Obviously this year is unlike any other. But I do believe Coach Healy is going to have to make some tough decisions in the next year concerning assist coaches. Our defensive scheme is not getting it done. Tackling is a major problem and effort at times. Offensively we have a qb who is playing injured probably shouldnât be out there. But we have a backup that canât even throw the ball We brought in a guy last year that was supposed to beat Chris out and he wasnât close. I believe you have to give a coach three years min to establish his program. But I donât like the way itâs trending right now for sure.
No,not true
Why doesnât McAllister get more carries? He has almost the same number of yards with far fewer carries.
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This is very hard for me to understand. McAllister has paid his dues here & been very productive. Nothing against Harbison but he looks average at best. Maybe he was more productive in past seasons because of a better offensive line. If you give A-Mac the majority of the carries he can have Benny like numbers. Weâre just not allowing anyone to get in rhythm.
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Agree with many things already stated. Play calling and substitutions (especially at RB) were highly questionable. The sky is not falling but it certainly is stormy looking. I still believe in Healy but he needs to do some serious re-evaluating of the program. We donât have Dukeâs talent but the gap shouldnât be as large as it looked last night.
Either way, we will be able to tell how much we improve over the next year, because Duke will be in Richardson Stadium in 2021. I pray that we are more competitive.
FWIWâŚMy observations:
- This may stop the rush to hire Healy away from us.
- We are not as good as WE think or would hope.
- How are we going to out recruit locally looing like this.
- Reynolds needs to learn how to throw overhand.
- Hopefully we are recruiting strongly in several areas.
- Some coaching positions need to be seriously reviewed.
- Unless changes can be made quickly, forget about moving up to a stronger conference any time soon.
- I still wear green glasses and truly know our program can be turned around quickly.
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Have said from the beginning this is a throw away year because of so many disruptions. Sports are about rhythm, structure , repetition and momentum and Covid has put a stop to that. That being said, if I knew nothing about us and watched last night I would say this looks like a FCS team with a FCS coach and over matched.
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You certainly hope itâs not a my guy versus his guy thing but Iâm not sure how else you explain it.
I donât think itâs that. If it was Reynolds wouldnât have been the starter last year.
I think itâs just a poor OC.
Moving up in conference isnât going to have anything to do with our on field performance. Sure winning would help, but our attractiveness isnât based on field or court performance. Being around .500 will be enough for whatever Hill is angling us. I donât think last night matters at all when it comes to conferences.
I think we all know that ECU is not ECU anymore, but when they were it was because they were going head to head and beating the NC ACC teams. App is doing the same. And they both know that it doesnât matter if you beat a bad ACC/SEC team, you get all the credit if you just beat them. Last night the door was opened for us and we looked like we didnât even want to try to get through it.
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Agree with this 
That was an abysmal performance, no way to state it other than that. We were not competitive with 1 of the 2 worst teams in the ACC. The top of CUSA beats that Duke team, unfortunately we are not that.
The gap controls on D that killed us early last year resurfaced, yes Duke has a decent line but the talent gap doesnât explain why they gashed us like that.
Youâre not beating anyone getting two punts blocked. ST was as bad as our run D.
Cut can scheme and it showed.
That was a humbling defeat that hurts our perception in the area. All is not lost we can still have a decent year but we are further from getting to where we want to be than I thought before last night.
That was a tough one.
My Opinions:
Iâve been saying it all along, but there was no hiding it last night. The young O line got exposed. They will be better for it moving forward, but that game tape wonât be pretty.
The defensive scheme just isnât working. Hard to say we donât have the bodies, at least on the front end. That said, their QB has now gotten to prepare for our defense in two different offenses, but they still could do whatever they wanted, whenever they wanted to.
I donât love the job Carney has done here, but itâs really hard to call plays when you know the line isnât giving you time to do anything.
Last year, we benefitted from an incredibly weak schedule. Umass, ODU and UTEP were all fantastically awful. We also had an FCS game. I think the rain v Marshall really played into our hands. This yearâs schedule is a lot better than the one we played a year ago, even with less games. I do think we are a better football team than 365 days ago, but itâs not showing in the win column.
