The Good, Bad and Ugly

[TruCane81]

I give Gattis credit for changing the offense between the 20's towards TVDs strengths. The WRs and TEs stepped-up big in this game.

However, as much as you want to praise Gattis, it is still the same plays being called at the goaline. We can't run the ball especially at the goaline, yet Mario and Gattis keep calling the same predictable run plays that we can't execute. This is just insanity at this point. Predictable run plays on downs 1-3 against a run blitzing goaline defense.

How about a 1st and goal play action pass for an easy TD?

If we convert our 1st and goal possessions to TDs, we are 5-0 right now despite all the other team deficiencies.

Or the fade to our biggest receiver?

You want to tell me Young couldn’t threaten aTm’s defense with that? Never even tried to Redding, Ladson, or Key.

 

[jw410]

Why doesn’t GB3 play?

Also, do you think we should slow down on the DL rotation?

GB3 Isn't good I'll be brave enough to say it.. too weak for LB and too slow for safety.. No man's land. but at least he has that steak deal.

 

[423Hurricane]

Who is 70?

Oluwaseun transfer from UNLV 6th year senior

 

[BeastMode]

It’s a what have you done for me business and wins is all folks care about but I came away pretty positive. After all the negativity from MTSU then getting down two td’s there was some resolve today. They could’ve packed up shop after the early onslaught. On top of that adversity we lost three OL and Ts left early with the same issue. There was also some growth from the most maligned group on the team the receivers. Which leads me to the good.

Good

1. Gattis

I have to give some props to Gattis albeit it took four games to mold the offense to the players. He used more space and far better pace today. Majority of the alignments today had more space and implementing more Rpo played a big part.

2. TVD

Ironically after TVD has a sit down with the OC and qb coach about adjustments to the offense we saw the real TVD. As I’ve been saying quality coaches play to the kids strengths not the other way around. Great bounce back game after everyone was trying to make him the lone scape goat.

3. Receivers

I saw multiple guys grow up today and some show up and introduce themselves to CFB. Ladson, Brashard , Redding and my man Colbie Young took big steps. There was some confidence gained by that group and I look forward to watching their growth.

4. Sagapolo

Coming off an injury with no burn he was thrown into a tough spot and held up pretty **** well. I thought he deserved a shout out.

Bad

1. Run blocking

After seeing drastic improvement the first few games we’re now back to seeing the same issues from years past. No push from the interior OL which is forcing Miami to be one dimensional. I know teams have been outnumbering us at times because of the pass game issues but today there was times it wasn’t numbers , it was just guys getting their butts whipped. It’s very discounting to see that performance against a very suspect front.

2. Drops

There was a minimum of four drops today that left yards on the field. The rb’s and te’s need to be better in the pass game. 85 had a great day but his third down drop was huge , there was tons of grass in front of him because of the blitz. Tvd lofted a dime out there while staring down the heat. If coaches put you in that position you have to make the play. Same with Knighton on the fumble. It’s inexcusable.

4. Tackling

The missed tackles in space continues to be a problem. There’s so many tackle attempts where guys refuse to wrap up. The amount of YAC teams get off missed tackles is just insane. I’d love to see the stats with yards after contact by opponents.

Ugly

1. The redzone

The big bad wolf continues to be an issue even though we were gifted multiple first downs by UNC on one drive. Yet the coaches contour to be hard headed forcing the run especially inside the five. We can’t move teams so why continue to force it leaving points off the board. I know Mario is a former OL but at some pount he has to swallow his pride and realize this offense is better suited to finesse. At least until he gets his guys in. This is by far some of the worst redzone play calling I’ve ever seen.

2. Blowing coverages

In all my years of watching football I’ve never seen this rate of coverage busts. I mean multiple huge gainers two weeks ago and then more today. I expected to see a bunch of shell coverages , keeping the ball in front of the db’s but we still found away to give up free points. Once we stopped blowing coverages and missing tackles the game plan was good enough to win. When we made them drive the ball the ball things improved. There was thirteen points score after the early onslaught.

3. Starting slow

This continues to be an issue. Every week we start slow or are sleep walking and that puts you behind the eight ball . I feel like I’ve been griping about this for years.

4. Third down conversions

The momey down in football on both sides of the ball is third down and we continue to struggle with them defensively. If we can’t figure a way to get off the field on third downs the losing will continue.

