Im up, tough night. Some thoughts on the game...

[YLCANE]

One of the things I've been most impressed with Mario is identifying weakness and improving. If you're Mario and you're trying to learn from this and level up again:

Receiving core: You absolutely need a deep threat and/or someone a defense fears. I love Daniels and Marion. Canes for life. But Miami needs a Chris Bell, Becker, Jeremiah Smith, someone that is a cheat code for getting a big play. We needed that so badly this year.

TE: With the style of offense Miami wants to play this position is an absolute must from a blocking and pass catching perspective. We first need to go out and spend to seriously upgrade this position and Mario needs to get in Dawson's ear about utilizing the TE's better in the passing game. I truly think this position is what gets the whole thing going. It failed us big time this year. And it's almost inexcusable we ended up in the situation we were in at the position.

Special Teams: We need to invest resources into making sure this is one of the best units in college football. With the skill players we have we should be diabolical on special teams. The early 2000s teams could win games solely with special teams. I have said this for years but special teams is the area of college football where you can create the biggest talent gap on the field. This is the type of stuff that makes beating mid-level teams much, much easier. I would shout it from the mountain tops if I could. Please, go make special teams a focus and turn it into a massive strength. Please.

Discipline: You could argue this alone lost us the national championship. I don't even need to explain this to anyone. He has to fix it.

Everything else was ready to win a national championship. And these aren't Earth moving changes. These are things he can absolutely address in the offseason. This loss absolutely sucked. I mean sucked. But the things that can make us the best team in the country are within reach and Mario has proven that he can fix the issues.

I hope he continues that and levels up once more.

Great points
I’d add one more

SITUATIONAL FOOTBALL
You are at he 41
You have 51 seconds
Indiana calls timeout they are on the ropes
You don’t need a kill shot
You WANT to bleed clock and leave nothing for Mendoza
They should have been discussing this w Beck
Take what they give you
Keep ball out of harms way
We can run 5-6 more plays EASY

They have to go back and recount what they said and did and learn and evolve

My thinking is even if we scored on that play
Leaving 45 seconds for mendoza And the WRs
Two back shoulder fades later they are kicking a fg so you have to understand the situation and play to it imo

I’m sure they know it now

 

[drewm3i]

I don’t know how many times this season someone has correctly observed , “Well, we played like **** and made every mistake possible but somehow we’re in the game.”

If Miami plays a mostly mistake free game, we win- likely by two scores. For sure we don’t give up the TD on the punt block. Offsides , face masks, and other dumb things have them extra chances that got them points. I can live with an occasional DPI, those are generally effort mistakes. The other ones are dumb mistakes. Thats the frustrating thing- this team was more than good enough to win the title but silly mistakes gave it away.

Ohio State and TAMU likely go the same way as this one if we make the same mental errors. Somehow Cristobal got the players to play with discipline in those two games. But then Ole **** and Indy we were back to the typical boneheaded errors we saw on most Saturdays.

I wish there was something to point to as the reason that sometimes the players are focused and disciplined. Why can’t they always be like that?

Hard to be locked in 100% for so long--these guys have been at it every day since July!

 

[k9cane]

Great points
I’d add one more

SITUATIONAL FOOTBALL
You are at he 41
You have 51 seconds
Indiana calls timeout they are on the ropes
You don’t need a kill shot
You WANT to bleed clock and leave nothing for Mendoza
They should have been discussing this w Beck
Take what they give you
Keep ball out of harms way
We can run 5-6 more plays EASY

They have to go back and recount what they said and did and learn and evolve

My thinking is even if we scored on that play
Leaving 45 seconds for mendoza And the WRs
Two back shoulder fades later they are kicking a fg so you have to understand the situation and play to it imo

I’m sure they know it now

Could not agree more. I thought it was time for another Malachi Toney touch or two in that situation. Yeah, you always want to score, but the true art of game/clock management is not just scoring, but not leaving a lot of time for the other team to respond

 

[k9cane]

I wonder what happened to Trader yesterday, did he play much at all as it didn't seem so. I was at game but didnt remember seeing him. He has been a huge disappointment.

Josiah has a decision to make: does he love football enough to be a Miami Hurricane under Mario Cristobal? This ain't for the faint of heart. It isn't for everybody. Maybe it was under Manny Diaz and other staffs, but not this current program

There is still time for him to make a real mark on the program but the clock moves faster than ever for players nowadays with the transfer portal.

He really needs to be a 'pro' like Malachi Toney

 

[SinCityCane]

I mean that is the bright line you can see from outer space between our two teams, isnt it? They execute a routine punt to perfection so we can’t catch them with trick play , we can’t block correctly in max punt protect and it is blocked for a TD?

All the credit in the world to Mario for the Ohio St and TAMU wins. We played near perfect football. Discipline, execution. But then there was Ole **** and Indiana. Once again- just shooting ourselves in the **** over and over. I have a simple question- why? How can you be near flawless in two games and then play undisciplined football the next two?

All of this and some luck played a role. For instance, their kicker hit the upright and made the field goal, ours hit the upright and missed. That's a 6 point swing. Add in the blocked punt TD and STs is definitely where the game swung in their direction.

 

[Handsome Squidbum]

Could not agree more. I thought it was time for another Malachi Toney touch or two in that situation. Yeah, you always want to score, but the true art of game/clock management is not just scoring, but not leaving a lot of time for the other team to respond

I am curious in those types of situations earlier in the season if Dawson typically tells Beck directly- “we want to try and give the opponent as little time as possible so take your time and use the clock” or if Dawson assumes Beck understands the situation and knows what he needs to do without being told.