Tyler Herro is Primed for a Bounce Back Season

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The 2021-22 season is a brand new start for so many players on the Miami Heat. Some of them are newcomers, while others are familiar faces with something to prove. The trials and tribulations of an embattled second season are behind guys like Kyle Lowry, Bam Adebayo, and Duncan Robinson. But for Tyler Herro, a player entering his third season, he sees an opportunity to show everyone what he’s truly made of.

To look forward to the future, we must first examine the past path of the young guard out of Kentucky. Herro would have to abruptly stop the rookie campaign that saw him post a solid 13-4-2 line while shooting 38% from 3 on 5 attempts a game. An unprecedented pandemic forced everyone to readjust their usual NBA clocks. It’s hard to imagine how this would affect rookies that had yet to even set their clocks. But Herro made the most of the break between the abrupt hiatus and bubble down in Orlando.

We saw small improvements in his finishing that included hints of a floater game; as well as better on-ball handling, and reps in the pick-and-roll. The young Heat rookie had worked tirelessly to help his team reach another level once it was playoff time. This reputation of always wanting to improve and wanting to be in the gym like his mentor Jimmy Butler was a reason the organization fell so fast for him. Though Miami ultimately came up short in their run; the team and their fans felt they had something special brewing with Tyler Herro.

But not everything comes easy, and reality can hit you like a sack of bricks. The NBA announced that the next “regular” season would begin in less than 80 days. No real offseason for a player who proved what he could do when given the proper time off to improve. Another wrinkle in the path Herro thought would be a lot smoother.

It was a rough 2020-21 season for the team as a whole, and especially for a second-year player like Herro. Dealing with the weight of expectations, nagging injuries (hip and foot) that never went away, and new celebrity status. But even when going through the hell that was 2021, Tyler came out of the other side with improved raw stats as he put up 15-5-3. When you took a closer look, his shooting numbers did take quite a dip, but the perseverance to get any sort of upward tick was gutsy in itself. You could see how everything was weighing him down throughout the season. It was fitting that the day he had his best game of the season against the Sixers, putting up 34-7-4, we learned he was playing through neck spasms.

Herro played through it all yet received numerous criticism for falling in love with the celebrity side of NBA life. While he was improving his finishing at the basket, people could only point out his shortcomings. Expectations were getting ridiculous and his loud internet fanbase wasn’t helping manners. Neither were the constant trade rumors following him for pretty much the entire season. From the James Harden whispers to the Kyle Lowry talks that followed soon after.

 

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Herro’s 2020-21 was a war of attrition between him and circumstances beyond his control. One battle would end and another would start immediately after. He never surrendered but it was clear the ammunition just wasn’t there.

But now the 2021-22 season is on its way. Herro’s received proper time to prepare for new battles and obstacles thrown his way. “He’s had a great offseason, it’s all about impacting winning. Everything his 1st year was roses & easy sailing. Last year he was better statistically but it’s important to be able to handle adversity and when the narrative changes to forge ahead” said Coach Spoelstra on Herro during media day. “I am going to wake a lot of people up,” said Herro about the number of people sleeping on him.

We got a glimpse of the newly equipped Tyler in his first preseason game against the Hawks this past Monday. Herro was not only hitting his usual jumpers but getting to his spots easier. You can see from the video below how much the game has slowed down for him. You can’t take too much from preseason, but the style of play and fluidity of motion is easily translatable into the regular season. The dividends that Herro’s on-ball reps that occurred throughout his first two years were starting to show already. You can see the way he puts his defender in jail when coming off that initial screen. He’s not being forced out to the perimeter as easily with his newly added bulk. Getting to that second line of defense consistently was always the next step in his process to being a really good scorer.

 

It’s pretty appropriate he was up against Trae Young, who has mastered this exact kind of scoring. Another thing Herro looks to emulate from Young is the immaculate floater game. While Tyler is a much bigger player than Trae, it never hurts to use the shot known as the “giant killer.” Herro spoke after the game saying “I think it’s a really efficient shot for me as opposed to getting all the way to the rim against 7 footers all the time. Whether it’s pulling up in the midrange, or getting to that floater, I think I can be really efficient in that area all season.” The in-between scoring has always been a facet Herro has shown flashes of before. Mastering it will allow him to take another step forward.

There is also the rim pressure portion of Herro’s game that was quietly on display that night as well. Tyler’s added weight and visible bounciness helped earn him 6 free throw attempts and assists off drives. During a team scrimmage earlier everyone was buzzing about a dunk he had in traffic that seemed to turn some heads. No one had seen things like that before; which is why it was the cause of such talk. Adding 4-5 free throws a game would do wonders for someone who already has such a smooth jumper. What better players to learn about drawing fouls at the rim than Jimmy Butler and Kyle Lowry after all?

