The University of Miami wrapped up the 2013 season by being on the receiving end of another beat down from a ranked team.
This was as pathetic and abysmal of a bowl performance as any from the Randy Shannon teams. ****, since he wasn't there for the Sun Bowl, at least the team was in the game when he was the coach. This game was on LSU - Peach Bowl and Arizona - Fiesta Bowl levels of *** kickings. After looking at the pic up above, if you're thinking to yourself, "Man...boy do our guys look embarrassed after the game", you're mistaken. That pic was taken by Photo at halftime. ****, it might as well have been right after they came out of the tunnel, as Louisville's whole team met us there and started getting in our guy's heads. They remained there all night long.
Last night is what the culmination of 4 weeks of preparation by this coaching staff looks like. I made reference to it here, as did SFbayCane here, that this game was our 1st chance to see what Al and this staff can do for bowl prep. It was exciting because it is a skill. Some coaches are great and others suck. It may only be 1 data point, but it isn't encouraging. Our team looked soft, scared, and disorganized all game. As opposed to Louisville, who played with passion, emotion, aggression, and any other "-ion" you can think of. Just the opposite of us as a program from top to bottom...including the coaching staff.
@3_Blind_Moose
Highlights:
[video=youtube;yk7VLi5taWw]www.youtube.com/watch?v=yk7VLi5taWw[/video]
My official message for this game from the game day post was just to not let Teddy Bridgewater put a bow on his college career by punking us. Were we succesful?
https://vine.co/v/h90nFJ0AQ66
Yea, that gets a grade of F+. He got exactly what he wanted. He not only validated his decision to split town, but you're crazy if he didn't just send a giant message to any wavering SoFla prospect that was on the fence on the subject of leaving town or sticking it out with the hometown school.
Let's recap:
Howard was in the building for the game.
I'm curious (and this is a dead serious question since I wasn't old enough to witness his era as our coach), but did this man ever complain about inanimate objects like clouds and such back when he was building our program up from nothing?
1st Quarter:
Louisville won the toss and deferred to the 2nd half. On Miami's 2nd play from scrimmage Morris hit Walford up the seam to move the chains. Gaines got flagged for P.I. against Hurns to move UM across the 50 yard line. The drive stalled there, but a beautiful punt by O'Donnell stopped right at the 2 yard line. On Louisville's 2nd play Deon Bush came in on a blitz and wrapped up Bridgewater for the safety.
2-0 Miami
Miami went 3 & out on the ensuing possession and punted it right back to Louisville. Bridgewater came back on the field and quickly moved the Cardinals into field goal range after 3 nice completions each to Parker, Copeland, and Christian. Miami's defense stepped up and forced a field goal which gave Louisville the lead.
3-2 Louisville
They never trailed again. Miami struggled to get near midfield and Stacy Coley was tackled a yard short to set up 4th and 1 from their own 45 yard line. Golden elects to go for it, and Gus Edwards got stuffed for a 3 yard loss. Louisville's drive went nowhere, but they were able to tack on another field goal to extend their lead.
6-2 Louisville
Miami went 3 & out again and Louisville started moving the ball again. The quarter ends with Bridgewater picking up 15 yards on a read option play where he slid his way to midfield, and still leading 6-2.
2nd Quarter:
The stats from the first quarter weren't pretty. Miami's offense had just 3 first downs and had just 4 yards rushing on 9 carries. Morris was 3 for 7 with 26 yards passing. Louisville had no such trouble on offense. On 3rd & 8 Bridgewater threw a simple screen to Copeland for a 20 yard gain. Miami's defense once again forced a 4th down once the Cardinals reached the redzone. This time Charlie Strong elected to go for it, but an illegal formation penalty pushed them back. John Wallace came back out to drill his 3rd and final field goal of the game.
9-2 Louisville
After a short kickoff Wallace got suckered into committing a personal foul to move Miami to midfield.
