Upon Further Review- UNC

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It felt worse bc this season was a house of cards that finally collapsed. Most level headed folks knew it was just a matter of time.
Sure, I was worried we were going to lose to NC. I thought Howell would have a big game and had a good chance of losing. Never once did I think we would get humiliated like this and have a team run the ball down our throat for 554 yards and give up almost 800 yards and 63pts. It's inexcusable.
 
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Seriously they should bring Randy Orton in and allow him to RKO every single coach and James and start with a clean slate.

This program needs a strict coach to come in and weed the pussies out because until we do. We will not rid ourselves of these soft players until we have a coach that will put em down faster than Tyson put Marvis Frazier
 
Ivey’s footwork on the release is a mess. This goes to the 5-yard line because he simply cannot use his feet to stop a free release. I’ll own this one, I asked for more press and physicality with WR’s and Ivey has failed miserably. Bolden played hard in this game and runs it down (he’s standing on the opposite side of the field on the 30-yard line).
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To all those saying they quit, Miami got a horrendous pass interference called against them to give a 1st-and-goal from the two and held them to a FG. (Not pictured)

Here is Miami’s game in a nutshell: bumping into each other on the jet motion and the give.
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Tough to see, but #74 tries to cut Nesta, who avoids it and 74 leg whips him and trips him. Where is McCloud going. His gap is the cutback and he’s supposed to flow inside-out. Phillips trips over Nesta who fell after getting leg-whipped. Huge cutback run. Big miss by officials.
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You want to stop this spread-running game? You need your DT’s to get into the backfield and make plays. TFL.
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If I told you this RB picks up two yards on this play you’d call me a liar. If Phillips makes the tackle, it’s a punt and we get the ball back. Picking up a couple of yards leads to them going for it and picking it up (of course).
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4th down, no one for the RG to even block. No one in the middle of the field. Easy run. You think this defense is going to work?
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DT’s are the only way to stop this run play. Show you can get penetration and get them off the call.
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GO! What are you waiting for on the edge? He’s so confused he’s actually backing up. Phillips blows up both of the pullers on this play and makes it perfect for the force player to fly upfield and he’s actually backing up and I want to throw my laptop. Holy mother of everything perfect, how do you play this so badly Frierson? This gets a first down. Someone fight and get off a block and make a tackle downfield as well.
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Flagg takes the wrong gap. RB just waits for the defenders to declare and shoots upfield for 19yards.
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Again, their coaches > our coaches in this game. Five blockers and they bring four and we block three of them while giving a free rush off the edge. Embarrassing.
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The only thing I ask of our coaches on offense in the bowl game is to feature Brevin Jordan on more double moves.TD on the corner-post. LB’s/S’s are not used to covering double-moves.
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Jennings has no confidence left at this point. There is no WR to threaten his coverage at this point, yet he’s backing up because he just doesn’t know where to go to defend this play. Goes for 16. Nesta made the tackle. Say what you will, but Nesta and Bolden played hard the whole game.
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Run the same play again the next play and they go off the same C-gap that no one wants to contain, and it goes for 44-yards. Amari Carter had his entire competitive spirit stolen out of him on the play as he got run over, got up and buried back down again by an OL. I feel bad for him during film session. To protect him from having his kids google this one day, I’ll just say (not pictured).

Ran it again the very next play and penetration from Phillip gets a TFL. (Not pictured)

Grimes definitely grabbed the arm of Wiggins, but the ball is in Wiggins’ hands and he lets a kid take the ball straight away from him. Another referendum of who wanted to be here and who didn’t in this game. UNC showed up with a mission and Miami wanted to update the IG story. (Not pictured)

