FL Cane
All ACC
- Joined
- Aug 26, 2018
- Messages
- 5,880
There were a lot of major developments yesterday which affected the coastal division, and slightly changed some expectations that were made coming into this year. Here's the down-low on the coastal, what to look for, and how it affects Miami.
- UVA didn't miss a beat in its win against Pitt. The Hoos (as an alum, I can tell you that no one them Cavaliers) had a solid 30-14 win at Pitt, with a balanced enough offense and a dominant defensive performance. UVA's defense forced two turnovers and held Pitt to only 263 total yards of offense. In the passing game, Hoos QB Bryce Perkins went 20/34 - 181 yds - 2 TDs. Perkins distributed the ball well, with 6 different UVA receivers getting a touch. His longest pass of the night was a 33-yard strike.
In the running game, UVA had a total 129 yards on the ground but only averaged 3.9 yards per carry (ypc). Bryce Perkins had 18 carries - 44 yds - and 2.4 ypc. Starting RB Wayne Taulapapa had 10 carries - 66 yds - 1 TD - 6.6 ypc.
Takeaways: UVA has a legitimate defense which will give any opposing offense it faces major problems. Bronco Mendenhall is a **** of a head coach, and this is an extremely well-coached and well-conditioned team. As I thought prior to this season starting, our matchup with UVA on October 10th will be the ACC Coastal Division Championship game. Nevertheless, despite a solid defense, UVA had some big issues on offense. For once, QB Bryce Perkins was hit a lot. He's tough and is a tremendous athlete, but this UVA team has no depth behind him and will need to protect him more. UVA's OL also gave up 3 sacks, 7 tackle's for loss, and 6 QB hurries. UVA's offense was also only able to put up 310 total yards in this matchup with Pitt. This game was close in the first half and blew open in the second. UVA was finally able to get over the Pitt hump (they'd lost four straight prior) but this is not a talented or good Pitt team.
The Coastal is arguably the weakest division in P5 football, and right now Miami and UVA are ahead of everybody. This UVA team has a solid defense that will make them compete with everyone. Overall though, at least in week one, there was a lot left to be desired on the offensive side of the ball. Ironically, they sound a bit like us. We do though have more talent on our offense and a higher ceiling than them. I'd argue that their 2018 offense was far more talented than this year's, and they struggled against us. Add in the home field factor, and it's not unreasonable to see why we'd be the favorite. For Pitt, while I think our late-season matchup with them could be a trap game, I'm not expecting that team to do better than 7-5. If we could beat them pretty bad without an offense last year, we can manhandle them this year.
- UNC pulled a big upset on South Carolina, shifting season expectations. I was one of the people going into yesterday's game thinking UNC would lose to SC in pretty convincing fashion. I was dead wrong, Will Muschamp proved yet again why he's one of the most underachieving coaches in College Football. The second go-around of the Mack Brown era started better off than anyone could have expected. Being that we kick off at UNC six days from now, the stakes of this game has just risen dramatically.
For one, the argument can be made that UNC is a legitimate Coastal Division dark horse contender. This team will have confidence going into our matchup and will have a sold-out crowd at Kenan Memorial Stadium (assuming there are no changes from the hurricane) to fire them up. Nevertheless, there are some major caveats in what happened yesterday.
- 1) South Carolina will be a 5 to 6 loss team by the end of the season. While UNC wasn't expected to win and pulled the upset, this wasn't a stellar SC team. This was the same team that got blown out by UVA 28-0 in the Belk Bowl. Even then, there were multiple opportunities that SC blew to win this game. Muschamp coached scared and conservative, and his OC's Richt like playcalling killed any chance of victory.
- 2) Miami has a far faster and more physical defense than SC. In 2018, depending on the analyst, Miami had a top-ten total defense in the country. SC's defense didn't even get close to breaking the top 50. Yesterday, SC's defense allowed 483 yards of total offense. Against a far more talented, faster, and experienced Florida Offense, Miami's defense held that team to 304 yards of total offense and forced four turnovers (still mind-boggling how that could happen and we could still lose). Point is, Miami's defense is a massive step up from South Carolina's defense, and UNC will have some major problems.
Takeaways: The stakes for the UNC game have been raised significantly, and Miami cannot sleepwalk into this game. Luckily, Miami had no lack of fire last week and handled the adversity well. I still believe that Miami will win this game comfortably (comfortable being 10-17 points), and get rolling in the coastal division. UNC has to face a big step up in competition on the defensive side of the ball. While Miami has liabilities at OT specifically, UNC's defense doesn't come close to what they faced against UF. While UNC does have a good pass rush, they're not fielding any of the athletes that UF had. Again, Miami must be ready, but their upset win yesterday shouldn't be a cause for alarm. Any time any team shows a pulse, a good amount of our fans start panicking. Let's see what happens.
- Virginia Tech is in for a tough year. The castrated turkey's got upset yesterday by Boston College 35-28. Both defenses were terrible in this matchup, allowing 450 yards of offense apiece. VT QB Ryan Willis didn't look bad, completing 61% of his passes and throwing 4 TD's. Nevertheless, Willis also threw three back-breaking interceptions. Boston College did just enough to win this game. VT's running game didn't do much, only totaling 98 yards on the ground and averaging 2.3 ypc.
Takeaways: Overall, this isn't a VT team that will be much of a threat in the coastal. With two tune-up games and a bye week before our matchup, we should manhandle them. Miami's blown out the turkey's the past two seasons, and this season should be no different. While we always need to be prepared for this matchup, Justin Fuente is proving himself unable to turn things around. With a rash of departures over the offseason and attrition issues throughout the roster, this team will have problems all year. I like the timing of this matchup, and the personnel we'll be dealing with on the opposite side of the ball.
- Other Teams: Georgia Tech will have a lot of growing pains with the new offense they're running. It will take Geoff Collins about 2-3 recruiting cycles to get the personnel he needs to run his offense. Georgia Tech should not be a threat to us in the coastal this year, or ever. The last time they beat Miami at home was in 2011, and they've had 1-2 wins against us in that same amount of time.
