Another November

DMoney

Nov 12, 2023 3 min read

For the past twenty years, Miami has collapsed in November. We are 0-2. At least we don't have to talk about our chances to win the Coastal anymore.

Yesterday's performance was not bad. Miami had a chance to tie at the end, on the road, without the benefit of a single turnover. The teams were not far apart talent wise.

The problem is that the head coach and quarterback already threw away two games before this one. That's the frustration. This team is clearly improved across the board and yet we are positioned for another November nightmare. The players are deflated and the QB is spiraling. These next two games are enormous- there is a major difference between 8-4 with momentum and 6-6 with toxicity. Some specific thoughts:

- Emory Williams won over a lot of teammates with those two runs. At this point, I would project him more as an ideal game-manager backup. That doesn't mean he can't be more than that, but we need to procure a starter from the Portal.

- While the talent gap has closed (and Miami has the advantage at several spots), FSU has a major advantage in terms of impact skill. As @Cribby noted, Miami lacks difference makers and explosive players even beyond scheme issues. We need more explosive runs and one-on-one wins at WR.

- Respect to Frank Ladson for the play of his career. He went and high-pointed the onside kick and took a huge hit in the process.

- Jacolby George was probably the second-saddest person in the stadium when Emory went down. He is continuing to develop and was getting looks he doesn't see with Tyler Van Dyke. If Van Dyke is going to start salvaging his season, he will need to find George like he did against TAMU.

- Francisco Mauigoia is having a monster year. 54 tackles, 15 TFLs, 6.5 sacks and an INT. We need to keep the Poly pipeline going in the Portal.

- Damari Brown and Jadais Richard showed physical ability and hopefully gained some confidence against two future pros. Brown and Richard are huge for the future of the DB position. One or both may even grow into safeties. I expect Miami to chase an impact corner or two in the Portal.

- Mark Fletcher missed some holes yesterday. He seemed amped up. We need a bounceback next week against a Louisville team that is Top 10 against the run.

- Unless someone runs out of the back of the end zone like Dan Orlosvky, we may never see a safety again.

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Comments (333)

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mcnaire2004

Nov 12, 2023

Bird4um said:
Need a qb to do that.

That sounds like Marios responsibility

TemplarCane

Nov 12, 2023

Bender said:
No portal QB will come here without A) knowing who the OC is and B) knowing about the type of offense.

And there is no way any portal QB turns a shoulder towards us with Mario at the reign.

And if Dawson leaves Mario will spend two months interviewing OCs only to hire a Plan C candidate.

cway313

Nov 12, 2023

jps2344 said:
Tied for 104th in turnover margin and 110th in penalties. I’ve been a Mario supporter but this tells the story of 6-4. Undisciplined year after year.

The willingness to continue to trot out TVD between his performance and his status with many of his teammates was inexcusable. Emory could definitely use a shirt but between TVD and the decision made with regards to JB he was the guy.

Again all for getting a ready QB1. At this point I’m beyond ready for a legit, high quality spring QB battle above all.

@WanderFranco will be here to discuss Oregon and Washington momentarily hold on.

mossmadness

Nov 12, 2023

hoops156 said:
beck took a few games to find his rhythm but hes been really really good

I’m convinced a lot of people on this board don’t actually watch college football outside of Miami.

It’s the only explanation as to why so many seem to have so little idea about what the other teams are doing.

cway313

Nov 12, 2023

JHallCanes said:
Yeah everything looks like progress when you set the bar lower than we thought was humanly possible

Just wait til we are being fed an 8 win season is progress next year.

Bird4um

Nov 12, 2023

mcnaire2004 said:
That sounds like Marios responsibility

Agreed. Know the recipe. Don’t have the ingredients. Let’s see what he does next year. This year is over. No sense in beating a dead horse. Which we love to do here.

