K9Cane's Corner: It's Just FAMU

[k9cane]

Sorry I couldn't post this last night but I got caught up in the boxing last night( there was a ton on) and I fell asleep with a vodka buzz.

Anyways in short, Miami did what I call ' doing the Chris Rock' in boxing: they did what they were supposed to and honestly, they shouldn't get any real credit for it. It's what happens in boxing when a marquee fighter faces a JAG and beats him. They did what they were supposed to and well, that's about it, onto the next fight.

What this was on Saturday night was a sparring session. But really, a sparring session where they really didn't look all that overwhelming. Which kinda reminds me of the Adrien Broner-Emanuel Taylor fight on Showtime. 'the Problem' came out victorious as expected but he didn't dominate and actually showed some vulnerabilities.

Some quick random thoughts( many of which have been echoed already):

- I dunno, this offense despite it's plethora of talent just looked underwhelming, doesn't it? You just get the sense they should be better. Looking at the box score and they had 416 total yards. IMO, against a squad like this, you need to roll up a minimum of 500. Because again, it's just FAMU. I just wish they'd be a bit more of a team that gets three and four wideouts involved and get Duke Johnson out in space. But James Coley runs the offense, I don't. But perhaps that has something to do with my next point....

- This Oline is bad, no other way to say. Taylor Gadbois gives me Zev Lumelski flashbacks at RT - and that ain't a good thing. I don't just give youngsters like McDermott and Darling playing time in mop-up duty, I'm getting them prepared for the short term. Get them ready now because what is being trotted out there, right now, simply isn't very good.

- Brad Kaaya had another two INT's. This is something that worries me. Bottom line, he's gotta be better at protecting the ball. Simple as that.

- Good to see Braxton Berrios getting in sync with Kaaya early on. He looks 'as advertised' early on his UM career. Yeah, pretty soon you'll hear an onslaught of Wes Welker comparisons very soon

- It's clear Joseph Yearby is already the number two running back behind Duke. Which is just fine with I think everyone. He's got quick feet and hits the whole much faster than Gus Edwards( who had a nice TD run last night). Edwards does well against the Savannah States of the world but against higher caliber opponents his pad level really concerns me. Nice to see 'Choc' Gray get some run late and he scored a touchdown. Now, will 'the Bus' be parked as Miami's fourth running back?

- The defense gave up just 114 total yards. But again.... yeah, it's just FAMU. As others have mentioned Thurston Armbrister is playing at a very high level, it's great to see him develop.

- Special teams, uhhh, is Dave Arnold coaching them again? It's a mess, no other way to say it. I was concerned about the kicking game before the season started and it seems our worst case scenario has come to fruition. Matt Goudis has a weak leg but at least it's also inaccurate, too.( wait, what?!?!) and that snafu right before the end of the half that led to FAMU's first score, yeah, it was laughable. A team with this many athletes should never be this bad in this facet of the game.

- In short, they won( whoopee!!) and there should be joy in that but I'm not sure that we can honestly say that this team made any real progress and got better( which is really the goal in these type of contests). Arkansas State should put up a better fight next week. Outside of that, I don't have much more to say, hey, it was just FAMU.

 

[Jassid82]

The light has come on for Armbrister. Hes playing like he knows what hes doing.

I really have no words for this offense.

It was a win but it didnt look convincing at all. This is going to be an up and down season.

 

[ball915]

Been the biggest Armbrister basher on this board or close to it. Very glad to see him much improved so far this year, especially at a position where we are thin.

 

[gfer1988]

ambrister played well during for the first few games of the season last year. just hope he can keep playing at that level throughout the year. still not that worried about kaaya. he's kinda overachieving for a true frosh qb who wasn't an EE. seriously don't know what's up with the oline. at times you see flashes of athleticism and potential but most of the time they just seem lost out there and kind of unmotivated. don't play with passion. we should be seeing some mauling and guys being driven into the ground. the defense despite the obvious flaws in the scheme is playing much better. well at least up front. dbs play has been questionable. why does it always seem with this team that when one position group finally get's their sh*t together, the other units start to slip. like there's no consistency to our coaching. i personally believe our lazy play at times can be contributed to our lazy coaching. i remember a camp interview with golden from last year where he stated that they were finally gonna start studying film for the matchup that week. mind you this was two f*cking days before the game. ummm.....why wouldn't you be studying film and game playing the next day following you last game? my one hope this season is that the oline somehow get's their **** together and our al golden personally coached special teams stops having mental lapses.

 

[deleted1562]

I'm completely fine with Kaaya's performance. The thing with Kaaya's picks is that they're not mental which is a very good thing.

