Four Flaws The Miami Hurricanes Need To Fix in 2010

Posted by By Sports Session at 23 August, at 06 : 46 AM Print

Four Flaws The Miami Hurricanes Need To Fix in 2010

The Miami Hurricanes are no different than any other team, and could have easily gone through the season last year and ended with only one loss.  There is really only one game anyone can point to where the Hurricanes were out of it early and had no chance to win the game in the fourth quarter.  The team has many flaws just like others, and they will have to overcome these if they want to win the ACC and even have a shot at competing for a National Title.

Here are four critical flaws that need to be fixed by the team this season if they hope to reach their goals and have the type of year they are capable of having.  There are more than four just like with any team, but these seem to be the ones that have the biggest effect on each game, and also the ones that seem to come up the most often.

Weakness #1: Showing Up Unmotivated

The Miami Hurricanes have always been known as a team that comes out with passion and fire.  In recent years though the Hurricanes have shown a tendency to go through the motions in games at times.  It is almost the same process each time, they come out and get a quick touchdown then go into hiatus for most of the game.  Then the 4th Quarter rolls around and they decide they do want to play football.  You can point to this behavior in several games, Virginia Tech (they didn’t play in the 4th), Wake Forest (a heroic come back in the waning minutes), and Wisconsin.

All of those games have very similar themes as to how the team came out to play from the start of the game.  The interesting part about all of these games is that the team came out, and looked like they were going to put up a good fight early.  Then it’s like the bottom fell out and they could not recover against Wisconsin and Virginia Tech, it was pure luck that they won the Wake Forest game.

Many will blame Randy Shannon for not getting the team ready and motivated, but I put a lot of the blame on the players.  If you come to Miami you take pride in the logo on the side of your helmet, and do everything in your power to win the game (at the minimum give 100% effort).  These players are the ones on the field getting hit in the mouth and not fighting back, so how can you completely blame the coach for that?

Maybe in some cases they are not the right recruits, it is difficult to coach a person to be tough who does not have that trait naturally.  Part of this issue is the fact that there was not many upperclassmen in starting roles who chose to influence the team.  This coming season things should be different as there are many players who have matured, and are now in prime position to lead this team and hopefully prevent these lethargic types of situations.

Weakness #2: Better Offensive Line Play

The Hurricanes have talent at every skill position, but all of that does not matter if they do not get better play from the offensive line.  Jacory Harris will only be as good as his offensive line allows him to be.  The hurricanes have size along the offensive line, but lack a lot of depth.

They partially addressed that issue by signing a lot of young offensive line talent.  It is unclear if those young players will make a difference this season.  Can a player like Seantrel Henderson and Malcolm Bunche contribute enough to make the offensive line deep enough up front this season. With teams like Florida State, North Carolina, Ohio State, and Virginia Tech on the schedule they will not be time for on-the-job training.

Mark Whipple can help the problem with better play calling. This will help to highlight the strengths of the offensive line and how they’re playing. If you do not get the proper protection what sense does it make the call the passes several times a series.  Whipple can also use the running game to loosen up the pass rush on those plays where he wants to go deep.  Orlando Franklin and Joel Figueroa will need to step up as leaders this season, and make sure the young players grow up quickly.

Weakness #3: Giving up Too Many Big Plays

Last Season The Hurricanes were only blown out in one game against Virginia Tech where they did not bother to show up at all.  All the other games were winnable and for the  most part lost late in the game.  In most of these games the offense scored over 30 points, which should be enough to win most of a teams games.

The common theme in a lot of these games is the defense gave up a big play or two that kept the other team in it, or gave them the go ahead score late.  The long touchdown pass to CJ Spiller against Clemson, the slant pass for about a 40 yard touchdown against Wake Forest, and who can forget countless plays against Florida State.  Luckily through late game heroics most of these came out as victories.

Even against Georgia Tech the Defense shut down the triple option, but was abused by Nesbit and Demaryius Thomas for long pass plays.  This is a product of the type of defense they run, but  this indicates the safety is being fooled, or gambling too much when these plays occur.  This is also a product of the defense lacking a consistent pass rush which causes the secondary to cover for longer periods of time.

The Hurricanes pass rush should be better this season with Marcus Forston back, which allows Allen Bailey to move back to Defensive End.  If the Hurricanes can reduce the number of big plays they give up, or at least when they give them up this team will have a much easier time on Saturdays.

Weakness #4: Better Game Management

One overlooked aspect of the game is clock and game management, the hurricanes did not do a great job of either last season. Randy Shannon and his coaching staff the to do a much better job of managing the game. There were several times last season with the hurricanes needed a timeout but did not have one because it wasted earlier in the half.

Many of the situations were inexcusable and hinted at lack of preparation from the players. Managing the game is one of the coaches primary duties, and the coaches that do it well generally win. Those drives at the end of the first half for example, are crucial and can turn the outcome of games. On several occasions Miami missed scoring chances because of bad clock management, only to lose the game by a small margin late.

The hurricanes two-minute offense has not looked particularly well either if it were not for late game heroics by to Jacory Harris and his receivers those games would have been losses.  The coaches need to do a better job of predicting their next move in games rather than acting shocked when their initial game plan does not work.

Too often it seemed that the coaches were scrambling for answers when a situation would arise in the game rather than having the decision ready or anticipating a possible situation before it happens.  Halftime adjustments end up determining the game more times than not, and the Hurricanes do not always do a good job of adjusting in the second half.  In order for the Hurricanes take the next step and win an ACC title they will need to improve greatly in this area.

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