’Canes stress need to be mentally tougher
CORAL GABLES — Miami Hurricanes defensive coordinator Manny Diaz understands that when two teams combine to run 134 offensive plays, it’s rare that one of those plays can determine the outcome of a game, especially when it comes in the first quarter.
But Diaz has been around college football long enough to know that a single play — in this case Nick Brossette’s 50-yard touchdown run — can have a lasting impact on both teams long after it’s over.
For the Hurricanes — who didn’t allow a touchdown of more than 25 yards in all of 2017 — Brossette’s touchdown was a punch, both physically and, worse, mentally.
On that play, Brossette and the Tigers capitalized on the fact that several of Miami’s defensive starters — including linebackers Shaq Quarterman and Mike Pinckney and cornerback Michael Jackson — weren’t on the field. And though the run only gave the Tigers a 10-3 lead with 35 seconds left in the first quarter, the Hurricanes were unable to recover.
The touchdown started a stretch where LSU scored 30 unanswered points and built a lead that proved insurmountable. Even though the Hurricanes rallied in the fourth quarter to pull within two scores, the Tigers held on for a 33-17 win and the Hurricanes were left with significant questions.
Brossette’s run turned out to be the kind of play the 22nd-ranked Hurricanes quickly realized they cannot continue to allow. Not only was it a long run that impacted the final score, but the toll it took on players’ psyches proved far too costly.
“We made a mistake on a long run and we didn’t respond to it. The whole football team, we dropped our gloves in the second quarter. Offense, defense, special teams — and to me, that was the most disappointing part,” Diaz said. “That’s what we challenged them [with] at halftime. We didn’t look like we were very mentally tough. … You’re not going to lose a game because you give up a touchdown in the first half to make it 10-3, but we did because after that point, we did not respond. Above everything from that game, that was the most disappointing part.”
In the three days that have passed since Brossette’s run and Sunday’s loss, the Hurricanes have started to shift their focus to preparing for Saturday’s home opener against Savannah State.
Despite the fact they’ll be the overwhelming favorite against a Tigers team that lost its opener 52-0 to UAB, Miami’s players concede they have to be mentally tougher as they look to bounce back after the LSU loss and move on to the rest of the season.
To help on that front, there have already been tough players-only conversations in the locker room about the importance of responding when things get difficult, either after a potential game-changing play or a gut-wrenching loss.
“We don’t have time to sit and sulk on this game. We’ve got a couple days and another game after that and the games just keep coming. In a few weeks, this Game 1 will be all a blur,” Quarterman said. “We had a lot of people getting stuff off their chest and things like that. It was all positive just to get the team better. … This school came from people that did the same thing before us. It can’t be the coaches. A coach-led team cannot win a championship. It has to be a player-led team. It has to be people on the team willing to step out front and be the one to say enough is enough and we have a lot of those guys on the team.”
As to whether the Hurricanes need to look at their rotation when it comes to substituting players, Diaz said he did not think that was the case.
Sunday, he noted, was a chance for some of Miami’s reserves — including those who were on the field for Brossette’s run — to gain invaluable experience that will help them push Miami’s starters.
“How many guys [do] we have that have proven they can play at a high level?” Diaz responded Wednesday when asked about the rotation. “If anything, we need to reduce the feeling of entitlement … We needed good old competition to find out who the best guys are now that the games are here and we’re not reading about ourselves and [we need to] find out who’s really serious about this.”