1) He had single man coverage on Waters and took a shot. He under threw it and/or waited a tad too long to release, but it wasn't a "why the **** would he throw that" Jacory-esque interception. We also weren't in a situation where it mattered and I think Waters could've made a better play on the ball to at least knock it away. You gotta think Waters can take a FAMU corner in a jump ball one on one.

http://espn.go.com/video/clip?id=11478289

2) I don't put this on Kaaya. For one, FAMU was clearly offsides and we didn't get the call. I was yelling at the TV for him to snap it and take a shot, which he did. When it got picked I was like whatever cause it's definitely coming back. Refs just didn't call it for whatever reason. The announcers even said FAMU caught a break. Secondly, Walford needs to go up with two hands and catch it. Yes the throw was high, but it hit Walford in the hand and watching the replay it was not an uncatchable ball. The decision to throw to Walford was clearly a good one -- he was wide open.

http://espn.go.com/video/clip?id=11479338

My point is that these aren't the type of interceptions where you're pulling your hair out wondering why the **** the QB would even attempt those throws in the first place, they're good decisions but poorly executed on both ends of the throw. They're far more correctable with time and practice than poor decision making is.

I'd much rather have a QB who makes a good decision but a bad throw that tips off their WR's hands and gets picked than a QB who has trouble reading a defense and makes poor decisions because of it. I haven't seen many "poor decision" throws from Kaaya.

I'm cool with Kaaya and excited for his development. Think his future is bright, he's just been thrown into a very difficult situation (poor play calling, poor blocking).

 

[Tristero]

I agree KingsCounty. On the first pick there was one on one coverage and if he had just thrown it a bit further and to the outside it would have been a easy TD. The second I think was Walfords fault. no effort. The offsides was obvious, terrible job by refs. These things are correctable. The fools who are criticizing Kaaya don't know what they're talking about. If he ups his completion percentage a bit and calms down a bit he will be fine.

 

[BigCaneAl]

I disagree on Gus. Kid looks much better than last year....hit the whole quicker, solid feet, better lean. I thought he looked better than Yearby.

 

[Canediver]

Agree with this post. Kaaya's decision making appears fine for where he is in his career. It appears to me that his bigger problem right now is he is a little slow in pulling the trigger and the throws are a tad late. I think that's just him getting used to the speed at this level and he'll sort that out after a few more games. Overall I'm quite happy with Brad's progress to date. I think he'll be very sound for us in the months and years ahead.

 

[bomb]

The constant lack of touchbacks on our kickoffs cost us 7 points last week and it going to be a big problem going forward unless something changes.

 

[CaneAlmighty]

- The defense gave up just 114 total yards. But again.... yeah, it's just FAMU.

I've been hearing folks mention this in a no big deal fashion. But this defense did what good defenses do which is shut down poor opponents.
Which is something I don't think has been done by this regime until yesterday. I'm not saying to be sold on them, but at the very least this is encouraging.

 

[JackOAT]

- The defense gave up just 114 total yards. But again.... yeah, it's just FAMU.

I've been hearing folks mention this in a no big deal fashion. But this defense did what good defenses do which is shut down poor opponents.
Which is something I don't think has been done by this regime until yesterday. I'm not saying to be sold on them, but at the very least this is encouraging.

That defense also allowed 50% 3rd down conversions to a team missing their 2 best players on offense last week. It's FAMU. shut up

 

[DuffleBagYoda]

Yearby runs like an nfl guy.Choc is better than Gus

 

[k9cane]

I'm completely fine with Kaaya's performance. The thing with Kaaya's picks is that they're not mental which is a very good thing.

1) He had single man coverage on Waters and took a shot. He under threw it and/or waited a tad too long to release, but it wasn't a "why the **** would he throw that" Jacory-esque interception. We also weren't in a situation where it mattered and I think Waters could've made a better play on the ball to at least knock it away. You gotta think Waters can take a FAMU corner in a jump ball one on one.

http://espn.go.com/video/clip?id=11478289

2) I don't put this on Kaaya. For one, FAMU was clearly offsides and we didn't get the call. I was yelling at the TV for him to snap it and take a shot, which he did. When it got picked I was like whatever cause it's definitely coming back. Refs just didn't call it for whatever reason. The announcers even said FAMU caught a break. Secondly, Walford needs to go up with two hands and catch it. Yes the throw was high, but it hit Walford in the hand and watching the replay it was not an uncatchable ball. The decision to throw to Walford was clearly a good one -- he was wide open.

http://espn.go.com/video/clip?id=11479338

My point is that these aren't the type of interceptions where you're pulling your hair out wondering why the **** the QB would even attempt those throws in the first place, they're good decisions but poorly executed on both ends of the throw. They're far more correctable with time and practice than poor decision making is.

I'd much rather have a QB who makes a good decision but a bad throw that tips off their WR's hands and gets picked than a QB who has trouble reading a defense and makes poor decisions because of it. I haven't seen many "poor decision" throws from Kaaya.

I'm cool with Kaaya and excited for his development. Think his future is bright, he's just been thrown into a very difficult situation (poor play calling, poor blocking).

Kings, I agree, and I hope I didn't come off as too critical of the kid. I think he's got a huge upside( if he gets any help from a coaching/development standpoint) at UM. I think as he gets more game time, his decision making will get more decisive and improve

 

[Angry Ibis]

- The defense gave up just 114 total yards. But again.... yeah, it's just FAMU.

