Film Review: Miami 0 - Louisiana Tech 14

Where do I begin? I predicted Louisiana Tech by 10 and it was 14, so I guess that’s something. In my film preview I said to respect the deep ball, watch out for run option-based RPO’s and pressure from the Bulldogs defense. La Tech came away with four sacks and four tackles for loss, Miami ended the game with three sacks and five tackles for loss.

I warned that Manny’s guys would look un-coached and unmotivated. I also warned that any team developed by Kurt Hester is going to be well put together. The touchdown run by quarterback J’Mar Smith was proof in that theory as he ran over defensive end Scott Patchan who played like Lattimer once they got him off the steroids.

Outside of a 26 yard touchdown to Israel Tucker, and a 39 yarder to Malik Stanley, the Bulldogs didn’t find much success throwing the football. So kudos to Al Blades Jr and the crew for improving in their pass coverage over the past month. Gilbert Frierson even camea away with an interception after what seemed like an eternity without a clutch turnover for the ‘Canes.

The run defense, however, left a lot to be desired. Justin Henderson ground up Miami for 95 yards on 4.3 yards per carry, Smith added 34 more yards and the nail in the coffin TD, and the team ran for 4.4 yards per carry as a whole compared to Miami’s 2.6 yards running and 4.5 yards passing!

5-of-14 is probably an improvement for Miami on 3rd down conversions, and the ‘Canes added in to the other stats by having more penalties than La Tech, more turnovers, and less explosive plays. Miami looks like what they are- a poorly coached team, and that won’t change with Manny Diaz at the helm.

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Playing slow

This isn’t much to look at as Smith jammed a throw into triple coverage and it was just a random incompletion. However, I want you to watch Quarterman and how stupid the defensive scheme is here with regards to how slow the linebacker is. If the QB just checks down this is a 10 yard gain because Quarterman is very slow at dissecting that it’s a pass when it’s not even a play-action.

Quarterman then he has to flip his hips and accelerate and he looks like someone who has played one game 50+ times versus 50+ games of football. That’s on Manny Diaz directly as he lucked into Shaq as a Golden recruit and then spent three seasons as his position coach and mentor.

Sadly, unless Quarterman dials up a legit football speed coach tomorrow, his NFL “career” won’t be long. I would love to see how they train speed, also how they practice. I think in practice as everyone sleep walks through the motions Shaq is out there in time to make this play but in a game situation it isn’t even close.

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This defense doesn’t play gap sound

Way back when Mark Richt hired the maligned Manny Diaz as his DC, my concerns (read about them here) were about Diaz blitzing himself out of position. That style works when you are lined up against worse talent and bad coaching. It hasn’t even worked well against worse talent and good coaching. Here you can see how the Bulldogs kept gashing Diaz’s defense over and over again.

Of course one linebacker has to blitz and Brooks rams himself into an offensive lineman which makes a ton of sense. But, it’s still okay right now in the shot directly below.

When you’re 8 years old coaches start teaching the pursuit drill, and how the back side safety or linebacker have to stay and slow play in case of a counter, a boot, or a reverse. We call it “CBR” in coaching. Look at the screenshot below, the safety ran himself out of position and the cutback goes right behind his ass. This has been a reoccurring issue all season.

Just watch the GIF, you can see how poorly designed and coached the players really are against run fits.

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What’s wrong with the offense?

You can’t blame the pass protection for the turnover here from Jarren Williams. There was max protect, plenty of time, if anything why not escape and start up a scramble drill? Instead, Williams throws another high and behind football for a turnover.

Williams had accuracy problems all afternoon and quarterback whisperer Dan Enos couldn’t fix Williams tendency to throw high and late all season long. In the GIF below, the issue is on N’Kosi Perry, not the offensive line. The line does a great job here and Perry fails to put enough air under the ball to get it over the defenders who are 7 yards off the receiver.

I don’t have enough time or want the bad karma to sit here and tear apart Tate Martell. We can leave it at he doesn’t belong in power 5 football as a quarterback.

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What does quit look like?

These are Manny’s recruits, on Manny’s side of the ball, absolutely quitting on Manny Diaz. He can blame Richt, Enos, Rumph, etc all he wants but these are his kids and his defense quitting in the bowl game two years in a row (read my Pinstripe Bowl review here).

This isn’t a talent issue, it’s a mindset issue.

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Summary

It’s going to be a long, cold, hard, off-season. All the yachts and party crashing in the world won’t help Manny Diaz now. From the low class move Dan Enos pulled on Nick Saban (which right now looks like career sabotage), to Manny screwing over Willie Taggart who is now at FAU, which would’ve destroyed Miami in 2019- this has been a low class operation.

You guys can get hype about tackling dummies in a WWE ring, I’ll save my energy for when substance arrives in Coral Gables.