Some thoughts on the Miami-VaTech game, my first one of the year. Yeah, there's two ways to look at this, while Miami won 38-34 (after being down 10 in the fourth quarter), you could say they were a bit fortunate -- maybe downright lucky to a certain degree -- but they also left points on the board and out-gained the Hokies 508 to 394.
As the VT Hail Mary was ruled a touchdown, I thought things had come full circle to the Georgia Tech game last year where Miami began ACC play at 4-0 and then....well, y'know...
They found a way to win, and that's the mark of a good team -- to find a way when you dont have your best stuff. Bottom line, this was not a great night for Miami. But winning always beats losing. Some quick random thoughts on what I witnessed in my endzone seats in section 132, which was lively and fun. Some hardcore Hurricane fans there. I had a great time.
- Despite his overall number, this was Wazzu Cam, while he amassed some big raw numbers -- those three turnovers were killers. They not only were two in the redzone -- they were both taken back for big yardage. His first fumble lead to the Hokies first TD to open the game
The art of quarterbacking isn't always about making the big splashy play but just not making the bad one.
- Miami has not really missed some key parts early on this season. Well, on Friday night the likes of Jalen Rivers, Rueben Bain and Damari Brown were sorely missed. Markel Bell just simply isn't ready to protect the blindside of the most important player on the team.
And the defense simply could not contain and corral Kyrone Drones in the pocket well enough
Also the secondary got exposed a bit. They really dont have a true #1 shutdown corner. My view is that the next step for Mario Cristobal in building this roster is to add more twitchy athletes on the back end of his defense.
- Elijah Arroyo running down and making that tackle on Ward's INT in the 3rd quarter was huge. Im still trying to figure out why Pry called for a fake field goal. In certain games you just have to take the points. And at the end, well, it cost him. Yeah, Im not second guessing, I'm first guessing
- Rough game for the offensive line. And yeah, I'm concerned about our ground game. We just dont get that much push upfront, and there really is no variance in terms of how we run the ball. Am I mistaken but it seems like the only time we have used a 'pin-pull' concept was on Mark Fletchers TD in the opener.
- Im a huge fan of our defensive coordinator Lance Guidry, this is one of the very few times he got out-schemed and failed to make adjustments. All night the UM was out-leveraged to the perimeter and kept allowing plays to bounce outside. Hey, it happens to the best of them
- Finally had a great time at the tailgate and game. Got to meet Dale Dawkins (very underrated Hurricane, who was great in the 89 title season) and Lamar Thomas (who is all over the Miami record books) who tells some of the funniest stories you'll ever hear.
And I loved sitting in the endzone seats. To me this is where the truest diehards sit. Seriously, we were really into it. The range of emotions we felt on that last play from elation to devastation to finally being able to celebrate was amazing. It make showing up worth it
