Commentary
I would like to see the staff take time during the bye week to do some self-scouting and reflect on what is causing Miami problems on offense. The goal would be to pick three things that are issues for Miami and focus on fixes for those three serious areas. You can't install a new scheme during the bye week so you have to narrow the scope of your adjustments. I'll offer three suggestions here:
1. Miami has struggled with CB blitzes all season. LSU caused problems against Rosier and Virginia caused problems against Perry. An adjustment that would help the QB's with this issue would be to align our WR's further outside. Both in the slot and to the outside of the formation. The reason is simple; it's basic math. The further away the DB is from the QB, the more time the QB has to make decision with the ball. Increasing the distance that the DB has to go also creates more space on the field the defense has to cover. I've spent some time during the bye week reviewing different offenses that are having success this year and reviewed Houston in college, Kansas City and Los Angeles in the NFL. All of these teams are succeeding for lots of reasons, not the least of which is putting the defense in a bind with speed and space. Miami can easily do that if they allow their speed to play in more open space. Move the receivers further out, Coach.
2. Studies have shown unequivocally that the most efficient area of the field to throw the ball is between the hashes. Miami has created an offense that lives outside of the hash marks. (Side note: This is most likely a large reason we run narrow spacing to the outside, so that WR's can run a full route tree outside) Too many times and I am reviewing plays and stopping the game to see that the defense does not even have to cover the middle of the field on a particular play and it really frustrates me. Having routes over the MOF also allows the QB running game to have another blocker available should they break the pocket. The QB's are missing plays over the MOF, but we are also not making it nearly enough of a focus on game day. It is not only WR's or TE's who can threaten the MOF, our RB's can be true weapons in this area as well. Deejay Dallas was a WR just last year and would be a weapon in this area if utilized more often.
3. RPO's- If you are going to run RPO's you have to force the defense to actually respect the QB run and the pass option of the play. Miami has fallen into a pattern of handing the ball to the RB on the dive out of this play and it has seen diminishing results of the play. It is obvious the coaching staff was working to protect Perry, as he kept the ball on the read far less often than Rosier. Edge players are crashing on this hard and Miami is not punishing them for it. Rosier is going to need to make this read a tougher play on the edge defender AND he is going to need to throw the ball early in games as well. There are two side benefits to this; it gets Jeff Thomas involved much more often, and defenses are not going to crash nearly as hard if they know that edge is threatened. If Miami were to take my advice on number one, the basic math doesn't just apply to the yardage to go to get to the QB on a blitz, it also applies here, as the defender has further to go to crash on the edge run as well. Give more space, Coach.
4. Bonus item! In my time watching Houston, Los Angeles, and Kansas City one constant that I saw from them was using motion to attack and confuse the defense. Jeff Thomas is the ultimate college weapon to threaten a defense. Using him on a jet sweep motion would get the defense moving before the snap even occurs and would open up several plays. How about an inside shovel pass to Brevin off of jet sweep motion keeping eyes on Thomas? Or, maybe a Gray shovel pass with the same motion and Brevin coming across from the other side for a wham block. Thomas motion across the face of the QB who could throw a "pop pass" to him and threaten a defense on the edge that way. H-back motion across a formation gets Brevin running before the snap and allowing him a two-way go to either run across the MOF, threaten the seam, or go outside. Purdue gets the ball to Rondale Moore with constant motion and then having him cut across the MOF from all areas of the field. Miami does not do this. I can almost guarantee this one doesn't happen because Coach Richt believes if you execute his plays to perfection they will work and therefore does not see the need to make things more complicated with motion. The results of the offense seem to suggest it is time to change.
The performance against Virginia left many opportunities to win the game out on the field. I will not deny that, but it is time for the coaching staff to rise up and start creating plays that do not require perfect execution to be successful. It is time for the coaching staff to create a situation where the Miami speed is in space and not requires NFL routes and throws to be successful.
Self-Scouting
I mentioned that I want the coaching staff to self-scout over the bye week. That isn't just for their own performance, but also the performance of the personnel. The OL is having issues with blocking speed, I would like to see changes to reduce the times this is asked of them. It is up to the coaching staff to make changes that address this rather than going into another game expecting different results with the same stuff.
What is Rosier good at? He is good at running the ball. He is good at reading one half of the field. It is time to design safe plays that allow him to get playmakers in space and not require him to read the whole field to find an open man. This is not working and it needs to change.
What do the receivers do well? Thomas is a HR hitter and the defense is focusing on taking him away. It is time to force the ball to Thomas on pitches, pop passes, screens, outside gives. Get him involved early. Harley is a great blocker but a limited route runner and has a small catch radius. Do not expect him to be a threat on intermediate and deep passes. Cager cannot catch, so do not rely on him to make contested catches all game. He also cannot block, so stop calling plays that require him to make sustained blocks to have a successful play. Asking players to do things they aren't good at in this point of the season is a failure of coaching moreso than a failure by the player.
Deejay Dallas and Travis Homer are both excellent receivers and the goal should be to get a LB isolated on them as often as possible. These throws are efficient and are intercepted at a very low rate.
Conclusion
I recognize that this article featured just as much commentary as it did film review, but I felt the need to identify issues I've seen to this point in the season and offer my thoughts. The coaching staff on offense has gotten a lot of heat for the results. In my experience that is generally due to players failing to execute on plays and therefore think coaches get too much blame. That is not the case with this year's Miami offense. The Miami coaches are getting exactly the amount of criticism that they deserve because in my review they have failed to meet expectations of what a coach is expected to do during games; give your players the best possible chances to win. Asking players to continuously do things that are not their strengths because the offensive system is rigid and not willing to change to your personnel is a failure of coaching. It is time for a change. It is time for Mark Richt to overhaul this offense and give his players a better chance to use their positive skills and to reduce the frequency of times they need to utilize their lesser skills. It is time for Mark Richt change or it is time for Mark Richt to fire Mark Richt the OC.
