Miami Hurricanes lose ACC opener, fall to 2-3 as the misery continues for Mario Cristobal | Opinion
The Coastal Division of the Atlantic Coast Conference is so winnable, so wide open. We say “wide open” when we are being gentle, and generous, and would rather not say that wide open in this case means no dominant college football team has presented itself. No special or consistent team, even.
The mighty Atlantic Division had four Top 25 teams in it entering the weekend led by No. 5 Clemson.
The coasting Coastal had, and now has, a bunch of teams that can tease you into thinking they are pretty good, and then show you why they are not, and so it goes. Will the first team capable of losing to Clemson by less than 25 points please step forward?
Miami hosted North Carolina on Saturday seeming like some of the best of the Coastal, a fight for the top — UM and new savior-coach Mario Cristobal with the preseason hype, UNC with the shiny 4-1 record and the hotshot kid-quarterback.
UM was the last ACC team to play a conference game. This was the big chance. The statement game.
The statement was, “We’re just not that good, apparently.”:
North Carolina 27, Miami 24. Canes now 2-3, with a third straight loss.
The 1987 national-championship Hurricanes were guests at the game and honored at halftime, and what they were seeing was no approximation of what they were, and what UM football used to be.
CrIstobal, himself a two-time former Canes champion, left a great job at Oregon to return home to restore The U and create new glory days, but finds himself with a losing record nearing midseason, the honeymoon over, the reality set in, the road uphill.
The Canes trailed 21-7 at one point to follow consecutive losses at Texas A&M and then at home against (dear lord!) Middle Tennessee.
They showed life, at least. Some fight. Two late scores drew Miami within 21-17 at halftime.
But as Cristobal said afterward:
“Proud of the effort. Right effort, right mentality. Showed resiliency. Obviously came up short. Disappointed. We knew we had work to do. Doesn’t matter. Moral victories ain’t it.”
After UNC made it 24-17 in the third quarter Miami converted a fourth-down play inside the Tar Heels’ red zone, poised for a tying touchdown, but lost a fumble.
It is one of those things, at one of those times, that not-great teams do.
This one was not on the quarterback. Repeat that.
Tyler Van Dyke redeemed himself neatly.
He’d been benched for backup Jake Garcia in the Middle Tennessee game, entering a bye week, with time to stew, to wonder, to doubt himself. It got uglier for him when he went on a podcast and said he prefers playing games on the road because the college atmosphere is better. Hey, the truth hurts. (It hurts more when you’re losing.)
But Saturday Van Dyke completed 41 of 57 passes for a UM-record 497 yards with three TDs, his only interception on a desperation heave with nine seconds to play. TVD looked like who he was last season.
No, the QB is not Miami’s problem, so forget that noise.
You want a problem (and a 2-3 record usually means those are multiple), start with an ineffective running game that forced Van Dyke to throw 57 passes.
But focus first on the defense in general, but especially against the pass.
UNC’s hot shot redshirt-freshman QB, Drake Maye, passed for 309 yards and two scores, the first for 74 yards. The Tar Heels had scoring drives of 95 and 99 yards.
It wasn’t just this week, or this opponent.
The stuff of nightmares is when Middle Tennessee (!) totaled 238 yards on three pass plays (!) two weeks ago.
Against the five-time national champion Hurricanes.
Getting back to where we started: The good news is, the ACC Coastal remains in Miami’s reach. Long way to go, et cetera.
But what is happening here? After an embarrassing home loss to Middle Tennessee. Then a week off. Then a loss in your ACC opener — your biggest game of the season, reallyt — to a team you were favored to beat.
Welcome home, Mario.
Whomever told you this would be fast or easy, well, they seem to have lied.
This story was originally published October 8, 2022 at 7:46 PM.
