Did I pick Miami to lose? Why yes, yes I did. Was it some kind of reverse psych out? Nope. I was simply wrong. Before the kickoff, I truly thought Oklahoma would take a big early lead, then hold on. Yet, one quarter into the game, down 10 points to one of the top 3 programs of the decade, I knew Miami was on its way to victory. Oklahoma had numerous chances to blow this game wide open, make Miami play from behind with the crowd asleep, and couldn’t cash in. Jacory stopped throwing the ball wild downfield, receivers starting making catches, the defense stepped up, and Baby J played the game of his life. All to victory.
Way to stick to the gameplan Whipple. Miami will need to start shopping around for a backup OC to learn all the details under this genius. Miami moved the ball on this #1 defense from the first drive. Even when OU got to Jacory, delivered big hits, caused fumbles, Whipple did not divert. If not for Jacory locking on this deep ball early, to the tune of two first quarter picks, Miami would have blown this one out. Contrast that with Oklahoma. They got their early two score cushion, and sat on it. Stopped letting their new star freshman QB throw the ball downfield. All runs, all short passes to the flat. Watching the game with OU faithful, they were disgusted, and rightfully so. Stoops star, arguably, is fading. They lost a WR and their backup QB couldn’t complete a pass downfield to save his life. More importantly, his OC refused to call a pass play past 10 yards downfield. Showing no confidence in his QB. Stoops will still win you conference titles, get you 10 wins a year, and there is definitely something to be said about that. You don’t win or even compete for the national title every year. Fans who demand it are ridiculous. However, Stoops needs to interject some new assistant blood in there. The OoC coaches have caught up to his gameplans.
Ray Ray! Talk about a star in the making. Armstrong played incredible, no missed tackles, big hits, The Big Hit, and really is our next All-American safety. Lets incorporate the old rule of “You get hurt you never see field again.” Players would refuse to come out in practice for even the tiniest of injuries, for fear their backup would win their job and never relinquish it. Armstrong and Telemaque should be starting pronto. It’s not like Phillips came out of the woodwork like senior year Brandon Meriweather. Let these two talent fiends learn on the job, play these next 3-5 weeks against easy win opponents, make their mistakes, and start making plays late in the year in Tampa.
Watching at home, the crowd, even at 60K, double upper deck tarps and all, showed up and made a difference. Can we brainwash all the fans that Miami is 9-0 and playing either FSU, OU, or UF every week?
This recap can’t go without a shout out to Baby James. Javarris played the best game of his career, the one we have all been waiting 4 years for. He keeps this up, gets himself a 1K rushing season, and there might be some whispers of a late first round pick based on his surname.
After the game finished, I was elated. For the obvious reasons of course, but also because Miami didn’t squander this opportunity. This team is too young, as they should have blown OU out. On the flip side, Miami did still almost lose it, and could have. So it’s great that such a young team didn’t waste a victory with a late letdown. The past four seasons, could I make that same claim?
The best part of this game is it truly is “Miami is back.” Sure, Miami can still throw an ACC hiccup this season, or even lose to an up and coming South Florida team on the road. So why are they still “back?” Because Okahoma is one of the three 1980s Miami opponents of stature (FSU and ND the others). Miami came back from the Va Tech embarrassment and played this way, no tricks, no mirrors, came back from 10 down, two picks early picks ruining 14 points for sure, against a “rival” from the heyday of Miami football? Fucking priceless.
