Welcome to the rest of this season. Four games. In the driver’s seat.
Destination Jacksonville.
I have no idea how all this will play out, but I’m taking the higher road here and employing a more optimistic approach to the final four match ups of 2007. I’m not saying the Canes will win out – but I’m saying that with the right attitude and style of play, it’s not crazy to believe Miami could make a magical run.
The phrase “game of the year” is played out and I definitely use it tongue in cheek here. But it’s pertinent. This is Part I of a four-part series. Each of the next four weekends will feature a ‘game of the year’ by Canes’ standards. They’re all ‘must win’ situations, each is bigger than the next and it all starts this Saturday.
There are a few schools of thought regarding Miami right now. Log on to any message board and you’ll see the fan base is absolutely all over the map. Pessimism. Blind optimism. Sheer stupidity. You name it, you’ll find it.
I’ve had some folks share with me they feel the Florida State win was the turning point. That was the game. This team ‘gets it’ now regarding Randy Shannon and his message about starting games fast, playing smart and finishing with a bang. The win over the Noles followed that blueprint to a ‘T’.
I don’t have issue with those sentiments, but I need to see it proven on the field. I thought Miami turned the corner against Texas A&M, outside of a sloppy fourth quarter (i.e. – not finishing a game) but the Canes have lost twice since then. Corner obviously not turned.
There’s some merit to the belief that Miami’s win over Florida State can be that shot in the arm this squad needed to finish this season. A bye week to get healthy, two home games in a row – including the Orange Bowl finale next weekend – and then two difficult road challenges to close things out.
Players again are saying all the right thing. Dedrick Epps was quoted this week as saying Miami needs to play every game like its last. He’s right – but will they? There’s been a lot of lip service this year and not all of it has been backed up. I’m over calling people out individually, but I’ll remind people of the quote, “it’s not if we beat Oklahoma, it’s when” days before the 51-13 ass kicking handed to The U.
This is do or die time. Put up or shut up. Money where your mouth is or whatever other trite, played out cliche you can muster up. The time for talking is done. It’s time to “do” for the remaining sixteen quarters of football this season.
Another loss and I truly believe the wheels fall off for the remainder of the regular season. Miami isn’t going to lose to an NC State or Virginia and then go out to beat Virginia Tech or Boston College. It’s a head game right now similar to the mindtrip the Colorado Rockies had the final month or so of the MLB season. Once they were tagged in the mouth by Boston, the Cinderella story became a nightmare and the Rockies lost four straight to the Red Sox.
A drastic analogy, but I believe it works here. Miami needs to go on a four game tear and play some clutch football. Each win being a building block for the next week. One game at a time (cliche alert).
Word is Kirby Freeman will be the go to guy on Saturday, with Kyle Wright still hobbled. Again, whatever it takes. Freeman on his best day is still less than a pretty good Wright, but it needs to be good enough to beat the Wolfpack. NC State is a turnover-prone 3-5 bunch headed to the OB. Even with a Freeman behind center, there needs to be enough in the tank to run over this team offensively and defensively.
A year or so ago, Miami’s defense boasted that 17 points per game was enough to guarantee victory. The Canes have lost 51-13, 33-27 and 17-14 this year and failed to reach that 17-point plateau one of three occasions. The mighty D has given up 101 total points in the three losses. That’s unacceptable.
To win out, the Canes have to get back to basics and become a defensive-minded football team. Continue pressing for turnovers. Blitz quarterbacks who can’t handle the pressure. Sounds simple, but Miami failed to do that against Taylor Bennett in the loss to the Yellow Jackets, yet when Virgina Tech rattled Bennett last night, he looked lost in the 27-3 beat down.
Miami needs to come up with the correct defensive formula these final four games and simply needs to minimize offensive mistakes. This Canes offense is no juggernaut, but it looks infinitely better than the product on the field 2005-2006.
There are enough playmakers. Darnell Jenkins proved he’s the top go to receiver. Graig Cooper, Javarris James and Shawnbrey McNeal can more than carry the load on the ground. Epps and DajLeon Farr have come on at the tight end position, which offensive coordinator Patrick Nix completely ignored earlier in the season.
If Miami’s defense can make that same pledge that 17+ points is all they need on offense to guarantee victory, the Canes have a great shot going 4-0 down the stretch. The D simply needs to tighten up. No more broken plays like we’ve seen against Oklahoma, Texas A&M, North Carolina and even lowly FIU.
