Monday Musings: time for some addition by subtraction

IT’S MONDAY! Meaning it’s time to hop into our orange-and-green Scooby van and trek along the Caneville highway that runs through my brain.

1) I was in Baton Rouge last weekend visiting family, so I wasn’t able to watch all of the game. Every time I checked, QB Riley Leonard was doing something that was normally followed with a celebration by the team in blue and white. I would periodically check my phone (I would try to find a feed, but guess what - Hulu+ doesn’t have Bally, but ESPN3 will still black me out regardless, so there’s literally no decent way to watch aside from a feed/stream. Bally sucks, and I hate them with the burning heat of a thousand suns. *end of soapbox rant*) and each time the gap would be further against Miami. When it went to 38-21, I flipped it off and accepted my fate. The embarrassing thing is that my cousin’s husband is a Duke grad and a casual football fan (like most Duke fans, I imagine), and he saw the score flash at the bottom of the screen on the LSU-Ole Miss game we were all watching. He commented, “oh man, how did that happen” before cringing and giving me a “sorry, Craig”. Sympathy from a Duke fan who cares mostly about basketball. That, my friends is the bottom of the football barrel.

2) And make no bones about it - THIS is rock bottom. It can’t go much lower because 3-9 or 4-10 is now in play, and honestly, neither result would shock me. Miami could lose any other game on the schedule by any score, and it wouldn’t be a lower level of pathetic than Duke 45, Miami 21. This UM team is a really, REALLY bad one that doesn’t seem to have much in the way of heart. It’s one - again, as I noted after the MTSU debacle - that is rotten to its core. There is something just wrong with this group of players. Towit, a very prominent starter thumbing out a cryptic tweet after the game. A family member of another who is unhappy with coaching. You can search out both on Twitter, as I don’t feel like repeating them here. Point is, when it’s this bad - as in quitting late while getting your ass handed to you in your own stadium by Duke - crap like this is gonna start seeping out, and it’s seeping out because what’s inside that locker room right now is pure sewage.

3) And how does that get resolved? By pulling the handle and flushing it away. Mario Cristobal said as much in the postgame, that if someone isn’t playing hard, they have to go play somewhere else. And, well...yeah, he’s right. I’m sorry. There is too much natural ability on this roster to be 24 points worse than Duke at home. It’s time for guys who want to sleepwalk through the fall to hit the portal and go play somewhere else.

4) Notice I’m not calling for coaches to be fired or even going after Cristobal for this. I thought this season was going to go far, far better (and yes, I’m disappointed and unhappy with Cristobal for losing games we shouldn’t, as the head coach always should shoulder some blame), but I’m going to try my best to have patience this year. There’s no one that could possibly love this program more than Cristobal, and it’s not that he’s inexperienced and/or hasn’t put in the time. He has. The players have got to start playing with more heart and intensity, or they can ship the eff out.

5) Miami is favored by two points at Virginia. LMAOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO.

6) FSU-Miami was announced as a 7:30 pm game on ABC. This is.....well, just terrible. I was hoping this would be in a spot where far less people would see it. Unfortunately, this mess will be on display before a national audience. Sigh...

7) Prediction: Virginia 27, Miami 16. Colbie Young is damned good. Let’s get that straight. #88 has come in and looked like the best player on the team, and by a mile. But he can’t do it all by himself. Jake Garcia has had flashes, but he hasn’t had any level of consistency against either MTSU or Duke. As such, I’m not confident this offense does diddly squat on Saturday. UVa’s offense looked competent at Ga Tech despite scoring only 16 points, but Miami’s suddenly vulnerable defense (hello, umpteen missed tackles from Saturday) won’t be able to keep it low enough to compensate. Virginia is the better team right now and should be favored, so get those bets down on Virginia -2 this week, children. That money is free.