Speaking of Lowry, his impact is going to do wonders for the next step the boy wonder will take. Having another player like Butler who loves setting up his scorers the way Lowry does? That’s music to the ears of everyone involved, especially a score first guard. “Everyone notices the differences when he’s out there. The way he gets everyone to their spots, he’s really advanced in that area. He’s helping me a ton, I’m blessed to be able to play with another guy like him,” Herro said about playing with Lowry.

Thinking less and being able to play more freely are what Lowry allows Herro to do. These sorts of things are even more important to a guy like Tyler, whose game is best suited in free-flowing offenses. Allowing him to read and react faster without the demon of overthinking hanging on his shoulder. That overthinking was what constantly jammed his process last season; whether it was on the floor or off of it. Now leading a bench unit all to himself, while at the same time always being on the floor with another creator in Butler or Lowry or both. A Sixth Man of the Year award seems more than likely if he performs the way many envision.

Guys like Kyle Lowry can do wonders in player development.  Just look at how much it helped with players like Fred Van Vleet, Pascal Siakam, and OG Anunoby. Miami hopes that he does the same with Tyler Herro as well as Bam Adebayo.

Tyler Herro has very rarely dealt with any sort of normal circumstances since he got into the NBA. But he hasn’t complained one bit, even if it would be quite understandable. He’s forged ahead with the hand he’s been dealt when others might have crumbled. Ready to prove to everyone that writing him off so early was their first mistake. Playing “free” and “loose” with a bounce to his step.

A bounce that has visibly returned, whether literally or figuratively. Tyler has talked about how much his game is predicated on confidence. Last year was such a rough year, that it might have broken any other player’s confidence — but not for Herro. He started immediately after the Bucks series, as Coach Spoelstra pointed out, and never looked back. He looked forward to working hard on his game during an actual offseason. Adding whatever he could with the time finally granted to him. His confidence, health, and bounce are back; all that’s left is to show everyone who the real Tyler Herro is.

 

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Mateo’s Hoop Diary: J-Kidd Off to a Rocky Start?

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It didn’t take more than a day for Jason Kidd, newly hired head coach of the Dallas Mavericks, to take an unfair jab during media availabilities at his rockstar point guard Luka Dončić .  The art of communication has never been a forte of Kidd’s.  Just ask his first wife, Larry Sanders or Zaza Pachulia.  But this latest under-the-radar admission potentially indicates he didn’t learn as much as he said he did serving under coach Frank Vogel’s Lakers staff.

 

“I want to remind him that he can rely on his teammates,” said Kidd while comparing Dončić to a young Picasso.  

 

Someone as talented and experienced as Kidd should know that it’s injudicious to criticize a player in front of the press.  Worse yet, when his reasoning is misguided and it’s the star of the team.

 

The only player on the Mavericks that can initiate the offense to take 10 eyes of Dončić while they share the court is Jalen Brunson.  The roadblock here is that Brunson is most effective in a reserve role and should probably see the court mostly when Dončić rests because of the group’s shortage of orchestrators. Dallas’ All-Star is burdened with scoring, facilitating and rebounding because the front office keeps striking out in Free Agency.  

 

At Media Day, Dončić was asked about Kidd’s comments and said he agreed.  Yet what else can you say when the new boss is a reported verbal abuser and proven wife-beater? Dončić was possibly trying to start on a bright note after souring the relationship with the previous honcho (Rick Carlisle).  

 

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It must have been an uncomfortable situation for Dončić because disagreeing makes it a story on day one that the new coach and star player don’t see eye-to-eye.  Kidd’s cliche was unnecessary and perhaps disingenuous, owing to the fact that Dončić has no co-star.  Kristaps Porzingus was supposed to be the antidote to this problem, but his health is always compromised by injuries which leaves him out of sync when returning to the court. 

 

The last two playoff appearances for the Mavericks resulted in first-round losses to the Los Angeles Clippers.   It’s unforgettable how effective Dončić was while catching all of LA’s defensive schemes, even doing so playing through neck pain. Had Dallas’ lead guard had a running mate available that could get two feet in the paint at will, maybe the Mavericks wouldn’t be so concerned about Dončić wearing down at the end of each series.

