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Would you start Nickel and aim for 7-8 wins?

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Hoyacane1620 said:
From the ON3 article by Ari Wasserman....

Late in Saturday’s Pop-Tarts Bowl, after Iowa State took a one-point lead over Miami, the cameraman from the broadcast panned over to Cam Ward throwing the football on the sideline. Miami’s starting quarterback, who hadn’t played at all during the second half after shredding the Cyclones in the first half, had the look in his eye like he was about to go back into the game and get the Hurricanes one final win before heading off to the NFL.
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I ain’t reading all that. But this is just false. Cam was not throwing in a way that looked like he was warming up to come back in at all.
 
Calinative said:
I really don't know why people are acting like it is so crazy for true freshman to start. Happens all the time, especially with all the QBs that everyone wants us to grab in the portal.
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I don’t get it either. There were at least 8 QBs I can name off the top of my head that started multiple games for P4 programs this year and didn’t look completely in over their heads. These guys that have been working with QB coaches since they were 8 years old, play 7v7 all year, and go to big football schools aren’t completely unprepared for college football.

And since some snarky ******* will definitely ask.

Philo
Bailey
Kromenhoek
Hawkins
Lagway
Raiola
Wilson
Van Buren
 
1st and foremost, get the best transfer out of the portal. If he can't beat a Tr Fr or Emory, we are in deep trouble.
 
ageezy said:
play him, take the lumps and hopefully solve the qb issue for a few years
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Winning 7 games with Nickel might be ok if we had something like Florida’s schedule this year- Which was BY FAR the most difficult in CFB. The difference in SOS difficulty between them and the 2nd toughest (UGA) is huge. UF won 8 with a freshman qb and the toughest schedule- and people all around CFB are buzzing about UFs future.

Winning 7 with Nickel as QB and our 2025 schedule is going to be seen as an embarrassment and fall from grace. UM fans will not be happy- and Cristobal can’t afford that kind of heat after his terrible first two seasons, and then the collapse at the end of this season. I think the ugly truth is if he starts Nickel and we go 7-5, the money will dry up because donors aren’t going to give him any more money. And in the NIL era, that’s basically the death penalty.

And honestly, I wouldn’t be surprised if Rad and Cristobal know this, and Cristobal gets an extension this offseason as a show of confidence. It would be an attempt to send the message to donors that they should be aware that 2025 is going to be ugly. Gives Cristobal an opportunity to do some preemptive damage control and make sure donors stay invested after another sub-par season.
 
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Hoyacane1620 said:
i think everyone would agree a veteran is the optimal way to go. But given the scenario a suitable one doesn't present himself, Nickel will be the best option.

Listening to Dmoney's podcast this morning, the belief is ND will be starting an unproven guy, too
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What scenario, a vet backup that is better than Williams? Yes, they exist if Miami wants to pursue.

ND potentially will start a 5 star QB, a loaded OL, stud RB, and quality Defense none of which Miami has besides a quality OL. Canes will be going into a fight with one armed tied, right eye gouging, and a separated shoulder. #massacre

The Meathead is not in the position to regress year 4 and if you’re rolling out Williams or Nickel, it’s a major step back and no guarantee 2026 provides a lift..
 
Hoyacane1620 said:


this guy does not like Miami. But what he says is not a lie.

From the ON3 article by Ari Wasserman....

Late in Saturday’s Pop-Tarts Bowl, after Iowa State took a one-point lead over Miami, the cameraman from the broadcast panned over to Cam Ward throwing the football on the sideline. Miami’s starting quarterback, who hadn’t played at all during the second half after shredding the Cyclones in the first half, had the look in his eye like he was about to go back into the game and get the Hurricanes one final win before heading off to the NFL.

Ward didn’t come back into the game, which felt like a disappointment. But there was good news. Backup quarterback Emory Williams, who played the entire second half and currently seems to be Ward’s heir apparent, had the opportunity to lead Miami to a game-winning field goal attempt.

Had Williams been successful, he would have sent Miami into a critical offseason feeling a little better about its future at the quarterback position. But Williams only got Miami to its own 40 yard-line, throwing an interception in the game’s closing moments.

Which leaves us with some questions about Miami.

1. Can the Hurricanes really go into next season with Williams leading the way?

2. Can a program be successful long-term by continually renting quarterbacks out of the portal?

3. Is Miami the cautionary tale of what happens to a program that’s overly reliant on finding its quarterback in the transfer portal?

Though there has been a lot of discussion about Ward and the decision that went into sitting out of the second-half of the game — after, of course, he captured the NCAA record for most career passing yards — that’s not what’s important for Miami. Ward didn’t even have to play in the game at all, so getting wound up about the decision to sit in the second half — his or otherwise — seems like a waste of time. That’s especially true given Miami had to get a look who is seemingly taking the reigns at quarterback next season.

