Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Solutions for 3rd downs come on 1st and 2nd
The Miami Hurricanes are better on third downs this season than the awful numbers they posted last year.
Their 43.2% conversion rate through five games ranks 36th out of the 77 college football teams to play thus far in 2020. In 2019, Miami ranked 129th out of the 130 FBS teams, converting at a 27.2% clip.
UM’s third down conversions have dipped over the last two games, however. Through three games against UAB, Louisville and Florida State, the Hurricanes converted 24 of 46 third downs — and 5 of 6 fourth downs. Against the defenses of Clemson and Pittsburgh the past two weeks, UM was 4 of 15 and 4 of 13, respectively.
The third downs the Hurricanes
are missing are coming on third-and-long. That may seem obvious, but there’s an even greater direct correlation when it comes to Miami.
Up until the end of the final two drives against Pittsburgh, every third down UM failed to convert on involved double-digit yards to go. Whenever the distance was under 10 yards on third down, Miami converted.
This was the case up until the late third-and-7 where the Hurricanes ran to set up a field goal that capped a drive that already took seven minutes off the clock and a final kneel down. On that seven-minute drive, Miami converted third downs from 9, 1 and 6 yards.
“We make a big deal of winning [the first play of a drive] because usually when you win [that], especially when you’re an up-tempo offense, it gives you a great chance to get the first first down,” said coach Manny Diaz. “You stay out of that third-and-long call. All the data says once you get that first first down, then the tempo gets rolling and off you go.”
Added junior tight end Will Mallory, who had two touchdowns in the win over Pitt: “On [the first play of a drive], Coach preaches that all the time: We have to get a positive play on that because that really can determine or dictate how that drive goes. That is a point of emphasis in practice every week.”
UM is scoring points on explosive plays, as was the case against Pitt and Louisville, but when those plays aren’t available the team needs to find ways to extend drives.
“Staying out of third-and-long is what every offense wants to do and every defense wants to accomplish, so usually the better that you’re efficient on a day, the better you’re going to be,” Diaz said. “And on more efficient days, we’ve had more manageable third downs. ... Whereas, in some games, like Louisille and Pitt, we were more explosive but less efficient. We had a hard time when we had to convert some third downand-longs.”
Quarterback D’Eriq King completed 16 of 31 passes, and the running game averaged 2.6 yards per attempt against Pitt. King was also sacked four times by the Panthers. Improvements in those areas would lead to greater efficiency.
“That’s big for us,” King said. “I can’t take sacks. I got to get the ball out and let everybody make plays.
“If you have a positive play on first down, I think that takes care of itself. If you get 4 or more yards on first down, you make second down easier and, typically, you probably don’t even get to third down.”
On top of being better on third downs, Miami is giving up fewer sacks overall after allowing 51 in 2019.
“It’s, of course, [the offensive line] getting better, but also the offense helps us out a lot when we go [with a] fast pace,” junior right guard DJ Scaife said. “And also D’Eriq bails us out sometimes. It’s mostly us getting better, though, but everything ties into that.”
There were only three sacks allowed by the UM offense in the first three games, but against Clemson and Pitt, both of which have strong defensive fronts, the Hurricanes allowed nine sacks combined.
“I don’t want to see my quarterback on the ground at all,” Scaife said. “We just have to go back and see how we can fix that all around.”
King, after having three balls deflected at the line of scrimmage against the tall, long defenders of Pittsburgh up front, will also see a similar challenge Saturday against Virginia outside linebackers Charles Snowden (6-foot-7) and Noah Taylor (6-5).
After being a lower-half team in red-zone scoring in 2019, Miami has scored touchdowns on 71% of its trips to the red zone through five games and has come up with points on every red-zone opportunity, aside from the final kneel downs against Pitt.