Coming out of this i actually see a silver lining for the first time all year. All I’ve wanted was to see improvement from the staff and players. I know that sounds crazy but the macro has always been more important than the micro. We at-least know the staff all though hardheaded they’re willing to adjust. Even if it’s only because they had to. Now we need to see a steak of wins , moral won’t cut it going forward.

I was at the game so I finally got to see the whole field verse just tv and man did it open my eyes to many things. At the end of the day we are in a 3 game losing streak in which all 3 games we could’ve won with a couple plays just going our way/execution. That’s how close this team actually is to undefeated which is wild….but we aren’t and it’s bad. Most win the next few.

Here are my thoughts. The glaring issues with this game is wrapped up in 5 or so plays. I will say the team never quit or hung their head. They fought till the end! The crowd that did show us was loud and into the game. I feel that’s a positive for the recruits who were there.

Now the 5 disaster plays that cost the game.

1. Failing on 1st and goal from a few yards out. Not being able to get 3 yards running is pathetic. The 4th down play was just downright terrible.

2. Knighton fumble. He has major fumble issues and doesn’t seem to be getting better. Injuries to Don and citizen really hurting us here

3. Blown covered by Kam. Him and TS weren’t on the same page multiple times. What’s weird is Williams was getting in TS but coaches lit into Kam so it seems neither safety was on the same page. Coaches reaction tells me is was Kam who wasn’t where he needed to be.

4. Andy’s missed FG. I won’t continue to bring it up but the kid is an average kicker

5. Lack of running game. It’s pathetic. We ran right 90% of the time and I watched Scaife and 70 get their **** pushed in all game. Not sure why gattis keeps running right.

6. Williams missed 3rd down tackle early INT he 1st that led to the TD a play or two later on the blown coverage. He wraps up, Miamis off the field and crowd would’ve been hyped. Can’t miss those tackles one on one

Overall we lack explosive players on offense. We have zero game breakers which is wild to think that a Miami team has 0 guys who can make a play one on one and house.

LB are so **** slow and steele kept getting out leveraged by UNC using the entire length of the field something gattis refuses to do. Gattis wants to play in a phone booth instead.

The only fix this is recruiting and portal.

We need a huge class but I feel the coaching staff is good enough to win. I see adjustments and plays called correctly but lack of execution or just lake of playmakers to do anything when they are put in position.

 

[919cane]

Ugly:

MTSU - 14
UAB - 41

 

[BeastMode]

Or the fade to our biggest receiver?

You want to tell me Young couldn’t threaten aTm’s defense with that? Never even tried to Redding, Ladson, or Key.

I was screaming just throw a **** a **** fade and give our WR a shot. We take zero shots deep or in the redzone.

 

[Damiencane86]

good write up.

I actually need to blame gattis less tbh. I think its more of a HC meddling than a sole OC issue based on Marios post game comments. I thought gattis did mostly well to get tvd comfortable and it worked.

UNC is awful on D. we couldn't move the ball on the ground but that didnt shock me bc we can't run consistently against FBS teams this year.

im glad they still fought and glad no one folded. I feel like TVDs start and the offense overall kept the team involved and in it until the D finally forced some turnovers. end of half was great for both players and coaches.

more awful in game decisions that end up hurting us at the end (fumble on the players and wasted timeout on the coaches).

overall, this UNC team isnt good. even their writers said that all week. its just the best offense in the coastal and probably conference but they're not good.

were also not good from a coaching standpoint to a player standpoint either.

the biggest question mark going forward is what approach do we take offensively w TVD next week? we know what wrks for him and the WRs and what doesn't. we saw Mario wasn't thrilled having to play this way to stay in a game but the run first 1940 mantra gets your *** blown out by mack ******* brown.

mack brown still owns every coach here

Hard to believe that goal line possession we had without scoring didn't involve Mario mettling into the play calls at least somewhat

 

[insaneinthecane]

The bad: questionable decision making and play calls

Kam Kinchens. Deep safety on cover 2. Rule #1 is let nobody behind you. Huge mental lapse.

1st and goal from the 1. No points. How about a QB sneak?

4th down at midfield. QB draw. Stuffed.

3rd down and 9 on defense. Obviously a passing down. Steele drops Harvey into coverage and they convert which leads to FG. Difference in the game.

Final drive. TVD throws to Skinner who can't get out of bounds. In that situation he should have either thrown the ball away or ran out of bounds himself or thrown the ball to the sidelines where Skinner had to fall out of bounds to catch it Poor coaching and decision making. Never complete a pass for a yard gain in that situation unless you KNOW they're getting out of bounds or the first down. Cost us a chance at tying or winning the game.

