Film Review: Georgia Tech 23 – Miami 20

October 8, 2023 Admin

The Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets defeated the Miami Hurricanes 23-20 on a rainy Saturday night in Miami Gardens, FL. The ‘Canes came into the game 4-0 and as 20 point favorites and were upset by a struggling Ga. Tech team.

Film Forecast: Ga Tech

Pre-game thoughts about GT vs. Miami

The Canyonero keys to victory from the film forecast were a mixed bag:

1a. Make GT one dimensional. I felt like Miami needed to force GT to run. While Haynes King struggled Miami’s defense slowly allowed 4.7 and 4.6 yards per carry and a pair of TD’s to both King and his RB Jamal Haynes.

1b. Dominate GT with the run game. South Caroline State, an FCS program, rushed for 196 yards and two TD’s against GT but Miami only managed 165 yards and one touchdown. It just goes to show you that college football really is an unpredictable place.

2- Win the special teams. Miami won the special teams but it didn’t matter. Brashard Smith averaged 23-yards per kick return, Xavier Restrepo didn’t make any blunders on punt returns, Andres Borregales made both field goals and both PAT’s.

3- Win the off week. 3-0 at halftime? Terrible clock management? Throwing into triple coverage? It looks like the off week was lost once again.

Leadership 101

Leadership 101 will discuss the egregious coaching blunder that is Mario Cristobal’s clock and game management.

Here is a quote made by Cristobal from Gaby Urrutia’s piece called, “Everything Mario Cristobal said after a 23-20 loss to Georgia Tech:” “Some times we can get carried away, but I should have just stepped in and said hey take a knee.”

Cristobal leans in to what Tim Kight calls “BCD” or Blame, Complain, and get Defensive. While it’s not an outright “this was Shannon Dawson’s fault,” it certainly hedges the blame towards the Miami OC, and not where it belongs, solely on the head coach.

Any and all losses are on the head football coach. Especially a head coach that doesn’t call plays. Honestly, Mario’s only job on game day is to control the game and manage the clock. Something he did poorly at Oregon, and now again at Miami.

As Jim Collins, the author of Good to Great, has created with his Level 5 Leadership model. A Level 5 leader accepts all of the blame, and gives out all of the praise to their subordinates.

For a guy that prides himself on bully ball, being an alpha male, screaming at everyone all day long, and the rumors of him “dominating” recruiting on high school campuses over other team’s coaches- he sure gets flustered in close games.

Panic sets in and that’s when mistakes happen. The Mental Warrior (from The Art of Mental Training by DC Gonzalez) knows to pause, take a deep breath, and then respond. A timeout is that time to pause, but Cristobal panics in what looks like a lack of self-belief.

Cristobal is part of the ‘sleep when I’m dead’ crowd but maybe a few 7-9 hour nights of sleep would help his brain recover and get him out of fight, fight and freeze (clearly he froze on Saturday night) and into a state of making Above the Line (Kight) responses instead of Below the Line reactions.

OK y’all, I’m done with that decision re the kneel down. Clearly Cristobal should’ve called for the kneel down, it’s his fault. This isn’t on Don Chaney Jr. or even Dawson, every loss is on the head football coach. That’s what the millions of dollars and private jets are for.

The Doppler

Miami was a good but not great 8-of-16 on 3rd down, but 0-for-1 on 4th down. That 4th down call was the first of a handful of questionable decisions by Miami on the night. Not going for it on 4th, but a one-read screen? Odd choice.

Ga. Tech was held to 5-of-13 on 3rd down and failed to attempt a 4th down conversion, even the one or two I thought they should try.

Miami turned the football over five times compared to Tech’s two. It’s hard to turn the ball over three more times than your opponent and win the football game, but Miami almost did. More proof ‘total yards’ are a fake stat- Miami out-gained GT by 203 yards.

The Jackets had 11 penalties but for only 67 yards. Meanwhile Miami cut down their total penalties to just six, but they were for 80-yards. Miami looked undisciplined when it mattered the most.

The Josh Gattis Honorary Time of Possession Award goes to Miami, the loser. Miami won TOP 35 to 24, but lost the game anyway. I covered Miami’s kicking above, but for GT David Shannon shanked one punt but mostly had a solid night. GT’s kicker, Aidan Birr made his lone field goal attempt and both PAT’s.

Miami’s Offense

Tyler Van Dyke had an off night in the rain on Saturday. Van Dyke threw three interceptions, one touchdown, and averaged eight yards per attempt. Van Dyke picked up a first down with his legs on a 5-yard scramble.

Don Chaney Jr. was credited with 106 yards on the ground, 4.4 per carry, and one bad fumble on the night. Henry Parrish Jr. struggled on the ground rushing for only 2.8 yards per carry with one TD.

