Diaz, Lashlee explain where offense is falling short to start ’21

When Manny Diaz reviewed the the film to see why the Miami Hurricanes only scored 25 points in their win over Appalachian State on Saturday, the UM coach saw a team that wasn’t capitalizing on the scoring opportunities it created for itself.

Diaz saw an offense that entered the Mountaineers’ red zone five times, with the chance to score 35 combined points in those situations, but only came away 20 points after having a drive that involved a play inside Appalachian State’s 20.

“That’s [57] percent of the available points down there,” Diaz said Monday afternoon. “A good offense should be around the 80 mark. We had eight drives we penetrated their 40-yard line — we averaged three points a drive the eight times we had it there.

“Not doing those things kept us from getting on the scoreboard. A lot for us as coaches to fix.”

No. 24 Miami’s offense hasn’t replicated its offensive success from last season, averaging 19 points and 4.64 yards per play through its first two games, both of which are down from the Hurricanes averages of 34 points and 6.02 yards per play last season.

Playing top-ranked Alabama and its defense didn’t help UM’s offense, but the Hurricanes only averaged 4.9 yards per play against Appalachian State in one of their lowest showings since Lashlee took over the offense last year.

“We moved the ball up-anddown the field pretty well, but got nothing hardly to show for it,” Lashlee said. “We’re not producing any results at the end. It’s a result-driven sport. It doesn’t matter if eight of our 12 drives are past the 40-yard line.

“It’s probably a combination of untimely [penalties] and then not executing enough to finish the drives. We’re not getting explosive touchdowns, so we’re having to sustain long drives but we’re not finishing those drives. It can get frustrating because you’re not getting the results you need.”

Lashlee also understands the frustration from fans when the Hurricanes run the ball on plays some would expect them to pass, like at the start of the fourth quarter versus the Mountaineers when Cam’Ron Harris gained zero yards on a rush out of an run-pass option play on firstand-25, with many of the 45,877 fans in attendance for the game booing UM after the play.

Lashlee, who explained many of the plays Miami executes has more than one option, also hears similar feedback from those inside his house when he gets home from games.

“I come home and my wife or kids are like ‘hey, why do you run the ball up the middle on this?’ It’s not as simple as it sounds and I totally get the frustration,” Lashlee said. “Nobody’s as frustrated as me when it doesn’t work. We rarely have a run where it’s not some form of a read, whether it’s an [run-pass option], bubble, hitch or something else there. It’s not always as simple as ‘they ran it up the middle.’

“In a couple of cases the other night, the read told [quarterback D’Eriq King] to hand the ball off and we just simply didn’t block it good enough. We got five [blockers], they got five [rushers] and we didn’t win. We should be able to win five-on-five and get the back to the next level. We didn’t execute that properly.”

Without mentioning the exact play, Lashlee recalled a moment where King was in an RPO situation and could’ve pulled the ball back for a “big play” but, “we handed it into a number and got hit for a no gain.”

Time announced

The ACC announced that the Hurricanes’ home game against Central Connecticut State will kick off at 12:30 p.m. on Sept. 25 at Hard Rock Stadium.

The game will be televised on Bally Sports Florida and streamed live on the Bally Sports app.