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- May 14, 2016
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Offense:
Tyler Van Dyke - 32/42 428yds 3TD’s & 1INT
Jaylon Knighton - 17att 80yds 2TD’s rushing & 5rec 11yds receiving
Charleston Rambo - 7rec 101yds
Xavier Restrepo - 7rec 89yds
Keyshawn Smith - 3rec 83yds 1TD
Will Mallory - 3rec 68yds 1TD
Mike Harley - 5rec 53yds
Elijah Arroyo - 1rec 20yds 1TD
Gained 499 yards of total offense (428yds Passing & 71yds rushing), with 27 first downs 4/11 on 3rd down, off 70 plays at 7.1 yards per play & 29:55 in time of possession.
TVD made two really nice clutch throws after running himself into a sack on the first play, the deep hitch to the sideline to Rambo & the perfectly thrown deep post pattern to Key Smith for 57yds, then finishing off the drive with a nice 20 yard seam route TD to Arroyo!
Salute to Arroyo on getting his first TD of his career, many more to come, that kids has 1st round TE capabilities, once Mallory is moved out the way Elijah will be the next big time TE to carry on the tradition of TEU.
That double reverse trick play & deep ball to Mallory streaking down the sideline was an outstanding play call, they completely caught the defense off guard & slipped Mallory into the 2nd level of the defense for another 57yd TD!
Love the aggressive play calling to start the game, Miami’s offense is at it’s best when we go 4/5 wide sets & just slang the ball!
Great 40 yard long run off the inside trap play by Knighton, the key to that TD play was baked into the formation, Trips right with the X WR on the opposite hashes wide & because they had no choice but to respect the passing game & after Harley had just gashed’em for 20 yards off a Bubble screen, their Safeties have no choice but to play the WR’s to the outside which left the middle of the field wide open & for Knighton all he needs is a crease & he’s gone. Also, that was a really nice sealing block by Zion which essentially sprung Knighton into the 2nd level of the Defense, if he doesn’t make that block Knighton only gets about a 4 yard gain.
On the 2nd TD by Knighton, I’m glad he scored but felt like we should’ve put in Thadd or Cody Brown in to hammer it in for the goaline score or run some zone read with TVD.
On the first drive to start the 3rd quarter Mallory’s horrendous blocking reared it’s ugly head again when Maldonado just beat him on an easy and swim move to get the sack.
That was a great 8 play 85 yard drive in the 3rd quarter to respond to Pitt tying the game, it was a strong sequence of plays with 2 two runs by Knighton, a good pass to Key Smith, then a bubble to Harley & 2 more runs by Knighton to end it with a really throw & catch for a TD to Smith.
Restrepo played great as a chain mover on the Bubble screens, he runs tough with good contact balance & always pushes forward, he’s positive net gain player.
Bad decision by TVD on the INT, obviously if Rambo doesn’t fall down it’s an easy pitch & catch for a 1st down, but then with Harley falling down as well TVD has to just let that play die & throw the ball out of bounds.
That was a gutsy throw by TVD in the 4th quarter backed up on our own 1yd line & threw a frozen rope on a deep hook route to the boundary to Rambo to get us out from our own end zone.
Overall the offense played really well & TVD had the best game of his career in back to back weeks, he’s really stepped up & is playing at a high level. His arm talent is really shining through with his ability to stretch the field & put Defenses at a disadvantage because they no longer can just stack the box with 7 man fronts & play Single high safeties leaving their corners on an Island, they have no choice but to put their Safeties in coverage or play Nickel & Dime packages all game long or else our WR’s will pick them apart.
I remember @RedSquare telling me that TVD was the real deal during Spring camp & that he has a NFL arm, I was somewhat skeptical of his ability to play at this level because coming out of HS he wad a really elongated release but it’s become clear that he’s tightened it up & has really come into his own a QB. I know a lot of people expect for Garcia to be the shoo-in starter for next year, but TVD is really making his case as a fixture in the starting spot, he can put us in position to win a lot games if he keeps throwing it like he is.
