Yikes.

Miami got blown out at home, losing 45-3 to Florida State in a game that wasn’t even as close as the very lopsided score might indicate.

Craig T. Smith is here with your game recap

Mike Schiffman has your 3 stars

And now, let’s get into The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly.

The Good

• The potential of QB Jacurri Brown. He’s big, strong, fast, a dynamic runner, and has a cannon for an arm. He doesn’t know where the ball is going in the passing game all the time yet, but he oozes athleticism and potential from every fiber of his being. That is the biggest takeaway from this game for me.
• RB Jaylan Knighton had a 45 yard run.
• CB D.J. Ivey had a diving interception.
• LB Corey Flagg Jr. had 10 tackles
• P Louis Hedley had a 47 yard per punt average on 6 punts
• K Andres Borregales hit his only kick, a 49 yard attempt. These were Miami’s only points of the game.
• 9 chunk runs (10+)
• 11 TFLs
• 3 sacks

The Bad

• Losing. I hate it.
• Losing to FSU. I FUCKING HATE IT.
• More injuries. QB Tyler Van Dyke. OL Jalen Rivers. RB Henry Parrish. DT Jared Harrison-Hunte. It just keeps getting worse and worse.
• Only 52 offensive plays.
• Allowed 22 first downs.
• LOL yeah everything else is going in The Ugly.

The Ugly

• LOSING. TO. FLORIDA. STATE. I know I wasn’t as hyped up for this game this year as in any of the previous 22 years since I became a Miami student and fan. But that doesn’t mean I’m ever okay with losing to a rival.
• Losing to FSU. Just cuz I want to impress upon you that I hate it and it’s disgusting.
• The decision to play Tyler Van Dyke. It was clear to me that Van Dyke was not physically ready, and it showed. When you re-aggravate an injury throwing the ball out of bounds on an untouched scramble, you never should have been out there in the first place. I know TVD wanted to play, but it was malpractice to let him suit up. After the injury we saw him sustain a mere 2 weeks ago, there was never a chance he’d be healed and ready for this game. I said it all week. I said it since he got injured. And I take no joy in letting it be known that I was right. I think the choice to play Van Dyke killed any chance Miami had to be competitive in this game. Because the snaps that went to him should have gone to Garcia and Brown, helping to get them ready to play.
• 4-13 on 3rd down.
• 9 penalties for 72 yards.
• The first 2 penalties kept FSU on the field on their opening pair of possessions. And, in 2 plays and 3 plays following those drive-extending penalties, FSU scored touchdowns.
• I’m not saying that Miami would have won the game (I picked them to lose, remember), but I think things would have been very different and much closer had Miami gotten off the field without allowing points on the first 2 defensive possessions of the game. But yeah, after that first drive-extender, things got ugly. QUICK.
• D.J. Ivey got taken up top for a long touchdown yet again. This isn’t solely on him however; Al Blades Jr was supposed to rotate over the top in a 2-high safety look. Instead, the super duper senior stayed flat, not getting any depth on his drop — safety needs to be as deep as the deepest receiver — and never got to the deep coverage area he should have been covering. And the scoreboard changed because of it. Still, Ivey gotta do something to stop his receiver from running free.
• And, that play was a bit of revenge. Remember when WR Dee Wiggins. He did one thing well: running a post route from the left side of the formation against Florida State. He scored on that route in both 2019 and 2020 against the Noles. What route did the Noles take advantage of to score on Ivey along with Blades’ blown coverage? A post route run from the left side of the offensive formation. Synergy. And I’d bet MONEY that was absolutely intentional in FSU’s game plan.
• Tackling. It was atrocious again.
• Run fits. Corey Flagg noted that “(Guys) were just out of their gaps” when trying to stop FSU’s run game. And yeah, FSU ran for 229 yards and 3 TDs so there was much to be desired here for sure.
• Gonna drop the advanced stats chart here. Because it was a bloodbath so I had to move it down.

• 188 yards of offense
• 126 yards passing
• 62 yards rushing
• 3.6 yards per play
• 13 first downs. For the entire game. That’s a season-low, by the way.
• If you’re wondering, the number of first downs has dwindled in each of the last 4 games. Starting with 30 against Carolina, it’s been 22, 18, 17, and no 13 since.
• 0-1 in the redzone
• One (1) chunk passing play — a 15 yard completion from Jacurri Brown to Xavier Restrepo. That BARELY meets the minimum criteria for a big passing play, which is 15 yards or more. So, great.
• Allowed 7.0 yards per play
• Allowed 454 yards of offense
• Allowed 45 points
• Allowed 6-11 on 3rd down
• Allowed 1-1 on 4th down
• 4 turnovers
• -3 turnover ratio
• Allowed 6-6 redzone scoring for FSU. 5 TD and 1 FG
• Allowed 17.3 yards per completion
• Allowed 13 chunk plays — 4 passes (15+) FOR A TOTAL OF 164 YARDS!!!!!, 9 runs (for 176 yards).
• That’s (does quick math) 13 plays for 340 of FSU’s 454 yards!
• So, FSU gained 75% of their yards on 20% of their plays. All. Of. The. Yikes.
• On a related note, I can’t WAIT for Kevin Steele to answer questions about the big plays his defense gave up against FSU. Cuz there were a metric ton. And they all led to points. Buck back at that.
• I’m probably missing things, but I’m gonna keep it real with you: I half watched this game from the middle of the 2nd quarter to the end. I’ll have to re-watch the DVR recording and see if anything else pops out to me. But yeah. This was really, really bad.

Team Grades

Offense: F-

I could add extra minuses, but that would be redundant at this point. TVD should have never played. The run game was atrocious. The passing game was greatly limited because Brown is raw as ground beef and Garcia just confidently throws interceptions. Apart from Brown and one (1) run by Jaylan Knighton, nobody on offense flashed. And multiple guys left the game injured. This was an epic failure of the highest order.

Defense: F-(x 8.72x10^87)

This is a new low, and a new record for minuses. Not only did Miami have 45 minuses against MTSU and Duke (which we’re adding to this score), we’re going to to the power of the 45 minuses because losing and giving up that number of points to FSU is EXPONENTIALLY worse. There was havoc. 11 TFLs and 3 sacks is actually good. A diving DJ Ivey interception was cool to see. But Ivey himself was victimized for yet-another long touchdown. And the missed tackles were so numerous I stopped counting at 15. In the 2nd quarter. I already wrote about the terrible run fits, which were noted by Flagg Jr. post-game. But this was just an atrocious performance from top to bottom.

Special Teams: B+

One shanked punt, but otherwise solid to great punting. FG from 49 was nice. A couple returns were nice. Coverage on kicks was solid. I have no problems with this.

Coaching: Fireable

Yeah, heads need to roll. Plain and simple.

There is a clear mismatch between what Miami is running and what they should be running. The offense needs some spread elements. The defense needs to stop giving up explosive plays and 45 points a game (which has happened thrice this year, and only twice in the previous 6 seasons).

I know Cristobal is not concerned about this season’s results in favor of the future, but this team plays worse and worse every week. And, regardless of injuries, that’s inexcusable. I could go on and on here, but multiple assistants need to be fired or leave by their own choice. But this group can’t stay the same. And the scheme moving forward, regardless of who is coaching it, can’t stay the same either.

I know I’ve been saying performances have been fireable offenses before without saying current coaches need to be fired. That’s no longer the case.

Cristobal has to admit fault here and improve himself, and his staff, and he has to do it now. Because, plain and simple, this kind of performance and result cannot continue. Period.

That’s it for this installment of The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly.

Leave your thoughts in the comments. I know you have plenty of them.

Go Canes