College football couldn’t have picked a better game to start the football season in 2019. Ignore the fact I bleed orange and green, but Florida vs Miami is a game that should be a yearly contest. Oh wait! It used to be until Florida tucked their tail between their legs and wanted Miami off of their schedule completely following the 1987 season. Since then, the Gators and the Canes have only played against each other in two bowl games and four times in the regular season, with the Canes getting the better of the Gators in five of the six matchups. The lone win for the Gators was of course in 2008 when the Gators were succeeding with their lord and savior Tim Tebow, a game in which many accuse Urban Liar of running up the score. Who the hell are Miami fans to complain about having the score run up on them, though? Did they forget the days of Jimmy Johnson and Dennis Erickson when they would routinely throw the ball and dig deep into the playbook while up by 40 and 50 points? To be fair, the Canes may have run the score up back then, but they did have the backups in.
Let’s get back to this coming season and how we got here.
Dan Mullen came in to Gainesville and made plenty of noise in his first season as the Gators head coach going 10-3. It wasn’t the best start and many started to question the hire after Mullen and his troops lost to Kentucky in the Swamp in their second game of the season, which marked the first time in 31 years that the Gators fell to Kentucky. Following the loss to Kentucky, Florida kicked it into another gear upsetting then-ranked number five LSU. They went on to lose back to back games to Georgia and Missouri, but showed promise the rest of the way. They built momentum for the spring by laying a 41-15 smackdown on Michigan in the Peach Bowl.
The big question for the Gators is the development (or lack thereof) of QB Feleipe Franks. Mullen carries this label as a “QB-Whisperer” but Franks is by far his biggest project yet in his coaching career. Quite frankly, if I were Dan Mullen I would pull the plug on Franks and go with one of the QB’s he recruited, Emory Jones. But he won’t. And then he will have the excuse of “I didn’t have my guy at QB” if Florida flops in ‘19.
Another question heading into 2019 for the Gators is how will the mentality of this team affect them? They have had a turbulent offseason; top recruit Chris Steele elected to transfer after being on campus for only the spring, Jalon Jones and his sexual assault accusations, and not to mention the several four and five star players that have decommitted from Mullen and the Gators. I don’t care who you are, having those incidents happen within a month to a month and a half of each other can be demoralizing.
As far as the Canes are concerned, we all know about the rough season in 2018 following the overachieving 10-win season of 2017. While it may seem I bash Feleipe Franks, let’s not get it twisted. Miami fans had to endure a QB who was even WORSE than Franks in Malik Rosier and who was quite possibly the worst QB in the Power Five conferences. Former Head Coach Mark Richt (whom I respect greatly as a man) made the awful decision of sticking with Rosier after some of the worst performances I have ever seen in Coral Gables. Both Rosier and Richt are now gone- and The New Miami is swangin’ under the new vibrant defensive mastermind Manny Diaz. Diaz was the defensive coordinator under Richt and did one hell of a job turning around a defense that struggled more than any team in the program’s history under former defensive coordinator Mark D’Onofrio. Diaz also created the infamous Turnover Chain that took the college football world by storm in 2017.
Side note, Diaz did say some kind of gimmick is in the works for the offensive side of the ball this season. Touchdown Chain, maybe? Eh. Has to be something more original and better than that if you ask me.
Miami was seemingly in the news every week this offseason as the new Transfer Portal essentially became a pipeline to The U. The Canes have gotten some big transfers such as former Ohio State QB Tate Martell, USC Safety Bubba Bolden, Buffalo WR KJ Osborn, and UCLA DE Jaelen Phillips. Martell is the lone athlete who has been cleared by the NCAA to play immediately. I wouldn’t be so sure to pencil Martell in as Miami’s new starting QB, though. Osborn will play, but he is a grad transfer so no application for eligibility was needed.
I spent some time in Orlando a few weeks ago watching the Canes spring game.
Let me tell you a little about this team. If you think they are a national title contender, you’re sadly mistaken, as much as I wish it weren’t so.
The big story with Miami is the QB competition featuring Martell, N’Kosi Perry, and Jarren Williams.
If you asked me who I thought the QB would be, I wouldn’t be able to give you an answer. I saw things from both Martell and Perry that had my jaw on the floor, then I also saw things from them both that had me scared shitless for the offense.
Martell is everything he is hyped up to be. This guy has a howitzer for a right arm and mobility that Perry doesn’t have which is quite surprising knowing how athletic N’Kosi is. Martell was also the only QB who could drive the offense down the field against the vaunting first team defense during the spring game. The negative? This dude looks like he has never taken a snap under center in his life, and that very well could actually be the case. At Bishop Gorman High School in Nevada, Martell was in the shotgun every single play. He thrived and is considered by many as the best QB in Nevada high school football history (is that really an achievement though? It’s not like he was a Florida high school record breaker playing against the best talent in the country). Fast forward to his freshman year of college at Ohio State, he was in the shotgun-heavy system of Urban Meyer while riding the pine behind Dwayne Haskins.