But these last few weeks has been a perfect example as to why I’ve been calling for us to hire an offensive minded guru (Kiffin, Freeze, Herman etc) to be our next HC, because Miami from a personnel standpoint can already run the Air Raid & become lethal. The strength & identity of this team is in the passing attack first & then setting up the run off of tempo plays, we have enough weapons to shoot it out with just about any offense in the ACC (Wake Forrest included). We put immense pressure on Defenses when we come out aggressive & force them to defend all 4 corners of the field. When we spread it out & throw the ball to our playmakers we’re actually on par with most Big XII offenses in terms of potency & have a very good formula to win to compensate for how bad the defense is. The best this team has looked even dating back to games last year in 2020 like LVille, NC ST & FSU is when we go Air Raid & distribute the ball all over the field... Are yall sure yall wanna become a Power run offense? Lol
(And I gotta get this in), I know yall don’t want to, but you might have to give Lashlee some credit for the uptick in the offense since the Mich St game. I mean the only reason we’ve won any games this year has been because of the offense, it’s not like the Defense has held any P5 opponents under 25 points or anything... Just saying lol
The refs clearly got trigger happy with the yellow flag towards the end of the first quarter because they literally called a penalty on 5 straight plays doing all they could to kill any momentum we had & making sure that Pitt stayed in the game. They for sure didn’t want to see Pitt who was a 10 point favorite at home coming into this game get down by 18 points in the 1st quarter. The ACC has the worst officiating crews in all of college football hands down.
Defense:
James Williams - 9tcks 1INT
Marcus Clarke - 6tcks
Gilbert Frierson - 5tcks 1TFL 1 sack
Amari Carter - 5tcks
Corey Flagg - 5tcks
Kamren Kinchens - 4tcks 1TFL & 1PBU
Jahfari Harvey - 4tcks 1TFL
Waynmon Steed - 4tcks
DJ Ivey - 4tcks 1TFL
Zach McCloud - 3tcks 1.5TFL 1.5 sacks
Keontra Smith - 3tcks
DeAndre Johnson - 2tcks 1TFL 1 sack
Tyrique Stevenson - 2tcks 1INT & 1PBU
Gave up a staggering 587 total yards (519yds Passing & 68yds rushing), gave 32 first downs & was 6-14 on 3rd down, with 8TFL’s, 4 sacks & forced 2 critical turnovers.
First drive on a 3rd & 7, simple crossing pattern to the TE goes for 37yds, then after McCloud gets a sack & puts them at a loss of 14, on a 3rd & long the middle of the field was wide open playing Cover 2 & of course Pickett exploits it with the 24yd pass to Taysir Mack (which you could argue should’ve actually been ruled a fumble) but being on the road there’s no way we were gonna get that call. But the point is, we shouldn’t have even been in that position to begin with, once you have an offense at 2nd & 24 & then 3rd & long they shouldn’t be able to just make all their yards back on one **** play, the Deep third coverage shell should never be that wide open if you properly teach your Safeties what their assignments are & how to read their keys.
The middle of the field remains wide open on every play because Diaz’s defense refuses to account for it, when you’re constantly sending LB’s Blitzing to the A&B gap you leave that level of the defense uncovered, unless you’re going to rotate a Safety over to drop down, which we rarely ever do because we need our Safeties to cover on the backend because our corners (except for Stevenson) can’t cover in Man, which forces us to play Cover 3, 4, 5 & 6 all the **** time. It’s a vicious cycle that Manuel has never been able to figure out with his own recruits, he could only make it work when he had Folden/Richt kids on his Defense.
TeCory Couch was getting cooked all day, probably his worst game of his career thus far, he really wasn’t trusting his eyes at all & played a step behind Pitt’s WR’s the entire game.
Great undercutting pick by Stevenson, he trusted his eyes & read the play perfectly. He gave inside release & was playing the WR’s outside shoulder but he did a great job reading the WR’s shoulders & recognizing the outside break which made him anticipate when to cut underneath knowing he had Safety help overtop. That was a smart heady INT because he was basically beat on the play but trusted his reads.
