The Miami football team suffered their most inexplicable loss of 2019 in a season full of them. Head coach Manny Diaz owned that the loss to Florida International on Saturday night was one of the darkest in Hurricanes history.
The loss to Florida International on Saturday night at Marlins Park was a huge step back for the Miami football program. Two weeks ago the Hurricanes had unbridled joy after redshirt freshman QB Jarren Williams threw a program record-setting and ACC record-tying six touchdown passes in a senior day victory over Louisville.
Miami head coach Manny Diaz has been transparent throughout his nearly 11 months as the Hurricanes head coach. Diaz continued to be candid in the post mortem following the loss to FIU on Saturday night at Marlins Park. The Miami football team fell behind 23-3 early in the fourth quarter before a futile rally.
Miami was able to move the football on FIU with the Panthers defense in more of a prevent. The Hurricanes scored 21 points in the fourth quarter but eventually lost 30-24 to FIU, A panic set in on social media with the Hurricanes loss to the Panthers. Miami has two games remaining this season to enter 2020 with momentum.
The loss to FIU is one that will sting for years to come. It will help FIU in recruiting to show that that can compete with Power Five programs on a given Saturday. Miami cannot ruminate on the loss and needs to move forward. That begins next Saturday against Duke. Diaz ownership of the loss in his postgame press conference.
"“This is obviously a very, very dark night. One of the lowest points ever in this proud program’s history. I take full ownership and responsibility of that and the way that we played tonight. We did nothing to give ourselves a chance to win the football game with turnovers, penalties, red-zone, third down defense.The things that good football teams do, we could not do. We challenged our guys all week. We talked about how we played off a bye before and how we played in the Central Michigan game and that lesson was not taught and that goes on to me. It just didn’t happen and I have to take the responsibility for that.”What I did tell the guys in there is two years ago, Troy went to Baton Rouge and beat LSU, who right now is the number one team in the country. Things can change, but it needs to change. It has to start with myself and the coaching. We have to do a lot better job of coaching our guys.We are so fortunate that we have another opportunity in seven days in Durham against Duke. We have to look at the film. Everything is under review. What we are doing, how we are doing it—we have to be honest with ourselves in terms of how we assess.There has been a lot of good things at times, but this performance is as unacceptable as you can have. When you go back and look at practice, we had a very good week of preparation and a good week of practice, but to play as poorly as we did, you have to make sure you are checking yourself in all phases of your program.Just utter disappointment in how we played. Whether it was turning the ball over or third down, red-zone, penalties—it was as poor of a performance as we’ve had all year. I take responsibility for all of that. We didn’t do anything to give ourselves a chance to win this game.We have to take a hard look at where we are at, but also know that it can improve and get better and that this can be fixed. Some of the fixes will be coming in a recruiting class—that is all part of it with adding to our depth, but we have to do a better job of getting our guys prepared for this type of game.”"
Williams threw three interceptions and the Hurricanes finished minus-three in turnover margin. It is nearly impossible to win any game with that number. Miami actually had an edge in penalties against FIU. The Hurricanes committed six penalties for 65 yards to 14 for 126 for the Panthers.
Miami Hurricanes Football
The Miami penalties were more about the timing than the volume. A double personal foul penalty in the fourth quarter helped the Panthers move the ball from their own 18 to the 48 during a touchdown drive. Those are mistakes that help the opposition too much and put your team in a hole.
The inability of the Miami offense to stay on the field on third down and the defense to get off the field hindered the Hurricanes throughout the evening. Miami was 1-10 on third down and the Panthers were 6-14. After the game on Saturday night, Miami now has the worst third-down offense in FBS.
The Hurricanes convert 27.13 percent of their third-down attempts on offense. The RedZone offense for Miami has been nearly as abysmal. Miami had five RedZone trips against FIU and finished with two TDs and a field goal. FIU twice stopped Miami on fourth and one in the RedZone. Miami is 123rd nationally in Red Zone conversions.
Too many of the critical situational parts of the game for the Miami football team have been poor to inconsistent in 2019. Manny Diaz and his staff have a week to focus on Duke and then use bowl preparation to work on third down, short-yardage and RedZone offense. Those are critical for Miami to compete in the future.