Student of the Game Video Review Series: Miami vs. UNC

Manny Diaz was the last person to leave Kenan Memorial Stadium. He looked stunned. He looked defeated. In consecutive weeks, the Hurricanes lost in heart breaking fashion and the end of the Diaz era inched increasingly closer and closer on Saturday night.

The Miami Hurricanes have now lost six in a row to FBS schools and despite how heroic the late game antics were, Miami once again came out frigidly cold. After the first quarter the Hurricanes were outgained 176-12.

You couple that with the Hurricanes penchant for miss tackles and the recipe has been continuous calamitous soup. Miami sits at 2-4 and they are no closer to answers as the schedule becomes tougher.

You can argue the better North Carolina team is on deck and then you have one of the best offenses in the nation, a Kenny Pickitt led Pitt team, the following week. Miami isn’t good enough to continue its self destruct, self infliction type behavior and think it can emerge victorious.

Miami needs to see what Avantae Williams can provide at safety. That is putting it mildly. The safety needs to be the eraser in a Manny Diaz system. The pressure Manny puts on his kids by default with his attacking style tendencies requires a steadfast willing tackler who is a human protractor in terms of angles.

In this example you can see that’s not the case as the Hurricanes play pinball with each other in the secondary. UNC sets the tone early with a 50 plus yard scamper and score. The Hurricanes once again come out flatter than asystole. That is flat line for lay folk.

Offensively some of the same Achilles heels that protrude from week to week exposed themselves once again. Offensive line protection seems to fail you during the most critical junctures of the game. Miami also has an uncanny knack to send running backs into check downs as willing pressure missiles in the form of defenders go right by them.

Fast forward to the last offensive snap for Miami. A-gap pressured walked up, the center gets beat, the ball gets tipped and Manny Diaz remained somber on the field until it was time to get on the bus. When you needed your offensive line to make a play the most, they simply couldn’t do it. They were solid but not opportunistically steadfast.

Tyler Van Dyke threw three interceptions. Two were his fault. The final one was a result of the above mentioned lapse in protection. You kind of expected this no? A freshman making his first true road start against a conference opponent is never a sure thing.

To offset this you were hoping the run game could get going early, it didn’t. You were hoping the defense could make a statement early, it didn’t. The Diaz led Hurricanes fell underneath a mountain of early negative momentum that the added weight of freshman quarterback miscues toppled your chance of winning.

The simplicity amidst the complex. You cannot throw three interceptions and miss that many tackles and expect to win. So much to unpack this game. Grab extra popcorn with your pencils this week because Student of the Game has the extended cut. #BANG!!!!