Hopefully Miami doesn’t need to fill their sales with fabricated tales of revenge when Virginia heads to Land Shark Stadium for a noontime kickoff on Saturday. Sitting at 6-2 with four games remaining, the Canes should have enough motivation to win out and to reach a quality post-season bowl game.
It’s been eight interesting quarters of football for Miami since re-cracking the top ten and sitting at 5-1 before Clemson came calling two weeks back. Defensively the Canes are reeling. 965 yards and 67 points surrendered over two games. Special teams breakdowns. If not for a few lucky bounces at Wake Forest, the Canes would be the not-so-proud owners of two straight losses.
That said, Miami was resilient in it’s comeback last weekend, made the most of those breaks and the defense stepped up when it needed to, holding the once-potent Deacs offense scoreless in the final quarter and forcing two critical turnovers – an interception and a fumble on a punt return.
November hasn’t been kind to the Canes these past few years and again, injuries are taking their toll as the season winds down. In almost two decades of coaching, Randy Shannon admits he’s never seen or been around such a depleted bunch.
“I’ve never had this many injuries, even as a player,” Shannon said. “And we’ve never had this many on one side of the football — the defense. Think about it. We’re missing Ryan Hill, Marcus Forston, Adewale Ojomo, Andrew Smith, Sean Spence, Jordan Futch, Ray Ray Armstrong, Jo Nicolas… There are a lot of guys who have had a lot of experience in games that are not out there.
“Are any guys coming back? No, not right now. The other guys have to step it up.”
Win or lose, inevitably some are going to cite the ‘no excuses’ mentality this team has attempted to employ this past two seasons. Still, truth is truth and the Canes are down a lot of bodies year three into this rebuilding project. As much as coaches want other guys to “step up”, that might not be the case. When you lose a Spence… a Forston… a Futch… an Armstrong… it’s going to take its toll and there are going to be some break downs – especially defensively, where most of Miami’s injuries have occurred.
Simply put, the Canes haven’t “regressed” these past few weeks. This isn’t the same team that raced to a 5-1 start and slowed down No. 8 Oklahoma early October. The bodies and the chemistry aren’t there and in some cases, won’t be back until next season.
Virginia, North Carolina, Duke and South Florida. Hardly the “murderer’s row” type schedule the Canes opened with, but four quality teams who could all beat Miami. Especially a beaten up bunch that has temporarily lost its collective focus.
Credit to Shannon, Miami’s learning-on-the-job head coach who is attempting to negotiate dangerous terrain as this season winds down. 2-2 last November and 0-4 the November before, this staff is looking for answers.
In an effort to keep these Canes from breaking down further, the practice routine was shaken up a bit. Instead of the standard 5:45am start time on Tuesdays, drills have been moved to 3pm. All practices have been reduced in length and the focus down the stretch will be on the mental breakdowns, instead of the physical aspect of things. More film study, a faster tempo and a quicker overall experience, which allows for more recuperation time.
All great in theory, but Miami still has to find a way to win with a lot of its best players on the sideline and with Virginia sitting unpretty at 3-5, this looks to be the Canes easiest remaining foe. Offensively the Cavs are an inconsistent bunch (re: ACC’s worst) and while their defense isn’t half back. Miami should have enough firepower to put up some points and wear UVA down in that early afternoon South Florida sun.
This contest is the closest thing Miami will see to a ‘preseason’ type game in November. Embrace the homefield advantage, wipe the early morning cobwebs (this is the Canes first 12pm ET kickoff all season) and focus. 10-2 is still a reality, as is an at-large BCS berth, should some higher ranked teams fall over the next month. Keep the dream alive, Canes.
Take care of the Cavs and get this thing to 7-2. This isn’t about revenge; it’s about a win and keeping the goals and dreams of this season in tact.
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what do you think the possibility of playing SC is in the sun bowl is?