That closer look at Williams didn’t inspire a lot of confidence. Williams does have some experience at Miami — replacing former quarterback Tyler Van Dyke in some critical moments in the past — but this Miami program, headed into year four under Mario Cristobal, is at a critical juncture. Next year is supposed to be the year Miami breaks through, wins the ACC and makes the College Football Playoff.

Williams doesn’t seem to be good enough to get Miami where it wants to go.

That’s not Williams’ fault. It’s Cristobal’s.

Though Miami had been really successful in the acquisition of Ward — we know now that the Washington State transfer carried the Hurricanes all season to the brink of the ACC title game and beyond — how is it possible they are in the position now, this deep into Cristobal’s tenure, where it either lands a top-tier transfer quarterback or are in deep trouble?

Miami made a run at Washington State transfer John Mateer. It felt really good about its chances of landing perhaps the best transfer of this portal cycle, especially because it had Ward’s success as proof of concept and presumably a fat check to write. But Mateer followed his offensive coordinator from Wazzu, Ben Arbuckle, to Oklahoma. Believe it or not, Oklahoma was just as motivated monetarily to find a quarterback to rescue the program.

Now Miami seems out of options. Unless a quarterback falls out of the sky — cough, Quinn Ewers — what will the Hurricanes do? Go into the offseason with Williams leading the way? Hope that true freshman quarterback Luke Nickel, a four-star prospect of Alpharetta (Ga.) Milton in the 2025 class, is ready to play immediately? How did Cristobal get this far into his Miami tenure without singing a bonafide blue-chip quarterback ready to play.

It makes me think of Notre Dame and how it has handled its transfer quarterback position. Like Miami, it has been very reliant on transfers quarterbacks. Last year, Notre Dame had Wake Forest transfer Sam Hartman. This year, the Irish have ridden Duke quarterback transfer Riley Leonard all the way to the College Football Playoff quarterfinals.

But next year? Marcus Freeman is seemingly about to hand the keys over to former five-star quarterback CJ Carr, an elite-level prospect from the 2024 class who has been in the program developing. That gives Notre Dame the option of either finding someone it perceives as better in the portal or falling back on the kid. Either way, Notre Dame has options. Freeman did it right.

Miami doesn’t have any options. In the 2023 recruiting cycle, Cristobal signed Williams out of Milton (Fla.) High, the No. 627 overall player in the On3 Industry rankings in his class. In 2024, Cristobal got Judd Anderson of Warner Robins (Ga.) High, the No. 613 overall player. And in 2025, Cristobal finally got a blue-chipper in Nickel, but the damage is already done. It’s time for Miami to starting tampering its tail off, which is me only partially kidding.

Because who could conceivably come into the portal now? People are speculating that Ewers may after his CFP run because he seems in between ready for the NFL and not welcome back to Texas with Arch Manning waiting in the wings for his turn. But if not Ewers, who else? It’s been a pretty dry portal season, which is why Miami finds itself in this positon.

Sure, the portal can provide greatness. Ward was a Heisman Trophy finalist this year. It’s a great tool.

But it’s not predictable enough to be relied upon. That’s why coaches have to try and sign the best possible high school quarterback it can in every class, regardless of what it feels the program may be able to command in the portal given spending power.

The story isn’t written for Miami. If we’ve learned anything about college football, it’s unpredictable and shocking roster movement happens all the time. Maybe it’ll work out for Miami in 2025. Maybe a quarterback will fall out of the sky in the spring portal window.

Had Cristobal recruited an elite-level quarterback prospect during any of his first few cycles, though, Miami wouldn’t have to sweat heading into the offseason.
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Hard to disagree with his.

Mario is asleep at the wheel.
 
A very good write up about our current QB situation. I can only think that ND and UF are going to try to embarrass UM big time in front of the Country on national TV. I hope Nickel turns out to be gem of a QB and is our answer because Williams is not. Roll with the freshman and see what he can do. I have zero faith in Williams and the same can be said about Mario doing the right thing.
 
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MumbleRap said:
Mario needs to win, idk why y’all keep wanting to give him a pass. Once again, idc if Lou Cristobal is Mario’s QB next year…. The expectations are the same. Year 4, no less than 9 wins. 7 or less is fireable.
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It really is that simple.

No one should be lowering their expectations, especially when there are no clear cut favorites in our conference.

I expect Mario to win nothing less than 10 games next season.
 
MumbleRap said:
Manny lost to a 5-7 FSU team in year 3.

