Upon Further Review- Cheez-It Bowl

Lance, great work as always. It's maddening watching other teams play the last week or so and seeing their receivers make contested catch after contested catch, we never do that and then drop the easy ones. I told my son at the end of that game that we should have scored 50, so disappointing.
I'd say you nailed it, here. If you're not going to make difficult catches, I'd expect you're at least going to make all the easy ones.

Surprised at how often our receivers are trying to do fade-aways instead of attacking the ball. Aggressive, attacking receivers will catch a ton of deep passes, but also draw a ton of pass interference penalties. I don't want to use the "soft" word, but that's how it comes across on tape.
 
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As far as the Canes defense this year, I'm severely disappointed! Why? I don't want to hear about Covid, no spring and etc. The bowl game was the same as the regular season. I watched Cincinnati, Iowa State and other non Power 5 schools teams on defense less talented in bowl games. They looked prepared in those games. They player were in position to make plays. Now, they may have not made the plays all the time or because the other players were just better. However, Miami players all year were out of positions, not using proper technique , out of gaps, low football IQ and etc.
 
Really great breakdown. Goes to show that scheme is part of the problem, but not the WHOLE problem. A lot of the things that caused us to lose this game were just bonehead execution by the players, poor effort, or poor technique.

That's coaching. Really shows the importance of having experienced position coaches who know how to teach these players and get the most of them.

By the way, the time to iron out all of these issues is NOW (in the offseason). Come August, it will be too late. The only way to correct these kinds of problems is with a lot of repetition and by drilling it in to their muscle memory. So the time to work on these things is now, and through the summer.
 
That was worse than I thought it would be.

One thing I agree with that someone said is that Pope and Wiggins look like they completely lack confidence right now. I remember when Chad Johnson was playing for the Dolphins and Joe Philbin saying that he had "lost it" shortly after cutting him. And he knew it because everytime he tried to catch the ball he would catch it "bread basket" style and use his body to craddle it while falling down. That is a sure sign that a WR has zero confidence in there hands. I never knew what he meant by that until now. Is there anyway to fix something like this re Pope and Wiggins? Are they a "shot boxer" at this point?

I also remember Jimmy Johnson saying that football smarts in a player is something that is non-negotiable for him when evaluating. You can be big, strong, fast, agile..all of that..but if you are just plain football dumb there is nothing he could do with you. I also never understood what he meant by that until now. Many of our players might have 4.0 GPAs in the classroom but are definitely 1.0 GPA students on the field. Its clear as day when these "Upon Further Reviews" come out. Smh.
 
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The MIAMI painted in the endzones was the Dolphins logo.

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Hey, hey, hey! I LOVE the chain. Arguably one of the few things Diaz got right in his tenure here. But, it goes to waste when Miami plays like they did against Pitt, Clemson, UNC, FIU et.al.

Not going to say upbringing has anything to do with it … but Diaz has to choose: greatness or subpar. Par is 10-2.
the chain sucks. fans find it cute but when your culture is a disaster, you don’t rebuild it with fancy symbols of wealth. you rebuild it with humility, sacrifice and hard work. this place is all about music videos. it needs to go back to the studio and discover how to become relevant.
 
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Disagree. Completely. You build a culture with what you can build it with — yet it has to be authentic. A lunch pail may work for VT; it won’t work for USC. And, unless a coach is trying to build a different culture, to me, the chain is the best embodiment of a culture I would like to see for Miami. Bama’s “belt” was genius, but it would come off just as corny if they weren’t winning.

The chain is the best avatar in College Football and it’s right symbol; Manny, so far, and Richt before him, just happen to be the wrong standard bearer.
i disagree completely. i suspect
you don’t know much about culture, but not trying to flame so if you do, no worries. imo you’re copying the trappings of success (swag) not the ingredients that created it (work and trust and commitment). Jimmy’s teams worked and scarificed. It was about effort and competition. Manny’s chain culture is nothing but surface celebration and ‘look at me’, without the foundation that merits the celebration. It’s the embodiment of one of those iphone selfie pics taken by someone a moment before their car went off a bridge.

there is no winning in cfb without a solid foundation built on some basic and timeless principles. we can be a more aggressive D, and a more spread O, but we cannot be a bunch of skip the work, celebrate the moment morans.

