Looking Ahead to 2014

So, how about all that positive momentum, eh?

After being there in person to witness the Canes’ demolition at the hands of the Louisville football Cardinals last Saturday night – from great seats, I might add – a lot of the things I believed about this program have been called into question. 

In reality, the second half of this season was a crushing failure. It seems a distant memory to think back to the time when this squad was 7-0, ranked in the Top 10, and in high spirits after a decision was handed down in the NCAA case.

It was that kind of night.

A 2-4 finish will do that. And it wasn’t just any 2-4 finish…it was an EMBARASSING 2-4 finish that included a blowout from FSU, a loss to a shitty Virginia Tech team, a loss to Duke, getting our brakes beat off by Louisville (Miami-lite) and 500+ yard offensive performances by Pitt and Virginia, both of whom suck something awful.

So, it is easy to be negative right now. However, as anyone who knows me can attest, there are few things in life I refuse to stay negative about for very long. One of them is Miami football. 

Therefore, this year-end / year-beginning post will be about the future. Specifically, the things we need to be talking about at this time NEXT year in order for 2014 to be considered a success.

The way I see it, there are two MAJOR issues facing this team.

The first has been written about on CanesInsight by Peter Ariz.

SIDENOTE: If you are a good fan, and by good fan I mean you have a few brain cells to rub together and enjoy making solid contributions to a football discussion OR want to learn and know when to stay quiet, you should join that site. It is awesome. If you are NOT a good fan, stay the f*ck away from that site.

Essentially, there is a disconnect between the way the “city” of Miami views our team and the way our coaches feel about it.

Our coaches feel that we represent the city. The community feels that other schools represent the way kids from the 305 should play. A major part of this problem is that the murky underworld of South Florida football has evolved into an AAU-basketball like landscape of runners and agents and backdoor deals. 

Summer 7-on-7 tournaments have become the hotspot for this shady activity, and Miami is caught between two forces…a need to keep the top players at home (which requires you to play ball with these seedy figures, such as Jon Drummond and Brett Goetz) and a need to stay above the fray (the NCAA watches Miami like Hawks, and right now we are on probation…the NCAA also seemingly does not care what LSU, Alabama, FSU and any school coached by Urban Meyer does).

I think that this issue is a tad overblown. That we have lost studs every year as of late is a fact.

However, there seems to be a popular myth that was propagated by the 30 for 30 film which states that Miami gets every top prospect from the State of Miami every year, period. This is simply not true, and never was. Even when Miami was walking in high cotton, top players left. Marvin Jones, Samari Rolle, Tamarick Vanover, Fred Taylor, Lamont Jordan, etc. were all studs form the State of Miami that left for rival programs during Miami’s Dynasty…and that is literally off the top of my head without doing any research.

The reality is, we have done a pretty damned good job of ingratiating ourselves in South Florida while playing very mediocre football. The following core of returning players and incoming recruits, and this is JUST the South Florida guys, would be the envy of most programs in the country: Duke, Tracey Howard, Stacey Coley, Deon Bush, Tyriq Mccord, Anthony Chickillo, Chad Thomas, Kc McDermott, Joe Yearby, Trevor Darling, Anthony Moten, Herb Waters, Malcolm Lewis, Artie Burns, Jamal Carter, Brandon Powell. 

There have been misses, but that is true of any coaching staff. Hell, Jameis Winston, native son of Alabama, is playing for Florida State, not Alabama or Auburn.

In order to go the next step and twist up the railroad spikes, if you will (if you had “outdated Civil War reference” on your SOTS Bingo card, you’re welcome) we need to win. Winning cures all. Winning gets rid of any gap between our perception of the squad and the community’s. Winning negates street agents pushing players elsewhere, because kids want to play for winners, period. Winning eliminates the second guessing about which players we choose to offer. Winning isn’t a band aid…it is a brand new biomechanical limb.

And that nicely segues us into the second problem.

We cannot win doing what we are currently doing. We occupy an untenable position.

When Al Golden took over, he said “players, not plays”.

Well, I have now watched for 3 years, and what I see is a system that refuses to adapt to the strengths of its players. It is all about plays, and forcing players to run them even when they aren’t working. And THAT has to change.

In order for us to be better next year, and be having a more positive conversation about the program a year from now, the staff has to become less dogmatic. And if they need a reminder of how they should approach it, they should look at the tape of that Louisville game.

Louisville played like Miami used to play. They were aggressive. They played downhill. To borrow Mark Dantonio’s phrasing, they let their kids out of the cage on Saturday night, and you could tell their kids responded to it. They weren’t thinking…they were playing. 

It pissed us off the way they were playing, because they were kicking our ass and telling us about it.

It was exactly what we want out of our team.

And that is what we need to get back to. We need to let the kids off the leash.

Too often the current style of play takes players out of what they do best; to wit, I saw McCord, our best pass rusher, split out wide executing the duties of a cornerback AT LEAST a half dozen times. 

Every play, seemingly, one of our linebackers gets so confused that by the time they have figured out which player to tackle, the player is 5 yards gone. 

It has to stop. Now a lot of people that think they know what they are talking about argue the merits of a 4-3 vs. a 3-4 vs. a 5-2…the reality is that it doesn’t give a shit. The ATTITUDE of the team, and it isn’t limited to the defense, by the way, is wrong.

The attitude of this team is one of retreat. It is evident in our lax schemes, it is evident when we have 4^th and a foot and can’t convert, and it is evident when we get our doors blown off in the second half against EVERY good team we play. We lost to the 4 best teams on our schedule this year. That is unacceptable.

The team needs a talent infusion, but also an attitude transfusion.

The coaches, whoever they end up being, need to be brutally honest with themselves and have the courage to fix what is wrong. They need to solicit feedback from their key guys…Duke, Tracey and Bush are the keys, in my opinion. They are leaders, and not leaders in the way Shayon Green is….they actually go out on the field and make plays. Lots of them. And the reality is that they probably have a pretty good idea of what will work with this squad.

I’ve said this before, and I will say it again. I love Golden. I really do. I think he is a great leader, and I think his best days are ahead of him. 

But I do not love him more than I love the Miami Hurricanes.

If change doesn’t come, in one way or the other, the conversation will not be positive next year. Next year will be the first in which the entire roster is Golden’s players. He picked the team, he picked the coaches, he picked the schemes. Whatever attitude the team has, he picked that too.

And if the attitude is one that accepts defeat and cracks under pressure, then that will be very telling about the state of our program.

Let’s pray it doesn’t get to that, because if we don’t get it right this time, we might be left permanently behind.