 

 It’s the front office’s responsibility to put pieces around the former EuroLeague champion that will simplify his job and not just replace an instructor with a coach that speaks in platitudes.  In Kidd’s last two posts as head coach, he first tried to unceremoniously seize general manager Billy King’s position, the man who hired him, but was denied by ownership.  The Nets then traded Kidd to Milwaukee for a pair of second-round picks, per Jeff Zillgit of USA Today.

 

As “leader” of the Bucks, Milwaukee reached the playoffs twice, and he was let go a couple of months into his fourth season due to the team’s disappointing start.  It was reported by ESPN that Giannis Antetokounmpo was unhappy with his dismissal, but NBA Insider and former columnist and reporter for the New York Post Peter Vecsey told me that news was exaggerated.

 

In Kidd’s third stop as lead instructor, paired with a generational talent for the second time, he has four years to live up to the heights reached by Rick Carlisle and the 2011 Mavericks. Indeed, a challenging task for someone who struggles with controlling his emotions. 

Road to the Orange Bowl: SEC and Big Ten pave the way but what about Cincinnati?

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The road to the Orange Bowl, one of the two semifinal sites of the College Football Playoffs, are being paved by two conferences, the Big Ten and the SEC. 

Every week has been an example of just how powerful No. 1 Alabama and No. 2 Georgia are and just how powerful No. 3 Iowa and No. 4 Penn State could be in opposition. 

It’s going to take a lot for the playoff committee to resists rendering the conference championship games pointless. If both Alabama and Georgia go into the SEC Championship Game undefeated and the game is close, what are the stakes outside of loser drops down to No. 4? 

However, could you blame them? Arkansas shocked the nation and went into last week’s game against Georgia at No. 8 and got shutout. Ole Miss was sold as team who could unseat Alabama and that wishful thinking didn’t last nearly long enough to make the game fully enticing. 

The Big 10 will be more interesting considering how many teams are highly ranked and how the divisions are aligned. Iowa has a clear path to the conference title game but someone among Penn State, No. 7 Ohio State, No. 9 Michigan and No. 11 Michigan State is going to emerge from the East Division, which will make for an entertaining season. 

So what happens when the top four teams are competing for two conference championships? Do we just scrap the concept of a playoff and pit the winner of the Big 10 and SEC against each other? Maybe that’s what the Orange Bowl is for. 

Cincinnati is the new Boise State

About a decade ago, the integrity of the inclusivity of the BCS was constantly being tested by a powerful outsider who would dominate its conference and even take the blue bloods for a ride. The one problem was that the team was called Boise State and the Broncos were playing in a dying conference and could never get over the glass ceiling. 

Boise State cracked the top 10 in numerous seasons from 2004-11. The Broncos reached prominence with an improbable win over Adrien Peterson’s Oklahoma Sooners in the Fiesta Bowl in 2006. They beat No. 4 TCU in the Fiesta Bowl in 2009 and went as high up as No. 4 in 2010 before losing to No. 19 Nevada. Kellen Moore broke a NCAA record by winning his 50th career collegiate game in the Las Vegas Bowl against Arizona State in 2011 at the end of the run. 

None of it was good enough to play for a national championship but if there were a four team playoff, maybe there would have been an opportunity. 

Boise State crawled so that Central Florida and Cincinnati could run, and the Bearcats ran over Notre Dame this past weekend to move up to No. 5 in the rankings. 

Cincinnati is good enough to run the table and take advantage of rival conferences cannibalizing each other. Going undefeated last year helps their cause this season but a single loss will torpedo their playoff hopes. 

Clear path for the Pac-12

Whenever Oregon is running rampant undefeated, Stanford is always there to knock the Ducks down a peg. An overtime win for the Cardinal leaves the Pac-12 with the potential for a battle between two loss teams in the conference title game. 

No. 22 Arizona State returned to the ranks after an impressive 42-23 win over UCLA (No. 20 at the time) and could face No. 8 Oregon in the Pac-12 title game, should both teams make it to the end of the season without a loss. 

Now the Sun Devils will have to avoid being victim of a second consecutive upset bid by Stanford on Friday. Junior quarterback Jayden Daniels has a knack for avoiding turnovers and finding the open lanes to run. Most of the touchdown opportunities has been going to senior running back Rachaad White, who has eight touchdowns. Only five other offensive players in the nation have more rushing touchdowns.  

Considering that the Sun Devils’ lone loss came on the road at No. 10 BYU, they should have a strong resume should they emerge as Pac-12 champions. However, unlike other conferences, none of that is for certain  in the Pac-12, which is unfortunately seen as a knock.

