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When you have seen the offense perform well over the last two weeks obviously people are going to be curious why. Miami now ranks fifth in the ACC in terms of scoring offense with 32.9 points per game and it drops down to fourth vs conference teams only.
Take it a step further and the Miami Hurricanes are scoring 37.0 points a game in the month of October. That is very good considering the canes played two ranked conference opponents who still rank top five in ACC scoring defense. (NC-State 16.3 PPG, Pitt 21.9 PPG)
The offensive line is starting to gel. Jakai Clark’s insertion at the center position is starting to manifest a beacon of reliability and blitz pickups have greatly improved. There is also seemingly a change in philosophy.
The Miami Hurricanes have won in consecutive weeks. The Miami Hurricanes have also won the time of possession battles the past two weeks as well. Rhett Lashlee and company would still classify as an up-tempo, no huddle team but it’s starting to take critical extra seconds to size up the situation.
We show a comparison clip when the Hurricanes snapped the ball with 33 seconds on the play clock on their first third down of the season vs. Alabama. The late walkups confused Miami at the point of attack and the play never had a chance. Now? You don’t see that as often. (Check out the Student of the Game vs Alabama earlier in the year for reference)
Measure twice, cut once. It’s an old carpenter’s adage. The Hurricanes have looked much better and Tyler Van Dyke has some qualities to his game that may be going unnoticed. He has a very quick release, when he needs it, and his pocket presence and sneaky athleticism has paid huge dividends in spots.
Finally, we address the elephant (you couldn’t tackle) in the room. Why has it improved? When Kam Kinchens has not missed a tackle this entire season that certainly helps. But what else has led to the uptick in takedowns?
X’s and Ro is the series in which the questions are asked online and we do our best to answer. There is even a 2 minute drill at the end of this where we go faster than the week one Rhett Lashlee offense. Canes are on a hot streak and made this season interesting. Let’s go! #CANES! #BANG!