It didn't matter because Miami went 3 & out again. Miami's defense had been on the field all night and it was just a matter of time before they cracked. It came on the next possession by Louisville. Bridgewater was methodically moving his team down the field and then he spotted Parker deep. Teddy lofted a jump ball to him and Parker out jumped Burns for the touchdown. Parker stared down at Burns as he just sat on the ground.
16-2 Louisville
On Miami's next possession we went to our "give Dallas the ball and have him run it up the middle" offense. After a couple of decent carries Morris threw an incompletion on 3rd down to force another punt. However Miami got bailed out because Charles Gaines got flagged for taunting our sideline. On the next play Morris hit Walford down the sideline for a 28 yard gain to give the Canes 1st and goal from the 8. Two plays later a play was called where Dallas Crawford ended up having to block Marcus Smith 1 on 1. Marcus Smith came into this game as the 2nd leading Sack artist in the nation with 12.5 on the year. He ran right around Dallas, stripped Morris of the football, and Brandon Dunn was there for the recovery.
[video=youtube;09s-c2JVI40]www.youtube.com/watch?v=09s-c2JVI40[/video]
If Miami was ever going to get back into this game it had to happen right there...but it didn't. When Louisville took over it was at this point that Miami finally forced Louisville to punt for the 1st time. It was a 3 & out and everything. Amazing. The problem was Miami went 3 & out too. The quick drive was highlighted by the 1st of 2 gigantic hits by James Burgess, Jr. on Dallas Crawford.
He'd hit him just like that again later in the game so I'm not sure if that's even the right picture. They were completely identical and I don't feel like mentioning too much of the 2nd half so you'll just have to look at that one and believe me that it happened. On Louisville's next drive they're facing 3rd and 6. Bridgewater tried to roll left, then went back to his right and lofted a perfectly thrown ball over Tracy Howard to Copeland for a 21 yard gain.
Three plays later Teddy found former Miami Northwestern teammate Miachaelee Harris for a 12 yard touchdown pass.
22-2 Louisville
Louisville missed the extra point to keep Miami within 3 possessions. Miami ran out the clock to go into the half down 22-2. Louisville outgained Miami 280-82 in the 1st half. Morris was 7 of 15 for 67 yards and Miami had just 15 yards on 16 carries. Just a complete train wreck on offense. It was the 1st time Miami's offense had been shutout in the 1st half of a game since November 27, 2010. That was Randy Shannon's last game.
3rd Quarter:
I quit taking notes after the Morris fumble inside the 10 so the 2nd half is going to be quick. Louisville got the ball back to start the 2nd half. They marched down the field with impunity and the drive ended with a 24 yard touchdown pass from Teddy to Senorise Perry on a dump off pass up the middle.
29-2 Louisville
Miami responded with a 13 play drive that ate up 5:45 off the clock and resulted in zero points after another failed 4th down conversion. Louisville goes right back to work and put together another drive. The quarter ends after an 18 yard catch by Parker puts Louisville deep in Miami territory again, and still leading 29-2.
4th Quarter:
Before the final frame began, they played some Miami video on the scoreboard:
More proof that it's amateur hour when it comes to the University of Miami's athletic department. After getting into the redzone the Cardinals get down near the goal line pretty quickly. Pretty soon it's 4th and 1 and Charlie Strong goes for it. Bridgewater runs a bootleg and rolls to his right, stiff-arming Deon Bush on his way to another Louisville touchdown.
36-2 Louisville
Miami marched down the field and Gus Edwards scored a meaningless touchdown to prevent the team from being shutout on offense.
36-9
Bridgewater stayed in the game until after the 1st play of their final drive. He stayed in to set a personal best in passing yards for his career with 447 on 35 of 45 passes completed. Louisville got all the way down to Miami's 3 before finally kneeling on the ball to end the game.
Final Score:
Miami 9
Louisville 36
Per Matt Porter of the Palm Beach Post, after the game Al was asked what his timetable was for getting us near competing for national titles. This was his answer:
Yikes...that's a far cry from Howard Schnellenberger's proclamation that we will win a national title in 5 years. But it's whatever. In the meantime, I'm sure he's gonna be "working his tail off" to get us there...whenever that might be.