We are such an interesting case study. We bowled last year, and brought darn near everything back. We lost benny, but replaced with A-mac and harbison, and two really good freshman. We lost highsmith, but replace with Harris, and Mcknight. We lose Gemmell, but replace with Tyler Murray. I actually think we are better in the secondary this year ducks. We were just that bad a year ago. The ones we canât replace right now are Cam Clark and Jalen Allen.
In my opinion, the reason we are where we are can be traced to the recruiting trail. The 2016 class (which should be redshirt seniors this year according to the Lambert model) definitely had some hits. but just count the misses. Kids like deluca and A Mac are where they are thanks to an incredible work ethic, but you canât whiff that many times and end up in the good. The crown jewels of that class were Jordan Carswell, Kevin Olsen and Robert Washington. Thatâs how you end up with the talent gap we have today. For what itâs worth go ahead and check out the next couple of classes to, and you will get a solid idea of why Healy has been so transfer heavy in recruiting. Iâm not saying Lambert didnât have some hits, but his hit : miss ratio is terrible. Our classes were much closer to Western Carolina and Grambling State than Duke. That exposed itself last night. Marshall had a top 50 class that year. Itâs no coincidence they are running through people this year. You can see team rankings on the site as well.
Charlotte 2016 Football Commits
Iâm sure this will be pointed out: Coastal Carolinaâs classes are right there with us. Iâm not sure what to say about that. I will say their QB is from Porter Ridge, and Lambert never offered him. Healy had about 3 days before signing day to offer him, but I donât blame healy for that at all. Coastal is gangbusters on offense and defense this year. Lots of 704 kids on that roster too.
My grand point is this. It was awesome to bowl a year ago. Thereâs still a ton of momentum in the program, but Healy had and has a giant hole to dig out of. I have a feeling the next several months are going to be very difficult on him and his family, and some tough conversations are going to have to be had. That said, Recruiting is where we have to win right now.
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I think we played to exactly what our perception is⌠Lesser than. We are worse by far than the worst ACC schools is the perception and we played right into it as usual. Iâm tired of it.
It is certainly scheme. As you say, Reynolds was the starter last year. Averaged 5 yards per rush. This year 0.8 and he is 2nd in rushing attempts on the team.
They deploy the RBs like itâs Upward and everyone has to play âXâ amount of plays.
I think the defensive scheme is whatâs hurting us. The 4-2-5 is a gimmick that we havenât figured out and maybe still donât have the personnel for.
Just wish weâd go to a less complex and more traditional defensive scheme.
At least our good pieces on offense (though limited & far from perfect) can still operate and function as an offense against good teams. We have good pieces on defense that literally canât even slow down much less stop a decent offense.
The 4-2-5 is what needs to be scrapped more than anything IMO.
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the thing is, i donât think weâre limited with weapons on offense, tucker, A MAC, mccheachern, reynolds, elder, dollar, but they arent in the position to be successful. i agree with claytonâs point about the 2016 class. those lambert classes hurt and we have a bunch of guys who should never geet recruited to charlotte football and some of them are starters.
If the hype and enthusiasm canât translate to on field results then itâs close to useless
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The Good:
We played hard.
We get a chance for redemption next year.
Elder is really starting to come into his own. Heâs gonna tear up CUSA teams.
The Bad:
Offense looked out of synch all game, could never settle down and get into a rhythm.
Reynolds just isnât the QB that is going to beat P5 teams. I love him as our starter, but he just doesnât have the talent when heâs going up against more athletic P5 defenses. He can manage a game fine, butâs heâs not going to win it for us.
Something that got me excited about Healy when he joined is I thought he would be the guy that would get us to play above our level on the national stage. So far, every game where weâve had a national audience (Clemson, Duke and Buffalo) weâve gotten embarrassed. Donât know if thatâs lack of talent or coaching, but Itâs a trend I donât like.
The Ugly:
We didnât look ready to play, we came out flat and let Duke get big play after big play. We limit that and we probably look competitive.
We got dominated on both sides of the line. The O-line I somewhat expected, but the D-line is downright weak so far this year.
It sucks, but our overall talent level is still that of a mediocre CUSA team. While I donât think Carney is the playcaller Atkins is, itâs hard to call plays when you have to deal with the limitations we have. Most of our talented players are either transfers or youngsters and it shows. It takes two solid recruiting cycles to rebuild a roster, I think weâll start seeing the fruits of Healyâs recruiting next year.
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