“Well, it’s a week to week situation in the Pac-12,” ASU coach Herm Edwards said. “We all know that, that’s how it works in our conference,” Edwards said. “You never know what’s going on. You just see it. You think, ‘Oh,’ and then somebody loses, I just think, every week, and that’s how we approach it.”

Miami Hurricanes Compress More than a Decade of Failure into a Bizarre Week

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The plan was simple.

Blowout Central Connecticut State, claim the team had turned the corner, and try to maintain some relevance. It was a tried and true playbook, one we’ve seen play out for more than a decade. Put lipstick on the pig, claim the program is trending up and that the long-awaited Renaissance was on the way,

Over the last 15 years of failure, the Athletic Department, which sometimes resembles a marketing department that occasionally participates in sports, has been really good at this. Honoring accomplishments of teams’ past, while selling hope that the program would be there again “soon.”

And in the local South Florida community, they had willing buyers of that hope. UM is a university, but it represents an entire Tri-County community that just wants to believe again, searching for hope. The school has used that to brush more than a decade of disaster under the rug.

That plan was in motion on the Saturday of the CCSU game. If it is broke and you can get away with not fixing it, why fix it?

But what no one expected was for ESPN, of all places, to get fed up and take the outrage national, echoing what exceedingly frustrated local fans have been saying for years, accusing the school of not prioritizing winning, accusing the school of not caring, of accepting mediocrity.

This particular criticism is extremely harmful to this school in particular. Why? Well, to be blunt about it, the actual on-field performance and non-reaction to it would lend credence to this theory. And this extends beyond football to most of the athletics program, where underperformance has become the norm.

I’m sure they do want to win on some level, of course they do. But an Athletic Director that has presided over a disastrous head coaching hire (by process and execution) and seen it go this poorly (not his first high profile screw up, remember he tried to not fire Al Golden after Clemson and had to be overruled), that has seen the basketball program descend into one of the worst in the ACC, that has seen the baseball program not be able to get out of Regionals would most likely be out of a job, if winning was prioritized.

And that’s not to say that all of those coaches should be fired. That’s not always the solution.

I’m excited to see what Coach L can do this year. The baseball team is actually my true vice. Give me JD Arteaga and anything, and I’ll convince myself that the team can make it to Omaha. I’m one of those purchasers of hope.

It does mean, however, that someone somewhere should do something about the disintegration of athletic performance, and the buck stops with the Athletic Director, unless the Athletic Director is being evaluated by entirely different criteria.

The Reaction Was Puzzling

The school’s reaction to being eviscerated on ESPN was to flail around.

Manny Diaz, who in his defense, has to do press conferences and is not really responsible for the current state of things spoke on the subject. He is a symptom, not the cause. And he did what he had to do, when put in an untenable position. He had to defend the school from criticism that the school’s frugality leads them to hire unqualified coaches, including one named Manny Diaz.

What you can fault him for is the tired line of “I need more time to recruit.” First, he’s been here 6 years. Second, enough with this canard that the only way for Miami to compete is to string together 10 years of #1 classes to be competitive. Baked into that is that the school has to overcome coaching. The notion that a coach can take equivalent talent (spoiler alert: they usually have more talent than the other team) and actually beat the opponent is not even on the table.

But Diaz had to say something. And frankly, as this season goes on, he’s going to have to continue to justify his tenure when he probably shouldn’t be the coach anymore. Defend the indefensible.

The good news for Miami was that with a quick turnaround, even Miami fans stop complaining near kickoff. For that brief 4 hours, the consumers of hope think, just maybe, things will turn around. Beat a lowly Virginia, who coming into the game was one of the worst teams in the ACC, and with an upcoming bye week, the potential existed for 16 days of delusional daydreaming, a Miami tradition unlike any other. A chance to lie to ourselves, to traffic in hope. 

Why say anything?

And that’s why Julio Frenk’s decision to release a letter that was simultaneously insulting, off topic, delusional, and rambling a few hours before kickoff was so inexplicable.

The story was dying out. Someone at the school for some reason thought this was a good idea. Perhaps they thought ESPN would pick up on it and talk about it on air (while ESPN didn’t mention the letter, they did hilariously talk about how integral Manny Diaz has been in renovating the dorms).

Whatever the reason, it was another unforced error by a school that couldn’t afford it. Say nothing, and frankly, the topic is not even important enough to revisit outside of local media, such is the current irrelevance of the UM program. But they enflamed emotions by putting it front and center.

