Game Day Blog: Miami vs Louisville

The moment you have all been waiting for have finally, and mercifully, arrived.

Talk is cheap and easy.

It is now time to walk the walk.

Time to put up or shut up.

The shorts and shirts give way to pads and helmets under the Labor Day lights.

Your Miami Hurricanes take the field tonight in Louisville to show UM fans and the entire Nation what the 2014 team will be made of and what they will be able to accomplish under head coach Al Golden.

Golden enters his fourth year as the lead dog in Coral Gables. It is time for his team to live up to it's bark and have some serious bite if they are going to be successful in the ACC this season.

A convincing win starts the season off on the right foot, satisfies the fans for at least one week and sets the stage for a potentially breakout season for the Hurricanes.

A loss, while not crippling, puts a damper on the Spring and Summer of hope and expectations derived from excellent recruiting, improved talent and depth on the roster.

Coaching, leadership, game planning and execution will be the key operative words of the day as Miami looks to extract some serious revenge (you can forget what the politically correct say) from the same Louisville team that spanked the Hurricanes badly in the bowl game at the end of last season.

Tonight on a national stage under the lights at Papa John's Stadium on Monday night your MIami Hurricanes will tell you if they are back all the way, half way there or not ready for prime time.

We can't wait to see the message they send.

Canespace Prediction: Miami 41, Louisville 30.

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Brad Kaaya Named Starting QB for Miami Hurricanes

Comments

[IraqiCane]

Miami football #groundhog day.

[IraqiCane]

Hey at least there was this one difference this year...my heart didn't stop every single time to drop by for a pass. How long before Kaaya regresses under this coaching? Remember how good Steven Morris as a freshman and sophomore???

[The Dude]

I don't think I can even be mad anymore. I just have to laugh at The U. I'll always love this program, but now I just have to laugh at it for what its become. I have zero confidence that we can beat Nebraska or FSU. All ACC games will be a battle. This is a joke right? The U is playing a joke on us? How does Al continually fall flat on his stupid face with no answers? I can't even count how many times he's been completely out-coached. After 10 years of this I just have to accept that this is Miami football now.

[The Dude]

I know we will beat FAMU, that's a given. I wonder how much fight Arkansas State will give us. They don't suck completely. If by some chance we lose that game, I wonder if anything would be done?

[The Dude]

Arkansas State plays @Tennessee next weekend so they wont be in awe of us.

[86Cane]

806

[86Cane]

Sick

[Jay]

Kaaya reminds me of one former UM great, Kirby Freeman. Shorted throws, poor footwork, no pocket presence, no touch on the long pass. No Excuses.

[nemo2002]

I post, therefore I am.

[nemo2002]

Pissed

[IraqiCane]

Yup...

[SinisterCane]

Trending

[UMike]

Go Canes... you seriously believe the team you watched last night will only lose 1 more game to FSU? I just dont even know how to respond to that... that is about as delusional as it comes

[SinisterCane]

We the All Golden First Team "Go Canes,Cinco305, Terrence Sullivan" please explained why did we just lose 5 of 7 games?

[NativeCane]

After a night of sadness at least I get some comic relief in the morning reading yalls posts from last night. LOL

Delusional predictions followed by anguish, then Canespacer on Canespacer violence. LOL

I reckon the team could have used those last 2 days of camp after all......I remember thinking hmmm...I have never seen a Hurricane team so polished that they couldnt use a couple of extra days?
OGV, this bunch gonna hafta to do better to prove U wrong! LOL.................

[UMike]

It is getting harder and harder to watch my Canes play... the build up and let down is painful. Here are some of my observations and thoughts...

Our offensive play calling is horrendous!!! It is vanilla, it is predictable... just horrible. We all know Coley is an ace recruiter, but there is a reason Jimbo didnt let him call the plays.

Kaaya was not terrible. He had a bad pass on the fumble and under threw the pass on the first INT, but when he had time he looked ok. I think the next two games are his audition all over again and he will have to hold off Williams for the Nebraska game.

I cannot tell if the OL is playing like garbage or if it has to do with the play calling/protection... either way they were bad.

Although the D looked better, we STILL GAME UP A CAREER DAY TO A BACK UP RB!!!!!!! Problem is, this D looked great to start the year last year and only got worse. As teams study Miami as the year goes on we might have trouble. Still playing way off the WR's, still dropping LB/DE down to cover WR's etc.

It is painful to watch a team like Louisville call simple plays to get first downs and out super talented offense cant move the dam ball. We were simply out coached. How do you pass up a FG try down 8 on a 4th and 4? Take the dam 3 points and make it a 1 possession game!

[UMike]

I know Nebraska only played FAU, but they put up over 700 yards of offense... yikes

[NativeCane]

UMike, I agree with all your points, we all expected so much more.......

[UMike]

Those 7-5 predictions arent looking to crazy now lol.. I dont think that Louisville team was even that good... missing their starting WR and RB and had a rookie QB. If we play like this, we could lose to Nebraska, FSU, VT, Duke and maybe even GT.

[UMike]

Native.. I wasnt 100% sure we could beat Louisville, although I though we would.. But I never thought we would get blown out again. Just hard to watch the play calling and decision making. Both our coordinators are out of their league.

[UMike]

It is painful to watch a team like Louisville call simple plays to get first downs and out super talented offense cant move the dam ball. We were simply out coached. How do you pass up a FG try down 8 on a 4th and 4? Take the dam 3 points and make it a 1 possession game!