In an earlier post, i mentioned that we would learn whether the canes have truly improved and matured(or not) by their play during the remaining five games. the three "easy" wins were wake, virginia and duke and USF and UNC were games the canes should win, but not necessarily easily. wake was not an easy win and some can quickly conclude that the canes have not improved and matured. not true. although they barely won, they won while playing their worst ball. that is different than their play the last 2 years. another positive development is that the canes produced turnovers and made big plays on offense in the fourth quarter to win. and bosher, again, was all-world! more will be revealed on saturday.
while our defense is decimated, what is surprising, in light of the few injuries on that side of the ball, is how ineffective the offense has become. while playing inferior opponents, the offense needs to outscore the other team and secure a victory. this perhaps has been the most disappointing aspect of this season. critics point to the sacks as the reason for the offense's demise. this is true, but the sacks do not just belong to the offensive line, but rather to J12 and to the blocking backs as well. all three share the responsibility, as well the play calling. if the offensive line is weak, J12 cannot afford to make 5 and 7 step draw backs consistently, we need to block better, J12 needs to roll out better (and to the right side) and we need short plays where the real playmakers (i.e. WRs) can make the plays.
more will be revealed on saturday.
RSA Coral Gables
With all the injuries and very tough beginning schedule a victory over va and a 7-2 record would be really good so lets GO CANES!
Nice write up, 305. Canes should roll the Cavs, but the rest of this season is no cakewalk. Injuries are piling up and it'll take a yeoman's effort for Miami to win out. Here's hoping Randy has them ready!
I really do think the injuries have been the biggest factor in the lack of progress/improvement lately. 8 defenders on the 2-deep is a lot of injured bodies.
On the offensive side of the ball, it has slowly gotten worse as first Richard Gordon, the best blocking TE, then Pat Hill, the beast of a bowling ball at FB, went down with injuries. I dont think you can underestimate what those losses meant to this team, particularly pat hill. Go back and watch some of the highlights and you'll see Hill laying some serious wood on both run and pass plays. He was huge in protecting J12, and I don't think it's a coincidence J12 has been sacked so many times in the past few games now that Hill is out.
Of course we all hope the young guys can step up, but you have to remember that most of the young guys that were gonna step up (J12, mike james, spence, vernon, m. robinson, futch, ray ray) have already stepped up, and some of them have already gotten hurt. Like it or not, we still don't have the desired depth, so when you ask a young guy to step up, he might just not be ready. Like a lot of the coaches say, sometimes it just takes 2 or 3 years for the lightbulb to go off.
Here's hoping that we get some bodies back and figure out some good ways to adjust and fight on. I'm still very happy with where this team is, and the future looks bright.
Despite how bad the Virginia offense can be, it seems like we never get off the field on 3rd down game after game. I think this game will be a huge challenge for our LB's against their TE's and RB's, which I think Groh will again try to expose. I assume Lovett will plan for this, but with our current injuries and depth issues, some guys will have to step up. We again need the DLine to get pressure on the QB Sewell. I think we win, but due to the number of injuries across the defense, the Cavs stay closer than they really should (with the help of their tough defense). I hope for a blowout pesonally, but I don't see it. We're still having growing pains at this point but should be good enough to beat them at home.
-Columbus cane
Columbus - Miami has made a career (these past few years) of allowing "lesser" teams to stay on the field way too long. How many times we see third and long picked up by a QB scramble or some wide open receiver in the middle of the field while the linebackers are playing in no man's land.
Virginia's offense is THAT bad... so hopefully Lovett and Shannon have the game plan to shut down the TE, as that really is their bread and butter. You know it's coming... so what do you do about it?
I just can't believe how inconsistant our special teams play is. Make up for one blocked punt with a punt return for a TD and then blow another blocked punt. I've talked about it before and I'll say again.....time for the special teams coach to go. There has been no progress with that unit.
52-17......best served cold.....YUMMY !!!
Hated by many, loved by few, WE are the U
Nice to see a blowout win over a team that we SHOULD blow out! Keep it rolling Canes...its payback time for Butch Davis and his squad.