With the ACC Coastal for the taking, Miami should have basically cruised though their schedule until a November date with Virginia Tech – at least if you believe pre-season rankings.
Coming of a 10 win season that saw the Canes reach the top 5 at one point, 2018 was looked to be another step in the rebuilding of the Miami program. Mark Richt coached one of the worst games of his Miami tenure in a 16-13 loss to Virginia, maybe his entire career, and brings into question if this is going to be season of missed opportunity for the Canes.
Richt’s handling of his quarterback situation was a complete disaster. N’Kosi Perry, the talented young QB, struggled early in the game – throwing 2 interceptions. He had replaced Malik Rosier earlier this year. Rosier has had some good moments in his career, but clearly he had taken Miami as far as he could. Rosier is an inaccurate passer who makes questionable decisions. Perry simply has a higher ceiling. Rather than let his young QB fight through his 1st half issues, Richt switched QBs and effectively forfeited the game.
I’m not suggesting Perry would have won the game. Virginia was wearing Miami down, and deserved to win, but the Canes weren’t winning with Rosier. Rosier completed barely 50% of his passes, and also threw an interception.
Inexplicably Miami was still in position to win the game down just 3 with 3 minutes to play when Richt made the ridiculous decision to on-sides kick with 3 timeouts. Virginia returned the kick inside the Miami 25 and basically ran out the clock. They were aided by 2 personal foul penalties by Miami, which illustrates the lack discipline Richt has with his team.
Now Richt has created a QB controversy where none should have existed going into their next (very loseable) game at Boston College. It took a heroic effort to beat a bad FSU last week, and the bottom fell out this week. Richt has coached a pre-season top 10 team into one that is searching for answers and confidence.
His coaching effort tonight gave Miami almost no chance against a much improved Virginia team.
