UM’s Lashlee unloads naked truth: ‘We got whipped, I got whipped.’ Clemson loss ‘hurts’
Coaches hurt, too.
University of Miami offensive coordinator Rhett Lashlee said bluntly Monday what anyone who watched former No. 7 Miami at No. 1 Clemson saw Saturday night: Miami couldn’t protect, couldn’t pass, couldn’t catch and couldn’t run.
“I don’t think there’s really any fairness to assessing one group over the other,’’ Lashlee said, when asked to assess the play of his offensive linemen, who were responsible for four of the five sacks. “We got whipped in every phase. We got whipped up front, we got whipped on the perimeter, I got whipped. I didn’t do a very good job.
“Look, we got our tails kicked. Give them a lot of credit. We didn’t really execute well in any phase: running, protecting, throwing it. We had penalties — very undisciplined, turned the football over. I think everybody saw it was very obvious. We played very poorly and didn’t really give our team a chance to win.”
Lashlee, who seemingly has done wonders with the Hurricanes as the architect of the new, fast-paced, no-huddle spread, told reporters during a Zoom video conference that the Canes “pretty much lost every one-on-one battle’’ in UM’s 42-17 loss to the Tigers.
“ We were never really able to get in a rhythm offensively. Credit them and our lack of execution to the reasons for that and it just kind of snowballed on us and got away from us.”
As UM (3-1, 2-1 Atlantic Coast Conference) prepares for a home game against Pitt (3-2, 2-2) at noon Saturday (ACC Network), Lashlee reminded that “it’s just one game’’ and that his team learned a good lesson: “You’ve got to obviously play at a lot higher caliber if you’re going to play a team like that and produce any kind of results. He said that one game “won’t define’’ the Hurricanes. “We can’t let that game beat us twice.’’
Solutions for wideouts?
UM’s receivers could not break free for deep passes Saturday. Lashlee was asked if he had any solutions to help them.
“Obviously there are some things you can do to try and free some guys up but it wasn’t like we were throwing into double coverage all night. We lost every 1-on-1 battle there was. We will have to be creative...
“This is big-time football and when you play a game against a team like that you’re going to have to make plays vertically down the field, both with the quarterback throwing and the receivers...You’re not going to have guys wide open all the time.
“We have not done a very good job in the first four games of completing contested balls down the field and I think it’s showing. People can stack the box...take everything else away and if you can’t hit a few of them it really puts a lot of pressure on you.”
Coaches hurt
Players have 24 hours to get over a loss. How hard is it for coaches to get over games like the one at Clemson?
“It’s really disappointing,’’ Lashlee said. “Any time you lose, coaches are a lot like players. We take it pretty hard. You come back in Sunday and you try to assess the issues. You try to fix them and move on as quick as you can to the next opponent. Usually until you get out there Tuesday morning to your next practice it’s still kind of eating at you.
“But that’s the nature of what we do. The next Saturday is always coming.
“If you sit around and you sulk and feel sorry for yourself, what kind of message is that going to send to those guys? That loss the other night hurts. It was a missed opportunity. It doesn’t define us. How we respond is what’s important.”
Concluded Lashlee: “We weren’t making any plays, and as a coach you always look at what you could have done differently to try to do some things to free our guys or just put them in a better situation. I clearly wasn’t able to do that. When those situations happen again that’s my job to do something and find a spark to get us going.
“I’ve got to be able to do that.”
This story was originally published October 12, 2020 at 4:03 PM.