Xavier Restrepo hauled in 12 balls for 123 yards as a security blanket for Van Dyke on 3rd downs. Jacolby George proved to still be an explosive play threat- he averaged 22.5 yards per catch on two receptions. TE Riley Williams caught his first career touchdown.

The offensive line only allowed one sack and no hurries, with five TFL’s.

Above– My issue with the comment section (all offense) and the message boredz is the lack of understanding that IT WON’T WORK against good teams. Define “it” how you’d like: Van Dyke as a read option QB, whatever silly decision is made where talent outflanks sense, etc.

What Van Dyke is doing in the GIF above, I have no idea. But it was the start of a long night of bad mistakes from Van Dyke that wouldn’t have hurt as much vs. Temple or BCU.

Above– Chaney had a good night running the football. Here from the EZ cut he gets a little high on the initial contact, he does re–accelerate and with help from Francis Mauigoa gets a nice push forward.

Above– All of that talk about taking what you’re given in the self-scout during the off week and Dawson dials up a one-read screen on 4th and 4. There isn’t even a field side swing, and they don’t even run the thing to the field. They cram a screen to the boundary of all places.

Above– Van Dyke has a clean pocket, plenty of time, and a RB as an outlet and throws into triple coverage deep, middle and late into the end zone.

Above– you can get a closer look of what QB sees, and you can’t even fathom what he thought was open.

Above– Williams with a hard fought touchdown to put Miami up 10. He sits down on top of mesh and that route is constantly open with good ball placement.

Above– This was Cristobal’s coaching malpractice away from being the play of the game. Van Dyke throws a pick but doesn’t lay down or loaf. He sprints with a great angle down the field and forces the defender out, resulting in a field goal instead of a touchdown. In ‘22, Van Dyke pulls a hamstring or just flops down.

Above– Van Dyke’s NFL hopes get dashed when his deep ball always has to force a WR to slow down or completely turn back. These balls are picked in the NFL by elite athletes. Nice play to set up the TD though and give Miami a late lead.

The Defense

The Miami defense held Haynes King to six yards per attempt with two interceptions but one hell of a big TD run and throw to win the Jackets the game in the huge upset.

I thought Christian Leary would play a bigger role when I had my appearance on Mark Rogers TV this week, however, he caught the game winning 44-yard TD. I guess that’s big enough.

The Jackets top two rushers were King and Jamal Haynes that I spoke of above. The duo combined for over 100-yards rushing and a pair of scores.

The Team defense came away with one sack, five TFL’s and only two PBU’s compared to Tech’s five against Miami receivers. Francisco Mauigoa forced a a fumble along with his INT and TFL but got bowled over on a TD run from GT.

Above– Te’Cory Couch continued his run of steady playmaking. He had this big tackle keeping GT from a 1st down, and a near interception. But he did allow a big catch later while going for a pick instead of the sure PBU.

Above– Mauigoa with the interception of King. He’s a clunky thumper type LB but came up with a big play in pass coverage here.

Above– James Williams involved in a blown coverage, bad tracking, and a poor finish. He took his five-stars, dropped them to two in ‘22, and I’d say he plays like a solid 3-star at this point. Good against the bad, looking bad against some of the average.

Above– It’s just amazing at how bad Williams can be in tracking. This is reminiscent of the Manny Diaz days. King shakes Williams and is eventually forced out.

Above– King scores on a scramble, something I was worried about in The Forecast. He splits Kam Kinchens and Williams into the end zone.

Above– GT’s running back doesn’t even need the scrum push. He runs through KJ Cloyd and Mauigoa on his way into the end zone while Williams starts frozen before he can’t get off a low block.

Above– You can’t only harp on the bad, even after that disaster of an ending. Williams does have a beautifully high–pointed interception against King in what should set up a game winning touchdown but some how doesn’t.

Above– Kinchens and Daryl Porter Jr. really blew the coverage here. I don’t know how in the world you can let this happen. After Cristobal commits coaching malpractice DC Lance Guidry’s group, and he is a DB coach by trade, blows the game again.

The Wrap

That was an impossibly bad ending to a sloppy game. Miami looked pitiful coming off of an idle week once again. The ‘Canes have looked terrible for the past three coaches when coming out of extended time off.

Miami has to bounce back right away and face a UNC team that can score a ton of points. The Tar Heels have a top-10 quality NFL QB in Drake Maye, an explosive RB in Omarion Hampton, and Tez Walker is back in action.

Mario Cristobal needs to take a long hard look in the mirror and realize his lack of growth as an on-field, game day coach is holding his career back. It’s time for him to hire and rely on a veteran coach to discuss things like the middle eight, clock management, timeouts, and when to assert yourself and when to back off.