Miami Hurricanes Rebuild: How Long Will It Take? Donno Mailbag
The Duke Blue Devils beat the Miami Hurricanes (in football!) 45-21 at Hard Rock Stadium. Mario Cristobal's team found yet another way to shoot themselves in the foot. This time the self-sabotage came in the form of EIGHT turnovers, the most by any FBS team since 2017. The Donno Mailbag is here through the hard times and the good.
You can submit questions or comments for a future mailbag on twitter @LockedOnCanes or by email to LockedOnCanes@gmail.com.
Q: I know this is a rebuild but this team is worse than it was under Manny Diaz. How long are we supposed to wait? -Carrington in Key Largo
A: I wasn't expecting a championship contender this year but I did expect Miami to be considerably better than this. Never in a million years did I think the Hurricanes would lose to Middle Tennessee and Duke at home.
I give the coaches a grade of F so far but the players, for the most part, get F's, too.
When you're rebuilding anything - a house, a business or a football team - you might have to tear it down first before you can build it back up. My hope is we are witnessing the demolition part of that process right now.
New coaches, new playbooks, new philosophies. Clearly, many of these Canes players are not adapting well. Perhaps the team would win a couple more games this season with Manny Diaz and continuity. In the long-term, they'd never return to national prominence under the old regime.
I recently interviewed former Hurricanes and NFL offensive tackle Rashad Butler. He told me he strongly believes 2024 is when we'll start to see the tangible results of what Cristobal is building.
We spoke to former #CanesFootball OT @RashadJamaalB. He endorsed Coach #Cristobal and gave us his take on HOW LONG Mario needs in order to bring #TheU back. You can watch the full interview on our YouTube channel: https://t.co/2vFjrP5T8k pic.twitter.com/4rOMVw1vzD
— Locked On Canes (@LockedOnCanes) October 11, 2022
"I'm really looking forward to 2024 being the year that this program can really turn the corner under Mario Cristobal," Butler said.
Cristobal, GM of football operations Alonzo Highsmith, and the entire staff are working to identify and recruit the high school players with the physical and mental make up to fit Mario's style and vision.
The fact that many of Miami's best players like Akheem Mesidor and Colbie Young are transfers tells me there has to be some blame on the previous coaches' failures in developing talent.
I am done ✔️ no more interest totally disengage
— Jorge Fernandez (@jfdad) October 23, 2022
A: Apathy is our worst enemy but I can't say I blame you, Jorge. Everyone copes with the failures of their sports teams differently. Some sulk, some complain, some look for the bright side, and others flip the switch off until next year.
My hope would be that we see some young players emerge as budding stars between now and the end of the season.
Transfer wide receiver Colbie Young has been dominating on a weekly basis. True freshman linebacker Wesley Bissainthe continues to carve out a bigger role every week. Freshman quarterback Jacurri Brown is seeing the field frequently in short yardage and making plays! We're starting to get a taste of what freshman pass-catchers Jaleel Skinner and Isaiah Horton can do. I wouldn't mind watching them grow into playmakers in the coming weeks.
Q: Can we finally agree that Jake Garcia is not the answer? - Josh in Fort Pierce
A: That was a rough outing for Jake Garcia against Duke. However, it would be unfair to define Jake from one game. Remember when many tried to define Tyler Van Dyke based on his train wreck performance against Middle Tennessee?
We've seen Garcia make plays this year. He made some against Duke. I don't know the injury status of Tyler Van Dyke moving forward but it didn't look good when he left the Duke game.
If Garcia is the starting quarterback for the foreseeable future, he'll have no choice but to prepare as QB1 throughout the week and I am very curious to see how he bounces back from adversity.
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