And that doesn’t even get into the substance of the letter. Upon reading it, I immediately thought back to my 10th Grade English teacher, Ms. Beam. She would have eviscerated it for not having a central theme, for wildly shifting topics between paragraphs, for not identifying a target audience or identifying a purpose.

I won’t go line by line through the letter, but a quick summary is:

  • Paragraph 1: Committed to Building Champions
  • Paragraph 2: Academics and Athletics are being “disrupted”
  • Paragraph 3: Rails against NIL, attacks on exploitation of athletes, the pandemic
  • Paragraph 4: He is appointing two people to work with the Athletic Department in an attempt to solve the problem that the entire letter is meant to portray does not exist
  • Paragraph 5: Says it’s important to have coaches, which is fantastic
  • Paragraph 6: Lists accomplishments from several decades ago off the school’s wikipedia page
  • Paragraph 7: Thanks everyone for trying

What in the world was the point of this? Who was this for?

Just to be clear, the specific criticism from ESPN’s Kirk Herbstreit was that the Canes have averaged 7 wins per year for FIFTEEN years. For this letter to say “Conversations about college sports tend to focus on the last game—or even the last play—and I can certainly empathize with the emotions of those moments” when the fans have been watching this for FIFTEEN years…who was that for? This is insulting to those that have suffered through more than a decade of bad football.

He goes on to list out titles from decades ago, including 5 football titles. Who was that for? The fans know this, the national media knows this. It sounds like he just found out about this and wanted to let us know about it. “Hey guess what, did you know we used to be good at football?!”

That weird middle section where he itemizes thing  plaguing all of college sports…okay. If he wants to have that discussion and try to expound on why these things that are part of college athletics only impact Miami, then go ahead. Who was that for? Surely that’s not why the team couldn’t tackle against Michigan State. “Coach, I was going to breakdown and make the tackle, but then I stared thinking about COVID and then the next thing I knew, the RB was passed me. Unfair that we knew about COVID, but Michigan State didn’t.”

In the same letter he somehow managed to say that they have always been committed to athletics at UM, that college athletics in general is screwed up, and that he’s making changes to address the lack of commitment at UM that the entire letter was trying to convey does not exist.

Between the timing and substance, it made no sense, and was insulting to a suffering community. Things couldn’t possibly get worse…

Of Course They Lost to Virginia

So, the thing about this is they didn’t just lose. A running joke after the Alabama and Appalachian State games was that Manny Diaz said “that’s what [insert name of opponent] does.”

Well, even he couldn’t claim that here.

Virginia came in 0-2 in the ACC. In those 2 games, they had rushed for a total of 123 yards and recorded a total of 1 sack while losing by a combined 40 points.

Against Miami? 181 yards rushing, 4 sacks, and a win. That’s right, they did more in one game against Miami than they did in 2 previous ACC games.

It must be said, however, you gotta give up to the players. They overcame poor coaching, and poor game plans, and actually put the team in a position to win, only for one last coaching error to sentence this game to the loss column, like so many games before.

You can debate whether or not playing for a FG or a TD is the right move here. But it’s hard to defend not moving the ball closer to make the FG easier. According to this great analysis, advancing the ball 5 yards instead of backing up 2 yards, Miami could have increased the chances of making the FG by 10%. That would have won the game. Sometimes you make your own luck and after catching a break on a missed targeting call to even get the ball back with a chance to win, the Canes blew it.

The reaction was typical. Diaz said they almost did something “special” exaggerating what a win over lowly Virginia would mean (much like he celebrated a win against Appalachian State as monumental), not acknowledging that they spent much of the game being pushed around by a team that had done that to no one. Trying to be sunshine and flowers while not addressing the systemic problems that put them in that position to begin with.

Diaz knows he’s done, just like Coker, Shannon, and Golden before him. He came into this year with a veteran team that had taken advantage of the pandemic rule to bring back several players that shouldn’t have had eligibility. He personally took over the defense because he was going to fix it. Through 5 games:

  • 2 blowout losses
  • 1 blowout win
  • 2 games came down to a kick, the Canes made 1 and missed the other

2-3 is a fair representation of how they’ve played. And they haven’t even played a road game yet. This was the time to bank wins at home.

Miami is the only ACC team that has both a losing overall record and is winless in the ACC. The 3 other teams without an ACC win are BC, Duke, and Syracuse, but they all have winning records. It is that bad right now, and we are almost halfway through the season. Just to contextualize, an unimaginably good 5-2 finish to the season would leave the Canes at 7-5 and 5-3 in the ACC, which is fireable. So what’s the point?

What Now?

