View attachment 162219
Offense:
Tyler Van Dyke - 19/33 357yds & 3TD’s
Jaylan Knighton - 14car 17yds & 2TD’s rushing, 2rec 20yds
Charleston Rambo - 7rec 116yds
Mike Harley - 3rec 65yds & 1TD
Brashard Smith - 2rec 90yds & 1TD
Will Mallory - 3rec 27yds & 1TD
Jacolby George - 2rec 39yds
Thad Franklin Jr - 9car 36yds
Gained 420yds of total offense (357 passing & 63 rushing) off 63 plays, with 22 1st downs going 6-12 on 3rd down at 6.5 yards per play with 26:18 in time of possession.
First drive started off with a very good Deep ball with the back shoulder fade to Rambro for a 39yd gain, then Mallory with a really nice out & up route to the boundary where he completely duped his defender getting wide open with a crispy peel off to get the easy pitch & catch for a 9 yard TD.
On the second drive had two clutch 3rd down & 10 conversions one to Knighton on an 11yd in route & another to Mallory, which lead to the 8 play 50yd drive ending in Knighton getting his 9th rushing TD of the season.
Nice to see Jacolby George & Brashard Smith getting more opportunities on offense, we have some really high upside young offensive weapons on this team for next year, you give them to a coach who can scheme with the best of them & we’re looking at a high caliber high octane offense that can buzzsaw most ACC teams we play next year. But this of course if they’re playing in the right offense, I mean trying to turn this group into a Power run team doesn’t seem like a good idea, but maybe it will work out anyway, (sorry I had to lol).
Another great deep ball TD on the 75yd bomb to Brashard out of the backfield on a Wheel route from wide Trips formation, really nice play call. TVD had both Rambo on the clear out Drag route & had Arroyo for a 30yd gain on the deep curl, but this was a well designed TD play that if you get the right look from the Defense & the Safeties are in Zone you ace’em with Brashard who can’t be covered.
Offense began to sputter in the 3rd quarter where they hit a dry spell on a few possessions, partly due to heavy rain fall & porous execution, but did enough to pull away towards the end with clutch timely throws.
Completely bogus to take away the 72yd TD on the Mallory double reverse.
Disagreed big time with handing it off to Knighton on the 4th & 1 play at the beginning of the 4th quarter. We got the benefit of a favorable spot, but If you’re going to hand it off on a 4th & short, give it to Thad Franklin & let him get it. Knighton didn’t get his pad level down & drive his feet forward to get the extra push yards, on that kinda play you have to get low & dive to get those tough yards on contact.
Nice bounce back deep ball Post route on a 3rd down for a 55yd TD to Harley, caught the Defense in a Cover 2 look & sent Harley from the Slot across the field.
Congrats to Harley in moving up & becoming the 2nd all-time leader in school history in catches.
Also major props to to Rambro for being the first WR since Allen Hurns to get over 1,000yds in a season, he made himself some good money this season, definitely will be drafted in rounds 3-5.
Mallory had a good game & him coming back next year just gives more solid depth on a potentially high powered Offense, but Arroyo has to be incorporated more next year. Obviously Mallory will be the upperclassmen Senior, but the combo of Arroyo & Mallory can really add on to a a burgeoning offense with very good weapons & make us a matchup nightmare in the hands of a good offensive coach.
Thad Franklin can be a very good change of pace back when you need to grind out yards for some tough gains, despite his size he runs with a nice pad level & low center of gravity & obviously he isn’t as fast as a Knighton but he’s the kind of back that yall would love if you want us to run the Moorehead offense. For next year, when Chaney comes back healthy a trio of Knighton, Chaney & Franklin can be a very solid group. I’m not too sold on Cody Brown, beyond just being really slow footed, he lacks wiggle & doesn’t seem to have any juice to his game. Thad while being a big power back has good burst & runs like a locomotive with a head full of steam, he’s a straight forward pusher, not a jump cutter, he just gets north & south with acceleration.
TVD with another great performance, his big arm sets him apart from the majority of Canes QB’s we’ve had over the last decade or so, when he has time in the pocket he can really stretch the field & has shown the ability to play with great poise under duress. With an Air Raid OC, we could be looking at a 3500-4000yd passer next season.
