Canespace

Let's Make A Deal

Manny Diaz walked into the head coaching job at the University of Miami with the love and support of an overwhelming majority of Hurricane fans. He was the hero of the UM defense that had re-invented aggressive swagger and even invented the creative turnover chain.

He was a made man who could do no wrong.

He worked the transfer portal like a dealer at a blackjack table.

He and the fans placed their bets and they were all in.

Of course, that was all before the season started.

Then things started to get twisted and go awry.

The defense wasn't so aggressive or effective under a new coordinator and the offense, the sore spot under former coach Mark Richt, seemed like they couldn't score to save their lives.

Losses to lesser teams started to happen (again) and wins seemed painfully difficult against weaker opponents (again). But, here we are and here's the deal we are willing to make with you Manny Diaz.

You have a mission, should you choose to accept it:

1. Priority #1 is BEAT FSU.
2. Win the remaining games in 2019.
3. Show us that the team is improving late in the season.
4. Give us hope for 2020.
5. Don't screw this up.

Do this and maybe some other impressive things and all will be forgiven.

Fail and the wrath of Miami fans will fall on you like a anchor around your neck.

Or maybe a small plane with a large banner in the sky.

Until then, we wish you faith, hope and love.

And maybe even a little luck on the side.

Miami Beats Pittsburgh

We are so happy!

Miami beat Pittsburgh 16-12.

What else can we say?

Except it was not a pretty game.

The UM starting QB was removed.

The injured former QB was inserted.

The Canes won. 

We are so happy!

That is all.

Game Day Blog: Miami vs Pitt

Today your Miami Hurricanes travel to the Steel City to play the Panthers of the University of Pittsburgh.

We look for the 'Canes to have a bounce back game after a tough loss to Georgia Tech at home.

The Hurricanes have a commanding 26-11-1 all-time series lead over the Panthers, including a 12-6 mark in road games. As ACC counterparts, the two teams have met six times and Miami leads, 4-2.

The two teams have traded similar results in the last two years; as ACC Coastal champions in 2017, the #2 Hurricanes were upset by the Panthers to snap the nation's longest winning streak. Last year, UM upended the Coastal champion Panthers, 24-3, at Hard Rock Stadium in the regular season finale.

CANESPACE PREDICTION: UM 34 - PITT 13

Comfortably Numb

This blog was written by Canespace HOF blogger SolarCane...

“When I was a child, 

I caught a fleeting glimpse, 

Out of the corner of my eye,

I turned to look but it was gone,

I cannot put my finger on it now,

The child is grown, the dream is gone,

I have become comfortably numb”

Surely Pink Floyd's David Gilmour must be a Miami Hurricane fan.

Every one of us deals with reality in different ways.

You might find yourself in denial, cursing the television, throwing stuff all over the place. Maybe you are the type that suffers in silence and just shake your head in disbelief. I used to be both of those type fans, sometimes even during the same game.

Now nothing horrible the Canes do on the field upsets me or even surprises me.

I have become comfortably numb.

Fortunately I was able to move on from denial a long time before most of my Canespace pals were willing to let go. I was in the minority a decade ago when I predicted the Miami Hurricane football team would dwell in the eight wins four losses neighborhood for all eternity.

Nobody wanted to believe me back then, yet here we are.

Sure, the Canes continue to tease us and win a couple notable games in spite of themselves, but they never look like "The U" is Back. I don't really believe we will ever be back. We are the football version of the Chicago Cubs. I don't know if we can pull off 108 years between championships, but we are giving it a hell of a shot.

Remember when you were a kid and fell off your bike and how bad it hurt for awhile and how you hated that bike?  Then in time your bruise became numb and you realized that you still really loved that bike after all.

Rooting for the Miami Hurricanes is something like that.

We all have become comfortably numb.

Faith And Hope Have Left The Building

Recently I wrote an article here on Canespace titled: "Faith, Hope and Love".

It was based on a bible verse (1 Corinthians 13:13) which has remained one of my favorites over many, many years: "These three things remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love."

In the article I asked and pleaded with University of Miami football fans to maintain these three critical emotions for the rest of the 2019 college football season and basically suggested or promised that things would get better.

I was wrong.

Let me try to put things into perspective for you based on today's events.

Your Miami Hurricanes, by far the worst team in the ACC, lost today to Georgia Tech. To put things in perspective for you the Yellow Jackets scored two points against powerhouse Temple, then lost to Duke and The Citadel in Atlanta.

Yeah, that bad. I'm talking dumpster fire bad.

The Hurricanes defense allowed Tech to score their highest points this season.

The Miami offense scored only 21 points and was 5-13 on 3rd down conversions.

The UM special teams missed 3 field goals and gave up a TD on a fake punt.

It simply doesn't or can't get any worse than this. Even in our worst nightmares this could never happen. Yet it did happen, it happened today and it happened on our home turf at Hard Rock Stadium. It was that bad.

The game was lost, the season was over and "The New Miami" died today.

We started the season overflowing with faith, hope and love. 

It is now clear that faith and hope have left the building.

Game Day: Miami vs Georgia Tech

Grab a beer. 

Grill some burgers.

Cheer a little bit as they run out through the smoke.

Relax on the couch.

