National College Football Analyst expects Miami football surprise team

CBS Sports and 247 Sports national college football analyst Josh Pate named the Miami football program as one of his 2023 surprise teams earlier this week. Pate analyzed Miami prior to the ACC announcing the 2023 schedule on Monday night. Pate thoroughly discussed the state of the Miami football program.

Miami was systemically analyzed by Pate. The 2022 Miami football season, 2023 signees, talent on the roster, the issues at quarterback last season, staff changes, the running game and the 2023 schedule. There are a lot of questions entering the second season of the Mario Cristobal era.

The biggest question will be who Cristobal hires to replace Josh Gattis as offensive coordinator and wide receivers coach and who the next Miami QB coach will be. Cristobal has to get this hire correct after Miami significantly underperformed offensively in the only year with Gattis as the offensive coordinator.

It has been widely reported that Gattis was not retained as much because of a lack of a disconnect with other coaches, players and staff members and also due to poor performance on the field.  Pate is confident that five-star offensive tackles Francis Mauigoa and Samson Okunlola will help Miami upgrade the offensive line.

"“Miami goes five and seven last year I think most of you remember they got drugged by Middle Tennessee, Duke, they got blown out by FSU we don’t need to relitigate all that they were a bad team on the field. They had several as a result true freshmen that have either already enrolled or are a part of this signing class that is graded inside the top ten that I think will be immediate contributors…Not only that especially if you look at the offensive tackles they’re bringing in there are high school offensive tackles like kids who are playing High School football this past fall who were committed to Miami or who were about to commit to Miami that I think as seniors in high school would have been upgrades over some of the pieces Miami and Mario Cristobal had to go to war with this past fall.That’s what you inherit that is what it is so they started three quarterbacks last year…I just felt offensively they were so out of sync. I think everyone saw that, especially everyone in the Miami fan base that’s why a lot of folks are still looking around wondering if the totality of the upheaval has concluded down there.That’s a really unnecessarily convoluted way of saying are there going to be more staff changes and I tend to believe there may be so we’re talking about Josh Gattis, talking about the offensive coordinator. I mean let’s not beat around the bush that’s what we’re talking about.They didn’t run the ball very well this year…Their leading rusher in every Power five game this year here they are 85 yards, 57 yards, 19 yards, 27 yards, 63, 114…64, 118, 22, 72. That’s not good enough, not anywhere near good enough.They’re bringing in a high four-star running back couple of Big Time offensive tackles this class we’ll talk about them later. Miami certainly when we look at the 2023 schedule they opened with Miami of Ohio they got (Texas) A&M coming to Coral Gables finally and Bethune Cookman week three at Temple…Then they start conference play at Florida actually the the entirety of the conference schedule is not even decided yet so we’ll see when they play Florida State but Miami that’s team one team.”"

Miami will be challenged in 2023 with the elimination of the Atlantic and Coastal divisions in the ACC. Clemson and Florida State will be favored to finish first and second in the ACC in 2023. Under the divisional format, only one of those two would be able to earn ACC Championship game berths as members of the Atlantic Division.

Under the new formal the top two teams in the ACC qualify for the conference championship game. The Miami football program has a long way to go to turn around what was an extremely disappointing season and one arguably far worse than its 5-7 record. Miami needs significant improvement defensively and offensively.

Miami added eight transfers to its 2023 roster. Most if not all of the transfers are solid players but it’s difficult to label any of them impact performers. The running back Pate referred to its Mark Fletcher. Fletcher has the ability to make an impact. Expecting a true freshman to be an impact player is a lot to ask.

Spring practice and August training camp will be critical for the Miami football players and other coaches to learn the new offensive system, build chemistry with the new coaches and get newcomers acclimated. Miami will not be able to ease into their 2023 schedule too much with Texas A&M at Hard Rock Stadium in week two.