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It sucks losing Hayes, but we upgraded with Cardwell. It sucks losing some LB's but we upgraded with the kid from Clemson. I would assert that we have actually benefited from the portal and the few players that we have picked up through it have been upgrades.

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Why do you think it's an upgrade? Femi has produced. Sergio Allen could be really good and buried on a good team, or he could be a bust.

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True. But Femi was never a great player for us...he had some good plays and not so good plays. Unless FUCLA has a real absence of talent at LB, I don't see him cracking into the starter role. He was ok, but he wasn't close to the player that Jackson Sirmon is...and I think our coaches do a real good job of evaluating Portal talent before offering schollies. Like I said, thus far all of our transfers have been upgrades, even if some didn't have great seasons (TJ Sessions - although I expect him to play MUCH better with a new o-line coach).

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TJ Sessions was not that great, but the fact that no one beat him out was even more depressing. And Spencer Lovell was a downgrade for sure.

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I thing Session's definitely has the athleticism to play the position, if he gets coached up. If Spencer Lovell was a downgrade then why did he start? He certainly was a slug, but if he started what does that say about our other guys and our depth? Or else McClure was just a shitty o-line coach who liked really big dudes, even if they were terrible. The latter is a real possibility.

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Lovell was definitely a downgrade from Mettatuer. Don't you think so?

He started because there was nobody better than him which is just plain sad.

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Absolutely. Mettauer may have been a little undisciplined with his technique, but he may have actually been our best lineman. I understood why he left; it was nothing to do with CAL. He was a Texas boy who didn't like left coast Covid politics...hard to overcome that.

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FYI I was referring to your comment "Like I said, thus far all of our transfers have been upgrades, even if some didn't have great seasons (TJ Sessions - although I expect him to play MUCH better with a new o-line coach)."

You were talking about the guys who transferred out and replacing with better talent through the portal, and included last year's name, that's why I brought up Lovell. So the comparison should be Lovell to Mettauer, not Lovell to guys on the bench. They were both Right guards, I think?

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Mettauer had already left so I did not include him. Why would I compare an incoming transfer player to a player who is no longer on the team?

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I don't understand.

I thought you are comparing guys who left with incoming players. You said we lost Hayes but upgraded with Cardwell, and lost some LBs and upgraded with LB from Clemson.

Then you said "thus far all of our transfers have been upgrades" and included last year's incoming transfer Sessions. Are you comparing guys who left with guys who transferred in?

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We brought in Cardwell before we lost Hayes. Hayes most likely left because we brought in Cardwell. Mettauer left before we brought in Lovell, not because we brought in Lovell. Very different scenarios.

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I don't have an expert eye for football evaluation but there was a significant dropoff when Femi was not on the field for a couple of games midseason whatever the reason of his absence was, and immediately saw impact plays when he returned to the field.

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Losing Hayes is okay but losing Femi really sucks.

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Jan 5, 2023
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Please don't.

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Jan 5, 2023
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You can follow him but don't post his stats every week here.

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He signed with Nevada.

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