Even take a nap.

It says here that today's game against Georgia Tech will be a rout.

UM will dominate from beginning to end and win by, well you know the score.

Canespace Prediction: Hurricanes 34 - Yellow Jackets 13

Ain't That A Kick In The Pants

You had one job: Kick the ball through the uprights.

All we asked was for you to make an easy field goal or a simple extra point.

And Bubba blew it.

UM Kicker Bubba Baxa had one job. The job was handed to him on a silver platter. Bubba took the platter, turned it upside down and then proceeded to apparently melt it down into nothing. 

The Hurricanes kicking issues have been a source of frustration throughout the first half of the season that seemingly culminated in the Virgina Tech game when Bubba Baxa missed an extra point that would have put the Hurricanes on top late in the fourth quarter.
 
Against Virginia, the Hurricanes called on walk-on Turner Davidson to handle placekicking duties and the redshirt sophomore – who learned he'd be starting just after warmups were completed – converted on both of his point-after attempts and delivered a 19-yard field goal, too.
 
His reaction when he learned he'd be kicking Friday? "Don't miss," he said.
 
He didn't.

In the end, Bubba missed too many kicks allowing Davidson to get his opportunity. He took advantage of that opportunity and is likely going to be Miami's starting kicker going forward. We are not sure if he will become the next Matt Bosher or not but we are excited for this young man and his future.

The kicker has one job.

Davidson so far is perfect.

Now ain't that a kick in the pants?

A Huge Step In The Right Direction

That is exactly what your Miami Hurricanes took when they beat #20 Virginia on Friday night under the lights at Hard Rock Stadium.

It was definitely Miami's reinvigorated defense, now once again under the direction of current head coach and former DC Manny Diaz, that gave the Hurricanes first win over power 5 team this season and their first win against a ranked opponent since they beat #24 Pitt last season in November of 2018.

Virginia was held out of the end zone for four quarters by an aggressive, attacking UM defense. Lightly used DL Gregory Rousseau was everywhere all the time during the game as he saw his first significant playing time of the season. Diaz raved about Rousseau after the game and we think he will be playing a lot more from now on. Yeah, we like that, and we like that a lot!

Buy others may argue that it was also a key change at Quarterback, apparently due to a should injury to starter Jarren Williams, that may have been the tonic or medicine that cured what was ailing Miami's offense. In stepped last year's part-time starter N'Kosi Perry to add the spark the Hurricanes needed to generate just enough offense and scoring to win the game against the Cavaliers.

And really, that is all we can ask at this point in time of Manny Diaz's young career as head coach at the University of Miami.

Winning pretty would certainly be nice but winning ugly, or any way possible, is certainly acceptable at this intersection of the old and The New Miami. It has become obvious that the current talent, roster and motivational problems may run much deeper than simply changing a few coaches and schemes could fix.

It has become clear that "The Process" may take a little longer than expected and even longer than Manny had planned and many Canes fans first imagined. As a result, we are being asked as UM fans to be positive and patient.

As long as the Hurricanes keep winning, and keep improving, we do not feel that is too much to ask, is it?

Game Day Blog: Miami vs Virginia

You know the routine around here.

It is game day here at Canespace!

Your Miami Hurricanes will be on ESPN tonight at 8 PM to face the Virginia Cavaliers at Hard Rock Stadium.

For UM it is another chance to get their season turned around and headed in the right direction. We think they will.

CANESPACE PREDICTION: MIAMI 34 - VIRGINIA 13.

Halloween Horror Show

Your Miami Hurricanes had a chance to set the 2019 college football season right on the first Saturday in October with an easy victory over struggling Virginia Tech at Hard Rock Stadium.

The contest set up to be an easy home game for the Hurricanes who were favored by a solid 14 points over a shockingly weak Hokies team that had lost the previous week to Duke 45-10.

Of course, that was all before the game actually kicked off.

Then a Halloween horror show happened a few weeks early.

Suddenly, before you could get a cold beer, slap some mustard on your hot dog and find your seat, UM would find a way to turn the ball over four times and trail VT by the neat and tidy score of 28-0.

The fans in attendance must have felt as if they had been run over by a truck.

Justifiably the fans started booing or heading for the safety of the tailgate in the parking lot, the cheerleaders stopped cheering and Manny Diaz was soon seen looking for some serious smoke to cover his emergency exit from the stadium to avoid having to explain another embarrassing loss by his completely unprepared team to the media once again.

Now granted, Miami made a valiant effort to fight its way back into the game and even managed to tie the score 35-35 late in the fouth quarter behind backup QB N'kosi Perry.

Apparently, when Manny Diaz proclaimed after the fourth game of the season that he still didn't know who his best players were at several positions he was obviously including the QB position. Perry clearly outplayed starting QB Williams, who managed to throw several picks before blaming a "sore shoulder" and sitting down.

But alas, it was not to be as the once stoudt UM defense could not muster one more stop and let VT drive right down the field and score the winning TD for the final score of 42-35.

The game, and Miami's 2019 season, basically ended at the same time.

To be brutally honest Miami fans attending the games really have no idea if their team is going to give them a trick or treat on any given Saturday.

On the first Saturday in October it was clear that the trick was on them.