Film Review: Florida State 45 - Miami 3

The Florida State Seminoles walked into Hard Rock Stadium and dominated the Miami Hurricanes from the opening bell. The final in Miami Gardens, FL was Florida State 45 and Miami three.

The Hurricanes are one of the worst coached teams I have ever seen right now. Missed tackles, bad in run and pass blocking, bad snaps, injuries, and ugly turnovers have been the mark of the Mario Cristobal Era in Coral Gables, FL.

This summer and pre-game, the Canyonero keys to victory against FSU were:

1- Contain Jordan Travis. Travis was bottled up on the ground, however, he threw for three TD’s and 16.8 yards per ATTEMP against Kevin Steele’s defense. Four different receivers had explosive plays of 15 or more yards. He picked up a key first or two with his legs, but it was his arm that won the day.

2- Protect Van Dyke. For all of Cristobal’s whining that this isn’t rock bottom and that this is a rebuild, he surely threw his injured starting QB in the game and subsequently added him to the IR once again. Van Dyke was averaging just three yards per attempt, but will likely be shutdown for the rest of the ‘22 season. Jared Verse came away with a TFL, a sack, and two fumble recoveries.

3- Stay focused, again. Yeah this didn’t happen. Four turnovers, nine penalties, a laundry list of explosive plays including early in the first quarter. And all at home against your biggest rival. Cristobal’s preparation and game day coaching are abysmal.

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The Doppler

Miami was a miserable 4-of-13 on their 3rd downs while allowing FSU to finish 6-of-11 on 3rd down and 1-of-1 on 4th downs. The Miami Turnover Machine was back, the ‘Canes turned the ball over four times with only one takeaway on a DJ Ivey interception of Jordan Travis.

Miami was the more penalized team, too. Miami finished with nine penalties for 72 yards, while FSU only committed four penalties for 40 yards. Miami lost the time of possession battle again, Josh Gattis must have cried himself to sleep.

Andres Borregales made his lone field goal attempt, a 49 yarder; while Lou Hedley looked solid punting for the ‘Canes.

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Miami O

The Miami offense averaged only 3.3 yards per pass attempt and 3.8 yards per carry. Four-star quarterback Jake Garcia is inexplicably terrible behind center. Garcia averaged 0.5 yards per attempt and threw an interception. Garcia has a Tate Martell vibe, while Jacurri Brown is bad, but there’s a glimmer of potential that Garcia is missing. Tyler Van Dyke left injured, again, and should be done for the season.

Brown hasn’t put the passing game together yet, averaging 4.1 yards per attempt with an INT, but rushed for 64 yards on 4.9 yards per carry (including sack yardage). Jakai Clark and Brown had a bad snap on their record. Jaylan Knighton had an explosive 45 yard rush but it was too little too late.

Miami only caught 10 balls all night, and Xavier Restrepo’s 15 yard catch was Miami’s long of the night. Miami’s O-Line allowed three sacks, a hurry and four TFL’s.

Above- Poor Tyler Van Dyke. Under Lashlee he looked like a potential 2nd round pick. Flash forward a year and he’s an injured disaster under Frank Ponce and Josh Gattis. Van Dyke toughed one out for Cristobal and Miami but in the end his arm wasn’t okay and I think he’s done.

Above- Jake Garcia has turned into the James Williams of the offense. It’s an experiment that might just be broken. Marsh got all wet for nothing.

Above- Nice little run backed up -3 from Jaylan Knighton. Knighton cuts off of the insert block from the TE and hits 40+. Miami’s only true explosive offensive play of the game.

Above- Miami dialed up power read (inverted veer) for Jacurri Brown a few times, it was successful for him. It’s a concept that’s been used against Miami very successfully by FSU, Virginia Tech and Duke in recent years.

Above- Athletic people doing athletic things. FSU’s defender crashes the mesh and beats up on the rookie, Brown. Welcome to the Power 5, bud.

Above- “How you do anyth...” woof. Mario Cristobal’s team has been penalized, careless with the ball, given up BIG PLAYS, and quit multiple times in games. This time you’re looking at some Florida High School SSAC 2A Championship type of woes.

