TNM: Much Better But Still Not Good Enough

The New Miami found old ways to lose a football game in their 24-20 loss to the Florida Gators in Orlando on Saturday night.

Numerous penalties, a few dropped passes and one costly turnover can do that to a young and developing team.

We had predicted a final score of Miami 34 - Florida 17. And if not for the above mentioned mistakes it very well could have been.

The Hurricanes certainly look much improved over last year's debacle in Dallas when UM was out-manned and out-played decisively by LSU. They were always in this game and had their chances to steal a win but could not manage to come up a big play when it mattered most or score enough points to change the outcome. Simply put, twenty points is not going to get it done against the big boys in 2019.

This very young Miami team has a new head coach and a new starting QB but clearly still lacks the confidence or play makers (or both?) needed to pull off a road upset against a top 20 team.

The Florida Gators are not likely to win the SEC or the National Championship but had just enough talent and coaching to beat Miami in the college football 2019 season opener.

It is very likely Miami will be much improved by the end of the season and the results will reflect this as the Hurricanes chase an ACC title game date with likely opponent the Clemson Tigers.

Until then we encourage UM fans to be calm and Cane on. There is hope in Coral Gables again as The New Miami shows signs of being a work in progress.

Comments

[IraqiCane]

I believe that CMD his staff, Jarren Williams and the rest of the New Miami are the real deal. They fought until the finial whistle blew and never gave up, and that's all I can ask for.

🙌🏻🙌🏻🙌🏻

[AeroCane]

2 plays stand out to me - thomas’ fumble and mallory’s Hold on the kicker fake; take away those 2 and we win!
Also, I feel bolden is going to take carter’s spot - I know he had the int, but overall I think bolden is going to be an improvement. And, lingard will be a difference maker at RB (assuming he comes back at full speed).
And lastly, Campbell was pretty much a disaster as right tackle - between allowing pressures and his penalties - they need to get him reset or replace him.
Overall, I think we are going to have a good season!
Go Canes!

[roachcane77]

We snatched defeat out of the jaws of victory... (sigh.)

Later Spacers...

[Go Canes!!]

This team, game one of Mannyy's tenure, played hard for 60 minutes and were one or two plays away from pulling off a huge upset against a n(alleged) top 10 team. They showed heart and never gave up.

Agree with Aero, Mallory's hold completely changed the game. Instead of first and goal ffrom the one with a chance to go up 10 and ice the game.

I'm 100% sold on Williams, who held on to the ball too long at times, but was incredibly accurate and made great decisions downfield the entire game.

But at the end of the day, this team will only go as far as this O-line, which looked wretched the entire game, will take us.

I'm praying the play of those tackles was more freshman jitters and inexperience than an indicator of what's to come because they need to improve...a lot...and fast.

Finally, Turds are so wretchedly overrated and Franks is total garbage. They'll be lucky to win 7-8 games this year.

[Old Skool]

Obviously, the chain and the bling rings are positive reinforcement. Just wondering if there's punishment for poor play beyond getting your ass chewed out. Perhaps the O-line should have to eat out of sacks for 10 days.

[AeroCane]

Old Skool - lol
Campbell was way out of his league - he got beat almost every play and had a lot of mental penalties; I’m ok with Zion as he looks like he can handle it - just needs more time
I’m very surprised they didn’t pull Campbell - I’ve read he was the better run blocker but not the better pass protector - our game plan needed a pass protector! I blame a lot of the ol on richt and the terribly bad ol coach he had (I won’t even name the pos)

[Old Skool]

Don't remember seeing much of Realus last night. I'm surprised with the level of pressure they were facing. Maybe he's an awful blocker.

[AeroCane]

So here’s the tough question: how do you see us end up this year?
As much as I hated on Shannon, golden and richt, I’m all in with manny and think we run the table!
This game is going to make us BETTER!
Jmo

PS at the office working on corporate extensions and not happy about it - so I may be on here a lot this morning - lol

[AeroCane]

I saw realus once - sorry to say but he looked lost
I thought maybe burns as he’s a bigger back and may of been able to put some pads on the gator guys rushing

[roachcane77]

SO, I haven't read most of the gametime blog from yesterday, but I watched the entire game and here's my 2¢.

