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Saturday may have marked a new rock bottom for Miami football. The Hurricanes entered their home matchup against Duke as a 10-point favorite, expecting to get back to above .500. The Hurricanes dominated the Blue Devils in their previous two meetings, outscoring them 95-10 in those games, and this game should have been more of the same.
Instead, Miami had a complete and utter meltdown on their home field in a 45-21 loss. The Canes committed a whopping eight turnovers, the most by a Power 5 team in 13 years. Both teams moved the ball about the same, but overcoming that many giveaways is nearly impossible.
Miami's 8 giveaways vs. Duke is the most by a Power 5 team in a single game since Nebraska turned it over 8 times on Oct. 24, 2009. pic.twitter.com/ho2lvlD3Wb
— Saturday Road (@SaturdayRoad) October 22, 2022
With the loss, Miami drops to 3-4 on the season and 1-2 in ACC play. The Canes are now in serious jeopardy of missing a bowl game, with Florida State, Pitt and Clemson still on the schedule. For a team many projected to win the ACC Coastal before the season, not making a bowl would be an absolute disaster for Miami football.
Needless to say, the Hurricanes have a lot of problems to fix down the home stretch of this college football season. Without further ado, let's go over the people most responsible for Miami's humiliating loss to Duke.
3. The running game
Miami has had quite a bit of trouble running the ball this season. The Canes have the third-worst rushing offense in the ACC, averaging just over 130 yards per game. They have had some dreadful rushing performances this season, including putting up just 60 rushing yards against Middle Tennessee and 42 against North Carolina.
Saturday's game against Duke was just more of the same for Miami. The Canes finished the game with an abysmal 48 rushing yards on 31 attempts. For those who are bad with numbers, that averages out to just over 1.5 yards per carry.
Henry Parrish Jr. had a decent game with 63 yards on 11 carries, but every other rusher struggled. Jaylan Knighton had just 26 yards on seven carries, while quarterbacks Tyler Van Dyke and Jake Garcia both finished with -25 yards. Those three players combined for four fumbles as well.
The Canes cannot expect to win with such an anemic running game. They need to pick it up soon if they want to make it to a bowl game.
2. Jake Garcia
To be fair to Garcia, he entered the game in a very tough position. Van Dyke left the game in the second quarter with an apparent shoulder injury, and he may be out for a while to come. That left Garcia to take over in a game Miami was already losing by 10.
It wasn't all bad for Garcia, as he completed 13-of-21 passes for 198 yards and two touchdowns. However, the bad parts of his game were really bad on Saturday. He threw three interceptions, fumbled twice and finished with a quarterback rating of 10.2.
With Van Dyke potentially out, Garcia is Miami's starter for the foreseeable future. He needs to be much better than what he showed on Saturday if he wants to get the Canes back on track.
1. Mario Cristobal
Miami fans expected Cristobal to be the new savior of the football program after coming over from Oregon this offseason. With him signing a 10-year, $80 million contract, he has huge pressure to take the Canes back to their glory days. He has been impressive on the recruiting trail, but the on-field product has been a different story.
The Canes suffered from poor decisions and execution against the Blue Devils on Saturday. Whether that's a bigger indictment of the players or the coaching staff is up for debate, but one aspect of the loss definitely falls on the coaches.
Some observers noticed that Miami seemingly quit in the fourth quarter, allowing Duke to turn the game into a blowout. Cristobal said he would look back at the tape, but a coach having to answer those kind of questions is never a good sign.
“If someone’s not playing hard, they have to go play somewhere else,” Cristobal said, per Brett McMurphy of The Action Network. “What we have to do requires tough people. To turn a program, rebuild it, it requires tough-minded people willing to do the work.”
Additionally, take a look at how well Oregon is doing without Cristobal. The Ducks are thriving with new head coach Dan Lanning and just picked up a big win over undefeated UCLA on Saturday. It's still early, but the Ducks look like they came out of the separation better, while Cristobal came out worse.
Year 1 was always going to be a challenge for Cristobal, but no one expected this. He needs to turn it around soon, or this contract could be one of the ugliest in the country soon.
