Mario Cristobal honeymoon ends with a thud as Miami Hurricanes lose to Middle Tennessee | Opinion
Embarrassment.
If there were a word that cut harder or better explained this, I’d have used it to fathom the Miami Hurricanes’ 45-31 home loss to Middle Tennessee State University — to Middle Tennessee — Saturday afternoon at Hard Rock Stadium.
UM was favored over its (supposedly) lesser foe by 25 1/2 points. It lost by 14. That means the Canes by this measure underperformed Saturday by 39 points. Felt like more.
What is happening here?
Coach Mario Cristobal’s honeymoon just ended with a frying pan flying across the kitchen and a call to 9-1-1.
Oh, and, by the way: Who is UM’s quarterback now. Still Tyler Van Dyke? Or Jake Garcia?
After two easy, soft-opening wins the then No. 13-ranked Hurricanes lost at ranked Texas A&M last week. No great shame there. Still, Miami plummeted to No. 25 in the polls entering Saturday.
They’ll be nowhere to be found now.
Was this a bigger comeuppance than UM losing to its little brother FIU a few years ago?
Well, yeah. Pretty comparable, at the very least least.
What is Middle Tennessee? Conference-USA, right? What’s their nickname? Blue Raiders?
Wait, is this the Miami program that won five national championships? Yes, right?
For Cristobal — and I like Mario, like the hire — four games into your ballyhooed return and tenure as Miami’s savior-to-be will have a hard time explaining a loss like this one.
I don’t mean to go overboard on the gloom here about 2-2 Miami.
Six very winnable games come up now before a tough finish. The idea of UM being 8-2 at some point is not ludicrous. But Saturday sure did shoot holes in optimism, didn’t it?
Last season we all loved Tyler Van Dyke, UM’s best quarterback since whenever.
But he lost his best receivers and he was bad Saturday Inaccurate. Ballyhooed redshirt freshman Jake Garcia came in, down 31-10, played OK.
So who s Miami’s starting quarterback?
Not a question we expected to be posing in late September.
Miami was disappointing all over the field Saturday.
The pass defense was horrific. Are you kidding! Middle Tennessee had TD passes of 71, 69 and 98 yards. Are you kidding?
Does Miami have a reliable receiver other than Will Mallory?
I know your top cornerback was injured, Canes, but — is anybody else capable of covering a guy?
This was not losing at Texas A&M last week.
This was losing, at home, to a smaller team.
So what does that make you?
Interesting week coming for Mario Cristobal and a UM program at a way-too-soon crossroads.
This story was originally published September 24, 2022 at 8:09 PM.
