A few days after Miami’s 33-17 loss against LSU, starting QB Malik Rosier took much of the blame for how the offense underperformed in Arlington.
“We went back and watched the film and there were a lot of missed executions,” Rosier said. “Some of them started with me; a lot of it started with me. They were small things that we missed that we never miss. Coach [Thomas] Brown said it perfect, ‘If there was no one in the stadium and we were going against our scouts, every blitz that they brought, we should have picked up everything they did.’
They did a great job executing and that is something that we didn’t do from the quarterback position to the receivers to the offensive line. It was a full team unit and it is something that personally I am going to take blame for. We got to go ahead and get better and we’ve got a team in Savannah State that brings a lot of different blitzes, so we’ve got to be prepared for it.”
On making mistakes vs. being unprepared: “I think it is a little bit of both,” Rosier said. “There were certain blitzes that they brought that we hadn’t seen, and the coaches said that ‘you always can’t coach every blitz.’ Whether we’ve seen it from them showing us or some blitzes our coaches didn’t show us, but our defense brings, so we know how to protect and we know what to do.
Some of it is just communication by the line, and the line did a better job today and fixed some stuff up front. Having Tyler Gauthier not directing traffic hurt us because he is the best at doing it, especially against a defense like that. So now we have a way that Tyler (Gauthier) can always control the traffic, control the line slides, and it will really help us protection-wise.”
How would he assess his own performance in the LSU game?
“For me this one was pretty bad,” Rosier said. “I mean, from my point of view there was so much more I could have done, so much more left on the field. That’s something that I can’t have happen, especially with our receiving talent base we have. I have to give these guys a chance to make plays all over the field…There were certain times I drifted across the field too fast. That was my fault. … It’s going to be a lot better from last week to this week.”
Miami is still sticking with Rosier as their starter, but also started giving N’Kosi Perry and Cade Weldon reps with the first team offense in practice this week.
“There were five racks with the first team, I had three with the first team, Cade had one, N’Kosi had one and Jarren (Williams) rotated with the twos throughout,” Rosier said.
If Rosier doesn’t get things turned around quick, he recognizes that another QB could take his spot.
"If I keep messing up, then by all means coach (Mark) Richt has the right to bench me and let someone else play. It’s one bad game and we still have 13, 14 more. I don’t plan on letting that happen again.”
Rosier is in the process of recovering after taking a lot of hits against a physical LSU defense.
“I was a little sore. I spent about an hour in training getting my shoulder, my back, and my neck getting worked on,” Rosier said. “It’s part of the game. My mom was telling me to go to the chiropractor. I haven’t been hit in almost a year now, so the first couple of games I’ll probably be banged up a little bit, especially versus that team. But my line did a great job, especially in the first half, of protecting me. It’s just like Coach [Mark] Richt says, ‘Every time I drop back, I’ve got to act like it’s a perfect pocket, whether it’s a perfect pocket or not.’”
One loss does not define a season with 11 games still to be played, and Rosier is playing a role in keeping the team’s spirits up as they head for a Coastal Division title.
“I talked to the team and told them that we still have a whole ACC Championship to play for,” Rosier said. “Obviously, no one wants to lose. It’s a bummer. The first game of the year, you come out and we are 0-1, but we are still in it. I don’t think anyone’s head is out of it, because we’re not. LSU is a great team, but we have other great teams coming up. We’ve got Florida State, Virginia Tech, Clemson probably in the ACC Championship, so we got great teams to look forward to. We can’t let this one loss versus LSU just drag throughout the whole season.”
