Week 9 Preview: Miami/FSU, VT/GT, SMU & UL hit the road

[@mr.wright7803]

Miami literally just covered at Louisville. The spread was 4.

[@jakewynn3180]

Can’t wait for nuggets in December from intern St. Nick. Love the show. Go Canes!

[@jamiebazzrea4724]

I love these podcasts

[@PonyExpress04]

As an SMU fan I love this pod

[@1mgofepinephrine120]

I just found them and I’m glad I did

[@hypocritease]

Agree. Dabo called run only in FSU territory in deference to Bowden. I said it during the game and glad to hear someone else say the same. Congrats to Pitt. They smoked Cuse which is good for Clemson in your league playoff tiebreaker scenario as long as the Tigers can go into their house and get a win. Pitt is the one school in the ACC Clemson has struggled with home and away.

[@jpDragna]

I don't know if I fully agree with Guidry about the defensive issues being "easy" fixes, but there is something to the fact that Miami's defensive issue is the big play. Whether or not they can correct it is a whole other thing, but I've seen drives where the defense gets two sacks and then gives up a 30 yard pass. The Louisville game also saw some awful AWFUL penalties from the defense. They didn't give up the kick off return for a touchdown, and they should have been capable of holding Louisville to 3 on the short field if they're as good as they think they are, but those 14 points weren't solely on the defense. The next two touchdowns, though, really were examples of shooting both feet off without even giving up the big play. On Louisville's drive to tie the game at 38 the defense got a three and out and the special teams gave up a fake punt run for 14 yards. Later in that drive they held Louisville to 4th and 8 and got a defensive holding penalty to keep the drive alive. Louisville made 2 other 4th downs on their next scoring drive, including one on a DPI on 4th and 8. Miaim's offense did have the fumble, but they were otherwise doing their "we're just gonna go ahead and score TDs on every single drive in the second half" thing and between bad special team's play, and defensive penalties, Lousiville was able to stay in the game. The defense did the same thing against Cal. 66 yard TD on a 4th and 1, 56 yard pass on 3rd and 15, sacked Mendoza on a 3rd and 16 for a loss of 7 yards, but had a flukey facemask penalty. Against VaTech Tuten had a 55 yard TD run on 3rd and 1, Drones had a 20 yard run on 3rd and 9, 35 yard pass on 3rd and 5. I think it was Gramlich....or both of you if I recall correctly, asking how the hell Miami was ranked so high in different statistical categories when they suck so bad....that's why. They have been playing lights out defense for 3-4 plays on a drive, and then give up 60 yards on a single 3rd or 4th down play. It's happened consistently enough that it's no longer a question of the quality of this defense overall, but there is a small chance that Miami does figure out how to not give up the homerun. Say those plays ended in a 1st down, but maybe on a reasonable gain, or on a 3rd and 15 maybe you don't give up a 56 yard pass. That's a lot of points taken off the board to show just how good Miami's defense *can* be, even when it hasn't for about 10-15 plays a game. I think FSU might be the perfect team to give Miami's defense its confidence back, though....at least for a game. Miami's strength is their front, and FSU's not only given up 20 combined sacks, but they're also the reason FSU has 2.5 YPC rushing even though Toafili came back (he is averaging 4 per carry, but he was close to 7 last year so even that's a huge downgrade). I thought last game was going to be a good proving grounds for Miami's defense coming out of some weird situations (Friday night into a east-west coast trip that seems to be weird for all the teams doing it this year for conference play), and honestly they kind of did. Louisville was 12th in offensive efficiency according to ESPN's FPI coming into the game, and in the second half they had two touchdowns thanks in part to special team's gaffes, and another on a short field. We'll see though, if Miami's tackling/effort doesn't improve, then maybe you see FSU reel off a few long plays to score over 20. I don't think there's a chance their defense does enough to slow down Ward and Co. to win, but I agree, anything over 20 from FSU in this game is not a good look for an already not good looking Miami defense.

[@jimmybenjamin3628]

Go Canes

[@dereksartin9428]

Pitt is undefeated and beat the breaks off of the 🍊

[@1mgofepinephrine120]

Must’ve recorded before the game, but that’s pretty disrespectful to ignore Pitt

[@AmberAllen-l6p]

Va Tech is going to beat Clemson down too. You heard it here 1st mark my words