Welcome back to this holiday edition of
Upon Further Review. Miami takes on long-term rival, Virginia Tech, in a place that has produced some great memories over the years but also some not-so-great ones as well. Enter Sandman is a really cool intro tradition in my view and one of these years I’d like to get out there and experience it live. VT has now hired James Franklin to be their HC, whom I consider a bit of a Mario clone, so I do expect the rivalry to return to former heights in the future. As for the game? See how it looked on film as we walk through it together.
First play from scrimmage and you see a wrinkle Miami is starting to lean into with split backs, but one of them being Malachi Toney. Putting him in the backfield with split backs really stresses the defensive rules as it is typical for back responsibilities to be a S/LB rather than a CB. It also limits the route combinations for Toney, of course, so there is a tradeoff. Lofton is lined up as the second RB and Pringle is motioned out. Standard inside zone run, but you can see VT is rotating from split safeties into single-high at the snap and Beck can get some information after seeing how VT spins it.
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If you want to know one of the reasons Brockemeyer struggles so much with power, this is a good illustration. He’s straight legged, on skates, and upright. The NT tries to lag this play and cross his face, he knows the run is going behind him most likely, so if he takes his right foot and gets upfield one step, then anchors his hips he could easily shield this NT out of the run. He doesn’t and the NT bullies him. The 3T does a good job getting into Cooper so he can’t release to the LB and let Mauigoa slide onto him which is why you see a free LB in this shot.
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Lofton makes a nice run and actually bounces it outside of Brockermeyer, but that lag NT/3T combo messed this run up inside. Brock has been a miss this year in my view, but he has shown that blocking NT’s 1-on-1 is not his strength, so maybe the scheme is just not a great fit since it asks the C to take the NT alone so often.
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This is a little wrinkle in the pass game on 3rd and short. They motion Fletcher out of the backfield to the boundary where it is already 2-on-1. VT got into a pressure look with six at LOS. Unless the edge gets a hand on this pass, or the receiver drops it etc. VT is going to never stop this play. Fletcher and Lofton lead blocking on a quick screen to the boundary with Marion is a slick call. You could also release the two and let them block and throw it to Fletcher if you wanted. A few wrinkles to start this game.
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G/H counter with some candy with Toney in motion. This is not a run play we have seen much this year, but it is a rage across college football. Whenever I preview games you’ll hear me talk about G/H counters in most of them for opponents. Lincoln Riley made this play famous when Hurts was there with him, only he would insert Hurts into the run play and create numbers that made it a nightmare with variations. You can see VT is spinning their defense post-snap again with their safeties.
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Unfortunately, Brock gets knocked back and long-armed by the NT or this run would’ve popped big. It is a nice run anyway because Pringle has great vision and wraps around Brock, but if the C could handle the NT (tough ask) you’d really have a dynamic run game.
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Look at Pringle press this hole hard until the LB/S finally commits to a gap, then Pringle cuts it off. Brock is stood up again, just a real problem for a team that wants to run A-gap runs routinely. McCoy throws that edge out of the club. The picture above shows where that contact started. In the old days that DL would then eat dirt as the OL jumps on top of him but they regulated that out. I don’t want to belabor the point, and this article is already longer than I wanted, but Pringle is a dynamic RB who does the little things (press the hole, understand his cutback lane) to allow the physical things to play (speed and physicality).
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Such a cool view that the ACC gives us. Between this and the replay insights, the ACC is far and away the leader in what they do for the viewers. Circled 11 so you can see how Pringle got him out of his gap and then cut off of him.
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Another wrinkle lining up Toney in the backfield initially but motioning him out to see the matchup.
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The gravity of Toney gets the defense to widen and Marion is wide open right at the snap. Nice play design here, Dawson. Nickel is caught peeking on the TE, but this is just a bust honestly and it’s because of the play design.
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Good play design gets Loton open for the TD. Bauman is in-line and Lofton is a sniffer. Bauman attacks the seam/corner, VT inverts on the other side and bails their CB to take Toney and the split safety drops down to take Moore. Lofton runs an arrow route right behind it and it is wide open.
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Jaboree Antoine shoves the returner down well after the whistle. Silly play. (Not pictured)
Right here the Thomas needs to be outside and through the TE blocking. He tries to slip inside, but as the force player that gives up the edge. If he spills this (outside contain across the blockers face) you’ve got it covered outside and he has to cut back right into Bain. This is an explosive down the sideline because your force player ducked inside.
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Lucas also ducks inside and gives up the sideline. It was really poor leverage by the entire DB group.
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Now this teach tape on setting an edge and leverage from Bain. Moten flows down the line and even absorbed an initial double. Gets held to push VT back.
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Thomas makes a mistake and jumps the flat and leaves his man wide open. He has the deeper and Bissainthe has the flat. Just do your job, Thomas.
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I talked about this on the pod, but here is how Miami has defended this H counter all season. They lag the nose across the face of the C and then have him just chase the puller and it leads him to the ball most of the time. Justin Scott is blossoming into the 5-star DT you recruited. Forces him to cutback into the teeth of the defense and Wesley (play he got hurt).
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Back-to-back plays for Scott. Right now, he’s an elite twitch NT who shoots gaps. We need to grow the run game consistency, but the light is turning on here. Drones shakes him off and keeps the play alive to throw it away, but it was blown up by Scott.
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Bell takes the wrong guy or this is a huge play (possible TD). This is a nice design as engages and then throws with a wrapper coming around to take the edge. Bell releases to second-level but he takes 63’s guy instead of the LB to his side.
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He ends up just tackling the RB but look if he takes the proper side this thing is out the gate.
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This is excellent by Carson Beck here.
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This is where Brock is good is on the move. He can get to second level and make blocks.
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Bailing on Toney to rotate into quarters on 4th & 3 is certainly a choice. VT tries to sneak the edge into the glance window but Toney just stops at the sticks as the CB bails. Too easy.
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Beck just needs to do this once or twice a game to keep that edge from crashing so hard. He pulls it here and picks up six.
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Fast to the flat. You’re seeing it all over college football. Tough to cover even when you have a defender out there. Not sure what their flat defender gets worried about here, but he drops rather than taking Fletcher. TD.
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This is a nice play by Pruitt, keeps his leverage at the snap and watches the RB flow. As soon as Bain gets upfield and turns the RB back inside, he beats the block and knifes inside for a TFL. It would be boring for me to simply write on every play, “my gosh is Bain good” so I don’t really do that, but on every play I could write my gosh is Bain good for something he does that impacts the play. He makes this defense thrive right now.
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At this point, the game is over. Miami never dips below a 90% win expectancy again in this one and in the 2H it never goes below 95% so I’ll stop here. I gave more detailed review of the early downs because that is when the game was ever in any doubt. VT hit a few nice run plays and they have some concepts that are nice, but it was a whitewash.
Overview
Getting Fletcher back in this one was a nice jolt to the offense as his power and pass blocking showed up in this one. Pringle, with his vision and speed, was just a block away or a few feet away from hitting explosives multiple times in this one. I highlighted one where he was tackled by Bell when if Bell takes his appropriate defender he’s hitting his head on the goal post most likely. So don’t get it twisted, he still flashed in this game and is the dynamic separator for the end of the season.
The committee is going to do what the committee is going to do, but Miami first needs to get through a game they’ve lost every time over the past 20+ years at Pitt this weekend. I’m excited to see how they look because Dawson really got into his bag in this game and showed some wrinkles and counters that expanded the run game and leaned into Toney in the backfield where he can run, pass, or receive.