The two FSU teams he beat went a combined 9-13.

Manny was 8-7 in his last 15 games (6-6 vs P4 teams).
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so beating a 2-8 FSU team only counts when moronio does it??????

cause if you take away many's wins vs FSU bc FSU was a bad team, then moronio also has 0 wins vs FSU.

so again same records except many diaz could actually beat ranked teams.
 
DTP said:
Notre Dame is going to have something to say about that.
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They legit return every offensive lineman and D-line.

If it wasn’t for some major injuries for them this year, I think they win the National Championship this year and they still might.
 
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supersaiyanshel said:
It really is that simple.

No one should be lowering their expectations, especially when there are no clear cut favorites in our conference.

I expect Mario to win nothing less than 10 games next season.
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You better change your expectations because our offense is going to be significantly different and much less explosive. There will no Ward, Martinez, Allen, Restrepo, Rivers, Arroyo, Brown, and possibly more. Looking at next year I see no more than 4-5 wins with 6 at tops.
 
hoops156 said:
we wont win 7 with nickel or emory next year. nickel seems to have a brighter future but i dont want to kill his confidence playing him against marcus freeman game 1.

hopefully we end up with a bridge portal QB
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I always hear this pov and just can’t get on board.

If you are a true freshman walking in to a “no win” situation and you get destroyed in your first game ever, and it “destroys your confidence” then man, you aren’t the guy for the job.

It only takes half a wit to say “I know I’m outmanned and put in a position to fail, so I’m gonna fail as hard as possible and I’ll either accident my way into finding success or I’ll have some great film and experience to move forward with”. Gimme that guy. I think Luke has that in him. We remember Emory from being gutsy against fsu and game managing a dub vs Clemson. Those are fond memories. How can you be 6’3 and a major percentage of your attempts are batted down?


Put the kid in. Let him ****** cook. Mario bought himself at least 2 more years with this 10 win season so he’s got a year to win 7 games and be ok. Try the kid. The other **** ain’t working.

Or get a chain mover in the portal
 
nickster said:
You better change your expectations because our offense is going to be significantly different and much less explosive. There will no Ward, Martinez, Allen, Restrepo, Rivers, Arroyo, Brown, and possibly more. Looking at next year I see no more than 4-5 wins with 6 at tops.
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idc if we drop out of the Top 100 on offense. My expectation is to be just as good as we were this year record wise. Now, the reality might not reflect that. But that is my expectation.

Your expectation should be to get better every year. Successful operations don't just throw their hands up and decide to be worse just bc they lost top talent. You replace. You rebuild. You change strategy. You do whatever it takes to avoid regression.

But the expectation is the expectation. To lower expectation is to build in excuse and I ain't letting Mario off the hook just bc he lost a generational Qb. He gets paid what he gets paid to solve problems and win football games.

He needs to go earn his salary.
 
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supersaiyanshel said:
idc if we drop out of the Top 100 on offense. My expectation is to be just as good as we were this year record wise. Now, the reality might not reflect that. But that is my expectation.

Your expectation should be to get better every year. Successful operations don't just throw their hands up and decide to be worse just bc they lost top talent. You replace. You rebuild. You change strategy. You do whatever it takes to avoid regression.

But the expectation is the expectation. To lower expectation is to build in excuse and I ain't letting Mario off the hook just bc he lost a generational Qb. He gets paid what he gets paid to solve problems and win football games.

He needs to go earn his salary.
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I totally agree with every one of your points but if you look at the schedule next year vs this year it's a big difference in my opinion. FL and ND are definitely going to be in the running for the playoffs. Fl won 8 games with one of the most difficult schedules in the Country. ND will tough as usual and their defense is stellar. I think we are handicapped every year because Mario is an absolute coaching disaster on the sidelines. I personally think he's 100000% responsible for all 3 of our losses because of his horrific coaching decisions in those games. A better than average day game coach wins all three of our losses.
 
ageezy said:
play him, take the lumps and hopefully solve the qb issue for a few years

**changed the title as the question is do we play the young guy and take our lumps but get out of the portal qb game for a few seasons ...
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2 part answer to your question.
1. Yes, if he is the best capable in camp
2. No, I would not aim for 7-8 wins, every game is the aim to win.
 
JustAFanHTX said:
We can agree to disagree but I’m telling you he would man lol I can pretty much safely bet on it. The only way Emory would start over Luke is an injury setback or if Mario overruled.
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Anyone see how that Iowa vs mizzou game ended? Some dude named Corey Flagg just sealed the win for mizzou. Wonder how our lbs would have looked with a steady hand and someone who could have lined people up correctly… sigh
 
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