I've been hearing folks mention this in a no big deal fashion. But this defense did what good defenses do which is shut down poor opponents.
Which is something I don't think has been done by this regime until yesterday. I'm not saying to be sold on them, but at the very least this is encouraging.

That defense also allowed 50% 3rd down conversions to a team missing their 2 best players on offense last week. It's FAMU. shut up

It's a thread about the FAMU game.

Speaking of which:
- Overall the game was tough to watch.

Offense -
- The points on the board are really irrelevant to me. It was that against FAMU it should have looked really easy and it didn't really.
- Kaaya doesn't look comfortable at all. Not sure I can remember a QB looking so uncomfortable/uncertain.
- Heaps wasn't Jim Kelly, but he looked more decisive. I really want to give Kaaya time against Arky St, but also want to see Olsen, Williams and Heaps if possible.
- Yearby will be someone fun to watch when Duke leaves. I like him better than watching Gus. Gus had some nice runs, but doesn't seem to have the quickness against better teams.

Defense -
- Did what it should have done against FAMU. Better than in the past. Still not convinced it will continue. Turnovers are always good to see.
- Tracy got beat at least twice. One ended up being erased due to an unrelated penalty. D'Onofrio may be a **** and a terrible DC, but Tracy needs to STFU and make the plays against him when they are there to be made. Overrated?
- Saw a lot of people get time -- Harris, Chad, Tucker, Jenkins, Wyche

Special Teams -
- FG kicking is a big problem. I wasn't *****ing about not trying to score touchdowns on every drive because when it was time to kick we needed to see this mess.
- Goudis -- What was/is his injury? He obviously has no range.
- Who else is there for FG?
- Botch snap/TD was ugly on the snapper and the kicker
- Our returns - basically MEH
- Need to win the ST battle not lose it. Especially against the FAMUs of the world.

Was like watching the end of a spring training game at one point, but with less excitement.

 

[CaneAlmighty]

- The defense gave up just 114 total yards. But again.... yeah, it's just FAMU.

I've been hearing folks mention this in a no big deal fashion. But this defense did what good defenses do which is shut down poor opponents.
Which is something I don't think has been done by this regime until yesterday. I'm not saying to be sold on them, but at the very least this is encouraging.

That defense also allowed 50% 3rd down conversions to a team missing their 2 best players on offense last week. It's FAMU. shut up

They also held them to 336 yards and 24 points. They also forced 2 turnovers inside the 10. This after everyone and their mother said Petrino the offensive genius would roll 500+ on them.

They then followed that up with 116 yards and a goose egg..

Again, all I'm saying is that it's encouraging, tough guy behind a keyboard.

 

[JackOAT]

- The defense gave up just 114 total yards. But again.... yeah, it's just FAMU.

I've been hearing folks mention this in a no big deal fashion. But this defense did what good defenses do which is shut down poor opponents.
Which is something I don't think has been done by this regime until yesterday. I'm not saying to be sold on them, but at the very least this is encouraging.

That defense also allowed 50% 3rd down conversions to a team missing their 2 best players on offense last week. It's FAMU. shut up

They also held them to 336 yards and 24 points. They also forced 2 turnovers inside the 10. This after everyone and their mother said Petrino the offensive genius would roll 500+ on them.

They then followed that up with 116 yards and a goose egg..

Again, all I'm saying is that it's encouraging, tough guy behind a keyboard.

You're touting a performance against an FCS TEAM, ***** behind a keyboard

 

[The Franchise]

- The defense gave up just 114 total yards. But again.... yeah, it's just FAMU.

I've been hearing folks mention this in a no big deal fashion. But this defense did what good defenses do which is shut down poor opponents.
Which is something I don't think has been done by this regime until yesterday. I'm not saying to be sold on them, but at the very least this is encouraging.

That defense also allowed 50% 3rd down conversions to a team missing their 2 best players on offense last week. It's FAMU. shut up

They also held them to 336 yards and 24 points. They also forced 2 turnovers inside the 10. This after everyone and their mother said Petrino the offensive genius would roll 500+ on them.

They then followed that up with 116 yards and a goose egg..

Again, all I'm saying is that it's encouraging, tough guy behind a keyboard.

Only dopes were claiming Petrino would pipe us in his first game with a new QB and missing his best player in Parker.

 

[rex karz]

- The defense gave up just 114 total yards. But again.... yeah, it's just FAMU.

I've been hearing folks mention this in a no big deal fashion. But this defense did what good defenses do which is shut down poor opponents.
Which is something I don't think has been done by this regime until yesterday. I'm not saying to be sold on them, but at the very least this is encouraging.

FAMU ran train on us a few years ago. This was the best the D has looked against a sisters of the poor team.

 

[DC Dog Nuts]

Five wins away from a bowl game.

 

[hoover437]

I hit this offense!!! I've never been sold on Coley as a play caller and this year is adding to that!!!

The defense will start to look pedestrian with this awful offense, let they did last year. Al needs to get on Coley's ****.