On Saturday, “sources” leaked to Bruce Feldman that the buyout was too expensive (allegedly $8 million), that as long as the players don’t quit Diaz is safe (because I guess that is the standard now, if you don’t quit in a loss, did you really lose?), and that everything is okay because Miami played a 3rd string QB (which was news to anyone that actually follows the program since Tyler Van Dyke has always been the backup).

As an aside, Van Dyke made a ridiculous TD run, threw a strike on 3rd and forever on the last drive, and put the team in position to win. So whoever is trying to blame the loss on him and leaked that to Feldman is disgusting, blaming a kid for the coach’s shortcomings. These people are low.

It’s the same old story for Miami, 2 decades of horror compressed into one week. Bad performances, seasons lost, while those in charge of fixing it, paid to do so in fact, continue to fall short while excusing it, continue to argue with those that have supported the program decades and will be there long after these administrators have moved on, continue to pretend that the complaints are about being “not good enough” when it is in fact about horrific play. Even when the team has won over the last 15 years, it was rarely a strong all-around performance, and often hinted at the losses to come. This year is no different.

This is not an overreaction to the last game or the last play. This is an underreaction to 15 years of wasting these kids’ opportunities to win on the college level.

It went national this season, as ESPN went in on Miami, and the missed tackles became a national joke. But Miami’s response was depressingly familiar.

We’re going to Deserve Victory by Building Champions.

Since 2006, Miami has lost EIGHTEEN times to teams that ended the year with 6 or more losses. EIGHTEEN. In that period they have twice promoted the defensive coordinator (once hilariously having to pay a buy out because when market forces spoke, his level was Temple, but what does anyone else know, they know better, right?). They have hired Temple’s coach twice. Only once, for 3 years under Mark Richt, did they even have a coach that would not be laughed at had he been the head coach at a similar caliber school.

My questions to President Frenk is this. In your letter, you wrote “From my arrival here, I underscored that with respect to athletics our devotion must be first and foremost to our student-athletes, whose considerable talent we have a duty to develop both on and off the field.”

Do you believe, based on over a decade of wasting talent (as many of these players go on to succeed in the NFL), that they are developing that talent on the field?

By repeatedly hiring coaches that no other major program would, and then allowing them to hang on long past when other major programs would have fired them?

By paying a buyout to get back your own defensive coordinator without a proper head coaching search and then actually ending up as the second best team in Miami in his first year?

By repeatedly reaching for increasingly detached justifications to maintain status quo, drifting further and further away from the goal of winning?

Is that how you show “devotion” to the student-athletes? By hiring coaches on the cheap and then letting them stay past their sell by date?

If not, then what are you prepared to do about it? We don’t need more hot air, we don’t need to hear there are a few more meetings a week with some advisors. We need action, as we’re all talked out.

Paraphrasing the late, great Phil Hartman’s character Bill McNeal from 90s sitcom Newsradio, this school has barfed in the punch bowl we all drink from and now they expect us to believe it’s alphabet soup.

The problems started long before Julio Frenk arrived, and I do believe he is being unfairly blamed for a lot of the school’s ills. But he is in a position to address the shortcomings in the Athletic Department, and we can certainly expect that action out of him.

At the very least, can we get a baseball player that transferred to FSU off of the official University of Miami commercial? Is anyone paying attention to anything in Hecht?

Vishnu Parasuraman is a contributor for @FiveReasonsSports and generally covers the Miami Hurricanes. You can follow him on twitter @vrp2003

Season Ticket: Brian Flores Needs to Fix This, Fast

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So this is what passing a kidney stone feels like.

Ball at the Colts 3 yard line.

First down.

Down 20-3.

After accumulating fewer than 80 yards in the first three quarters, there are signs of life for the Miami Dolphins, after remembering Devante Parker and Mike Gesicki exist…. and enough time (12 minutes) to make the end reasonably interesting.

It’s a situation that calls for creativity, especially if you’re aware of your offense’s undeniable inadequacies.

Malcolm Brown over right guard. Two yards.

Jacoby Brissett keeper over the center. Nothing.

Brown over left guard. Nothing.

Finally, on fourth down, a circus catch from Gesicki on another errant Brissett throw, for the team’s first touchdown.

It turned out to be too little, too late, but absolutely appropriate for the afternoon. For the Dolphins on offense, everything is excruciating, to the point of being embarrassing. And even those of us who have been faithful supporters of the Brian Flores regime are starting to wonder. The fans already seem to be ahead of us.

Simply, it shouldn’t be this hard.

