The Miami Hurricanes got blasted in the New Era Pinstripe bowl, losing 35-3 to the Wisconsin Badgers.

Here is our game recap by Dylan Sherry

Here are our 3 stars from the game by Matt Washington

And now, let’s get into The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly

The Good

• Senior S Jaquan Johnson with an early interception to keep the game at 14-0

• Miami set a program record for TFLs midway through the 2nd quarter

• Senior S Jaquan Johnson had a stellar game in his Miami finale. 13 tackles, and an Interception. Thanks, 4!
• Senior LB Mike Smith stepped into a bigger rotation role, and had a huge game. 10 tackles, 1.5 TFL, 1.5 sacks. Yeoman’s work in his finale for The U.
• Freshman K Bubba Baxa made his only kick of the night, a 33yard FG. Those were the only points Miami scored.
• Redshirt senior DT Tito Odenigbo played well in a starting role with Gerald Willis III out with an injury. 5 tackles, and 2.5 TFL. Solid night.
• Redshirt senior QB Malik Rosier ran for 90 yards on 3 carries, including a 62 yard sprint.
• Punter Jack Spicer had 5 punts for 205 yards. A 41.0 yards per punt average is a BIG improvement at this spot. Thanks, Jack!
• 10 tackles for loss
• 3 sacks
• 2 PBU
• Held Wisconsin to 73 yards passing. Which, by itself is great. But.....(we’ll get back to this later)
• Only gave up 1 sack

The Bad

• Losing. It sucks and I hate it.
• The announcement pregame that Tyler Gauthier would miss the game due to academics.
• The announcement pregame that Zach Feagles is not in NYC with the team and has decided to transfer (bad by timing; I fully understand his desire for a new start elsewhere)
• Junior DE Joe Jackson leaving with injury and not returning. Who knows if he could have come back to the field, but missing #99 hurt the Canes’ defense.
• Allowed 6/13 3rd down conversions. Miami WAS the nation’s leading team in opponent 3rd down conversions heading into the game. They’ll likely end there, but 46.1% conversions is OVER DOUBLE what Miami allowed for the season previously. YIKES.

The Ugly

• Losing, and losing the way we lost. Atrocious. Deplorable.
• Allowed 20 first downs
• Allowed 39:47 time of possession for Wisconsin
• Allowed Doak Walker award winner Jonathan Taylor to run for 205 yards and a TD.
• Allowed Wisconsin collectively to run for 333 yards and 4 TDs.
• Allowed 5.7 yards per carry.
• Remember when I said we’d come back to the fact that Wisconsin only threw for 73 yards? Read those last 4 bullets and you’ll see why.
• 169 yards of offense for the game.
• Redshirt Senior QB Malik Rosier. 5-12, 46 yards, 3 INTs. Another terrible performance for a non-Miami caliber player who Mark Richt insisted on playing despite not having the physical ability to do so.
• Continuing to play Malik Rosier. He should have never taken a snap for Miami this season, and Mark Richt not only started him, but played him for nearly 2.5 quarters before going to Perry. Disgusting.
• Redshirt Freshman QB N’Kosi Perry. After coming in to relieve Rosier, Perry went 1-5, 2 yards, and an INT.
• 5 turnovers (4 INTs, fumble lost)
• Barely 20 minutes T.O.P.
• 3 points.
• 3/11 on 3rd down.
• 6 First downs. TOTAL.
• ESPN’s announcers begging for Miami to move to the spread full-time. The repeated statements on this topic weren’t bad; the fact that Mark Richt has and will refuse to make the move that EVERYBODY SEES MIAMI SHOULD MAKE SCHEMATICALLY is the ugly part.
• Not playing the youngsters. No Jarren Williams. No Gurvan Hall. No DJ Ivey. No Gilbert Frierson. Barely any Amari Carter. Some Mark Pope and Daquris Wiggins, but barely any Brian Hightower. No Marquezz Ezzard. No Evidence Njoku. I mean, we were getting BLOWNNNNN OOUUUUUTTTTTTT in the 4th quarter. Why NOT give the kids game experience?
• There’s more. Much more. MUUUUUUUCCCCCHHHHH MOOOOOOOOORRREEEEE. But we have damn near 9 months to hit on all that stuff.

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Team Grades

Offense: F- -

169 yards. 3 points. Outright refusal to do anything new or different but relying on things that don’t work. Not good enough on any level.

Defense: C-

I know they D was put at a disadvantage all night long, but when you give up 333 yards rushing and 35 points — although, 21 of those points came off of turnovers and it could have been MUCH worse without the defense standing tall a few couple times — this is the kind of grade you get. Miami clearly missed Gerald Willis III, and simply played a flat, listless game. The TFLs, sacks, INT, and stops after TO’s are what have this grade as “high” as it is.

Special Teams: C

Kickoff out of bounds. Short Kickoff return. But a made FG. 41.0 yard per punt average. A nice 35 yard punt return. All in all, that’s pretty average. 75% C. Solidly passing, but not getting any gold stars.

Coaching: Fireable.

I’ve said it before, and I’m saying it again: the decision to play Malik Rosier is fireable. The decision to KEEP playing Malik Rosier is fireable. The decision to play Malik Rosier into the middle of the 3rd quarter is, you guessed it, fireable. And that’s before you get to the player rotations, or play-calling, or scheme, or lack of emotion, or other parts of the tangible results of this game, this season, and the last 16 games.

Miami is 7-9 in the last 16 games, but Mark Richt is a teflon don here at Miami. For comparison, a 10-10 streak (which, yes, included the worst loss in program history) GOT AL GOLDEN FIRED!!!!!!!!!!

I’m going to write more about this later, but suffice it to say that what we saw, what we have continued to see since the last 3 games of last season until tonight, is absolutely, entirely, completely 100% fireable for Mark Richt. And don’t even get me started on Jon Richt, who needed to go before he was even hired here. Or Stacy Searels, whose failings both on the field and in recruiting have had a negative impact on this program.

Massive, sweeping, wholesale changes are needed, and I’m going to continue to say this until they happen.

This. Was. Fireable.

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That’s it for the final installment of The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly for the 2018 season. It’s been.....something. Yeah. Something.

Hop in the comments and let your voices be heard. I’m sure you have PLENTY to say after that disgusting display of football.

Go Canes