Skinner should have gotten out of bounds on that play. That was on him, not TVD

 

[WestGA'Cane]

AND

Logan wasn’t abused. Denis is a different story.

And I was roundly chastised for daring to question the take (from a #' s prespective, not knowing AT THE TIME that wouldn't be an issue). The outcry for 'dumptruck' made it seem this was a no-brainer; one of the best interior OL prospects ever to come out of So.FL...

 

[Cribby]

I agree with you on everything but the drops category. TVD ball placement is still poor. He places balls low, high, behind (ALOT), and overthrows targets too much! Our guys have zero chance to run after catches and often have to make acrobatic catches. They kept on the WR but every week they show me they can catch the ball enough especially with the poor ball placement. The drop was big by will, but he made plenty of other snags where they were poorly thrown. Rooster fumble is on the coaches cause he the only one with fumbling issues and has been for a while! Fix that ish!! It’s on the coaches to drill down on him to get that fixed.

It’s big time college football so i don’t blame a qb for not having perfect “ ball placement “every play . I played wr and believe if the ball hits your hands you catch it. It’s not like guys we’re having to dive all over the place to make grabs. TVD didn’t have great ball placement yesterday but it was good enough. No qb on college football is going to put a ball on the numbers. Now if you want to use this as a negative for his draft potential I get it , but these drops hit guys in the normal radius to catch.

 

[423Hurricane]

I was at the game so I finally got to see the whole field verse just tv and man did it open my eyes to many things. At the end of the day we are in a 3 game losing streak in which all 3 games we could’ve won with a couple plays just going our way/execution. That’s how close this team actually is to undefeated which is wild….but we aren’t and it’s bad. Most win the next few.

Here are my thoughts. The glaring issues with this game is wrapped up in 5 or so plays. I will say the team never quit or hung their head. They fought till the end! The crowd that did show us was loud and into the game. I feel that’s a positive for the recruits who were there.

Now the 5 disaster plays that cost the game.

1. Failing on 1st and goal from a few yards out. Not being able to get 3 yards running is pathetic. The 4th down play was just downright terrible.

2. Knighton fumble. He has major fumble issues and doesn’t seem to be getting better. Injuries to Don and citizen really hurting us here

3. Blown covered by Kam. Him and TS weren’t on the same page multiple times. What’s weird is Williams was getting in TS but coaches lit into Kam so it seems neither safety was on the same page. Coaches reaction tells me is was Kam who wasn’t where he needed to be.

4. Andy’s missed FG. I won’t continue to bring it up but the kid is an average kicker

5. Lack of running game. It’s pathetic. We ran right 90% of the time and I watched Scaife and 70 get their **** pushed in all game. Not sure why gattis keeps running right.

6. Williams missed 3rd down tackle early INT he 1st that led to the TD a play or two later on the blown coverage. He wraps up, Miamis off the field and crowd would’ve been hyped. Can’t miss those tackles one on one

Overall we lack explosive players on offense. We have zero game breakers which is wild to think that a Miami team has 0 guys who can make a play one on one and house.

LB are so **** slow and steele kept getting out leveraged by UNC using the entire length of the field something gattis refuses to do. Gattis wants to play in a phone booth instead.

The only fix this is recruiting and portal.

We need a huge class but I feel the coaching staff is good enough to win. I see adjustments and plays called correctly but lack of execution or just lake of playmakers to do anything when they are put in position.

Another play that stood out to me was late in the 4th, 3rd and long for UNC and Steele calls a 3 man rush with Harvey dropping in coverage. Maye sees it and hits his TE in the flat and he barely gets a 1st down. Gotta give Harvey props as he ran him down and almost stopped the TE short. The camera panned to a Steele as he was calling the play and the announcers were as surprised as I was at the call.

 

[WestEndZone]

Macro observation:

 

[panthercane]

Definitely some improvement, but hard to see how this team can even score 30 in any game. I believe Mario is who we needed to change the culture, but in the mean time, F* us with the OC hire.

 

[miamimike]

We have sucked for about 18 years. We still suck. You could have make the same post after every coaching change since Coker. Until we don’t lose to teams that we are better than I don’t wanna hear anyones kool aid bull****.
Do I have faith that Mario can get us there? Yes. We have a long ways to go. There are positives and negatives in every game. The one thing that remains consistent over 18 years is we beat ourselves with galactic stupid and careless players & coaches. We are not good but last 3 games were all winnable. Didn’t think we would beat A&M or UNC and by halftime knew we weren’t beating MT St. Why? Because we never do. We don’t perform when it matters. The most underperforming team in college football.