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Miami D

The Miami defense allowed 45 points to the FSU offense. Travis finished 10-of-12 passing with three scores. The ‘Canes defense wanted no part in tackling running back Trey Benson. Benson rushed for 128 yards and two TD’s on 8.5 yards per carry.

RB Lawrance Toafili caught a 65 yarder against a Miami defensive tackle (Kevin Steal was back again over Kevin Steele) and WR Ontaria Wilson hauled in a 56 yard TD in the first quarter. The ‘Noles allowed three sacks, no hurries, 11 TFL’s, and Miami came away with not a single PBU.

Above- Kevin Steele never learns. He keeps going back to DJ Ivey in man coverage with seemingly no safety high after the play-action and Ivey is burned again. Maybe Ivey is a cover 2 type of cornerback who can run down on hitches, slants and in the run game but can’t run deep with fades and posts? Adjust your coverages to your talent.

Above- If you’re going to align Caleb Johnson that far out over #3 (inside WR) and leave Corey Flagg as the lone linebacker in the box, James Williams has to rotate down into the box and be a useful run gap filler. Instead J. Williams runs himself into a block and after that it’s an explosive play.

Above- It almost looks like Steele dialed this up with no true flat defender. I’m assuming the down end is a ‘blitz peel’ guy and in as much he should’ve stayed with the FB in the flat while Wesley Bissainthe as the boot cut-off guy on the QB’s outside hip.

Above- At this point no. 24 is already losing his man, the D-End is tangled up and the ILB’s are tripping on each other. I’ve never seen a three year arc of defenders falling over each other quite like Miami from 2020-2022.

Above- you can see Norvell here running the old school 22 personnel play-action into the end zone. Feels like Madden 2003.

Above- Bissainthe with the huge whiff on Travis. He looked lost all game against FSU. Completely out of his league on a college football field. He needs an OODA Loop and tracking readjustment pronto.

Above- Acrobatic pick for Ivey on the deep post. He ran with a slower route and made a play on the overthrown ball.

Above- no. 90 doesn’t wrong arm, which leaves the inside open and he is too deep up field. If he wrong arms this it might bounce, but it won’t gash inside like it does. The safety also needs to run down into the alley. He’s too deep on the rotation.

Above- Flagg and Johnson wanted no part of Benson. James Williams is a broken football player. I hope someone can come in and fix this issue, or it’s another wasted five-star at Miami.

Above- no wrong arm again, leaves the inside open which is where a G/Y or G/T counter wants to go.

Above- From there the team wants no part of contact. Cristobal hasn’t won over anyone at Miami. The media, fans, and players are out. He has to hope the Life Wallet dough keeps coming in so he can recruit the talent he wants and hope they don’t lose faith in him as quickly as “Manny’s players” have.

Above- Is that no. 15 having ZERO Football IQ on the field? Getting burned again? I’ve never seen such a highly touted player either being burned in coverage or so damn bad at tackling that he’s always on the ground. He could be Gurvan Hall part 2.

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The Wrap

I watched this game on the plane Sunday morning while heading back from a wedding. I’m really glad I didn’t waste real time on this disappointing performance. Mario Cristobal has a lot of soul searching to do this off-season. John Campbell, Van Dyke and Jonathan Denis were just a handful of injuries during the game. Mario and Aaron Feld’s injury management has been a nightmare.

Photo by Eric Espada/Getty Images

Aaron Feld, Josh Gattis, Frank Ponce and Kevin Steele all have to have a real plan moving forward. It can’t just be about acquisition, because Miami shouldn’t lose to MTSU, Duke or FSU if talent was all that matters.

Miami has three very losable games remaining on the schedule in Georgia Tech, Clemson and Pitt. A 4-8 start to the Cristobal Era with a team that Manny Diaz, of all dopes, could win 6, 8, and 7 wins with shouldn’t have fallen this far.

Who the hell put a defensive tackle on a running back in MAN COVERAGE?! Why are guys missing so many tackles once again? Some of those players have had just as much time with Cristobal as Diaz at this point. The blame can’t all be on Manny Diaz, he’s long gone.