And a coach who brands that will fail every tome. Nick Saban is going to bust his nut all over manny’s chain come next fall.
 
So, despite Murphy's Law occurring all **** game, we were still one play or one less bad zebra call away from winning the f*cking thing vs a top 20 team.
 
I'd say you nailed it, here. If you're not going to make difficult catches, I'd expect you're at least going to make all the easy ones.

Surprised at how often our receivers are trying to do fade-aways instead of attacking the ball. Aggressive, attacking receivers will catch a ton of deep passes, but also draw a ton of pass interference penalties. I don't want to use the "soft" word, but that's how it comes across on tape.
Oh that's cause they're soft. We've seen it repeatedly. After Clemson they had a fire lit under them for a game or 2 but they couldn't sustain it, except for Harley.
 
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I was happy to hear that after reviewing the film that Cam Williams had a good game. To the naked eye he was just okay. He looks the part thats for **** sure. Maybe it will be Harvey fighting off DJ for his starting spot and not Cam Will when its all said and done.
 
Disagree. You’re making the same mistake too many people around here make: trying to ascribe sentiments and abilities to Jimmy/80’s Canes that were never there. It’s every old wives tale spun into a meme — and it’s why you don’t know what the culture was, or was about. And, it’s why you’re erroneously describing Manny’s culture, and the chain, as something it isn’t either.

Jimmy’s teams were marauding band of bullies; work and sacrifice? Don’t make me laugh (on preparation Saban’s teams are way more disciplined than Jimmy’s ever were). Jimmy wasn’t a general; he was Siegfried&Roy trying to make sure he didn’t get eaten. Miami, at times, were MORE indisciplined than even Diaz’s team; they just had so much talent to cover it up. Yes, that talent was born out of work, but not necessarily sacrifice or discipline. They were gluttons.

You’re wrong, but you’re so married to the idea that ”ugh, chain, bad…” that you’ll never admit that you’re wrong now…If you ever would’ve in the first place; it’s not your strong suit. Diaz not winning has nothing to do with a Chain, or Rings. It has to do with not recognizing that the little things are the little things that destroy big things. It’s an “O-ring” bringing down a space shuttle thing. And in the absence of a Chain or rings, his style of coaching will fail. The same style that doomed Golden, Shannon and Coker when they were parading around the turnover chain. Oh, wait...

Nick Saban and “Manny’s Chain” has nothing to do with whether Miami loses. That will be determined by the 8 months of work leading up to it.
sorry i disagree and think you’re wrong. you also are inventing words to put in my mouth. the players from our day did work and sacrifice. discipline? that’s your word, not mine.

bullies? great. bullies have to fight. our team hasn’t been bullies since it was good. lsu knocked out andrew bain in the tunnel and we’ve behaved like guys who need bodyguards ever since.

there’s a reason a lot of our old guys think our new guys are weak.

if you think a turnover chain is the foundation of cultural restoration, you’re just mistaken. sorry.
 
If you need something like a turnover chain to motivate players to make a big play, you have failed already. its the most nonsensical thing ever.
 
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I'd say it's that were weren't well coached previously on offence - with no Spring / limited Fall Camp it's been tough for Lashlee and his gang to correct the bad habits the offensive players have ingrained.

That's clearly a very competent group - I'm keen to see how the offence looks with a full offseason.

The defence, unfortunately, is a mess. Beyond the play calling. Which is why I said at the very least bringing in competent position coaches who can recruit (important, but not vital) and actually teach the fundamentals of their position groups would make a big difference.

Oldham, I should've been more specific, because you are correct - Lashlee and his unit were very good this year for the most part, and they seem to know what they are doing. I can not question their competence.