I felt good with the O game plan when we started, with the dink and dunk passing to get the ball out of JW's hands quickly and into our playmakers' hands. Where did that go in the second half?

Enos was too slow getting playcalls in. JW doesn't seem to command the huddle. (Lots of other players talking in there.)

The refs were overzealous on the PI calls against us early, and totally BLEW the procedure call against the Gators when that O Lineman moved a full beat before the snap. (Their first game too.)

Bottom line is... and I hate to say this... ESPN and ALL of the pundits will NOT remember the poor referees, or the lack of an O-Line, or a Freshman QB for the Canes... They will ONLY remember that a mediocre SEC team, who did EVERYTHING they COULD to BEAT THEMSELVES, beat the ACC... AGAIN!

W/L... SEC- W ACC-L

We are currently 0-1 for 2019...

There's hope... but NO SILVER LINING! We didn't beat the Gators on their worst day. We're 0-1, and THEY now have bragging rights for a few years. This sucks.

[Christopher Weimar]

The offensive line play was consistently poor, including penalties, and ultimately caused this loss. The muffed punt was inexcusable, especially from one of our best players at a most inoppportune moment. Florida was frequently undisciplined on defense and didn't look like a top 10 team. Bandy was terrific for the most part. Officiating was sketchy at best. Florida's inexperienced line was at least adequate against our defense. Miami's play calling was mysterious at times. William's play was pretty impressive at QB all things considered. Hopefully the coaches find some answers between now and our game with UNC. Florida lost some luster from this game and Miami raised more questions than answers.

[Old Skool]

Time for Coach Patke to enter the transfer portal (I know it's for players only, in that case, imagine a teleporter or railroad tie covered in tar) Charleston Southern would be an appropriate landing spot.

[Old Skool]

Hope 86 von Trapp is enjoying his time in Vienna waltzing around and around in his lederhosen, eating strudel and sipping whipped cream infused espressos sprinkled with chocolate.

[solarcane]

I felt good with the O game plan when we started
Posted by: roachcane77 | August 25, 2019 at 09:51 AM

Me too when we showed motion and a bunch of formations early the Gators looked lost.
After the first series of scripted plays you could see Enos and Williams need to get the plays in faster.

Williams needs to throw the ball away the instant he feels pressure, or run straight ahead, running parallel to the line of scrimmage until you get pummeled is disaster waiting to happen.

These kids fought the entire game, and they never looked gassed.

[solarcane]

roach,
yea seeing Dallas and Thomas talking to each other in the huddle while Williams was calling the play was weird.

[CGNC]

But a couple of them told me I was pretty cool....and I was like "you fuckers are so lucky".

Posted by: raizecane | August 25, 2019 at 02:54 AM

And this right here is why I love college football.

For me, the penalites were atrocious - not going to get many W's with that. I have to LOL at the Canes playing the gators in the championship game watching them both last night. Ain't happening.

Watched the game at the BF's house and his daughter was there in her full Gator regalia. Got in my face yelling after their TD and doing the Gator chomp. I told her not to be obnoxious. Can't watch games with them, really really can't. It's like they don't know how to behave.

The future appears brighter but we have said/thought this before. OGV is right, special teams picked up where it left off last season. Punting was better. Could you imagine this game with Feagles shanking punts all night? LOL

On to Chapel Hill. Go Canes.

[solarcane]

solar thanks so much for the Rock and Roll u are so incredible...and your animation stickers.

VA My pleasure for sure brother.
I was hoping you would get a grin from the stickers,hope you enjoy a few of the tunes too.

Yea one of my favorite jobs was designing the Canespace header at the top of the blog and the Canespace Tee shirts for my pal soup.

[CGNC]

Oh almost forgot. Shout out to CMR for not getting JW15 in any games last year except for a drive or twin in that cupcake game, when he could have played in 4 games without burning his redshirt.

[CGNC]

These kids fought the entire game, and they never looked gassed.

Posted by: solarcane | August 25, 2019 at 10:43 AM

Agreed

[CGNC]

should be "a drive or two"

[BigWindyCane]

A lot of mistakes made by the Canes, but the two critical mistakes were on special teams—the muffed punt and missed field goal. Eliminate one of those mistakes, and the Canes probably win.

