Some problems proving difficult for UM to fix
CINCINNATI — Not long after Miami’s first loss of the season, Al Golden found himself in a familiar spot.
Standing outside the Hurricanes locker room after yet another brutal night, Miami’s beleaguered coach tried to answer question after question — many of which he’s already faced after losses that mirrored this most recent defeat, a 34-23 disappointment at Cincinnati on Thursday night at Nippert Stadium.
It didn’t take long for Golden and his players to concede they still haven’t fixed all of the issues that plagued them during last year’s 6-7 season, several of which have spilled over into 2015.
Thursday night against the Bearcats, Miami was 4 of15 on third-down conversions. The Hurricanes’ potential punt return touchdown by Corn Elder was called back because of a penalty. And flags were a problem all night. Though the Hurricanes were penalized just six times, they seemingly came at the most inopportune moments, killing drives and forcing the Hurricanes to settle for field goals instead of the touchdowns they needed to try to keep pace with Cincinnati’s high-powered offense.
Though Miami’s players and coaches try to avoid talking about last season, they know penalties and thirddown issues were a problem when Miami posted just its third losing season since 1980. In 2014, the Hurricanes ranked 95th among FBS programs in third-down conversions (60 of 163) while they averaged 63.6 penalty yards per game. Only 20 more programs in the nation were penalized more than they were.
“You can’t make those mistakes in this environment on the road, period,” Golden said. “That’s all we talked about all week. It’s all we talked about. I didn’t do a good enough job this week because we did it again. We hurt ourselves in penalties, we gave up some explosive plays to make it easier for them and we didn’t finish drives in the end zone. There’s going to be a lot that we need to improve on, but we’ve got a lot of football left. We haven’t played an ACC game yet. That’s what our mindset has to be. … We just have to
keep going.”
Added quarterback Brad Kaaya, who saw his streak of 16 consecutive games with a touchdown pass come to an end Thursday: “We’ve just got to stop making mistakes and be more disciplined on third down. We can’t have as many penalties. Penalties killed us … we just have to do it, every day in practice. Work on it every single day.”
For the Hurricanes, there is no time to dwell on what happened in Cincinnati.
Non-conference play is over and Miami now turns its focus to its ACC opener, which will come on the road next Saturday against in-state rival and 11th-ranked Florida State.
The Hurricanes haven’t beaten the Seminoles since a 38-34 win in Tallahassee in 2009 and in recent years, losses to FSU have seemingly taken their toll on the Miami psyche.
After last year’s 30-26 loss, the Hurricanes lost four straight. And in 2013, Miami dropped two straight to Virginia Tech and Duke after its 41-14 loss to the Seminoles in Tallahassee.
With the rest of their ACC schedule looming beyond Florida State, the Hurricanes can’t afford to make those mistakes again, something else they know.
“We’re moving on,” linebacker Raphael Kirby said. “We’re going to learn from this game first, tomorrow, and then move on to Florida State.”