Buckle down. Play like a unit. Every man has to do his job. There can’t be any chinks in the armor like we’ve seen occasionally this season.
NC State in less than 24 hours. Be ready Canes. Part I of IV. Get it done out there tomorrow and we’ll talk about Virginia come Monday.
Even with Freeman most likely in the mix, I believe we see some Wright and that the defense comes to play. Turnovers are the difference and the Canes pull out the win.
.:Canes305:.
I think this could be the game where they turned the corner. The difference between this game and the aTm game was that in this game they needed to overcome. IN that aTm game they controled the game from start to finish against an overrated team. Against FSU they had to fight, and stick together and overcome adversity like losing their starting qb. They stuck together and pulled it out in the fourth quarter against a rival and on the road. Think back to the UCLA game in 1998, how they had to come back form 17 down against the no. 2 team in the country. THey stuck together and overcame adversity. That’s crucial to a young team.
I ended up going to the game last night with a Hokie friend (yeah i know, oxymoron). What I saw was a very basic VT team taking advantage of a terrible QB performance (4 int and a fumble) mainly because GT was lacking any running game (Choice was out for the game) and also because GT’s QB was forcing throws. VT IS BEATABLE. Can the U do it? Can these players get enough fire in their stomachs to ambush VT? Coach needs to get in these kids’ heads and let them know to get the fire burning for that game. I don’t want to look past NC State, but I haven’t seen much of the Pack for me to comment, yet. CANE 4 LIFE
NC State is yet another average to below average ACC team. But we have not beaten these teams this year (Ga Tech, NC). We have to come out and make plays. NC State is garbage and this is at home, but unless we come to play and execute, we will lose. On defense, we have to take away something and make them one dimentional. I say make an effort to stop the run, which has killed us this year in our losses. Stop the run and show some pride and emotion. On offense, do not turn the ball over. If anyting, play like VTech did the other night and keep it basic but strong. Let NC State beat themselves if you don’t think Kirby can make the plays. Lean on the O Line and our 3 TB’s and make a play or two in the air when they try to put 8 or more in the box. This Wolfpack team is bad but we can not overlook anyone right now. We are at home and should show some passion and perform like we can. I fully expect a win, but if they don’t show up then it will be another big letdown. Do your job, make plays and come out with the next win. We can do this.
-Columbus Cane
Sweet Jesus Kirby Freeman was atrocious today! If Kyle Wright isn’t back next week we’re better off pulling a random person from IM flag football to take over the helm!
-txcane
Another awesome game by Coach Shannon. You guys were right again, what an AWESOME coach. With Randy at the helm, we may be able to repeat at the MPC Computers Bowl! whoo!
Another awesome game by Coach Shannon. You guys were right again, what an AWESOME coach. With Randy at the helm, we may be able to repeat at the MPC Computers Bowl! whoo!
Hey Kevin, last I checked Randy Shannon wasn’t lining up behind center and taking snaps.
1 of 14 for 84 yards with three interceptions.
That’s as bad as it gets. Don’t blame Randy Shannon because Larry Coker left the cupboard bare — especially at the quarterback position.
Freeman doesn’t look like he could start at the high school level, Wright didn’t live up to expectations and four quarterback recruits flaked on the Miami program come signing day the past few seasons.
Yeah, blame Shannon. That’s idiotic. Jimmy Johnson lost five games his first season (1984). Pete Carroll went 6-6 his first year at USC.
Start shittalking Shannon in 2009 if Miami hasn’t turned it around by then. The new coach has been around for 10 months and coached nine games with his predecessor’s squad.
In other words, relax or scram….
