though it still needs a full recruiting class of LBs

SS: UF has 3, you want 4 so UF is fine at this position

CB: UF has 6 players returning, you want 7 so with recruiting UF is fine here.

FS: UF has 3 returning, you want 4 so UF is fine here too.

This does not go into the abilities at various positions, because as discussed above, we just can not know. There are no obvious roster issues though D-tackle needs some shoring up and maybe WR. Some guys will go pro early, some of the suspended with never come back too maybe and so some positions may get worse. Still UF seems to have a decent enough roster to be attractive to any potential coach.
 

Ancient Reptile

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The short answer is NO. This is true for a number of reasons. Some players currently on the roster will have been misused even by the best staffs. In this case then entire roster has been under coached. Also some players who contributed under the past staff will not under the future staff either because they don't fit the roster or they will get sideways with a position coach or because again you are talking about 85 players and some of them will be mis-evaluated or misused by the staff. This happens at every program and every program good or bad that has a coaching change has players surprisingly contribute after the coaching change.

The longer answer is that we can evaluate the rosters and see where UF is in terms of bodies who can in theory return for 2017 at each position group. So here goes:

QB: UF has 5, you probably want 4 on the depth chart. Maybe Zaire can come back or maybe not, but it is a high turnover position as these guys usually don't play any other position. Still UF has the players for a good coach to develop a good QB.

RB: UF has 4 returning, you probably want 5 as it is high injury position. Still this is a deep talented group.

WR: UF has 9, you probably want 10ish for this 2+ position, so UF is ok once there is a signee or two. I will say with Robinson's health at issue this could become more of a need.

TE: UF has 4, you probably want 4 so this group is fine if under used in the past.

OL: UF has 14 returning, you probably want 18ish so with a solid recruiting class of 4 OL, UF is right where you need to be in terms of bodies.

DE: UF has 9, you probably want 7, UF has more than enough DEs on it roster right now.

D-Tackle: UF has 5 returning, you want 7 so UF needs to keep adding to this bunch as has been well discussed.

LB: UF has 9 returning, you want 12 so UF is right where it should be though it still needs a full recruiting class of LBs

SS: UF has 3, you want 4 so UF is fine at this position

CB: UF has 6 players returning, you want 7 so with recruiting UF is fine here.

FS: UF has 3 returning, you want 4 so UF is fine here too.

This does not go into the abilities at various positions, because as discussed above, we just can not know. There are no obvious roster issues though D-tackle needs some shoring up and maybe WR. Some guys will go pro early, some of the suspended with never come back too maybe and so some positions may get worse. Still UF seems to have a decent enough roster to be attractive to any potential coach.
Excellent, informative post. Does"the short answer is '"No'", mean we can't prioritize team's weaknesses? I am confused on that.
 

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