But I was referring more to the WR's (and how awful certain guys are) but again, is that a reflection of coach Likens, or just very limited players? Because as @Lance Roffers pointed out, both Pope and Wiggins show terrible technique in how they high point and catch the ball in contested situations. But again, that could be more of a talent issue than teaching

Looking ahead, I actually like some of our younger WR's, and I think they should be given every opportunity to take a lions share of the reps going into the spring. My bigger concern is the interior Oline -- can we find two physical guys to surround Gaynor? If I had one critique of Lashlee is that he relied so much on the inside-read with a unit that simply wasn't good enough to move people consistently, felt there were a lot of wasted downs. But again, that's his offense/style ,and I get that sometimes you have to establish a style and identity, and dance with who brung ya.

Defensively, geez, yeah, outside of a few individuals, just a hot mess in every facet..
 
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Now you’re putting words in my mouth.

Not even Manny believes the turnover chain is “the foundation of cultural restoration” … LMAO … it’s just like every other bauble in college football, be it a lunch pail, an axe, a belt, a sledgehammer, a hand gesture … and even running through smoke. You lowering the discussion to write that is just weak.

Lastly, I really don’t know when your day was. It doesn’t matter. But you’re wrong and also overstating an attempt at a point to say that the kids today don’t know work or sacrifice. The kids today just have less leadership — which has nothing to do with the chain.
Looks like you're backtracking. We're discussing it because culture matters and it (turnover chain) is symbolic of manny and his false foundation look at me bauble culture. Manny picked it. He owns it. You chose to defend it. That's on you. If you t hink it's irrelevant, not sure why your defending it.

In any case, it's pretty clearly obviously and undeniably the case that our program's culture has been a disaster for pushing two decades now, and it's pretty clearly obviously and undeniably the case that manny hasn't fixed it to any standard anyone should respect. In his first year, he lost to FIU and La Tech. This year he got our isht pushed in by UNC worse than any loss we've ever had, then took a L in the bowl to follow. No cultural fixing so far. This program hypes 'swag' but delivers sloppy, weak, poorly executed faceplants. We didn't get known for 'swag' by the play we deliver these days, or based on the type of kids we have these days. Swag came from excellence. We now seem to think that excellence comes from swag. It's a disastrous misunderstanding.

You can defend your view all you want - but space me the semantics and strawmen. I haven't said kids 'don't know work or sacrifice.' You know that. I said that a team culture in football needs to have those as central elements. Those are really different points and you know it. Secondly, leadership is leadership - kids have needed leaders forver and while there may be more kids today than previously who do (unclear), there's nothing particularly different about the kids who need it - the old UM teams weren't all fancy background kids. The military takes kids from rough backgrounds and does a good job with them with leadership, and great football coaches do it too. Weak panzies who have never led anyone, on the other hand, aren't believable and aren't respected as leaders.
 
This write up was absolutely fantastic @Lance Roffers


This is y I don’t like the blame the refs argument. The refereeing was inconsistent & down right awful at times, but our play was just as inconsistent & awful.

We shoot ourselves in the foot way too often. Look undisciplined way too often. It’s absolutely maddening. The refs just add fuel to the fire; but my goodness, we just hurt ourselves w/ so many mental mistakes.
 
This write up was absolutely fantastic @Lance Roffers


This is y I don’t like the blame the refs argument. The refereeing was inconsistent & down right awful at times, but our play was just as inconsistent & awful.

We shoot ourselves in the foot way too often. Look undisciplined way too often. It’s absolutely maddening. The refs just add fuel to the fire; but my goodness, we just hurt ourselves w/ so many mental mistakes.
I'm going to be consistent. When people said it was all coaching or all talent, I have always said 'it's both.'

Same with the refs. The referring in that game was downright awful and clearly biased, IMO. We have every right to blame them. That doesn't, however, change the fact that we botched way too many things that were in our control. It's always better to focus on what you can control. Yet playing on an unlevel field is a problem and the institution needs to figure out what to do about it, or it's going to continue to get treated like an orange haired monster by the ncaa deep state.
 
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