Regarding criticism of UM’s play-calling, offensive coordinator/RB coach Thomas Brown echoed Mark Richt after Tuesday's practice, saying execution was to blame rather than the plays themselves.
“I don’t really care about that, people complain about everything, especially when things aren’t going well,” Brown said. “If we call the same plays and we execute, have 35 points a game, no one would say a word about stuff we’re calling. The biggest thing from a play calling standpoint is our guys executing it - like I said last week it may be an issue of playing the wrong guys, playing too many guys. And if we get to the point we actually line up and execute our offense and we get beat, we can talk about checking the play calls.
“You look around the country, see guys do a bunch of different stuff. Most of what we do is comparable to other people. We believe in what we do, it’s worked for us in the past, worked for us here at Miami already this season. If we coach our guys up and execute it, we’ll be fine.”
Responding to the losses that are beginning to mount and possibly losing the team, Brown said that there are too many guys on the roster that haven't bought into the program, and are not all for the team.
“I told the offense after we got done with practice today there should be two groups of guys on this team - the small group of guys that lead and the rest that follow,” Brown said. “And right now we have too many third party guys who are not leaders and not following. We either need to get rid of those guys or get them on board to help this whole team.”
So, if you’re not a leader or a follower, what does the third party consist of?
“You’re a cancer is what you are,” he said. “So not a good thing... Cancer in the body spreads, takes over everything. So one is enough. I’m not trying to call out individual guys. There’s only two categories you fit in: part of the guys who are leading this team or a guy that’s following. There’s not room for anyone else.”
Although Brown feels the team has more cancers than acceptable, he does believe there are plenty of leaders as well.
"We have more than enough guys that are leaders," Brown said. “We have to learn from the mistakes that we made, move on and don’t turn two losses into three.”
Despite three losses and the Canes now a longshot to win the Coastal division, Brown says the year is not lost.
“The season is not over… lots to play for," Brown said. "Guys are as frustrated as we are, we have to find ways to fix it. The bottom line is we have to play better.”
How did practice go today?
"Practice was not terrible, but there is a standard that we have that we're not living up to," Brown said. "Our guys, young guys in particular, have to understand you can't take reps off."