Not in the third season of a regime. Not against a winless team at home. Not when you’ve had so many draft picks and free agent dollars to expand the offensive talent base. Not even when you’re starting a backup quarterback, since that quarterback (Brissett) was decent enough to start plenty of the games for the team on the other side.

Brian Flores needs to fix this. Soon. Or his tenure is going to take a troubling turn. One his predecessors have experienced, in which every decision is questioned rather than trusted. In which an impatient octogenarian owner (Steve Ross) starts getting antsy. In which even the media start wondering if he’s experienced and able enough to make the necessary adjustments.

“I think we need to take a look at everything,” Flores said after the 27-17 loss dropped Miami to 1-3 with the defending champion Buccaneers next. “But it’s really across the board, offense, defense, special teams. It starts with me coaching…. We are out there making mistakes in all three phases.”

Accountability is appreciated, but so is accuracy. It’s not really all three phases. No, the other two, special teams and defense, haven’t been exceptional, but it’s the offense that’s been offensive. The Dolphins had Hall of Famers, and near Hall of Famers, on their defense in the late 1990s and early 2000s, and even those defenses finally broke after the offense kept bending their patience, by putting them in adverse positions. This one can’t hold up if the offense is off the field in three or four or five plays, over and over.

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Through three quarters, the Dolphins had the same number of points (three) as they appear to have offensive coordinators, now that we’ve learned that Charlie Frye is actually sending in many of the plays. And those plays? Oof.

The Dolphins are coaching scared, and it starts from the top.

“We tried to be methodical early,” Flores admitted.

He said there were some big play possibilities that turned into safer checkdowns.

Perhaps. The tape will tell. But there were also big picture decisions that were overly conservative, indicating a lack of trust in the team that Flores and Chris Grier put together.

If you’re paying your kicker (Jason Sanders) big money and believe in your defense, why are you punting rather than trying a 55-yard field goal when you had momentum early?

“We wanted to play field position there,” Flores said, sounding like Dave Wannstedt from scared Dolphins teams gone by.

And they did down a punt at the one.

But is that better than a 60 percent shot at three points?

When even a missed kick would have kept the Colts on their side of the field. Isn’t your defense good enough to still stop them?

Those points could have come in handy later, when the Colts got going.

That’s the thing. Every team eventually does. Even the Dolphins do. It just comes so late, when other options are off the table, and they have no alternative but to press the action.

What’s become obvious through four games is that Flores and his offensive staffers, whom he handpicked, don’t believe in the talent they and the front office have assembled and elevated. What’s become obvious is Miami misfired by not acquiring at least a couple of experienced offensive linemen to assist the raw projects. What’s become obvious is that a team that starts Malcolm Brown at running back — because Myles Gaskin can’t protect? — is not a team that takes taking pressure off its quarterbacks seriously. What’s become obvious is that this rebuild, seemingly ahead of schedule, is still many miles away from fruition.

What’s become obvious is that, after a prolonged and warranted honeymoon, the tide is turning on Brian Flores.

“It’s a lack of focus, a lack of concentration, all of those things,” Flores said. “And that starts with me.”

He needs to put a stop to it — not just the mistakes, but also the mismanagement, of personnel, of approach, of attitude.

So his group starts scoring points.

 

Ethan Skolnick can be reached at @5ReasonsSports and @EthanJSkolnick. His columns are sponsored by www.EverythingTradeShows.com 

 

 

 

Deshaun Watson

The Deshaun Watson Fiasco

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There’s been more talk about a potential Deshaun Watson trade from the Houston Texans to the Miami Dolphins over the past several days.

Or rather, the last couple of months.

Rumor Mill

Fox Sports NFL insider Jay Glazer recently reported that the Texans are starting to lower their asking price for the franchise quarterback.

CBS Sports HQ reporter and USA Today NFL Insider Josina Anderson updates us on the current trade rumors

What We Know

There is a growing sense that star QB Deshaun Watson will soon be traded to Miami. To repeat, here’s what we know up to this point:

  • Watson and his camp want Miami, ever since this initially began.
  • There are members of the Dolphins “brass” who are interested in pulling the trigger.
  • The current asking price for is around three 1st round picks and three additional assets.
  • Watson is not suspended or on the commissioner’s exemption list. In the event of a trade, he could play immediately.

Miami’s interest in Watson is not new.

What is known is that rumors will continue to pick up on this front despite Watson’s league situation which includes:

What’s New

In finance, this is what you would call a high risk, high reward scenario. His legal situation remains unsettled. Stephen Ross, a successful businessman, understand this very well.