T.S. Elliot said:
This was as pathetic and abysmal of a bowl performance as any from the Randy Shannon teams. ****, since he wasn't there for the Sun Bowl, at least the team was in the game when he was the coach. This game was on LSU - Peach Bowl and Arizona - Fiesta Bowl levels of *** kickings. After looking at the pic up above, if you're thinking to yourself, "Man...boy do our guys look embarrassed after the game", you're mistaken. That pic was taken by Photo at halftime. ****, it might as well have been right after they came out of the tunnel, as Louisville's whole team met us there and started getting in our guy's heads. They remained there all night long.
Last night is what the culmination of 4 weeks of preparation by this coaching staff looks like. I made reference to it here, as did SFbayCane here, that this game was our 1st chance to see what Al and this staff can do for bowl prep. It was exciting because it is a skill. Some coaches are great and others suck. It may only be 1 data point, but it isn't encouraging. Our team looked soft, scared, and disorganized all game. As opposed to Louisville, who played with passion, emotion, aggression, and any other "-ion" you can think of. Just the opposite of us as a program from top to bottom...including the coaching staff.
@3_Blind_Moose
Highlights:
[video=youtube;yk7VLi5taWw]www.youtube.com/watch?v=yk7VLi5taWw[/video]
My official message for this game from the game day post was just to not let Teddy Bridgewater put a bow on his college career by punking us. Were we succesful?
https://vine.co/v/h90nFJ0AQ66
Yea, that gets a grade of F+. He got exactly what he wanted. He not only validated his decision to split town, but you're crazy if he didn't just send a giant message to any wavering SoFla prospect that was on the fence on the subject of leaving town or sticking it out with the hometown school.
Let's recap:
Howard was in the building for the game.
I'm curious (and this is a dead serious question since I wasn't old enough to witness his era as our coach), but did this man ever complain about inanimate objects like clouds and such back when he was building our program up from nothing?
1st Quarter:
Louisville won the toss and deferred to the 2nd half. On Miami's 2nd play from scrimmage Morris hit Walford up the seam to move the chains. Gaines got flagged for P.I. against Hurns to move UM across the 50 yard line. The drive stalled there, but a beautiful punt by O'Donnell stopped right at the 2 yard line. On Louisville's 2nd play Deon Bush came in on a blitz and wrapped up Bridgewater for the safety.
2-0 Miami
Miami went 3 & out on the ensuing possession and punted it right back to Louisville. Bridgewater came back on the field and quickly moved the Cardinals into field goal range after 3 nice completions each to Parker, Copeland, and Christian. Miami's defense stepped up and forced a field goal which gave Louisville the lead.
3-2 Louisville
They never trailed again. Miami struggled to get near midfield and Stacy Coley was tackled a yard short to set up 4th and 1 from their own 45 yard line. Golden elects to go for it, and Gus Edwards got stuffed for a 3 yard loss. Louisville's drive went nowhere, but they were able to tack on another field goal to extend their lead.
6-2 Louisville
Miami went 3 & out again and Louisville started moving the ball again. The quarter ends with Bridgewater picking up 15 yards on a read option play where he slid his way to midfield, and still leading 6-2.
2nd Quarter:
The stats from the first quarter weren't pretty. Miami's offense had just 3 first downs and had just 4 yards rushing on 9 carries. Morris was 3 for 7 with 26 yards passing. Louisville had no such trouble on offense. On 3rd & 8 Bridgewater threw a simple screen to Copeland for a 20 yard gain. Miami's defense once again forced a 4th down once the Cardinals reached the redzone. This time Charlie Strong elected to go for it, but an illegal formation penalty pushed them back. John Wallace came back out to drill his 3rd and final field goal of the game.
9-2 Louisville
After a short kickoff Wallace got suckered into committing a personal foul to move Miami to midfield.
It didn't matter because Miami went 3 & out again. Miami's defense had been on the field all night and it was just a matter of time before they cracked. It came on the next possession by Louisville. Bridgewater was methodically moving his team down the field and then he spotted Parker deep. Teddy lofted a jump ball to him and Parker out jumped Burns for the touchdown. Parker stared down at Burns as he just sat on the ground.