Bring pressure off the edge to try and stop that outside run, Nesta jumps inside and they just ride him out of there, Ford is useless, Frierson doesn’t know where to attack, it’s almost a house call right through the heart of the defense (lack of). Amari Carter was staring down the gun barrel as a safety on this play and just stops his feet and gets humiliated. What a film session that is going to be. I do wonder what direction Manny goes with it; does he stomp on their manhood after this game or does he try to build up their confidence? For the most part, his M.O. is to build them up.
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You will watch an entire season of college football and not see many edges softer than this edge. The entire Miami defense is just caved in. Frierson is looking at it and just making a business decision at this point. Complete lack of effort at this point.
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Remember the great 4th down play Phillips made against Duke? He made it in part because Jennings got into the backfield and forced a quick pitch. Here, he chases and loses his edge (my goodness Miami gave up the edge so easy all game). Toss to Howell for funsies.
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It was all game, friends. Over-and-over like a battering ram against our feet stopping LB’s. Stacey Searles had to be loving life on the sidelines in this one. Here, his OL forms a tunnel any professional surfer would be proud to ride through. Despite having this play run on us a bunch of times, no LB seems to want to attack it. At least Flagg attacked it when he was in there.
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Only two guys who showed any heart on defense. Silvera is 40 yards downfield.
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I think we are done here.

Overall:
To me, you can take almost all goodwill built up over this season and move it to the side. It is time to question everything. Does Miami and their administration want to be great, or do they want to be ok? If they want to be ok, I firmly believe we are going to achieve that goal. We will go 8-4 most years and have an occasional 10-2 year when things break right. But, if Miami wants to be a program that doesn’t get embarrassed by any team with a pulse, there are fundamental changes that must take place.

  • Coaches are held responsible for their performance on the field and in recruiting. I’m not talking about reasons things aren’t being accomplished, I’m talking about accountability for what is actually occurring. The coaches on the defensive side of the ball all have this game on their resume forever. This game was a game that costs people jobs or promotions. Manny Diaz was fired after a performance better than this one as DC and got busted down to La Tech before he came back.
  • Culture of toughness above all else. This program has been a front-running program above all others over the past decade. How many times has Miami gone out and played above their talent level in the past several years? Not many. How many times have they played below their talent level? Too many to count. That is all about the culture in that locker room and how they conduct themselves every day. It starts at the top, but it grows due to a refusal to let your peers accept anything less. Has anything really changed since Jaden Haselwood declared that the players didn’t care enough? You tell me.
  • Stop deferring to seniority. If a player is better, he plays. You aren’t lying to the locker room. They see it plain as day. Bradley Jennings and Zach McCloud aren’t as good as Corey Flagg and Sam Brooks and it’s obvious. Scott Patchan wasn’t as good as Rousseau and it was obvious. Amari Carter isn’t as good as Bubba Bolden and it’s obvious. The silliness about earning it during mat drills etc. is just that. Get your best players to buy in and actually develop them. Feelings are for failures.
  • Coaches who are not your Facebook friend need to be brought in. Coaches who have the cache and resume to question you and bring a different perspective need to be brought in. There are too many coaches brought up in the “Manny system” to question what we are doing defensively. This is Manny’s defense. Almost every coach in it is a disciple. How is anyone going to question the scheme when it’s what they were raised in. How does a team flourish when everyone was trained and experienced the same things?
  • Analysts need to be hired to understand tendencies of opponents and provide counters. UNC ran the same counter-lead play 11 times through three quarters and gained 297 yards off of it. At no point was an adjustment made. One defensive player decided to pick a gap and attack. It was what was coached into them every time but one (Flagg attacked the A-gap in error). There should have been multiple ways to play their zone runs put in before the game and had adjustments ready if the original wasn’t working.
  • Mental penalties have to stop. It’s one thing to get a facemask penalty out of hustle, or a questionable pass interference penalty. It’s quite another to be getting the back-breaking personal foul and unsportsmanlike penalties that Miami was famous for this year. Accountability has been lacking and that speaks to the people in charge.
Moving Forward
There is a bowl game to come. Transparency needs to be provided to the players and coaches about what is expected in this game or changes will be made. Not a threat. A start of a new standard.
@Lance Roffers

1) Who is your DC pick?

