A bad season continued to be bad for Miami, as Manny Diaz’s Canes went to Durham and lost to the Duke Blue Devils 27-17. That marked Miami’s 6th loss of the season, and 2nd consecutive loss to the Blue Devils — a program first. Last week’s loss to FIU was also a program first.

So......we’re seeing things that have never been seen from the Miami Hurricanes before. And no, that isn’t a good thing.

Here’s our game recap by Gaby Urrutia

Here are our 3 stars by Candis McLean

And now, the final regular season installment of The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly

The Good

• Congratulations to senior LB Shaquille Quarterman, who set a Miami record in starting his 51st consecutive game today.

• A fake punt by Louis Hedley went for 21 yards to give Miami their first 1st down of the game late in the 1st quarter. Not good that it came so late, but great that it worked when we finally called it.
• RB Cam’Ron Harris walked in for a short TD to give Miami an early lead, 7-3.
• S Robert Knowles with a great diving play to break up what would have been a wide open TD pass for Duke early in the 2nd quarter. But.....(the bad)
• RB Robert Burns. He came in for an injured Cam Harris and gave Miami’s offense a spark. His 15 yard screen pass TD late in the 2nd quarter was his first career TD, and gave Miami a 14-13 lead at the time.
• Burns ended with a career high 18 carries for 48 yards and a touchdown catch on a screen pass.
• TE Will Mallory. Stepping in to the starting role after Brevin Jordan left the game, Mallory had 4 catches for 93 yards. I wonder what these numbers would have been had he not dropped like 3 passes.
• Held Duke to 10/25 passing. Which is good. Very good. But.....not good enough.
• DEs Gregory Rousseau and Jonathan Garvin. Each had 2 sacks plus numerous other tackles and TFLs. Yeoman’s effort and performance from them both. Just wasn’t enough.
• K Camden Price 1/1 on FGs.

The Bad

• Losing. It sucks.
• Losing to Duke for the 4th time ever sucks.
• Losing to Duke for the 2nd consecutive year for the first time ever, SUUUUUCKS.
• Blowing a halftime lead. Sure, it was only 14-13, but Duke was 8-63 in the last 71 games in which they trailed at half. Mark that 9-63 after today.
• Starting the game with 4 3-and-outs. Luckily, the fake punt on the 4th drive turned things around and gave Miami their FIRST 1st down of the game.
• S Robert Knowles missing a tackle on a designed QB run, which allowed Duke’s QB to score the go-ahead TD to put the Blue Devils up 10-7.......1 play after he broke up a would-be TD pass. Some famine to go with your feast, it seems.
• QB Jarren Williams. 11/26 for 143 yards and a TD. And sacked 7 times. Yuck.
• QB N’Kosi Perry. 2/9 for 19 yards. Ran a BUNCH bc the OL was getting whipped in clear passing downs, but that doesn’t excuse it. Sacked 2, but stepped out of/evaded at least 5 others. In less than a quarter.
• Even without DeeJay Dallas and Cam’Ron Harris (injuries), Lorenzo Lingard played a total of.....1 snap.

The Ugly

• So, so many things.
• The regression of the Offensive Line, giving up 8 sacks on the day.
• ALL the injuries. Navaughn Donaldson. Cam’ron Harris. Bervin Jordan (re-aggravation). DJ Scaife. Michael Pinckney. Amari Carter. John Campbell. The first 3 never returned after leaving the game in the first half. The others missed time but returned later. Still, Miami doesn’t have the depth to withstand this rash of injuries. At. All.
• The absolute and complete inability to block #96 Rumph from Duke. 3.5 sacks plus way more disruption and stats. In a game with Rousseau and Garvin BALLING, Rumph was the most productive DE in the stadium today. Which is a credit to him and the fault of Miami’s bad and depleted offensive line.
• Romeo Finley slipped in coverage on a slot fade to give Duke an easy walk-in touchdown to push the lead to the final 27-17 margin. Not his fault — players slip sometimes — but damn if that wasn’t crippling and debilitating to Miami’s chances today.
• 4/19 on 3rd down
• Allowed 6/19 on 3rd down to Duke
• 3.41 yards per play.
• 11 (!!!!!) punts for a 37.4 yards per punt average, which was way OVER the number and way UNDER the average for Hedley this year.

Team Grades

Offense: Fireable

17 points. More predictable plays. More terrible performance. More poor utilization of assets (i.e. the TALENT AND SPEED ON THIS ROSTER). More plodding, pro-style offense when the roster and evolution of the game of football call for a spread system. Fireable.

Defense: Fireable

Blowing a halftime lead to Duke. Giving up 27 points to Duke. Losing to Duke for a 2nd consecutive year. Not stopping Duke when you needed too. Giving up too many rushing yards to Duke. Blowing coverages to let Duke move the ball and/or score. Fireable.

Special Teams: Fireable

Worst punting game of the year. Kickoffs no longer automatic touchdbacks. Plenty of dancing on Punt Returns. And you lost to Duke. Fireable.

Coaching: FIREABLE

You lost to FIU for the first time in program history last week. You talked a big game about getting things right on many levels. You follow that up with losing to a Duke team on a 5 game losing streak and 1-6 in their last 7. And, in doing so, lost to Duke in consecutive years/games for the first time in program history.

This is absolutely a fireable offense. And whereas before I said it was a fireable offense for someone NOT Diaz, this loss and the trajectory of the program now puts Diaz potentially on the chopping block as well. Yes, at 6-6 with the losses we’ve seen and the WAYS we’ve seen Miami lose, Manny Diaz should fear for his job. Not Next year. Not in the future.

Now.

Miami is 6-6, with consecutive losses to FIU and Duke.

I’m sure you have thoughts and feelings. Share them in the comments. I’m very interested to see what y’all have to say.

Go Canes