After posting my last on this game I went back into the post, converted it draft, and was about to write "Mario Cristobal should be fired." That's how disgusted and pissed off I was. Now, that would have been an addendum of juvenalia which you might have come to expect from me but it was a bit of an "overreaction" I concluded and let the post stand.
I'm an old guy and I've been watching college football for ‘bout 52 years I reckon. What is the universe of plausible explanations for a ranked team getting beaten so...we would say "comprehensively" if this were English short pants football, at home to a 25.5 point underdog? There are so many. One, it's college, not the pros. Two it's early in the season. Three, it was a mismatch, double entendre intended. That is the two schools do not play in the same conference. They could not have had much familiarity with each other's tendencies. Three A, you tend to overlook or not take seriously a 25.5 dog who you have paid to come to your house and get slaughtered. Four, you ran into an unexpectedly good team (like App. State). Four A, you ran into a transcendent player. Five, you SUCK. Coaches and players, you were both OVERRATED.
I thought about this: self, have you ever seen a near similar to this? and here I focused on a great coach in his first year at a school who stumbles in a game or two. Yes, yes indeed I have. The GOAT, Nick Saban, lost to some directional or hyphenated school at home his first year. A near-GOAT, Jimmy Johnson had his "Oh my God, Oh my God, Oh my God" moment as he ran off the field after his "Hurricanes" blew a huge lead to Maryland. Sometimes it takes even the greats a season to install his system and chuck the old. It has happened.
I think though that the coaching problems with UM today go beyond those first-year hiccups. I watched three highlight clips. Bees and Gees MTSU kept calling the same play. It was like watching fucking Groundhog Day. Post. Your wide receiver takes off down the field, never stops, and the QB hits him. That happened for 98 yards, for 71 yards, for 69 yards. Earth to UM coaches. You get blown up on three of those things you'd think you'd make "adjustments" IF YOU HAD HALF A FUCKING BRAIN!!!!!! They didn't. They were in man coverage for all three. And MTSU just kept bombing them. Coach, how's about we try a little ZONE? That was coaching malpractice. By contrast, maybe MTSU's coach is a GOAT unknown, it rather looked to me as if he tried the post route once and thought, "Think I'll do that agin!"
UM was unprepared for this game, not only for playing Middle Tennessee but playing their own game. There were plays that made you wonder if UM even PRACTICED:
The QB is furthest left in this frame, the wide receiver is standing most erect, he has come from the top of the screen to get the ball, and the running back, # 22 it looks like, thought he was supposed to get the ball. Slapstick stuff. Sandlot stuff. That's coaching; the kids look like idiots but it's the O-coordinator who has them not knowing what the plays are.
Go to 1:47 here and look at UM's tackling angles on the 89-yard catch-and-run TD.
"Oh, I'm supposed to teach them tackling angles and all that stuff?"Tyler Van Dike's first two passes were interceptions, one returned for a TD. It was batted at the line of scrimmage by a fat ol' hog who tipped it to his ownself and then lumbered into the end zone. Talent gap? Hard to believe isn't it? But this was the weekend where the gap between the big boys and the not so big noticeably shrunk wasn't it? I've already admitted I thought UM was overrated. Watching those three bombs, E's and F's, UM's defensive front got no pressure on fucking who is this kid, something Cunningham, Chase Cunningham. I mean on the 98-yarder Cunningham was in his fucking end zone. If you get pressure on him you could have a safety, a pick-six yourselves or at worst a throw the ball away. Instead, Chase was standing back there content as could be, safe as could be, waiting for his receiver to get a leetle further downfield before firing. The 98-yarder was a thing of beauty. He hit the receiver right in the hands without the kid ever having to break stride. He got just enough separation on the UM safety playing him man, just a step. If the ball had been a foot underthrown the UM guy would have run into him on pass interference. He was beaten, the UM guy was beaten, not by much but he was beaten. On the 71 yarder and the 69-yarder the UM defenders were beaten so badly it's grotesque. Go to :55 secs of this clip for the 69-yarder and 2:43 for the 71-yarder:
It's the same fucking play guys. From the same position on the fucking field. The coaches learned nothing from one play to another. Look at all three, i.e. the 98-yarder, 69, and 71 yarders. Note that the UM defender is not playing the ball. He is so badly beaten that he's just chasing the receiver, not even turning to see if the missile is incoming. Did Miami practice? DID MIAMI PRAC-THE-FUCK-TICE?!Finally, in my memory banks is the transcendent player explanation, 4A above. FSU-Southern Mississippi way back when, when FSU was finishing in the top four for 14 consecutive fucking years. Is Chase Cunningham just that good? Brett Favre good? Don't know. He made some pretty, pretty passes but I haven't looked up his season or career stats, he also had some pretty, pretty open receivers and help from the 'Canes Keystone Cops defense. The time Cunningham had is key to me. On those long pass plays, as you can imagine, the timing has to be near perfect. If a defense does anything to disrupt it it's fucked up. If the defensive front gets pressure, if the free safeties play help defense...UM did NOTHINK.
