Miami’s struggles in bowl games continue

Silver linings. Positive spins. Bright sides. There were a few, maybe more than a few. But you can’t go straight there. It is folly to try to pretend this hellscape of a year 2020 ended any way but badly for the University of Miami Hurricanes football program Tuesday night in Orlando.

First, it was the Cheez-It Bowl. The Cheez-It Bowl!

There are some bowl games that cannot quite be taken seriously based solely on their name. The Poulan Weedeater Bowl retired, so this steps in to take its place.

Heck, it’s bad enough winning the Cheez-It Bowl and having to fake great pride in collecting such a consolation prize.

No. 18-ranked Miami lost it Tuesday, 37-34, to the No. 21 Oklahoma State Cowboys.

It’s bad enough losing a bowl game to cap your pandemic-wracked season.

UM also lost its quarterback, D’Eriq King, to a right knee injury late in the second quarter, on a clean hit — just days after King

had announced he planned to return to the Canes next season rather than roll dice in the NFL Draft.

Unaccustomed loyalty or prudent sense, that decision by King. He could have gone the more common route nowadays, and followed the perfume of NFL riches after first skipping the bowl game to avoid injury, like defensive-stalwart teammates Jaelan Phillips and Quincy Roche did.

Easy to criticize Phillips and Roche, by the way. But not quite so easy when you see King being helped limping off the field.

You have to feel for

King. Lost his father to a heart attack in February. Mom has battled breast cancer. And their son returned to the sideline on crutches Tuesday night, a bulky black brace on his right leg.

Wait, I said earlier it’s futile to look for a bright side in this.

Here’s one: Better than last year, at least.

A year ago, Miami ended an embarrassing 6-7 season with a beyond-embarrassing 14-0 loss to little Louisiana Tech in the Independence Bowl.

This season ends 8-3, with a hard-fought loss against a like-sized opponent, and in a bigger bowl despite its cheesy name. UM will fall (again) in the polls but perhaps cling to a final Top 25 ranking.

“It’s been a trying year, it just has for everybody,” said Canes coach Manny Diaz. “This team, they have advanced us a level in our program. We haven’t done everything the right way, and we respect the expectations we all have for this program. But we’re building. There’s more to come.”

UM did not quit Tuesday, say that. Missing two of its top, difference-making defenders, and with backup quarterback N’Kosi Perry playing two-thirds of the game, the Canes fought back from early 21-0 hole.

At the end of a college season that teams survived as much as conquered, there was nobility in the effort and fight alone.

Oh, but what might have been!

The Canes have developed quite the habit of ending seasons badly, this the latest chapter.

Miami once was 8-1, its only loss to mighty Clemson (albeit a rout), and ranked as high as No. 7. You could have asked, at that point, “Is The U finally back!?” (whatever that means) and at least not been laughed out of the room.

That 62-26 loss to North Carolina followed — the one in which Miami’s defense allowed an all-time UM-worst 554 yards rushing — and there went the ticket to the hometown Orange Bowl. That was when “back” started feeling miles away again.

Major bowl, disappeared. Hello, Cheez-It.

Then came Tuesday, which rather remarkably continued one of the most mystifying bowl skids any major college football program has suffered — let alone one with the pedigree of five national championships, though the last came before some of the current Canes were born.

Tuesday made it 10 losses in the past 11 bowls for Miami, dating to 2008 and across four different head coaches — Randy Shannon, Al Golden, Mark Richt and now Manny

Diaz.

Miami keeps flirting with “back,” and finding ways to fall short.

Let’s not get too gloomy. An 8-3 season, amid all of the challenges of COVID-19, is not nothing. King returning for another year is a big positive. Miami has the No. 10-ranked 2021 recruiting class nationally — coming off a 6-7 season.

There is reason for optimism. There almost always is.

The Hurricanes need to find a way to finish what they start, though.

Bowl games are supposed to be a momentumbuilding freeway into next season. Not a screeching halt at a red light.