Out Of Kilter

I have no idea what to make of the University of Miami’s football team, circa 2007. I mean, sure, based on results to date, the team isn’t that good.

There’s no doubt in my mind that the performance would have been better if the weak spots of the team on offense and defense hadn’t been further weakened by injuries. Losing the projected starters at the positions thought to be most important for the defense, Josh Holmes, Glenn Cook, and Glenn Sharpe, was a tough blow to take. On the offensive side of the ball, it’s impossible to know as an outsider whether Kirby won the starting quarterback’s job because Kyle was hurt or because of other reasons, but as it has turned out, no matter the reason, Kyle should’ve been the guy from day one, no matter what I wrote here last year.

I digress. Last year, Miami beat FIU 35-0. This year, the margin ended up being a mere two touchdowns. Have they moved forward, or have we moved back? Having A’Mod Ned gash the run defense was discomforting with A & M coming in. On the other hand, Kyle landed a deep ball with Lance, a connection that hadn’t been made since Wake Forest in 2005. On the first hand, Sam Shields has one (1) catch through three (3) games, for just seven (7) yards! On the other hand, Teraz McCray was able to collapse the pocket against FIU even while being triple-teamed.

I guess my figuring is that we basically stayed the same, and this iteration of UM-FIU was a much more unlucky individual outcome.  Yay?

Well, on Wednesday, another 18 brave souls entered the urban warzone that is the University of Miami.

No one would ever confuse me for an expert in recruiting, and with good reason. That being said, I’ll join the largely impressed crowd. I think this is a big haul, and for a couple reasons…

(more…)

As profiled here, Randy Shannon has apparently been hired as head coach of the University of Miami. From the profile, if you get the feeling I like Randy, you’d be right. That being said, this strikes me as a catastrophic mistake.

Miami Herald story

One of the key errors when Butch Davis left, and the most widely understood one, was hiring as a head coach someone who had never held the position. To rectify the problem, we go out and hire a coach… who has never held a head coaching position at any level?

The past four years, post-Dorsey and Willis McHeisman, our average scoring offense ranking has been 54 out of 117 and then 119 1-A teams. This season, we’ve averaged 19 points, good for 88th in the nation. And we played a freaking 1-AA team! So, of course, our interviewed candidates for the position include two defensive-minded coaches, a guy who only became a candidate when he went public with his desire for the job, and a guy targeted by a school with money to burn that has much better support. And, of course, the winner was the dude with no head coaching experience!

Allow me to reiterate: Coach Shannon is, in my estimation, at worst one of the top three defensive coordinators in college ball (and that’s counting Chizik, even though he’s technically now a head coach). His hire, though, doesn’t fix the problems this team unquestionably has, and certainly pisses the hell out of a large and vocal portion of the fanbase.

Time has run out- and I can’t write anything too long, but I just fervently hope the team gets through Virginia healthy. Roughly a fourth of the roster has been hurt at times this year. Jameel Sewell might be able to do some impressive stuff against us, or the run defense Randy Shannon has been using at the start of most of the games this season might be able to corral him. I also hope Kirby can keep whatever positive momentum he might’ve had going forward from his surprising start against Maryland.

This will be an ugly game. Not merely aesthetically, although that is certainly true, but as a fan of Miami football. The team that takes the field at the Orange Bowl tonight isn’t the team that miraculously blew out VT last year. That team had proven players and it had earlier bright spots in the season.

Virginia Tech is vulnerable, make no mistake. From what I’ve seen though, it’s not in such a way that the Hurricanes can exploit. We rarely get to the quarterback, which is how you mess up Sean Glennon. We can’t hit deep passes in stride, which VT has, surprisingly, appeared to be prone to giving up.

On the other hand, we can stop the run. Even there, we have weaknesses. I’m not revealing any secrets when I say that Brandon Ore makes the VT offense go. If Frank Beamer commits to running at Tavares Gooden, he will give up a play or two by missing a tackle.

Our running game will break one every so often, but Coach Olsen is all too willing to abandon the run.

It would be great if we pulled out the tricks and actually went against tendencies this game, but at this point it seems doubtful.

Needless to say, though, if we manage to repeat last year’s blowout at Lane Stadium, I reserve the right as a fan to say this was all a jinx.

For a look at the Miami offense vs. the Yellowjackets, check here…

The defense’s flaws are nowhere as perplexing as the other side of the coin, but that makes them no less pervasive. Currently we exist in some sort of bizarre limbo state where despite the legions of talent on the line, we can’t rush the quarterback, despite the sheer numbers of players at linebacker, we can’t just follow the football, and despite our tandem of the best safeties since Ed Reed and James Lewis, we can’t get interceptions.

(more…)

Of course there was going to be an extended post on the debacle at Duke. I just was waiting for a chance to settle down. Since I still haven’t, I decided to go ahead and get on it.

The overriding mystery to me is why this coaching staff refuses to put players in positions to succeed. At this point, it appears to be either of two options, incompetence or vendettas. There are also the minor problems, like displaying big plays we’ve spent the season setting up against, say… Wake Forest last year, and UNC and Duke this year. Last year, after spending eight games throwing a play-action receiver screen, we then went over the top to the opposite receiver against 4-6 Wake. This year, against the UNC powerhouse who fired John Bunting in shame, we unveiled the safety option pass, whose epic reverberations confront us even today. Finally, against Duke, we cracked out two unique looks. First, we threw the first slants we’ve thrown in roughly three years. Then we followed that with a bizarre spread read-option look. The only threat that poses to the upcoming schedule? Paralyzing them with laughter at Kyle lumbering down the field. His claimed 4.6 speed sure looks like it was timed by stopwatches at Virginia Tech.

(more…)

This was a disgraceful game. Everyone needs to go.