The Good, The Bad, & The Ugly: West Virginia Edition

Entering tonight’s Russell Athletic Bowl, Miami hadn’t won a postseason game since 2006.

Thankfully the drought is over.

Sparked by a quick striking offense that recovered from an atrociously slow start, and taken home by a suffocating D, UM defeated the West Virginia Mountaineers 31-14 in the Russell Athletic Bowl in Orlando.

This is exactly what Hurricanes fans wanted to see to close out 2016.

With so much young talent on the roster, the ‘Canes could be scary in 2017.

The particulars below:

The Good:

• Great way to close the season. The Hurricanes should easily be a preseason Top 25 team next year (although a lot depends on who returns).
• The improvement on D this year has been palpable. 5 of Miami’s front 7 players had 5 or more TFL.

• This guy is a total beast, and he is only a true freshman.

• I second this... Ahmmon Richards is sensational. Great down field block by Stacy Coley as well.

• This TD was set up by a great fake by Brad Kaaya:

• Talk about heating up......

• Yeah, he made himself some money tonight.....

• RJ McIntosh’s 4th Q, 4th down sack pretty much sealed the deal on this one.

• This is just fun....

The Bad:

• After the D got them ridiculous field position, forcing a WVU turnover on their opening series:

• Only 2 of your first 9 plays go for positive yards? No first downs in the first quarter?
• UM’s decorated signal caller was not at his best early on (nice turn around though).

• One bad second half drive for the D.
• This rule is sometimes absurd. The intent is good, the execution of it leaves something to be desired.

The Ugly:

• No real caption/description needed here? No offense to the Mountaineer fan base as a whole.

• This was an awful call. Travis Homer timed it perfectly. Swung field position by 40+ yards.

Team Grades:

Offense - Five 3 and outs to start the game..... inexcusable. The offensive line was offensive. But the big guys and Kaaya got it together in the 2nd Q, and AR82 provided a much needed spark when things were looking quite frankly, terrible. The rest was history. The RPO game in particular was on point in the second half.

B+

Defense - Freshman Joe Jackson really came on to close the season. He’s going to be sensational in the next few years. Courtel Jenkins made a huge play on West Virginia’s second series. The front 7 should be scary next season. Zach McCloud just missed a pick 6, but did have a big TFL. The future is bright for this unit.

A-

Special Teams - Travis Homer was all over the place. Justin Vogel was way too busy tonight early on, but did a good job.

B

Coaching - The Hurricanes has a perfectly timed screen called in the first Q against a heavy blitz, but didn’t execute. But the overall play selection to start the game was awful. And still too many penalties, and mental errors by a team in their 13th contest. But they quickly adjusted. And everything worked from the second Q on.

B