Oft-penalized Canes out to cut back on mistakes
As they’ve tried to work their way out of what is now a fourgame losing streak, the Miami Hurricanes have dealt with a number of issues, particularly on offense.
Last week at Georgia Tech, the Hurricanes were able to somewhat move the ball effectively and got solid quarterback play from redshirt freshman quarterback N’Kosi Perry, but they were hurt by a series of turnovers and penalties that took their toll.
As Miami prepares to travel to Virginia Tech in what it expects to be a loud, raucous Lane Stadium in Blacksburg, it has put an emphasis on avoiding pre-snap penalties.
In their losses to Virginia, Boston College, Duke and Georgia Tech — three of which came on the road — the offense was called for eight false starts and two delayof-game penalties.
Last week in the Hurricanes’ 27-21 loss to the Yellow Jackets, four different members of the offensive line — Hayden Mahoney, Tyler Gauthier, Navaughn Donaldson and Tyree St. Louis — were all whistled for false starts that made things tougher for Perry and the rest of the offense.
The Hurricanes can’t afford a repeat performance for them to have any chance of ending the losing streak and securing the win they need to secure bowl eligibility.
“Mental mistakes like false starts, those have really been messing us up lately,” said freshman right tackle DJ Scaife when asked why the offensive line has struggled in recent weeks. “I don’t know, just road games. It’s hard to play on the road.”
With another road game looming and Miami running out of chances to secure that elusive postseason berth, coach Mark Richt said the team has worked on its non-verbal communication in practice and simulated the environment they likely will face in Blacksburg.
Though the weather has been pleasant in South Florida for much of the week, the Hurricanes have practiced inside the Carol Soffer Indoor Practice Facility with simulated noise blaring over the speakers to make it more challenging for the offense to work.
“The last time we were there, it was wild. I think it was a Thursday night and it was as loud as it could be,” Richt said of playing at Virginia Tech. “I’ve always said this, and I think there’s some truth to it, once it gets to a certain amount of loudness, once it gets so loud that you can’t hear well … then you need to use all your nonverbal communication and you need to be able to function that way. We know it’ll be louder than where we’ll be able to hear each other, so there will be a lot of hand signals and code names. We might be able to get some information to the linemen, but, the skill guys need hand signals and we need to be able to get the ball snapped without a verbal cadence.”
Richt continued, “Even NFL linemen jump from time-to-time because of crowd noise. That’s part of the home-field advantage, but we’ve got to be disciplined. … They tend to move abruptly with their d-linemen and they try to get you to jump, along with the crowd noise, and it’s hard not to. … That’s another thing we’ll have to be mindful of.”
More touches for Davis? Freshman running back Cam Davis entered last week’s game at Georgia Tech having played in just three games and notching only six carries for 27 yards.
With Travis Homer dealing with a strained calf and DeeJay Dallas struggling with turnovers, Davis’ number was called in Atlanta and the freshman finished as Miami’s leading rusher with 48 yards. He also scored his first touchdown as a Hurricane.
Richt said he expects Davis will have more opportunities at Virginia Tech, even if that means the freshman will lose his eligibility to redshirt under new NCAA rules that allow players to keep their redshirt as long as they appear in four games or less.