Posted by: UMike | September 02, 2014 at 07:03 AM

Sorry. I meant down 11 to cut it to 8

[SinisterCane]

Defenders of the Al Golden republic is this part of the process

[thirstybuzzardcane]

I TOLD YOU All SO!!!! If anyone thought Kaaya did alright is on crack! The dude did terrible and I don't care how bad the OL did. He under threw Walford on the one long pass.....Thank God we scored on the next play. Kaaya's interception on the pass attempt to Dobbard was horrible.....Dobbard was open by 3 yards with room to run and Kaaya under throws him by 5 yards right in the hands of the defender. Kaaya had a terrible pass to Coley which resulted in interception (should of been 6 pts for Louisville) instead of being a TD. Kaaya needs to be redshirted. He needs time to develop!!!!

[thirstybuzzardcane]

It also seemed like Kaaya's arm is weak. I see Ryan Williams (if healthy) starting @ Nebraska in a few weeks.

[thirstybuzzardcane]

^^^^fumble not interception^^^^^

[thirstybuzzardcane]

We'll boyz, I just jumped of the bus and committed suicide!!!!!! James Coley is a awful OC!!!!

[UMike]

I dont think Kaayas arm is weak, but he did make a couple bad throws. There is plenty of evidence (although not in this game) that Kaaya has a strong arm

[UMike]

There are a number of things Kaaya will need to improve on after seeing the film.. on the 4th and 4 play Dorsett was WIDE open and might have scored.. I didnt realize it until they showed the reply..but he was locked in on Coley.

[Terrance Sullivan]

The Coaching staff in particular Offense and ST/Head Coach was horrible. Offensive line was a turn style. No Excuses. Flat out Pathetic. All criticism is warranted. SMDH.

[360Cane]

And that's what you get with a true freshman QB. I know Kaaya isn't better than Winston and Winston even RSed. I really did not like Kaaya getting the nod. I want to get back to RSing players. And until we can do that, we will continue to field teams that look lost, unprepared and under-coached.

The D was much better, however, we have to get them off the field. The two LB dismissals was a sign, and we now have confirmation. It'll definitely be the LB group with the ??? this year. #56 Kirby runs to an X on the field as if the coaches painted it there for him to cover. Look for that to be exploited even more as we get through the season.

The O did not help the D at all. And the D put them in the red zone not once, but twice. On the 7 and on the 8 with only 3 points to show for it.

We had our chances, and can only blame Kevin Olsen. LOL

[86Cane]

831 and done

[Ohio_Cane]

I TOLD YOU All SO!!!!

If anyone thought Kaaya did alright is on crack! The dude did terrible and I don't care how bad the OL did. He under threw Walford on the one long pass.....

Posted by: thirstybuzzardcane | September 02, 2014 at 08:18 AM
------------------------------------------------

1. Some posters couldn't wait for us to do bad so they could post something just like this.

2. Are U blind or misremembering? He made some bad throws but that one to Walford was one of his best all night. He had a defender in his face and had to throw off his back foot. Oh, and he took the shot to get the ball 35-40 yards downfield.

[Lurker]

Worst of all was the play calling and offensive game plan. Resulting in converting only one first down. The right side of the Oline needs a lot of work.

A better called offensive game and we're in it until the end. But when you're inside the 10 twice and only come away with three points, and the rest of the game you're mostly running into the teeth of ten in the box without adjustments, you're going to lose.

Kaaya needs time but I see him improving. But the O calls have to get much better. I'll be an optimist and think it will.

[Lurker]

Correction above / converting only one third down is what I meant to say.

[dj moonbat]

Kaaya completed 60% of his passes. That's not great, but it's not terrible. It's entirely possible that Heaps would've done worse under those conditions.

People complaining about Kaaya are comparing his performance to a hypothetical benchmark. They need to be comparing him to the options available: Heaps and Rosier. (Well, if UM wanted to be a skeezy program, they could've let Olsen play. Maybe he would've been the answer at QB. Al really blew it there...)

Kaaya did things that a lot of QBs do when they never have time to throw: he missed open receivers, he didn't put enough air under the ball because he feared INTs, he still got a couple iNTs...it was bad. But there's little reason to expect that Heaps or Rosier, or even the mighty Olsen, would have been a pillar of strength, calmly standing in that nonexistent pocket and delivering perfect passes to the open man.

That offense was chaos, and Kaaya just happened to be the guy under center. It was going to be chaos no matter what. The coaching deficits were enormous.

[SinisterCane]

Oline play was horrible, I think we have enough depth/talent to start benching piss poor play from the starters

[thirstybuzzardcane]

Big props to the D last night....Those boyz stepped up, but were tired at the end!!! Good job guys!!

[Ohio_Cane]

U

[86Cane]

NEW BLOG IS UP!

[UpNorthCane27]

Tough loss for so many reasons, such high hopes now seem a thing of the past. These are my grades for yesterdays performance.

Qb: C/C-. Kaaya seemed very hesitant and locked in on one wr. Coley needs to correct this issue. if Louisville is bringing constant pressure, spread out 4 wr and mix up the routes!!!

Rb: C. Duke couldnt do much more with a Oline that got bullied all game. Gus looked horrible he gets an F!

WR: C-/D. Besides Walford making that Td catch, Stacey coley was a disappointment, where was dorsett? why start throwing to waters at the end? Braxton berrios made a good catch in traffic.

TE: B. Walford caught the TD and made some catches.

[UpNorthCane27]

o sorry i forgot the Oline!! did they even play yesterday?

they get a big ole F+!!!!

[Cane Country]

Tough loss, too many mistakes and missed opportunities. My full take is at https://miamicanecountry.blogspot.com