At 5-5, a nearing retirement Butch Davis as HC, and little to no talent on its roster, the FIU game is a mere glorified scrimmage. Indeed, awkwardly painted football lines on a slanted baseball field with crooked lines of sights for the fans is perhaps the appropriate visual symbol for this game tomorrow.
Quietly, CMU has worked its way to a 7-4 record, currently 1st Place in the MAC West, and while the Chippewas are no Clemson, they may be Clemson compared to FIU. FIU is undoubtedly the worst FBS school on our schedule. FIU has ZERO 5-star players, a mere TWO are 4-star players (both DTs), only about TWELVE 3-Star players, and the rest of the roster is littered with guys who are about as talented as your local bartender here on Las Olas Blvd in Downtown Fort Lauderdale. 3 out of their 5 losses have been blowout losses by 25 or more points, including a 50-17 beat down at the hands of 3-7 MTSU.
Tomorrow may have a "local" feel to it, and there will probably be headlines in the press, social media, and message boards about this "local" game between Dade County's two collegiate football programs. After all, MapQuest says that it is a 11.7 mile drive from the Hecht Center to FIU's Athletic Department, Butch Davis and Pete Garcia were part of The U's post-Erickson rebuild in the 1990's, and I personally know about 6 people who have some combination of Miami-FIU undergrad/graduate degrees at both schools. But that's mostly football chick talk.
Tomorrow needs to be about BBB - Business, Brass tacks, and a Beat down. At 6-4, un-ranked, and sitting an incredible FOURTH in just the Coastal Division alone, this is no time for nostalgia. We need at least a 30, and preferably closer to 50 point blowout to continue this 3-game winning streak building momentum into both Duke and then the Bowl Game. Winning by either 10 or 20 points is not good enough.
Enos MUST take his OC game to the next level. He remains a grossly unproven OC who was a cataclysmic failure for the first 6 games. Yes, to his credit he has helped both JW and the OL by going from 60% Gun/Pistol in Games 1-4 to 90% Gun/Pistol in Games 9 and 10 against FSU and Louisville. Wider splits, the Tackles in a 2-point stance, and JW being more effective throwing off of RPO plays, has helped. But 90% of our runs come from about 6 running plays, and 90% of our passing plays come from about 12 passing plays. Yes, there is variation within different formations themselves, but our route trees for our WRs have been over-simplistic, and the majority of our passing plays are still 1-read passing plays i.e., Flanker Screens, RPO Split End Slants, etc. All this may work well against both a putrid Louisville Defense and a grossly outmatched FIU Defense, but likely not against a real Defense.
I think that we will come out strong tomorrow. I expect our Defense to completely dominate FIU's Offense all-around, and I'd be surprised to see FIU score more than 10-13 points in this game. I think that we jump out to a strong 14-0 lead after the 1st Quarter. I think that we add another 2 TDs in the 2nd Quarter, and FIU gets a FG before Halftime and we take a 28-3 lead into Halftime. I think that Manny will want to keep the intensity up, so I see another TD and FG in the 3rd Quarter, 38-3 after the 3rd Quarter. Kosi and Tate split mop-up duties in the 4th Quarter, and one of them leads us down the field for another TD. FIU gets a late 4th Quarter consolation TD with starters out, and the game ends 45-10.
I don't think that we really learn a lot in this game, but we will be able to at least feel good about the intensity, different guys getting more reps, and blowing out a far inferior opponent with little to no talent.
Miami 45 - FIU 10
Quietly, CMU has worked its way to a 7-4 record, currently 1st Place in the MAC West, and while the Chippewas are no Clemson, they may be Clemson compared to FIU. FIU is undoubtedly the worst FBS school on our schedule. FIU has ZERO 5-star players, a mere TWO are 4-star players (both DTs), only about TWELVE 3-Star players, and the rest of the roster is littered with guys who are about as talented as your local bartender here on Las Olas Blvd in Downtown Fort Lauderdale. 3 out of their 5 losses have been blowout losses by 25 or more points, including a 50-17 beat down at the hands of 3-7 MTSU.
Tomorrow may have a "local" feel to it, and there will probably be headlines in the press, social media, and message boards about this "local" game between Dade County's two collegiate football programs. After all, MapQuest says that it is a 11.7 mile drive from the Hecht Center to FIU's Athletic Department, Butch Davis and Pete Garcia were part of The U's post-Erickson rebuild in the 1990's, and I personally know about 6 people who have some combination of Miami-FIU undergrad/graduate degrees at both schools. But that's mostly football chick talk.
Tomorrow needs to be about BBB - Business, Brass tacks, and a Beat down. At 6-4, un-ranked, and sitting an incredible FOURTH in just the Coastal Division alone, this is no time for nostalgia. We need at least a 30, and preferably closer to 50 point blowout to continue this 3-game winning streak building momentum into both Duke and then the Bowl Game. Winning by either 10 or 20 points is not good enough.
Enos MUST take his OC game to the next level. He remains a grossly unproven OC who was a cataclysmic failure for the first 6 games. Yes, to his credit he has helped both JW and the OL by going from 60% Gun/Pistol in Games 1-4 to 90% Gun/Pistol in Games 9 and 10 against FSU and Louisville. Wider splits, the Tackles in a 2-point stance, and JW being more effective throwing off of RPO plays, has helped. But 90% of our runs come from about 6 running plays, and 90% of our passing plays come from about 12 passing plays. Yes, there is variation within different formations themselves, but our route trees for our WRs have been over-simplistic, and the majority of our passing plays are still 1-read passing plays i.e., Flanker Screens, RPO Split End Slants, etc. All this may work well against both a putrid Louisville Defense and a grossly outmatched FIU Defense, but likely not against a real Defense.
I think that we will come out strong tomorrow. I expect our Defense to completely dominate FIU's Offense all-around, and I'd be surprised to see FIU score more than 10-13 points in this game. I think that we jump out to a strong 14-0 lead after the 1st Quarter. I think that we add another 2 TDs in the 2nd Quarter, and FIU gets a FG before Halftime and we take a 28-3 lead into Halftime. I think that Manny will want to keep the intensity up, so I see another TD and FG in the 3rd Quarter, 38-3 after the 3rd Quarter. Kosi and Tate split mop-up duties in the 4th Quarter, and one of them leads us down the field for another TD. FIU gets a late 4th Quarter consolation TD with starters out, and the game ends 45-10.
I don't think that we really learn a lot in this game, but we will be able to at least feel good about the intensity, different guys getting more reps, and blowing out a far inferior opponent with little to no talent.
Miami 45 - FIU 10
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