State of the U Film Study: FAU

General Observations after re-watching the game:

• Huge game by Joeseph Yearby.  The sophomore RB was impressive on the outside and between the tackles.  He already has Duke Johnson type skills as a receiver out of the back field. And he is underrated in little things, like how he protects the ball when contact is imminent.  The highlight reel below does a better job than I can at illustrating how well he played Friday Night:

• The most glaring problem on defense remains bad angles and missed tackles (more on that in a bit). On the play below MLB Raphael Kirby takes a horrid angle to the ball, and Tyriq McCord takes himself out of the play running head on into a blocker.  Gotta clean that up fellas (Though Trent Harris was the victim on an uncalled hold). Last year's D was not perfect by any means, but looked better than this against inferior opposition. Though Kirby did finish with 12 prolific tackles, you can see where they are missing Denzel Perryman for sure.

• Anyone seen Al-Quadin Muhammad?  He reportedly got some snaps on third downs and was credited with 1 tackle in the game.  But I don't recall seeing much in the way of any impact.  Miami could sure use a dynamic edge player at this point. Hopefully AQM's role expands in the coming weeks and he is up to the task.

• I feel way more comfortable with Michael Badgley on long kicks as opposed to short ones. Kid has a leg though. Also kick off specialist Jon Semerene has to do a better job of not kicking the ball out of bounds at least once a game.

• The secondary was a mixed bag.  Deon Bush had a sack and two fumble recoveries.  Rayshawn Jenkins had an INT (aided by some some pressure from Chad Thomas), But Dallas Crawford had 3 huge missed open field tackles that turned 10-15 yards gains into much bigger plays.  For my money, Bush, Jamal Carter, and Jenkins need to share his snaps. Crawford is a good special teams player and adds depth, but does not belong on the two deep. He did recover a fumble after Carter's monster second quarter hit (see below).

• Some of the problem with the first half passing game falls on poor protection. QB Brad Kaaya got hit 4 times by my count. If  the O line doesn't give him more time to scan the field, underneath throws will become even more of a stable of this offense.  And yes that means more dreaded bubble screens.  Trevor Darling has actually gotten off to a slow start at LT, surprisingly.

• Lastly, UM played a lot of interior lineman, with Calvin Heurtelou, Anthony Moten, Courtel Jenkins, and Kendrick Norton taking the bulk of the snaps.  Jenkins has an important sack, but also the play of the game with a huge strip in the third quarter that was recovered by Corn Elder.  Jenkins gets the game ball from the D line unit.