He thought he had a qb. We all did. Now we realize his deficiencies. Have to bring one in. I feel we are very close. Except for the biggest piece.

mossmadness

Nov 12, 2023

TemplarCane said:
And if Dawson leaves Mario will spend two months interviewing OCs only to hire a Plan C candidate.

That’s not really fair to Mario.

The problem is all his top choices would be Plan C and Plan D candidates to competent coaches that actually try to score points on Saturday.

It’s not that Mario gets turned down by great OCs. He just has no interest in them to begin with.

mossmadness

Nov 12, 2023

brock said:
I’m just looking at it objectively, the reality is that we are 6-4 but in each of those games we had a myriad of hellacious errors and those games were still within reach late

****. We were close to beating GT and an NC State team so bad the QB that beat us decided to give up on the rest of the season after our game?

mcnaire2004

Nov 12, 2023

Bird4um said:
Agreed. Know the recipe. Don’t have the ingredients. Let’s see what he does next year. This year is over. No sense in beating a dead horse. Which we love to do here.

No that's quitter talk

mossmadness

Nov 12, 2023

Bird4um said:
Agreed. Know the recipe. Don’t have the ingredients. Let’s see what he does next year. This year is over. No sense in beating a dead horse. Which we love to do here.

He thought he had a qb. We all did. Now we realize his deficiencies. Have to bring one in. I feel we are very close. Except for the biggest piece.

Close to what though? Scoring more then 2 TDS in a game against ACC teams?

This team isn’t close to breaking 30 offensively without a ton of help defensively.

TRick72

Nov 12, 2023

cway313 said:
Just wait til we are being fed an 8 win season is progress next year.

Drop Dropping GIF by Gogglebox Australia

Bird4um

Nov 12, 2023

mossmadness said:
Close to what though? Scoring more then 2 TDS in a game against ACC teams?

This team isn’t close to breaking 30 offensively without a ton of help defensively.

Again. I go back to weeks 1-4. Could score with ease.
We can score. Just not with who we have at qb now.

Bird4um

Nov 12, 2023

TRick72 said:

I expect 8-4 next year. Qb sight unseen.

mossmadness

Nov 12, 2023

Bird4um said:
Again. I go back to weeks 1-4. Could score with ease.
We can score. Just not with who we have at qb now.

We played one P5 team during that time.

Go back to Week 1. We had like 10 points at the half.

cway313

Nov 12, 2023

brock said:
I’m just looking at it objectively, the reality is that we are 6-4 but in each of those games we had a myriad of hellacious errors and those games were still within reach late

Does anything about Pistobal give you confidence we overcome those errors in the future? If so, blink if you need help.

Bird4um

Nov 12, 2023

O is rusty week 1. We were fine. Talk of heisman
They figured us out. Now we have have no back up plan. Is what it is.

Mario may be a massive tanker with the inability to make turns in season. But he will make lots of moves in the off-season. I have no doubt. I’m excited to see what happens.

And I’m one of the most pessimistics on the board. Took FSU and gave the points. I’ll take Louisville this week.

2 weeks ago I bet we wouldn’t go overtime again. Lost that too.

Cajuncane

Nov 12, 2023

November around here reminds me of an Old Sam Cooke song…paraphrased of course

Another Saturday night and we can’t beat nobody

We got some money and Mario got paid

But how I wished we had someone to beat on

We’re in an awful way.

TRick72

Nov 12, 2023

Bird4um said:
I expect 8-4 next year. Qb sight unseen.

What anyone expects a year out and what will be sold as progress this time next year will be two totally different things

Cane6

Nov 12, 2023

Bender said:
No portal QB will come here without A) knowing who the OC is and B) knowing about the type of offense.

And there is no way any portal QB turns a shoulder towards us with Mario at the reign.

Imagine if you’re a top HS or transfer QB looking at Miami and how they approach offense. It’s a safe assumption that any player, who is way more knowledgeable than us, and dissects plays and film, is gonna look at Dawson’s game plan and say “naw I’m good”

The reputation of Mario bringing down OCs and QBs is growing