More introspection, worries for Mark Richt and Canes as their hole keeps getting deeper

At this rate, even a bowl game isn’t a given.

A day after the Miami Hurricanes (5-3, 2-2 Atlantic Coast Conference) made yet another opponent look stellar, the Hurricanes returned to South Florida likely dazed and frustrated and exhausted from stress.

“All you can do is go back to the drawing board and keep working hard and looking at the next opponent and get ready to play ball,’’ said UM coach Mark Richt, who seemed somewhat shell-shocked himself on Friday after the 27-14 loss at Boston College (6-2, 3-1). “We’re all disappointed.’’

It was surprising that the BC fans even rushed the field after the game ended, just like the Virginia fans did when they beat Miami the previous week. Soon enough, that will stop.

And soon enough, the banners will start flying over Hard Rock Stadium as they did when fans were incensed about former head coach Al Golden and his defensive coordinator Mark D’Onofrio.

This time they want an offensive coordinator other than Richt to call the plays, and another quarterback, be it redshirt freshman N’Kosi Perry or true freshman Jarren Williams. (Redshirt freshman Cade Weldon has one more game of his four-game suspension to serve.)

At this point it’s hard to blame them.

After starting the 2017 season with 10 consecutive victories and rising to No. 2 in the polls, UM has gone 5-6 overall, 2-6 against Power 5 teams and 1-5 in its last six games away from Miami.

The Hurricanes meet Duke at Hard Rock Stadium at 7 p.m. on Saturday, Nov. 3. And between now and then, Richt will surely ponder the quarterback situation.

Longtime redshirt senior starter Malik Rosier (19 of 36 for 150 yards and a touchdown, with two interceptions) was previously benched so that Perry could play most of the game against FIU on Sept. 22 and make his first three career starts against North Carolina, Florida State and in last week’s loss at Virginia.

But after Perry struggled early against Virginia, Richt changed his mind and gave Rosier another chance to start against the Eagles. The play-calling was a bit different — shorter passes, several slants, a direct snap to DeeJay Dallas that yielded a touchdown, a trick play that didn’t work— but mostly the results were the same. The receivers struggled to get open and at times couldn’t hang on to poorly and accurately thrown passes alike.

With four regular-season games left, young Williams should get some playing time, so at least he, too, can get some valuable experience and know he’s part of the equation. He can play in three more games while still maintaining his redshirt status, though it might be tricky, and risky, to choose the moments. It’s even more important that Perry, especially next week at Hard Rock, should get back in the grind.

It’s pretty clear that the Canes need to recruit another quarterback, even if the only option is a graduate transfer.

Richt was asked Friday if he considered switching to Perry from Rosier, who was sacked three times and after one crushing tackle hobbled off the field. (UM’s offensive line again struggled, as the Canes had only 155 yards rushing, including Jahair Jones’ fumble recovery that netted him 14 yards; and 150 yards passing).

“I didn’t even look at the hits that he took,’’ Richt said of Rosier. “You get [hit] if you play quarterback. That’s just football. I think he was coherent. I think he was fine. We talked to him between series. He was certain of what he saw and it matched with what our coaches saw upstairs. We felt like he was fine. Football is a physical game.”

Richt also was asked if he’d like to play Perry soon.

“I’m not worried about that as much as I’m worried about us doing everything we need to do to win a ball game,’’ Richt responded. “N’Kosi, we had plans to get him in there, but it was just one of those games we couldn’t do it. I thought Malik was playing well. The game, we were behind and needed to battle and get back in it and we did. We got within three and got within six at one time. Even when it was 13, we were at the 9 at the turn of the fourth quarter. You score right there and it’s a whole new ball game. We just didn’t get it done.”

Linebacker Zach McCloud said the Canes defense, which allowed a season-high 433 yards, wasn’t surprised by the Eagles’ hurry-up offense at the start, but that it took time to get used to it.

“Disappointment for some guys I feel like is all the way through the roof and other guys I don’t know how they feel,’’ McCloud said. “I can’t really gauge everybody on the team. Some guys you can really see it on their faces. I’m sure everybody has it in the pit of their stomach.

“We all want to be great. But the only way we can bounce back is focus on the next [opponent]. Like [defensive coordinator Manny] Diaz said, ‘We can’t just come up here and talk about goals and think about the future. All we have is what’s in front of us and that only goes so far.’

“We have to beat Duke, and after that we have to meet whoever’s next. It just keeps going... That’s the only way to get to the mountaintop.”

McCloud said there will be no fingers pointed to one another in the locker room.

“I think there are more fingers being pointed from the outside,’’ he said. “We hear things. People tag us on comments on social media here and there. Family members even want to… you know, just anybody who is not inside this locker room when it goes down will be pointing fingers. But within ourselves the focus has always been control what you can control.”

Concluded McCloud: “I’ve been hearing a lot of things since I started playing football in eighth grade. You’re always going to hear comments. You play the game because you love the game, not because of what other people are telling you.”

This story was originally published October 27, 2018 at 2:13 PM.