2) WHY ARENT YOU ON A STAFF!!?? You would be a GREAT add.
 
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It works great when you have a DT that lives in the backfield, a pair of NFL edge defenders, 2 NFL caliber LBs, and 2 NFL safeties, all on the same team.

Beyond that it has failed against every team with a pulse and even some without one.
Yeah, it's funny when people say that. I know you're joking but it really has been said. I mean how good is your scheme if you literally need better player than your opponent for it to work? Obviously, it means your scheme sucks ***.
 
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UNC lost to ND because of the talent differential
Lost to FSU because they were sleepwalking
But against UVA, I think they actually played like it was a meaningful game but UVA still managed to beat them. Wasn't a off game for UNC. How did UVA manage that while UM couldnt? This was not a good UNC defense but Miami really struggled to move the ball. I think Lashlee is avoiding much deserved heat because of how bad the defense is.
Lashlee is overrated. I think he's above average but he's not not what we've made him out to be on this board. I want him back for sure and do think he'll do MUCH better next year with a better o-line.
 
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It works great when you have a DT that lives in the backfield, a pair of NFL edge defenders, 2 NFL caliber LBs, and 2 NFL safeties, all on the same team.

Beyond that it has failed against every team with a pulse and even some without one.

It still got trucked when it had those players too.

Diaz truly believes that things like leverage, force, and gap responsibility aren’t as important as TFL. Pete Carroll, Nick Saban, and Jimmy Johnson would vehemently disagree. Whose side are you on?
 
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It still got trucked when it had those players too.

Diaz truly believes that things like leverage, force, and gap responsibility aren’t as important as TFL. Pete Carroll, Nick Saban, and Jimmy Johnson would vehemently disagree. Whose side are you on?

No doubt we need some football coaches on the defensive staff. I think we could mold a solid defense using our aggressive tendencies and combining it with some sophistication and principles behind it.
 
Great review!

Their overall staff is on another level from ours and it isn’t close. Just looking at your comments and how they strategized on all fronts and we have a lot of work to do as an overall program.

As of today we have a really strong recruiting class (on paper). Here’s to hoping the future changes are sufficient enough so guys are better coached and guided against teams of actual substance.
 
Great write up Lance. Couple of things I wanted to add if I can:

You don’t stop the spread run game by having DTs shoot gaps. That’s exactly what KILLS you, bc they will trap you and then there are only two LBs in the box that can be easily handled by the OL immediately getting to the second level. It’s why Manny has always gotten killed against spread passing teams that have run games aka Clemson and UNC. It’s why he was devoured by the Big 12.

As far as the players being put in a bind, each example you showed was a zone blitz. In the year 2020, a zone blitz is as uncomfortable to play against as the Wing-T offense. It’s a staple of Manny’s entire scheme, and hasn’t been an effective form of defending the pass since about 2010 at any level. QB sits in shotgun, the fancy stunts and blitzes don’t get to him and you only have 6 zone defenders against a wide open spread passing attack.

And finally, the LBs not playing contain is bc in Diaz scheme he coaches players to take the shortest path to the ball. So in the McCloud jumping over Jennings play, he is just doing what they coach him, in an effort to make the play behind the LOS. It’s a system that has never been nor ever will be successful against any above average offense. There’s a reason why guys Jimmy Johnson were so anal about gaps; it actually works! Diaz tried to reinvent the wheel, thinking he can TFL teams into 3rd and longs and turnovers. And sometimes he does. But never against legit teams AND HE NEVER WILL running such a bogus, unsound scheme.
 
Your right. This loss will follow every coach wherever they go. They can sit up in the Hetch like everything is good. but once either Manny fires them or they go down when Manny gets fired they will be hard pressed to find a job at any college level. They will wish they spoke up when it is all said and done
 
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