What’s up, y’all? Hope you had a good week last week and found a way to entertain yourselves on Saturday with no Canes game.
Well, that will be the last weekend without a Miami game for some time….
1)… thanks
to the powers that be in the ACC.
I’m still bitching about the bye week set up. I can’t recall another team in the country that goes bye/game/bye. If there is, then I share my pity for them as well. Absolutely stupid.
2) I was watching the Georgia-Auburn game on Saturday night, and I tuned in to watch the absolute worst officiated game I’ve seen in a long time.
It felt like Auburn was playing against the Bulldogs and the men wearing black and white stripes. There were a number of truly head-scratching calls that included an apparent touchdown that was not called a touchdown at the time and that was not overturned to a touchdown on review (I’ve seen some debate that he crossed the goal line, but it looked like very much to me like the nose of the ball was across). Kirby Smart inexplicably got a re-do after calling timeout and being granted it, but then arguing about clapping (it appears as though he was saying Auburn should have been called for delay for clapping), but then was never charged a timeout. Like, an actual, oops, my bad! Redo! And a number of other bad decisions in the game.
My long ramble is that I have to give the ACC credit for getting it RIGHT for once. ESPN and the ACC announced last month live replay review audio to allow you to hear what’s going on with the review. You have to love the transparency. We get ABSOLUTELY NO TRANSPARENCY OR ACCOUNTABILITY for officiating in college football, or in most sports for that matter. It’s the only group that basically gets to say oh well, we screwed up, and on they go without anyone having any kind of recourse or getting any kind of relief.
But on public audio, at least we can hear what’s taking place, and in a way, that puts some kind of accountability on the officials through public exposure. I really, really wish that was in place on Saturday night in Auburn. It’s a trend that needs to spread.
3) There have been two other teams this year that I’ve watched that look like Miami: Ohio State and Indiana.
The Buckeyes are an absolute wagon, particularly on the defensive side of the ball. Their defense might be better than last year’s championship group. Indiana looks every bit like a great team this year, which I did not expect to write. They massacred Illinois 63-10 and won by double digits at Oregon on Saturday 30-20. That’s incredibly impressive. Ohio State, Miami, and Indiana are the top three teams in the polls, and the way all three are playing right now, it’s basically them alone at the top tier.
4) Now, Miami will need to continue to prove each week that they are worthy of that consideration by going 1-0. This week’s season is against Louisville on Friday night.
Miami is favored by 13 points, but this is a pretty good Louisville team that should not be slept on. With USC transfer Miller Moss under center, the Cardinals haven’t missed much of a beat from Tyler Shough going to the NFL. They’re 4-1 to start the year, and they’ve basically had two games – at Pitt and vs. Virginia. They came from a 17-0 deficit to win at Pitt (which is starting to look like a pretty solid win) and lost to Virginia in overtime last week. Not such a bad result the way this season has gone.
Until I see someone able to contain Miami’s elite pass rush and stop the Canes’ bulldozing ground attack, I’m going to feel good each week. But no one is invincible each week, so Miami is going to have to bring the same mentality and attitude they have each week this season on Friday night. And if they would like to bring it for all 60 game minutes instead of 45-50, that would be very, very welcomed.
Go Canes!
