Miami Hurricanes News: Football Non-Conference review

Nearly halfway through the bye week, several Miami Hurricanes websites evaluated where the football team is entering October. Miami has improved beyond the obvious progress from 2-2 in non-conference during the 2022 season to 4-0 this month. Metrics also show how much Miami has improved.

David Lake of Inside the U wrote that the Miami Hurricanes are “Generating Big Plays & Limiting Negative Plays: UM’s offense taking a big step forward during the first month.” and that “Miami has made a big year over year improvement in two main areas.” Those two areas are “Generating explosive plays and limiting negative plays.”

Rivals.com National Recruiting Analyst John Garcia Jr. expects 2024 five-star Miami safety commit Zaquan Patterson to have an instant impact for the Hurricanes as a freshman. Garcia praised Patterson’s physicality, ability to play in the secondary and on special teams and his football instincts with a high IQ.

Nick Schultz of On3 summarized ESPN’s ranking of the 27 teams nationally that are still undefeated. Miami is 11th. Florida State is the only ACC team ranked ahead of Miami on the ESPN list. The Seminoles are ninth. Six ACC teams have started the season 4-0. Duke, Louisville, North Carolina and Syracuse are also undefeated.

Barry Jackson of the Miami Herald examined “What UM’s defensive metrics and playing time stats reveal, and Guidry’s biggest impact.” Jackson analyzed several individual and team metrics for the Miami Hurricanes defense through the first four games of the season. Miami is in the top 15 in scoring and total defense.

Brian Smith of All Hurricanes asked “How Can Miami’s Defense Be Better? Smith gave the areas of improvement as 1) Red zone defense is #39 in the nation when it comes to allowing touchdowns, 2) Penalties!, 3) Allowing big passing plays, and 4) Finally, it’s about getting home. Sacks!