- Joined
- Dec 8, 2025
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- 90
What a game. Heart rate was over 100 until about 2 am last night. Now that I’ve had a chance to settle down a bit, a few thoughts and reflections (okay, maybe more than a few):
We still have to go finish it. If we play a clean, disciplined game, I like our chances against either of our two opponents despite being underdogs. See you at the Rock.
- Seeing all the Cane legends on the sidelines was awesome, and great to have a new addition in Cam Ward. Signals to me that Mario is building future UM legends here that will keep the tradition going.
- Carson Beck has solidified himself as a Cane legend. Those final two touchpoint drives are the epitome of having ice water in your veins. Up there with Dorsey or any of our greats in terms of memorable drives to win games. There’s a reason he’s 37-5, with a majority of that in the SEC, and 18-3 against ranked teams, he just is a gamer. The bigger the stage the more you can rely on him. I couldn’t he happier for him. And another successful feather in the cap for Mario to add for Miami as a QB portal rejuvenation lab
- Many of you called it, that 30 points wins this game. But the path to get there was not ideal. By my count, through the mid 4th quarter, we had 6 drives that crossed the Ole Miss 50 and we had 17 points to show for it. It is unacceptable to be averaging less than a FG per drive when you cross the opponents 50 yard line. Thankfully, the last two drives we were both able to convert into TDs and cross the 30 point mark.
- We started off the game clean, but penalties reared their ugly head from late 1st quarter to early 4th quarter. If your identity is to have controlled, methodical possessions and pace, you cannot keep shooting yourself in the foot with dumb penalties. I’m looking at you Justin Scott, David Blay, Anez Cooper. Moten absolutely got away with a late hit too on a Trinidad Chambliss scramble. I’m glad Mario called that out in his halftime interview. And player-led leadership definitely stepped up because we cleaned it up in the 4th quarter when the game was on the line. I’m not counting that 50/50 PI call against Jaboree as a “bad” penalty.
- With games that are up in the air, especially with two evenly matched teams, I do believe in looking at the “8 minute stretch” – 4 mins before half, and 4 mins into the second half. At the start of this stretch, the score was 10-10. Beck then has the 52-yard TD to Marion (awesome play). Ole Miss drives but we keep it to a field goal. Even on that one, we probably shouldn’t have burned the timeout to give them a chance to use theirs, we could’ve taken it to the locker room 17-10. First possession second half, we are driving but then penalties stall the drive. Ole Miss gets another shot at a field goal but he doinks it. We “won” that 8 minute stretch, taking it from 10-10 to 17-13.
- This felt like a repeat of the SMU / Louisville games where self-inflicted wounds just became too much to overcome, and we were about to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. Incredible resilience and player-led leadership for us to overcome that tonight. Celebrate the crap out of that. But also know we cannot play like that again, we won’t be so lucky in the final.
- Malachi Toney is special, we already know that but there were 3 unbelievable plays that stood out. The leg balance and drive to keep churning on his long TD play was massive, because it saved time on the clock (gave us our final possession) and recaptured momentum. Escaping the tackle on the 3rd down in the first half which eventually led to 7 points for us instead of 3. And of course, the unbelievable catch that wasn’t counted. Enjoy him while we have him
- Ole Miss switching to more man-to-man coverage clearly disrupted our offensive rhythm for a few possessions. Good adjustment from them, but also Beck and Shannon Dawson also did a good job adjusting. Beck with using his legs and Dawson calling more deep shots to test their corners.
- Some of those dropped interceptions…man. Can’t have that at this stage in the season. Dylan Day would’ve saved 3 points. Same with Ethan O’Connor and Wesley Bissainthe. When teams are equally matched, you have to make the 50/50 plays.
- Xavier Lucas should not have been thrown out if the Ole Miss defender was not for his hit on Toney. You either call both targeting or neither. Tough loss on X Lucas. We need our corners to get healthy for the final.
- Outside of the 73 yard TD run, we stopped their run game (20 carries for 48 yards). Excellent job by our defense and Heatherman in prep
- Great to see Nick Saban pick Miami – I don’t know what his overall record is in picks, but I trust his analysis more than most.
- On TV, the crowd looked 50/50, but give the Ole Miss fans credit. They brought the energy and at times it felt like we were playing a road game.
- What a weapon their kicker is. Anytime they cross the 50, you understand they are basically in FG range. That’s demoralizing as ****.
- Alex Bauman is the most average TE ever. He never impresses me on a play. On that 3rd down play where Carson threw him a great pass, a better TE would’ve snagged that even though the coverage was tight.
- I, like I imagine everyone on here, was holding their breath on that final play to see if a flag came out. But thank god we did not screwed again.
- For the first 3 quarters, our guys did an excellent job shedding blocks and limited Trinidad Chambliss in the run game. I remember seeing Jakobe Thomas and Wesley Bissainthe with some stand out plays there.
- It felt like Dawson was pressing a bit to force Toney early. Teams are clearly keying on Malachi now, I think Dawson needs to stop trying to be cute. That works against mid-level ACC opponents but there were a couple of big drives we lost rhythm.
- Seeing Mark Fletcher collect bodies is one of my favorite Canes related things a while. He did it to Sonny Styles last night, and ran over an Ole Miss safety in a 2nd quarter run that had me hyped.
- Field issues cost us twice on running plays, one for Fletcher and one for Marty Brown
- Chris Graves had atleast 2 missed PI calls. The refs really got us on everything, but thankfully they called a few on Ole Miss towards the end of the game to help make it more even, but overall Ole Miss definitely got more favorable calls.
- Our tackles were struggling with some of the speed off the edge, noticed multiple plays where Bell and Cooper had issues.
- Mark Fletcher is our best RB in pass protection, but there was a critical blitz pick up he missed in the second half. Killed a drive.
- The outside stretch runs felt like they were there all night, but we didn’t run it often. Anytime we did it felt like Fletcher got chunk yards.
- On the final series, I didn’t love how soft Heatherman played it. Good thing we called a timeout before the final snap because in our previous alignment, Ole Miss could’ve easily got a free 10 year sideline route and made the final play a 20-25 yard completion instead.
- We’ve exorcised the Fiesta Bowl demons. Only the second team to win all NY 6 bowl games.
We still have to go finish it. If we play a clean, disciplined game, I like our chances against either of our two opponents despite being underdogs. See you at the Rock.