The key is that the Canes must get better everywhere on offense— OL was glaring, but RBs, QB, and WRs must must get better too. There is a lot to work on. DeeJay’s wildcat run was the most successful offensive play of the second half. The Canes could not fun the ball out of traditional sets and as good as the passing game was in the first half, the passing game was not very good in the second half (less than 50% completion), especially the fourth quarter and crunch time passing game was embarrassing.

The Canes run defense allowed only 52 yards, the least rushing yards for a Gators team under Mullen. I don’t know if Mullen has ever been so ineffective running the football in his coaching career. But the canes pass defense wasn’t as good as last season, and there was no sugar coating it. With the exception of Bandy, I wasn’t impressed with the missed assignments and tackling.

The consolation is the the Canes are very young, especially on offense. The key with this team’s season is that they have a lot of potential, but they must grow up in a hurry. The real season (ACC play) starts in North Carolina in week 2. I will look for growth in the young players

If these coaches are as good as Jimmy thinks they are (and I trust Jimmy ‘s judgment) then they should be a 10+ win team

[orange 'n green in the vein]

Posted by: CGNC | August 25, 2019 at 10:57 AM

Hey, careful now, HOF'er on here starts repeating too many of my points and we'll end up waking up too many blind followers with a slap in the face from reality and the honeymoon will be spoiled, CGNC(FL).

Wait, too late for that already! Screw it, how about this instead, in honor of 86 saving the season ticket money on something way nicer both he and Maria could enjoy together, we'll do something new, I'll list the bets on the game I wagered and won, then the bets I wagered and lost then we'll see what I had faith in would happen and what I misjudged thanks to opener blinding? Sound fun? It wasn't for me:

Winners (trending up?):

UM+185 1st half moneyline

UM FG 1st scoring play of game (had to hit it twice to cash, thanks shitty line that can't not jump early and opposite of clutch kicker!)

UM first team to score

UM first team to 10 points

FG or safety first scoring play of the game

No team scores 3X unanswered consecutively

UM over 9 1/2 1st half points

Jeff Thomas under 3 1/2 receptions

Mike Harley under 1 1/2 receptions

Van Jefferson under 3 1/2 receptions

UM QB's over 15 1/2 completions

UM +7, +6 1/2, +6, +5 1/2, +5 points for the game, all winner, by a single point at least, which brings us to the losers or as I like to call them . . .

The New Miami bets on this game:

Special teams or defensive return for a TD (Jeff Thomas failed in many ways last night and couldn't even pay out while doing so)

Brevin Jordan under 2 1/2 receptions (opening drive he had 3)

UF QB's under 16 1/2 completions (1st half completions against prevent were the difference losing this)

Now some good news, Carolina Tar Heels will be bad this season, maybe even bad enough UM can compete on the road against them, but not playing like they did yesterday they won't! Other good news is I made more than I would have spent going to the game yesterday so I can now buy my ticket this year to see Butch Davis coach in a baseball park on the site of the football stadium I used to watch him coach at when I went to college at UM, very small favors. At least Fake Lames got eaten by a reptile on distributing the opener tickets again this year so he's that much closer to being fired and left in shame on the tarmac at Orlando's airport so not even GD will give him a ride back to South Florida.

[orange 'n green in the vein]

Oh, forgot to add to the winners:

Under 46 total points.

Even total points total for the game.

44 was the magic integer and they hit it exactly thanks to the missed FG that would have set up a kick attempt to win it with less than a minute to go, that's why when you have a chance to promote from within off a regime that hasn't won shit and went .500 you have to do it, if you're Fake Lames!

[TonyCane]

Other big winners: those wanting CMD and Enos gone. I’ve seen some real, almost absurd hysterics elsewhere. I am surprised that they aren’t calling for banner planes.

[orange 'n green in the vein]

Man, how could I forget the best for last, add:

UF 1-6 victory margin to the list of winners I bet.

Great night Fake Lames, excellent work yet again.

[CGNC]

Posted by: roachcane77 | August 25, 2019 at 09:51 AM

Agreed

[CGNC]

USA Today

https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/ncaaf/2019/08/24/college-football-florida-ugly-defeat-miami-opens-season/2111555001/

[Herbiei is]

Does The Herb since a tone of a moral victory on here? As I said last night ugliest game I ever saw and Campbell had the worst game I've ever witnessed a player have. Nelson is still stuck in his stance while Zuniga is blowing by him.