I kid you not, when I watched Martell on plays where he started under center, his footwork was absolutely atrocious. I mean, this dude looked like a baby giraffe on ice skates trying to get out from under center when the ball was snapped. But in the shotgun? Best QB Miami has had since Ken Dorsey, and this is coming from a huge Brad Kaaya fan.
Now Perry, on the other hand, was very fundamentally sound out of the gun and under center, and made the right reads most of the time. There were times he threw across his body more than I would have liked to have seen, but regardless, the guy can play. Perry’s problem has been his maturity. He made headlines a couple times over the last two years for dumbass decisions he made by posting videos to social media platforms Instagram and Snapchat. One video featuring a bunch of cash and another of an individual who many believe to be Perry but cannot confirm it, going bam-bam in the ham with some chick.
This competition is going to carry into fall camp, which is no surprise. This is going to be interesting though because the offense for the Canes under first year OC Dan Enos is going to look vastly different depending who the QB is. With Martell I would expect to see less of a pro-style offense and just about everything out of the shotgun with many plays designed to have the QB run. With Perry, the offense would be a healthy mix of the gun and under center, but the only time you could expect to see the QB run is when none of his reads are there or if protection breaks down. Never by design.
Enough of the players. Let’s get into why this is a great matchup to start the season.
I will start with the coaches. Dan Mullen started to make a name for himself (with the aide of Tim Tebow) as UF’s OC from 2005-2008, then continued to impress during his time at Mississippi State. Mullen could very well be on his way to being recognized as a top coach in college football if he can improve his spotty career record of 79-49.
Then we got Manny Diaz II. The son of former Miami Mayor, Manny Diaz. Technically Diaz is in his second head coaching position after accepting the job at Temple days prior to Mark Richt’s retirement. That did not last very long, though. Once Richt announced his retirement, Miami was quick to contact Diaz and pay Temple whatever they wanted to get Manny out of his contract with the Owls.
It didn’t take long for Diaz to make his presence as a head coach known in the state of Florida as Willie Taggart and his coaching staff were running a coach’s clinic at a hotel in Orlando. FSU hosted several coaches from Florida high schools trying to build relationships and help with their recruiting. Diaz, in typical Hurricanes fashion, rented out several rooms in the same hotel during the time of the clinic. The Canes’ staff wasn’t there to associate with FSU’s staff, but rather sway the high school coaches away from FSU.
But how the hell could one do that?
Taggart did a segment where all of the coaches were together then had planned on breaking into position groups and the high school coaches could then choose where they wanted to go.
The issue? Not a single high school coach went to the position group meetings. Instead, they were pounding beers and living it up with the Canes coaching staff in what was referred to as a “frat-style” party. Tell me that’s not one of the most Miami things you’ve ever heard!
Let’s get back to this year’s game.
Florida vs Miami used to be a game every Floridian circled on their calendar. These guys grew up playing with and against each other and now face off at the highest level of college football. So of course, this was must-see football.
Then Miami hit their first set of glory days in the 80’s. Laying ass-whoopin’s on teams they “weren’t supposed to beat” and was named the team of the decade by Sports Illustrated. When this happened, Florida wanted no part of it (or the antics of the players from Miami) and demanded Miami be taken off the schedule.
Honestly, I don’t blame them. Have you seen the goons Miami had in the 80’s?
Sheesh.
To be fair, Florida wasn’t the only school to remove Miami from the schedule as South Carolina did the same after a brawl ensued on the field against the Canes.
To this day, Florida refuses to schedule a home-and-home with the Canes, hence the reason we get this matchup in Orlando on August 24th.
Both of these teams’ ceiling for the season is finishing second in their conference. Florida would have to overtake Georgia, which isn’t a “gimme”, but it could be done. Miami can beat anyone in the ACC with the exception of Clemson, and for Florida I have similar feeling but with Alabama.
The opening spread for this game favors the Gators (-4.5) but I think if this game were in Gainesville, it would be closer to a 7 or 8 point spread. It will be interesting to see how the line changes from now until August 24th.
If both teams do hit their ceiling that I mentioned for the season, they will both be back to national relevance and fans are going to want to see this matchup for many years to come. The question is going to be will Florida AD Scott Stricklin grow a pair and actually schedule Miami, home-and-home, on a regular basis?
State of Florida football.
SEC vs ACC.
Mullen vs Diaz.
Gators vs Canes.
Need I say more?