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It wasn't the same 45-3 drubbing as it was a season ago, but it was yet another loss for the Miami (FL) football team on Saturday night to their arch-rival Florida State. The consolation prize is that it was much closer, this time 27-20. Does that help? Maybe a little, but probably not much if you're head coach Mario Cristobal and the rest of the Miami Hurricanes football team.
What's difficult about Saturday's latest matchup between the Hurricanes and Seminoles is who knows just how much this Miami football team has progressed. We've seen similar groups of Hurricanes play with every bit of effort, fortitude, and ambition toward beating Florida State, more so than any of the other teams in the past. That's usually been the one game where you could always at least count on Miami teams coming to play, minus last year, of course.
“They played their guts out,” Cristobal said in the postgame press conference, per Christy Chirinos.
Emory Williams made “the ultimate sacrifice” for Miami football
A lot of those guts came from true freshman Emory Williams in only his second career start. Williams wasn't great by any means, finishing the night going 8-for-23 with 175 yards and two touchdowns, one of those coming later in the fourth quarter to pull Miami within seven of the No. 4 Florida State football team. But Williams' night was cut short when after Miami decided to go for it on a fourth-and-2 at their own 20-yard line, Williams scampered to his left, stretched out to barely gain the first down marker, but came down awkwardly on his non-throwing arm.
After several minutes, Williams was carted off, tears streaming down his face and his arm put in an air cast, and sent to the hospital. Miami and Cristobal, who called Williams move “the ultimate sacrifice,” were then left with the quarterback who Williams replaced in Tyler Van Dyke. The same quarterback who has accounted for 11 total turnovers in his past four games. Make that 12 in his last five.
It seemed only fitting for an end for the Hurricanes football team on Saturday night. The once-promising Heisman hopeful, the next great Miami quarterback, who had somehow over the last two seasons caught a massive case of the yips would have to try to lead Miami to tie the game. Yet, Miami fans knew the result: a Van Dyke interception while trying to throw to his favorite target, Xavier Restrepo.
It's clear what Miami football's greatest weakness has been for the better part of two decades. It's a reliable starting quarterback. Tyler Van Dyke is just another glaring example of that.
Miami football's greatest weakness is at starting quarterback
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Before anyone starts saying, “Well, what about the head coach?” That's for another time and well worth its own argument. However, it can't be denied from a roster standpoint that the Hurricanes have been massively inept when it comes to the starting quarterback. Heck, most of the younger Miami fans probably couldn't tell you the last great quarterback, who was Ken Dorsey, and he hasn't played since 2002. Since his time, he's had a list of successors that has been nothing but false promises, everything from four and five-star talents to baseball players who seemed to barely know how to facilitate an offense.
If you're a long-time Hurricanes football fan, you've gone through the days of the Kyle Wright's, Robert Marve's, Jacory Harris', Stephen Morris', Brad Kaaya's, and Malik Rosier's. And while there may have been a few promising moments in there with some of those guys, ultimately, they were always outmatched by seemingly better talent across the field, thus leaving Miami football as a inconsistent, subpar program.
Who knows where Miami could be just this season if not for a bad quarterback play. Perhaps the Hurricanes are never put into situations like they were against Georgia Tech, if not for Van Dyke's three interceptions that night. Maybe Miami isn't forced to put a true freshman quarterback in over a three-year starter in only his second career start at Doak Campbell Stadium against the team's arch-rival, if not for the lack of trust in Van Dyke.
But again, it isn't just a Van Dyke issue; this is a Miami football issue overall and one that has yet to be figured out over a long period of time. If the Miami Hurricanes program truly wants to progress under the Cristobal era, then it first needs to find a reliable starting quarterback, or else inconsistency will continue to persist.
Is that guy Emory Williams? Maybe, but is one win against a subpar Clemson team and his start at Florida State enough of a sample size? Plus, who knows where he'll be from an injury standpoint coming into next season. Moreover, Miami's coaching staff has to be willing to open up the playbook and trust whoever their quarterback is to throw the ball down the field. Cristobal and offensive coordinator Shannon Dawson have not seemed comfortable doing over the last several games.
