The Miami Hurricanes football team might have witnessed their chances of making the college football playoffs slip right out of their hands after the 26-20 overtime loss at SMU. There’s still a hope, but not a sure bet like it was earlier this season.
However, any way you spin it, the Canes will have to break the late-season curse. For Cristobal, the defeat continued the struggles of closing out. His teams are 4-11 overall in November or later since he took over in 2022.
Miami must win out to keep their playoff hopes alive but more importantly, they need to change their offensive identity. And for Mario Cristobal, that might be a hard thing to do. The Canes coach has built this team to be dominant on defense and a team that will kill you with the ground and pound. His team is very much trying to be the equivalent of an NFL team.
However, this is not the NFL and you must put your foot down on the gas pedal and light up the scoreboard. Cristobal hasn’t shown a willingness to open up the offense, but Miami has the talent and balance to be explosive in the air and dominant on the ground.
The attack of battering with a rushing attack is a staple, which involves setting up the pass with play action and relying on a strong defense to win games. All this has led to more close games rather than Miami being able to pull away from their opponent and win by multiple touchdowns. After the loss to Louisville, when quarterback Carson Beck threw four interceptions with zero touchdowns, he lost his faith in the quarterback.
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Beck did not help himself in overtime of the SMU game where he threw an interception on the goal line on the first possession. However, Cristobal must forget about these mistakes and put trust in Beck’s arm. Letting him air the ball out and drive up the score before running it down their throats for the remainder of the game is what he’s used to. It was a reason why Georgia was successful before Beck transferred.
With leading running back Mark Fletcher out due to injury, it’s time to let Beck go to work early in the game to get the big lead and then rely on the stout defense that Cristobal has put together with the running game. That may sound counter intuitive given the turnovers that Beck has produced in the losses against SMU and Louisville, but Cristobal must let Beck throw his way out of this slump. It’s like a basketball player in a shooting slump, the only way out is to keep shooting and Beck must keep throwing.
Miami has the 12th-ranked defense and with a player as dominant as Rueben Bain Jr., the Hurricanes should be able to feast on their opposition. Add in the help of Akheem Mesidor up front and the defense has still been stout. Demari Brown and Ethan O’Connor have been just as dominant in the secondary and could snag interceptions, if the Canes get a big lead. Not to mention, the defense has allowed 26 points or fewer in every game. It is time to put the trust in the defense and get the job done.
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Miami can change their season around, but they also need to be smart and commit less penalties. The Canes are 116th in the nation in penalties committed with 65 on the season. They keep coming at bad times as well. If there is absolutely one thing that must change, it’s the self-inflected wounds. Players must be held accountable.
“You always give credit to the opponent,” Cristobal said. “When you make that many mistakes, it’s on everybody in the organization. You allow yourself to be put in a position where you can get beat."
With four games left in the season, the Hurricanes cannot keep teams in the game with careless penalties. They still have an outside chance of making the College Football Playoff. To do so, they must become ruthless and play mistake-free football. That starts in Saturday’s homecoming game against Syracuse.
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