Defense:
Keontra Smith - 6tcks
Nesta Silvera - 6tcks 1.5TFL’s
Gilbert Frierson - 6tcks
Corey Flagg - 6tcks 1TFL
Kamren Kinchens - 5tcks
DeAndre Johnson - 5tcks 1.5TFL’s & 1 sack
Te’Cory Couch - 4tcks
Jared Harrison-Hunte - 3tcks 2TFL’s & 1 sack
Jordan Miller - 3tcks 1TFL
Tyrique Stevenson - 3tcks
Jahfari Harvey - 3tcks
Ryan Ragone - 3tcks 2TFL’s & 1 sack
Chase Smith - 3tcks & 1PBU
Marcus Clarke - 3tcks & 1PBU
Amari Carter - 2tcks
Avantae Williams - 2tcks
Chantz Williams - 2tcks
Waynmon Steed - 2tcks
Zach McCloud - 1tck 1TFL & 1 sack
Defense gave up 375 total yards, 227 rushing, had 10TFL’s 4 sacks & forced 1 turnover.
More of the same from the Defense, subpar tackling & run Defense got gashed to QB runs once again, the LB’s still have no idea what gap integrity is & the entire Defense as a whole still takes bad angles routinely that turns plays that should only go for 2-3 yards at most into 20+ yard gains.
Middle of the Defense remains wide open on every play, it’s pretty much just a broken record at this point, the LB’s are coached to leave 15 yard wide chasms for QB’s to Ice skate into & all the responsibility is heaped on the Safety to make the stop. Safeties in Diaz’s scheme basically have to do 4 different jobs at once.
Horrendous missed tackle by Ke Smith on the 44yd run by Connor Blumrick in the 3rd quarter, idk wtf he was doing but it looked like right when was about to tackle him he sneezed or something lol because he just stretched his arms out & then slowly went down, he looked like a Wasted GTA player lol.
Chase Smith played very well considering the limited snaps he’s had most of the year, that was great coverage by him in the 4th quarter getting the PBU on the quick in route. Kinda makes you wonder why he wasn’t playing more during the season... Oh I know why, didn’t meet the age requirement smh.
RAGU!!!!!! The best LB on the team! Way to go kid!
God awful coverage by Clarke on the TD catch by Kaleb Smith, he literally was supposed to initiate contact & & undercut to the ball, he had eyes on the WR & actually faded to the back of him, he essentially allowed for himself to get boxed out & didn’t have a clue to play the ball from outside leverage. He actually found a way to give the WR more space to make the catch smfh. Then of course he slips on the 2nd TD we give up after the Onside kick.
This Defense is really bereft of big time playmakers IMHO, I think there’s some okay pieces to work with, some solid rotational players, but I don’t think many of the guys on this Defense are really game changers.
Yes, a scheme change & a real Defensive Coordinator should make some of them look a lot better & the entirety of the unit play a lot faster (we hope), but I’m not sure sure how much magic can be worked with this group to pull them out of the doldrums of bottom tier defense. At best, maybe they can be coached up to being average, but i don’t think they can be a dominant unit, even with best Defensive coaches reconstructing their game.
This Defense needs an offseason exorcism & a complete recalibration of how they approach defending the field, they play with no rhyme or reason & have no purpose behind what they do from play to play. The Defensive philosophy is, “Just hang on for dear life..” They need someone who can teach them to attack with a specific purpose & get them to understand the value in coverage, especially at CB, there has to be a pride in the task of winning your matchup & locking down your man.
Overall, of course we are now Bowl eligible, Texas, USC & UF are all on the verge of not being eligible, IMO this can only be a good thing for Miami if Diaz is fired at the end of the season & the Bowl game is played with an interim. If the Bowl game is played with Diaz as HC, we will lose, no doubt in my mind about that.
Miami has been one of the biggest disappointments of the 2021 season & being 6-5 just shows how far we fell this year after we lost to Mich St, the wheels came off the track that game & we crashed & destroyed the whole season once we lost to UVA. That’s how fast it happens for Miami, it doesn’t take much, once we lose early in the season, you can kiss all division & conference title hopes goodbye, because once we get down in the early part of the season rarely do we ever turn it around.
But soon & finally the roller coaster ride of mediocrity is coming to end, Diaz isn’t getting fired before the Duke game obviously, but in no way is he sticking around, the best bet is to hope he gets canned before we play our Bowl game & whoever the next HC will be is announced by then so we can play a Bowl game without the cloud of a lame duck dead man walking coach to ruin the moment.
Cristobal’s buyout decreases quite a bit in January, so maybe the plan is to wait until then before a big offer is made to Mario (if one hasn’t been made already behind closed doors) & maybe him losing to Oregon St next week & missing an opportunity to play in the Pac-12 championship will be the perfect send off for him to end his tenure at Oregon. That will certainly make most of our fans happy, but you gotta ask yourself, has the Golden shrine for Cubano Saban been built a little prematurely in Coral Gables? I mean, are yall sure he’s gonna “bUiLd MiAMi uP jUsT LiKe hE DiD oReGoN bRo!”?
Don’t get mad I’m just asking the question lol...
