A lot to address entering bye week
MIAMI GARDENS — In many ways, the Miami Hurricanes were lucky their ACC-opening home loss to Virginia on Thursday came down to a missed field goal that would’ve won UM the game. The score could have easily been more lopsided.
Because the same issues Miami (2-3, 0-1 ACC) has struggled with for most of the season appeared at some point during its 30-28 loss to the Cavaliers: a slow start offensively, bad tackling, the defense not consistently capitalizing on moments to create game-changing plays, dropped passes and poor blocking by an offensive line that’s yet to settle.
All those factors — plus some unluckiness with injuries, notably starting quarterback D’Eriq King — have led to the Hurricanes’ situation now: their lone wins heading into their bye week have come against Central Connecticut State and Appalachian State. Not the most fearsome opponents.
“The five games have been disappointing,” coach Manny Diaz said. “There is no other way to say it. There is no excuse that you can make. It’s not what this team is. There is more in us and our players believe that.”
And the off-the-field noise — not including the boos the team has heard at some point every game at Hard Rock Stadium this season — Miami has been dealing with has only made the on-field struggles more notable.
Diaz, who’s 16-13 as Miami’s coach but only 11-11 against fellow Power Five programs — including 0-4 against non-ACC Power Five teams — came to the defense of the University of Miami and its administration after ESPN college football analyst Kirk Herbstreit called into question the university’s commitment to the football program.
In the aftermath of Herbstreit’s comments, University of Miami president Julio Frenk issued a statement before kickoff for Thursday’s game saying the university is “fully committed to building championship-caliber teams at the U,” and that he would have members of his staff “augment my own direct engagement with the athletics director by facilitating seamless alignment between the Board of Trustees, my entire administration, and the athletics department.”
Regardless of what Frenk’s involvement looks like moving forward, the Hurricanes know they must regroup over the next two weeks, with a bye week in front of them before facing Atlantic Coast Conference Coastal division rival North Carolina.
“As a team, we all have the understanding that we still have a lot to fight for,” sixthyear defensive end Zach McCloud said. “Everything else on the outside, we can’t really focus on that. We care about each other. We want to play better for the man next to us.
“With that being the main thing, if we let up right now, we could easily just trash the season and throw it away. That’s probably the response that, from the outside looking in, most people feel like is going on. Going into this bye week, if we spend the whole time being sad about a loss without taking the time to get better and learn a lesson from the loss, then that will show and we can’t let that happen.”
Miami had the opportunity to quiet the noise against Virginia, but after its fifth consecutive loss to a Power Five program dating back to last season, it’s likely to only get louder.
Which makes the next two weeks for the Hurricane a crucial period for reflection and regrouping, with their main goals (compete for the ACC and Coastal Division) still attainable, but their outlook from the outside more grim than hopeful.
“This team will battle.” Diaz said. “This team will fight. Despite all the adversity they have been through, we were on the verge of doing something really special [Thursday] and just came up short. We have to take that part of it and build off of that.”