..any evidence that Miami is a well-coached team. I tried my best. This team doesn’t make good decisions. They rank 127th in turnovers. The team isn’t disciplined. They rank 93rd in penalties. The scheme is broken. The scoring offense dropped from 30.9 ppg to 22.5 ppg (94th in nation) with largely the same personnel. The team doesn’t play smart. They rank 118th in passing efficiency defense because the DBs make so many mental busts.
The conditioning doesn’t show up. Small teams bully Miami in the fourth quarter. The sports science isn’t working. The program has never had more injuries. To top it off, the team lacks physicality and can’t tackle. Nothing on film matches the identity we wanted.
The truth is this team has looked bad in every game against an FBS opponent. And the lows keep getting lower. Duke was one of the worst rosters I’ve ever seen last year. Now, they’re lining up in victory formation in the redzone so they don’t run up the score to 50. I want to say this is rock bottom, but I thought that happened a month ago.
The comparison for Mario has always been Butch. He won’t elevate a bad roster, but he can build a roster and instill discipline over time. We see that with Oregon’s continued success. But one difference with Butch is that he was able to find Hall of Famers in the bargain bin. The recruiting landscape has changed. Cristobal succeeds by winning big-time battles, and it’s hard to win big-time battles when you look this bad on the field. The playing time sales job only works for a year. The locals are already immune to the BS. He needs to triage this season and keep the class strong if we have any chance.
Some specifics:
- The first, most obvious issue is the scoring offense. Miami averaged 22.6 ppg with Enos. It immediately jumped to 35.5 ppg in the Lashlee era. Now it’s back to 22.5 ppg, with better players than Enos had. It's a simple story to tell. We aren't explosive anymore and we live from down to down. Have you ever seen this many fourth down attempts?
- I don’t think Mario will be stubborn schematically when it comes to making changes. He has no personal scheme and, for all the talk about him being hard-headed about the run game, this is actually one of the most pass-dominant teams in the nation. They rank 117th in rushing percentage and throw it 58% of the time. It’s just a bad passing offense. The concern with Cristobal is whether he will pick the right guy or just go after the shiniest name.
- And this is not to scapegoat Gattis. There are a lot of problems on a lot of desks. Nobody talks about Ponce, but he is the QB coach and is accountable for a lot of the regression at that position. They need to get it fixed before this season goes from bad to historic.
- The most important news right now is
Tyler Van Dyke’s health. He's one of the few players with an NFL future on this roster and he’s been playing like his old self. On the flip side,
Jake Garcia looked as bad as I’ve ever seen him in any game or scrimmage. Some of that was protection and jitters, but he didn’t look prepared. Hopefully, it’s just a bad game under duress. I have no idea who is working hard in that room, but if TVD is out for an extended period and
Jacurri Brown is preparing with more urgency, I wouldn’t hesitate throwing him out there. The offense isn’t explosive to begin with. Brown at least gives you a better running game with the opportunity for big plays on the ground and in the air against stacked boxes.
- Colbie Young is an impact player. One comparison I heard internally was Demaryius Thomas without the speed. While I love his attitude and willingness to play special teams, we need to treat him like a star. He was getting pulled for
Michael Redding on key third downs. Save his energy for offense.
- One takeaway watching this game live- this team is small up front. Our failure to add length in the Portal killed us. It hurts even more when you see South Florida guys like Gerald Mincey (Tennessee) and Tyler Steen (Alabama) playing LT at a high level. Duke was parking their safeties in Broward and Miami couldn’t make them pay in the run game. This team has too many centers.
DJ Scaife should be our center and he’s our RT.
Justice Oluwaseun,
Jakai Clark,
Jonathan Denis and
Logan Sagapolu are all way undersized.
Laurence Seymore looked like he didn’t belong on the field on Saturday. I remember watching Seymore with
@gogeta4 as he dominated much older P5 guys at camp. He looked like the next great center. But he hasn’t done enough or shown the urgency off the field to overcome his bad body. Overall, there was no size advantage against Duke and the interior pressure was relentless. One adjustment might be playing more
Anez Cooper. If he is too green to move to guard (and it looked like that against VT), play him at RT and move Scaife to RG.
- If there is one area where I would bet on Mario, it’s his ability to build a giant, talented OL. You see that in Oregon. He’s already won big time battles for
Francis Mauigoa (Top 10 player nationally),
Connor Lew (beat UGA) and
Tommy Kinsler (beat Florida). Now, we have to hold off the negative recruiting on all those guys, plus teams like Oregon pushing for
Frankie Tinilau. If Cristobal can build a monster OL, it will elevate our floor and avoid catastrophes like Saturday.
- Darrell Jackson is one of the few difference makers on this team. He is an elite run-stopper and is getting sacks by pushing the pocket. He just turned 19 and has a bright NFL future if he keeps working.
- James Williams continues to struggle breaking down and tackling at 6’5. And our tackling somehow got worse when he left the game injured in the second half. I understand the frustration with JW because he’s a five-star and he’s playing nowhere near that level. But he’s low on my list of concerns. For all his faults, he is one of the better players on this bad team and actually cares.
- However,
Coach Addae is high on the list of disappointments with this team. His DBs played great at West Virginia and Georgia, and the buzz from the offseason coaching clinics had him pegged as a future head coach. But the performance in practice has disappeared in games. There was a lot of hate for Rumph and Banda, but they had their guys playing much better (at a much lower price) than Addae and TRob.
Overall, this is as bad as it could’ve been. I predicted a single-digit win season but thought they’d be better than last year. They aren’t, and morale is lower. We're already hearing familiar complaints about the roster and culture. Recruiting alone won’t solve the problem, and if Cristobal can’t stop the bleeding on the field, recruiting won’t be there for long. Let's get this thing on track against a bad UVA team and steal the first good win of the year against the Noles.