10 sacks, what 14 or so penalties, a gift from Thomas on the door step. Mistake after mistake and we still should of won the game.
Enos came out with a lot of shifts and movement and then as quickly as we saw all of that it disappeared.
The big mistake Manny made was not kicking the FG with 4:50 left. Baxa is good for one chip shot miss, in his short career.
Oh line needs to reshuffle. Teams ain't going to wait for Campbell and Nelson's lights to come on. If those 2 are the best we got then Williams won't make it through the season. We have a ton of play makers and some who obviously took a siesta last night.
The defense looked solid but I guess by design didn't get a lot of pressure on Frank's.
No doubt we will get better and Florida ain't that good, not no 8th rank good.
We made their See look good because of the talent on the Oh line.
Nobody else on our schedule except FSU will have Florida type talent, so we should be in good shape but that's only that line gets better.

[AfriCane]

Wtf is O ‘n’ green talking about?

[AfriCane]

I’ve been a fan of this team for to long to make a call about the rest of the season. Will wait to see the rest of the season. Yes we played good and should have won. But we also play down to the level of our competition. We didn’t loose to LS WHO too bad last year, but then we went on to loose to teams we should have destroyed, like duke.
I’ll just watch the rest of the season. And go on gator boards and troll them about how much their garbage team sucks.
Also, every offensive tackle in America will want to come here, because, they r guaranteed a start.

[roachcane77]

Also, every offensive tackle in America will want to come here, because, they r guaranteed a start.
Posted by: AfriCane | August 25, 2019 at 02:28 PM

I keep thinking that too... but, they just keep going to Wisconsin...

[Herbieibis]

Calling all high school offensive tackles, that's all we need before the rocketship takes off. Da "U" needs you!

[Herbieibis]

Either we get better quality linemen that u need to run a pro style offense or spread here we come.

[AfriCane]

So much talk about how better we r and how we will go undefeated after this one. PLEASE, EVERYONE STOP TALKING. we r not promised shit. Let’s just watch.

[roachcane77]

PLEASE, EVERYONE STOP TALKING. we r not promised shit.
Posted by: AfriCane | August 25, 2019 at 03:49 PM

I agree. We were handed a game on a silver platter, and proceeded to puke all over it...

We have not won a game in 2019.

We are 0-1.

[Killerbeez41]

Overall, very good game to watch. But we have to protect the ball better, get the plays in quicker, and figure out a way to protect the QB on longer routes. The backs did ok with some help, but there were times where it wasn't good enough or there wasn't any. Impressed with Enos and Williams. Williams has to check the ball down or throw the ball away. He ran out of bounds and lost yards on some plays. On D, WTF were the LBs doing? They were making it up as they went or just doing their own thing. Come on vets, do your job! Keep getting better Canes and keep fighting. We will get in the win column.

[Native]

Man I had a 100 X the fun in our former house of misery Camping World than I did in Jerry's World last year.
Call it a moral victory or whatever but me and my granddaughter danced the turnover chain Rumba in front of thousands of Gators almost without ceasing last night and it felt good. They hated our guys. Ha
Gonna rewatch the game tonight and I may feel differently then.

[Native]

Guts and guys. ha

[Native]

raizecane
so its 2:45 AM and I just got home from the game......All I can say is it was a damn home game for Florida with about 50K fans there.....But Canes were represented....I was stuck in the middle of Gator country and did my best not beating the crap out of some of them....phucking idiots. But a couple of them told me I was pretty cool....and I was like "you fuckers are so lucky".

Anyway, I am proud the way we played and the future is bright.

Posted by: raizecane | August 25, 2019 at 02:54 AM

Dude where were our fans... Raizecane, Native, Deja Rae were there.lol

I figured out why we had trouble finding you, our buddy with the tickets was only a half a block from you and we got the two locations confused.... We from the country ...

