A very narrow loss that went down to the wire to a Top 10 team for the second week in a row.
Some would call this progress given last year’s team would have been blown out by both FSU and L-ville.
Assuming Miami beats BC, they finish 7-5 exactly where most of us thought they would finish.
If they had taken the knee against GT and walked off with the win instead of making the incredibly stupid decision (Dawson?) to run an unnecessary play (which risks exactly what happened), they would have finished 8-4. Really the only surprises this season was TVD inexplicably sucking, losing to GT and beating both TAM and Clemson.
The roster is noticeably better, the team is improving and at this rate, in a year or two, Miami is a Top 10/20 team every year and the roster is stacked. Get a QB with a clue and the team is pretty good year in and year out again.
Can Miami win an NC again? Maybe not because the stars really have to line up for that to happen now. It was easy for Miami to go undefeated in the Big East and then if they won their bowl game, they were national champs. Now they have to win the ACC, much harder, and go through a playoff scheme to win an NC; a much more difficult task.
So, Mario is doing his job IMHO, rebuilding the roster with very good players. I think most of us underestimated how weak the roster was when he took over. He will have to out talent most teams because he doesn’t seem to be a great tactician. His expertise is the trenches. He will need great coordinators to succeed.
This is a great breakdown of where I stand too. I get that people are always down after a loss but there is year-on-year improvement with this team’s play. And considering this is the first year for both coordinators, there’s a lot of learning to be done, and even SOME excusable QB difficulties.
We get a QB who is less perennially injured and less prone to throwing INTS and this team immediately improves. It’s hard to say who’s at the helm next year, but this team should improve if the recruiting keeps steady.
Yes. To repeat it again so it sinks in, Mario completely dropped the ball with his first-year coordinators, so we had to start from scratch again this year.
Sure, that’s a strike against him, but it’s also a positive if he made decisive changes to fix things. Jury’s still out on Dawson, I think, but Guidry seems like a slam dunk.
Nobody here can deny that this team’s conditioning is better than it’s been in 10-15 years.
I think most would agree that the combination of Oline/Dline is better than it’s been in about the same time frame.
If we seriously keep these improvements up, fans will have a lot to be happy about.
As long as the train is headed in the right direction, this team’s worth supporting.
But here’s the problem- we do this every season right…
Oh- this got better and this looks better….
And then there’s hope…
Until boom! Someone comes and scoops that guy and we start from scratch again.
Just give me a year where everything is clicking. I’m not even asking for undefeated or top ten. Give me a 2 loss year. How long has it been since Miami only dropped 2?
Would you rather be FSU? 10-0 and Jordan Travis done for the year on a compound leg fracture vs. Northern Alabama. Jeez! Just a horrible end to the season.
Late hits on Miami’s QB were’nt called. Louisville’s O-line were holding (sometimes tackling) but the refs seemed to be ignoring it. Last week…after watching a safety not getting called when the FSU’s QB was sacked in the end-zone you almost get the impression that the refs are in the tank for certain teams when they play Miami.
What ticks me off is that Miami has capable RB’s but who don’t seem to read a blitz and pick up a pass block to help the QB. You couldn’t help but admire Frank Gore’s ability to do it .
Haven’t watched the game yet. I’ve been on business in Boston, and American Airlines canceled my first class return trip, so I was re-rooted in awful seats to Louisville, then Dallas, and lastly to Mobile where I had to rent a car to get back to the Pensacola Airport. It took me 17 hours in all to get home. The ordeal was physically taxing on an 80 year old guy, but Boston is one of my favorite towns. Love those lobster rolls.
We didn’t win, but like last week, we actually could have won this game. Yes, Guidry is an exceptional hire. His defensive success at Marshall was no accident. Physically, Miami is a helluva lot tougher than in the recent past, tougher than Clemson, FSU, or Louisville.
Our problem is at QB. While I admire Emory’s attitude, I don’t think he’s the guy who can bring us to the next level. In fact, I think his play has been awful. Mario needs to bring in some QBs, preferably ones who not only have arm talent but who are elusive and can rush the football. A freshman can play QB dependent on his skills. It’s an asinine presumption that a freshman cannot lead a team.
It’s hard to render, perhaps even unfair to render a judgment on Dawson considering the QB talent on this team. BUT, I dislike the lack of motion in our offense and the lack of deceptiveness in execution. Hard to believe that we have several strapping TEs who rarely touch the football. Our rushing attack is limited by having slow, plodding QBs. In the red zone, I fail to understand why we don’t have two backs in the backfield to power us into the end zone. Nothing dispirits me more than the no back backfield which requires swift execution or the QB is mauled. Dawson needs to display tangible improvement next year or be replaced.
On the national scene, it seems to me its Georgia and Alabama.
Miami has improved. It sucks they lost to georgia tech and Nc state. Miami is not a better team than Louisville this year. They played well against a good team.
I disagree that Miami can’t win again. Miami best rb is a freshman , their best ol is a freshman, their best CB is a freshman, their best dl is a freshman. The roster continues to improve. If you added a wr like Keon Coleman to this team…Miami has 9 wins. They are close….know that is hard considering how long it’s been.
Everyone is sick of losing, that’s understandable. Miami hasn’t had an elite team for 20 years.
But, one has to maintain some perspective. Novell struggled his first two years at FSU. Kirby Smart inherited a 10 win team from Richt and went 7-5 his first season. In both cases, some fans wanted them fired.
Miami is in position to have another Top 10 recruiting class this year. That’s were the turnaround starts. The best teams win 9+ games/season mostly by out talenting opponents and their W/L ups and downs are largely dictated by injuries to key players and QB play. Two more excellent recruiting classes and Miami isn’t getting out talented very often.
I’m optimistic that Miami will be a perennial Top 10 team again. An NC is another matter because so many variables have to fall into place for that to happen.
Mario inherited a really lame team from Diaz while Richt inherited a pretty good roster from AG, etc.
I think the only really bad HC out of that group was Randy. A good DC but not HC at a major program material.
The “fire MC” crowd are idiots IMHO. His buyout is huge and the guy is one of the best recruiters in college football. Given a decent QB, Miami might win 9+ games next season.
The only team Miami lost to this season that they should have beaten was GT. NC State (away) is as good as Miami and TVD gave that game away not the coaches. Beating Clemson and TAM were solid wins.
It’s the QUARTERBACK! At one time, we were Quarterback U. How the mighty have fallen. Just think how we’d have mauled FSU this year if their QB was our QB. Instead, it was a torture year for Miami fans. I am sick and tired of being tortured.
Notice how Rashada has had a terrible time at ASU. Schadenfreude.
This will go against the grain of most on this board but I’m happy with Mario. I’m not blind to some of his coaching decisions but I give him credit for getting rid of a staff that didn’t belong and recruiting guys who do. I like Guidry a lot and the jury is still out on Dawson for me.
Listen, this could be an undefeated team…COULD be. GT we should have won, with a QB we beat FSU and with some better play calling we beat Louisville. I know TAMU and Clemson are not where they used to be but we still beat them.
I have seen a lot of progress, the guys play hard (still need work on tackling), our staff seems to gel better this year.
Mario will always recruit well. He has played the portal well. In today’s college football world we just don’t know who will stay and who will leave from year to year so who knows what we are left with at the end of the season but between recruiting and the portal I just see us getting better each year.
The glory days are gone guys. Stop living in the past. We dominated for a long time in college football and probably should have 8 or 9 championships. Mario had to come in and totally change the culture. He will get it right and we will be fine, just may not be in YOUR timeframe.