Right before the end of the 3rd quarter McCloud/Harvey beat the OT’s & make into Pitts backfield to get a sack forcing a 2nd & 23, but just like in the 1st quarter Pitt literally gets all the yards they lost back on the next play, with a fckin draw play for 25yds smh... Typical Diaz Defense.
That was a very good high IQ play by JoJo (Kam Kinchens) on the goaline stand to begin the 4th quarter, he immediately recognized the QB leaking out as the potential read for the TD & closed the distance getting on top of Picketts route, if Bartholomew makes the mistake of throwing it to Pickett JoJo takes that sh*t to the house.
Another great play by JW on the pick. To be perfectly honest it was really just a bad throw by Pickett because he had Addison for a TD on the post route, he just overthrew & missed his mark, but it was still a heads up play by JW on catching a ball that was thrown right to him. That kid has star quality, once he learns the game he’s gonna be a really good All-ACC caliber player. Hopefully he ends up playing for a much better DC that will fully understand how to develop him & utilize his skill set.
Aside from a few plays by Rique, JoJo & JW, really the entire secondary got roasted giving up 519 yards passing, but the CB’s in particular were really bad. Stevenson was the only one who made a play at all. But Couch, Clarke & Ivey were horrendous, Pitts WR’s put on a clinic out there. Miami’s secondary has been broken for 3 years since we had the #1 ranked passing defense that one season & even then the secondary wasn’t great, but it’s gotten worse & worse. As yall know CB is my area of expertise & good God I **** near vomit in my mouth on just about every possession, every play is just free release inside with no presence or awareness to get your hands in & fight through the ball & don’t even get me started on the deep passes down the field, never seen so many corners who have no idea how to read the WR & get your head around & find the ball in my life. Our Corners have no fckin clue how to stay in phase & track the ball they play blind in coverage & are just always a step late & a dollar short smh.
Pitt just basically ran the same **** plays over & over again, shallow crosses, deep crossing patterns, hitches & curls all game long, which is smart on their part because Miami’s secondary is usually out of place & can’t cover down field.
The DLine played solid vs the run & got some pressure at certain points, but for the most part they over pursued running themselves out of plays quite a bit & often times would have Pickett dead to rights but just couldn’t hit’em. They were being held a lot this game too that went uncalled, DeAndre Johnson had an easy sack off an inside stunt after he beat the guard & his jersey gets straight tugged/ripped in the back & of course no flag & Kenny is allowed to run around & make a play. But otherwise, I felt Miller, McCloud, Harvey & DJ played the best on the line. Taylor had some solid reps as well getting in the backfield a few times.
LB play, was terrible. Like it’s been since Shaq & Pinckney left, whoever recruits LB’s for this team sucks at it.
The strikers played solid, Frierson & Keontra are good hybrid backers that can drop in coverage as well as Blitz in certain packages. They Blitz way too much, but in the instances when they actually get home it can work, sometimes.
But overall this was a good win for the offense, they’ve been carrying this team since last year, even the King regime had to win multiple games without any support from the Defense. Of course everyone wants Snake James & Manny fired, but the fact is beating 2 ranked ACC opponents is always a good thing regardless of how bad things are going in the season. Ultimately, this administration will make its decisions at the end of the season barring a complete collapse during these last few games, I still believe that Manny is gone regardless of how we finish, but I’m guessing it’s contingent upon securing an agreement in principle from whoever they want as the next HC.
Given how awful our Defense is I don’t expect us to win out, you can’t play this bad on defense & expect to win on a weekly basis, eventually it will catch up to us when our offense isn’t clicking on all cylinders & that’s when we’ll have another bad asswhoopin. We just better hope it ain’t at Doak Campbell...
At the end of the day, you have to always be good with a win, especially vs a team like Pitt that had a lot of hype coming into the game. Anytime we get to spoil the season for The Narduzzi is a good thing Miami is now 5-1 vs Pitt since 2016, we fckin own them even when we win by pure luck lol
Nothing has changed, celebrate the win & congratulate the kids, but it’s still fire Dr. Frenkenstein, fire Snake James & fire Manuelito Diaz.
Go Canes!
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