Coming into this game I said ten wins is what I expected , leaving the game nothing has changed. We went up in weight class and got smacked back down to where we came from. We‘re a light heavy weight that skipped cruiser weight . heavy weight and jumped to super heavyweight , then received the realistic result, knocked out with ease.
We faced a machine that has far better talent , coaching and culture. It’s a professional ran college program thats playing on a different level than anyone else. From the amount of money they spend in their program on down. That being said here’s what I saw.
Miami once again came out overwhelmed in a big moment , the staff and players couldn't handle the pressure of all the bright lights.
The tackling continues to be atrocious, just like last year we look lost in space.
We were very aggressive and brought 5, 6 and even seven guys but the blitzes are slow developing , obvious to everyone in the building because of zero disguise. Their qb was eating the pressures alive. They knew all the answers in pre snap.
Even though we ran more man we still didn’t allow our cb’s to use their hands like the talk had been, there was plenty of free release which will always put guys like Ivey at a disadvantage. Ts and Couch are easily the best cb’s.
Our front seven looked like a pac 12 defense versus Bama. We won’t be a big boy program until we get difference makers in the trenches.
Play calling on offense was atrocious early , another game where Lashlee came up small and coached scared. The slow developing runs leave me scratching my head, at this point he’s pretty good. Nothing more.
Going into this season I said the ol and de’s were my concern, well going forward I think the ol will be ok. They’re definitely better than last year. After Oluwaseun entered the game it was night and day difference, we had lanes and made pretty good pockets from the second quarter on. As for as Scaife goes , it’s over. He’s a backup and nothing more. As a whole the ol held up better than it did against some acc schools last year. I take that as one of the few positives.
I posted in spring Don was special, he’d ran away with the gig then he got hurt. He showed yesterday he’s a difference maker , he’s explosive and runs violent. Cam is what he is , a rotational guy, not a horse. I want to see more of Don ( we will), Rooster ( after suspension ) and eventually Brown. Cam has no lateral movement and goes down way too easy.
Wr’s were another positive , when given a chance they made plays , they were constantly running free in the secondary and we just couldn’t make them pay. Either the pocket broke down or king left early.
I love king but he’s limited as a passer. He still continues to cause some sacks scrambling , even if there’s a good pocket around him. He still has some of the same issues as last year.
Mallory still can’t block.
As for manny , we’re going into year three and that’s when I start coming to my full decision. What I know so far ? We show up flat most weeks, we don’t seem to be developing our recruits ,only the transfers seem to improve . We lack fundamentals and look like a badly coached team without discipline. At this point there’s no arguing this.
As I said earlier I still expect a positive season and this is a good team. There’s nobody we’ll face in the same stratosphere as Bama going forward , even Clemson. I saw enough of the o to think it’ll score a lot of points most weeks but will have issues against teams with better talent. So minus Clemson we’ll have the advantage on saturdays. If we can’t hit ten wins with this schedule there better be no extensions . That’ll make next year do or die.
The next few weeks will shed a good light on where manny and the program is headed , if we show up flat and uninspired like previous years after a loss then it’s safe to say we’re not improving , it’s just more of the same. If it’s the opposite then maybe things are going in the positive direction.
I try to be level headed and not too emotional on this stuff , that’s why I’m not taking too much from a game that nobody expected us to win, we were a 3 td dog. But I’m still not happy with things that continue to show up on Saturdays , issues we can’t seem to fix.
Now I’ll let everyone get back to losing their minds and talking Mannys replacement.
