Miami football senior leaders call out miscommunication and competitiveness

The Miami football team’s senior linebackers Shaq Quarterman and Michael Pinckney called out their teammates for a lack of competitiveness and miscommunication in the loss to North Carolina on Saturday night.

The miscommunication by the Miami football team was critical on multiple long completions by North Carolina. Senior linebacker Michael Pinckney said it looked like his teammates were sleepwalking to begin the game and it was easy to tell which team played last week and which one was off.

Slow starts by Miami in each of the first two weeks have been critical in their season-opening losses to Florida and North Carolina. The Gators outscored Miami 7-3 in the first quarter two weeks ago.

Florida was even more dominant then the score indicated in the opening 15 minutes. UNC outscored Miami 17-3 in the first quarter on Saturday. The Tar Heels dominated the first quarter. UNC had a 171-47 advantage in total yards in the opening 15 minutes. Miami has to get off to better starts on both sides of the ball.

Pinckney discussed North Carolina getting seizing the momentum of the game in the opening 15 minutes. The Hurricanes four-year starter was not happy with the effort of his teammates in Chapel Hill.

"“Everybody was asleep…They definitely had the momentum coming in. It was a packed house — sold out. We were just trying to get back into ball. To me it looked like they played a game last week and we didn’t.’…There ain’t nothing for us to do now but get better. We’ve got to take this one across the chin.There’s nobody to blame but ourselves for this loss. We just gotta take it for what it is and go back to the drawing board.’’"

Miami will now get ready for their home opener against FCS Bethune-Cookman next weekend. That will be followed by Central Michigan and the second of three Miami bye weeks this season. Shaq Quarterman concurred with Pinckney that a lack of competitiveness contributed to the loss. That is disconcerting.

Manny Diaz routinely talked throughout the offseason about the change of culture in the locker room for the Miami football team. Diaz was proud of the fight Miami showed in the loss to Florida opening night. Quarterman was particularly upset with the lack of communication on a critical fourth and 17 on UNC’s game-winning drive.

"“The fourth-and-17— it’s always more than one guy. On film or the people watching TV copy, they’ll always say, ‘Oh, this guy, it’s him.’ It could’ve very well been the pressure lacking, getting to the quarterback, as well as something in the back end….It just comes down to competitive excellence.Can you make the play when your number is called? Ultimately, they ended up making more plays than we did.’..It feels good going home to our crowd and our stadium,’’ Quarterman said. “It gives us time to reflect because we have a long season ahead of us. Nobody’s feeling like the season is lost.Social media will say one thing, but in our locker room, where it really counts, on our campus, we’re not worried one bit. We’re going to show up every Saturday.’’"

Sticking together and not listening to the outside noise will be important for the Miami football team this week. Part of that will be on Pinckney and Quarterman to impart the wisdom of not listening to social media and keeping things in the locker as Quarterman said. Fans and the media will focus on the 0-2 start.