16-2 Louisville
On Miami's next possession we went to our "give Dallas the ball and have him run it up the middle" offense. After a couple of decent carries Morris threw an incompletion on 3rd down to force another punt. However Miami got bailed out because Charles Gaines got flagged for taunting our sideline. On the next play Morris hit Walford down the sideline for a 28 yard gain to give the Canes 1st and goal from the 8. Two plays later a play was called where Dallas Crawford ended up having to block Marcus Smith 1 on 1. Marcus Smith came into this game as the 2nd leading Sack artist in the nation with 12.5 on the year. He ran right around Dallas, stripped Morris of the football, and Brandon Dunn was there for the recovery.
[video=youtube;09s-c2JVI40]www.youtube.com/watch?v=09s-c2JVI40[/video]
If Miami was ever going to get back into this game it had to happen right there...but it didn't. When Louisville took over it was at this point that Miami finally forced Louisville to punt for the 1st time. It was a 3 & out and everything. Amazing. The problem was Miami went 3 & out too. The quick drive was highlighted by the 1st of 2 gigantic hits by James Burgess, Jr. on Dallas Crawford.
He'd hit him just like that again later in the game so I'm not sure if that's even the right picture. They were completely identical and I don't feel like mentioning too much of the 2nd half so you'll just have to look at that one and believe me that it happened. On Louisville's next drive they're facing 3rd and 6. Bridgewater tried to roll left, then went back to his right and lofted a perfectly thrown ball over Tracy Howard to Copeland for a 21 yard gain.
Three plays later Teddy found former Miami Northwestern teammate Miachaelee Harris for a 12 yard touchdown pass.
22-2 Louisville
Louisville missed the extra point to keep Miami within 3 possessions. Miami ran out the clock to go into the half down 22-2. Louisville outgained Miami 280-82 in the 1st half. Morris was 7 of 15 for 67 yards and Miami had just 15 yards on 16 carries. Just a complete train wreck on offense. It was the 1st time Miami's offense had been shutout in the 1st half of a game since November 27, 2010. That was Randy Shannon's last game.
3rd Quarter:
I quit taking notes after the Morris fumble inside the 10 so the 2nd half is going to be quick. Louisville got the ball back to start the 2nd half. They marched down the field with impunity and the drive ended with a 24 yard touchdown pass from Teddy to Senorise Perry on a dump off pass up the middle.
29-2 Louisville
Miami responded with a 13 play drive that ate up 5:45 off the clock and resulted in zero points after another failed 4th down conversion. Louisville goes right back to work and put together another drive. The quarter ends after an 18 yard catch by Parker puts Louisville deep in Miami territory again, and still leading 29-2.
4th Quarter:
Before the final frame began, they played some Miami video on the scoreboard:
More proof that it's amateur hour when it comes to the University of Miami's athletic department. After getting into the redzone the Cardinals get down near the goal line pretty quickly. Pretty soon it's 4th and 1 and Charlie Strong goes for it. Bridgewater runs a bootleg and rolls to his right, stiff-arming Deon Bush on his way to another Louisville touchdown.
36-2 Louisville
Miami marched down the field and Gus Edwards scored a meaningless touchdown to prevent the team from being shutout on offense.
36-9
Bridgewater stayed in the game until after the 1st play of their final drive. He stayed in to set a personal best in passing yards for his career with 447 on 35 of 45 passes completed. Louisville got all the way down to Miami's 3 before finally kneeling on the ball to end the game.
Final Score:
Miami 9
Louisville 36
Per Matt Porter of the Palm Beach Post, after the game Al was asked what his timetable was for getting us near competing for national titles. This was his answer:
Yikes...that's a far cry from Howard Schnellenberger's proclamation that we will win a national title in 5 years. But it's whatever. In the meantime, I'm sure he's gonna be "working his tail off" to get us there...whenever that might be.