Holy sht. 4 completions and 3 went to the other team?! I don’t have ESPN U so I listened on the raio, but it sounded God awful. How can a division 1 QB complete 1 pass in an entire game? If Wright can’t start, we may as well put Cooper (or Jenkins?) under center or in shot gun and just try that out, seriously. Freeman should not start a game again in his career. Next year I would rather go with a redshirt or true Freshamn QB than Freeman. He’s damaged goods. He had ONE drive last game against the Noles and this game he had ONE completion. And it doesn’t end with Freeman. This is on everyone, but the QB is the most important player. The defense allowed conversion after conversion on 3rd down and did not get off the field. Kick-offs and field goals were crap. Yet another year of having the conference in our control, and yet another year of giving it away, literally with turnovers. No Miami team should ever still not be bowl eligible after 9 games. Hard to swallow, but with the roster we have right now it’s obvious we need a big time infusion of playmakers, and I hope Shannon can hang on to all his verbals right now and get a couple of more. It’s a home game, homecoming, against one of the worst teams in the league record wise, and we can’t muster enough emotion and execution to get the job done. Again. When was the last time we have not beeen ranked for an entire season at any time? Probably not since the porbation years. Like I said, Randy needs to hit the road hard, letting the HS seniors know that they can play right away next year if they’re playmakers (can we get a kicker with a leg please also?). Just disappointing that we get another wasted season full of opportunities missed. All these top 25 teams losing game after game, and we can’t take advantage of it.
How idiotic can you be to be blaming Shannon for this? Would Schiano or whomever you wanted done any better with the current level of talent? Since Shannon can not force/coach someone to be better than their level of talent. It’s not Shannon’s fault it’s Cokers fault for bringing/not bringing the level of talent that’s standard for the U…
Blaming Shannon is just plain idiotic…
Clayton
Kevin, maybe you forget that not even the friggin Rutgers coach wanted to come here! RUTGERS!!! Are you kidding me?!? We actually got lucky that Coach Shannon was not taken. There weren’t people lining up to pick up after this program. And even though I love Coach Coker, he mismanaged an elite program with poor recruiting. Looking at the performances from both QBs I am very surprised we don’t share ND record this year. I bet you would have loved to have Weis over here, huh? We actually won 5 games this year!! That’s a miracle for a team that had a QB complete 7% of his passes and that 1 completion was on a screw up from a frosh CB. I certainly hope you are not basing your opinion on the color of his skin. CANE 4 LIFE
Freeman was beyond atrocious. I have NEVER seen worse play at this point in a season from a Canes QB,,,, never.
And Nix clearly has, or had, his head up his butt with some of those play calls. Two direct snaps to the back IN A ROW that lost what,,, 14 yeards combined. “gee that first one only lost seven yeards,,,, let’s line up in the exact same formation and run the exact same play again. It worked so well the first time they will never think we would run it back to back.
Please,,,,,,,,,,,,
And now the great news that Marve was arrested late Wednesday night in Coconut Grove for ripping an outside mirror off of a car. Then running from police,,,,,,,,,,
jeeze,,,,,,,,,,,
To top this mess off, we may have another Willie Williams in Robert Marve. Better hope the other two kids stick with their commits. After yesterday, they have to know one of them will start next season. And please allow Kirby Freeman to transfer. He might fit at Sam Houston State back home in Texas, but he doesn’t fit here.
I feel sorry for kids like Colin McCarthy that play their butts off only to see someone like Lance Leggett quit on them.
Larry Coker, the Master of Disaster.
I don’t really put this one on Shannon. Yes, the ‘Canes are a terrible team — again — in 2007. But there is reason for hope. See:
http://sports.aol.com/fanhouse/2007/11/04/bar-is-set-ever-lower-at-miami-qb-completes-one-pass/
I have to say that there is NO comparison between Marve and Willie One-Hit Williams,,,, none. That’s an apples and oranges comparison. Who knows what in the world got inside this kids head, I’ll see if I can get the real scoop from my Plant sources.
This today, from the Tampa Tribune:
Marve Working Through Problems
The Tampa Tribune
Published: November 5, 2007
CORAL GABLES – Miami freshman QB Robert Marve is working through some “personal problems” that the university will help him handle, Coach Randy Shannon said Sunday, a day after UM’s 19-16 overtime loss to North Carolina State.
The Plant High graduate was charged last week with resisting arrest without violence and minor criminal mischief after he broke the mirror off a car and briefly tried to evade police on foot in the Miami neighborhood of Coconut Grove. Both charges are misdemeanors.
“With Marve, he’s really got some personal problems,” Shannon said. “We talked about it and at least the kid is being upfront and honest with me about things. … He’s talked to me, I’ve talked to his parents and we’re all on the same page, the parents, the kid and myself.”
Marve has not been available for comment since the arrest was announced.
JMG
Tampa