After rising to as high as second in the nation following a 10-0 start in 2017 the Miami football team disintegrated losing their last three games of the season.
The 2018 Miami football team has its toughest opener in four years when it plays against LSU on Sunday night at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas. The Hurricanes game against the Tigers is their first season opener against a ranked team and one from a Power Five conference since losing at number 25 Louisville to begin 2014.
The three-game losing streak to end the 2017 Miami football season was largely because of a collapse by the offense. The poor play of quarterback Malik Rosier was routinely documented throughout the offseason. Injuries and a lack of depth also contributed to the losses to Pittsburgh, Clemson and Wisconsin to end 2017.
The Miami offense will be far more experienced and have far greater depth in 2018. The only exception to that is the youth the Miami football team will have at tight end. Freshman Brevin Jordan will start and be backed up by Sophomore Brian Polendey and Freshman Will Mallory.
The Miami fanbase and select parts of the media wanted to blame Rosier for the offensive failures at the end of last season. Miami Offensive Coordinator Thomas Brown has a different take. He felt that his players did not handle success well last season.
Brown was quoted in the Palm Beach Post discussing his players’ complacency at end of 2017. He states that handling failure can often be easier than handling success.
"“Learn how to handle success…I think being able to handle success is harder than being able to handle failure. I think people get motivated when they get down, they’re getting beat up, or they’re losing.I think when everyone is patting you on your back, and telling you how good you are and you see your name in the paper, and these highlights, it is easy to kind of get comfortable as the fundamentals go away. So hopefully those guys learned from that.”"
In fairness to Rosier and the rest of the Miami offense, they were missing three of their best players at the end of last season. Starting running back Mark Walton missed the final nine games of 2017. Tight end Chris Herndon IV and wide receiver Ahmmon Richards missed the final two games. Only Richards returns for this season.
Richards returns and is expected to be Rosier’s best receiver in 2017. Richards has been somewhat forgotten entering 2018. Rosier was also quoted by the Post discussing what he and his teammates learned at the end of last season.
"“I think the big thing we learned is that 12-game haul is a long haul…I think we learned there’s a next man up mentality. We saw guys go down left and right toward the end of the season.”"
After Rosier, the offensive line received the most criticism during the offseason. That was especially true during spring practice. Head Coach Mark Richt and Miami Offensive Line Coach Stacy Searles had to shuffle the offensive line frequently after they kept getting beaten during the Spring.
Richt and Searles were finally able to settle on the unit that has been consistent throughout August training camp and practice. Left tackle Tyree St. Louis who is one of three starters back on the Hurricanes offensive line spoke about the Hurricanes mindset before the game at Pitt.
"“The Pitt game was the main thing that stopped us…It was a team which we expected to go in and blow them out and win. We had faced bigger and better opponents and we had fought until the last second. In no one’s mind we thought we would lose the Pitt game, but we didn’t prepare like that.”"
Center Tyler Gauthier who is the only Miami offensive starting at the same position as last season reiterated what St. Louis said.
"“We learned to just keep our foot on the gas and take nothing for granted…We thought we were riding high, we were 10-0. We can’t do that, we got to go out there and play every game like it’s our last game and I think that’s what we’re going to do this year.”"
The motivation will come early for the Hurricanes this season with the opener against LSU. Miami had started the last three seasons with games inferior FCS schools. A chance to end the losing streak and play a team with as much talent as the Tigers have should bring out self-motivation from the Miami players.
The Hurricanes will then play FCS Savannah State in the home opener week two. Miami ends the regular season for the second straight year against Pittsburgh. This season the game is at Hard Rock Stadium.