 

[Kansas Cane]

Add Colby young to bright spot for us.

Definitely. Three plays on one drive!

 

[KingB02]

It’s big time college football so i don’t blame a qb for not having perfect “ ball placement “every play . I played wr and believe if the ball hits your hands you catch it. It’s not like guys we’re having to dive all over the place to make grabs. TVD didn’t have great ball placement yesterday but it was good enough. No qb on college football is going to put a ball on the numbers. Now if you want to use this as a negative for his draft potential I get it , but these drops hit guys in the normal radius to catch.

That’s not what I said. I never said it had to be on the numbers. That’s absurd. We run ALOT of short crossing routes, and the ball is always behind them. The receivers have to adjust on EVERY grab. You can’t create big plays if you don’t give the athletes like the Smith’s a chance to run after the catch. Especially since you’re not running deep routes or throwing into the end zone in the red zone. He has to get better at it if the offense will take the next step.

 

[Number1CanesFan]

I had a good night of sleep to collect my thoughts. Besides the obvious turnovers and giving up big plays, I think this is just what it looks like when you have a new regime establishing their system and culture.

Mario wants to be a run first physical team. That's fine. We just don't have the players and culture to be successful with that philosophy right now.

So, you either accept the growing pains with the losses to establish your system or you adapt to the players you have.

This goes back to the goaline offense. You either continue to try to establish your identity in the goaline play calling or you adapt to what the players can be most successful at.

I lean towards the latter. Even power teams like UGA and Alabama aren't running it everytime at the goaline.

I think the offense will be fine moving forward. TVD, WRs, and TEs are much improved and the plays are tailored to TVDs strengths. I don't care that the UNC defense isn't great. TVD made the throws and our guys made the catches. Some of the throws were NFL level, but people don't realize it because TVD makes it look easy since his arm is so strong.

The defense is what it is. I was angry the entire game at the mistakes, scheme, and personnel at times. However, at the end of the day, they only gave up 27 to a powerful UNC offense.

If we scored 30 points we would have won which leads me back to the 1st and goal possessions that have plagued this team all year. Thst has to get fixed.

What sucks is that this game likely decided the Coastal. I could see us winning the rest of our games except Clemson. UNC would need to lose at least 2 conference games and likely 3. Possible. They play WF and NC State. Two good opportunities for losses. We'd need someone on the Coastal side to hand them another loss. The Coastal Champion is likely 6-2.

To get to Charlotte, we're going to have to run the table. Mario and Gattis have to keep the offense full throttle and solve the goaline offensive problems. We're going to have to score 30+ to win games because the defense is going to give up 30. It is what it is.

 

[Number1CanesFan]

That’s not what I said. I never said it had to be on the numbers. That’s absurd. We run ALOT of short crossing routes, and the ball is always behind them. The receivers have to adjust on EVERY grab. You can’t create big plays if you don’t give the athletes like the Smith’s a chance to run after the catch. Especially since you’re not running deep routes or throwing into the end zone in the red zone. He has to get better at it if the offense will take the next step.

The passing game was not an issue in this game. You're just nitpicking. Nobody is 100% perfect. Not even Tom Brady or Aaron Rodgers.

TVD threw for over 450 yards. The passing game wasn't the reason we lost. Not getting the ball in the endzone is the problem. There are plenty of others, but that's #1 that can be fixed and has to be fixed.

I'm going to keep saying it. Despite all this team's deficiencies, if we scored TDs on our 1st and goal possessions, we'd be 5-0 right now. We've had 4-5 1st and goal possessions where we got zero points.

 

[hoops156]

Macro observation:

it sucks to see a 90 year old mack brown own every ******* coach we hire. god **** it.

 

[BeastMode]

Another play that stood out to me was late in the 4th, 3rd and long for UNC and Steele calls a 3 man rush with Harvey dropping in coverage. Maye sees it and hits his TE in the flat and he barely gets a 1st down. Gotta give Harvey props as he ran him down and almost stopped the TE short. The camera panned to a Steele as he was calling the play and the announcers were as surprised as I was at the call.

Yeah we didn’t blitz much and UNC got the matchups they wanted when they needed it. Also maybe can run I’m sure steele was scared of that