[BigWindyCane]

I saw this post and thought it was interesting. Not sure if I agree 100%, but I think some of it is fair:

Offense:
Cam'Ron Harris - 86.2 (15)
DeeJay Dallas - 72.5 (56)
Navaughn Donaldson - 64.5 (71)
DJ Scaife - 62.6 (71)
Corey Gaynor - 62.6 (71)
Jeff Thomas - 61.7 (54)
Brevin Jordan - 61.6 (62)
Mark Pope - 61.1 (2 snaps)
Mike Harley - 59.1 (46)
Realus George - 58.6 (5 snaps)
Brian Hightower - 57.3 (4 snaps)
KJ Osborn - 57.0 (71)
Tate Martell - 56.0 (15)
Jarren Williams - 54.6 (71)
John Campbell Jr. - 36.7 (71)
Zion Nelson - 35.8 (71)
Will Mallory - 31.3 (25)

Defense:
Scott Patchan - 75.9 (43)
Gregory Rousseau - 73.7 (14)
Gilbert Frierson - 72.2 (12)
Jonathan Garvin - 70.4 (49)
Chigozie Nnoruka - 69.7 (11)
Jonathan Ford - 69.5 (46)
Amari Carter - 69.5 (55)
Trajan Bandy - 67.5 (54)
Robert Knowles - 65.7 (16)
Pat Bethel - 65.5 (37)
Romeo Finley - 65.1 (36)
TeCory Couch - 64.9 (12)
Gurvan Hall Jr. - 63.3 (52)
Zach McCloud - 61.1 (9 snaps)
Jordan Miller - 58.7 (4 snaps)
Trevon Hill - 57.8 (15)
Al Blades Jr. - 55.4 (57)
Michael Pinckney - 48.2 (48)
Shaq Quarterman - 44.5 (57)

[BigWindyCane]

According to PFF, true freshman left tackle Zion Nelson allowed seven quarterback pressures while right tackle John Campbell allowed six quarterback pressures. Nelson committed one penalty on the night. PFF gave Nelson a 1.4 (out of 100) pass blocking grade. Nelson did earn a 55.8 run blocking grade.

Campbell wasn’t much better at right tackle, according to PFF, being called for three penalties. Campbell’s pass blocking grade was a 43.7.

On the positive side according to PFF, Donaldson did not allow a single pressure for the entire game. PFF graded Donaldson out with a 87.8 pass blocking grade. It appears Donaldson is thriving at his natural position.

With Gaynor and Scaife also grading at 62.6 respectively, it appears the Canes don’t have an offensive line problem, the Canes have an offensive tackle problem.

[CaneWarrior]

Sota,
I will give 86 another week (and hopefully he’ll have returned by then )to get his contact information so that I can send him mine .
Many thanks
Aloha

[Hassan]

F the Gators

that is all, From Austalia Mates

[IraqiCane]

Ha!!! Tell 'em Hassan!!!

[Terrance Sullivan]

Go Canes! Beat UNC! That is All!

[Sarasota 'cane]

Posted by: CaneWarrior | August 26, 2019 at 12:13 AM

Aloha my friend and I will wait for your contact info!!

I'm with Terrance. Beat UNC. I'm glad we have an extra week to prepare. We can fix a lot of what went wrong on Saturday before the UNC game.

Go 'canes!!

[Old Skool]

Vinny Jr. to get a lot of reps for the Bucs against Dallas.

The shoulder injury to Gabbert means Ryan Griffin will be elevated to the No. 2 quarterback. Starter Jameis Winston is not expected to play at Dallas Thursday. Coach Bruce Arians doesn’t want to risk playing Griffin very long, meaning Testaverde will get a lot of reps in the game.

[solarcane]

" Campbell’s pass blocking grade was a 43.7."

So basically if he was a restaurant he would have poisoned an entire city.

[Herbieibis]

Manny can sugar coat it all he wants but those 2 dudes have a lonnnnnng way to go. Nelson, after coming in at 240, should be RS this season, get those 4 games in. It also doesn't say to much about our depth.

[Terrance Sullivan]

Well I have a bigger problem with those 4 Star Busts on our Offensive Line and they were at least decent Zion would not be starting! That's just like people complaining about Tate getting reps at WR. Mark Pope and Mike Hartley need to step the Bleep up. Florida top 2 corners were concerned with KJ and Jeff and that was a perfect time for those 2 to show up and once again they didn't do much. It's beyond time for these so called South Florida Ballers to get it done because they are 4 Star Busts up until now. Man Up or Step Aside!