When Diaz hired Lashlee, one of the points of emphasis was to simplify the Hurricanes’ offensive system to allow their offense to play faster, which would also align with the temperament of their attacking, aggressive-style defense. Essentially, Miami now has four base run plays — the inside zone, the power, the counter and the outside zone. Both Lashlee (from Auburn) and Justice (from West Virginia), have deep roots in running inside zone. Justice also has a lot of experience utilizing the outside zone, something Lashlee said that Auburn didn’t do much of in his time with Tigers.
“I think as a coach coming in on Sunday, after you finish playing a Saturday game, you very rarely look back on it and say, ‘Man, they were just all over every play we had,’” Justice said. “It’s more, we had a communication breakdown or someone fundamentally was bad. We never say, man, we shoulda ran more plays.