Per source, Chris Grier does not want to bring in Deshaun Watson. Instead, it’s all about owner Stephen Ross wanting to bring him to Miami Gardens.

However, the Dolphins are trying to get more info on a possible suspension before any trigger is pulled. Whether something gets done on this front remains to be seen.

From Donno Daily on our YouTube network:

  • Texans and Dolphins discussing three 1st’s, one 2nd, and two 3rd round picks.
  • Possibility of Tua Tagovailoa on the move to Washington for a 2nd round pick.
  • Murmurs of Monday being the day of the trade(s)

Ross could direct general manager Chris Grier to make it happen ahead of the trade deadline. Ross is the power player in Miami. If he wants this to get done, there’s a good chance that it will happen.

The Dilemma

In this scenario, Tua would be traded to the Washington Football Team. The New NFL IR rules allow it to happen.

“Players on injured reserve can be traded if they were sent there after the aforementioned September 1 deadline. The acquiring team can then designate the player to return, or immediately activate the player if his previous team has already done so.”

Amidst the injury to Tua Tagovailoa and the losses to Buffalo and Las Vegas, Miami has fallen into a rut. Unquestionably, there is a lot of uncertainty regarding Watson, the health of Tua, Brissett’s production and the offensive line play.

The Miami Dolphins have everything needed to make a playoff push which includes a talented defense. However, it has not been up to standards. The current offense does not pull its weight.

The thought is that Deshaun Watson, arguably a top 3 QB in the league could mask deficiencies and would help, but comes with massive risk.

In year two of an already ahead of schedule rebuild, there is a risk for Tua’s development as a QB. Of course, shipping him off to a new team and giving away assets to secure Watson (with protections) will be questioned if Tua succeeds somewhere else.

“It could take up to 1 year or 2 for full adjudication in the Watson case. Though anything can always happen at any time with potential settlements talks, at this point an NFL owner has to decide to approve a trade w/o full clarity with action, not words.” 

The trade deadline is November 2nd.

Ross wanting Watson and with Chris Grier hesitant, things will be interesting in the upcoming days. After all, these are the Miami Dolphins.

Follow Hussam Patel on Twitter

Mateo’s Hoop Diary: 5 Storylines for the 2021-22 NBA Season

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Competitive professional hoops are fewer than three week away from what should be a memorable 75th year honoring the NBA and its former legends.  Teams have licked their wounds and reloaded through the draft and free agency for their next campaign as the NBA attempts a return to normalcy in its third season dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic.

 

Below are five reasons to stay hooked on the NBA:

 

  1. Who is Klay Thompson today?

 

Thompson hasn’t suited up since Game 6 of the 2019 Finals. He missed all of the following season (2019/2020), recovering from his torn ACL, then on last year’s Draft night, tore his Achilles’ tendon in a private workout.

 

It’s unfair to Thompson, but the success of the Warriors season rests in his health.  Golden State need to get something close to his production level pre-injury in order to legitimately compete for titles.   Stephen Curry is catching every defensive scheme from the opposing team, and with Draymond Green’s inability to hit an outside jumper or take advantage of driving lanes, the Warriors often play 4-on-5 while Green is on the court.

 

The refusal of Andrew Wiggins to vaccinate is also a factor because he’s ineligible to play in home games and it doesn’t appear he will change his mind soon.  Wiggins told the press that he will keep “fighting” for what he believes in.  As long as he remains misinformed, the Warriors will be without a guy who doesn’t hunt shots and keeps the ball moving on 19 points per game.  His potential absence creates a larger burden on the rest of the Dubs.

 

Thompson’s injuries are two of the most ruinous wounds an athlete can endure, and they will undoubtedly hinder him on the defensive side of the court, where he was once among the league’s elite. Offensively, Thompson has a solid chance of regaining his old form due to playing in the Warriors motion offense.

 

Thompson said at Media Day not to expect a return before 12 months since tearing his Achilles tendon on Nov. 18.

 

  1. Will Kawhi Leonard play? 

 

Kawhi Leonard suffered a partially torn ACL during Game 4 of the West Semis against the Utah Jazz that sat him the rest of the Clippers playoff run. Leonard, historically, has been very conservative with his health and once played all but nine games in a season (2018) recovering from a torn quad.

 

Just on pure speculation, I wouldn’t expect Leonard to play next year because it would place the burden on him to be the savior of the franchise come postseason time. There is also no guarantee the Clippers will habitually perform well without the services of their best player, so returning next year could be a futile effort for Leonard if the team has poor positioning in the playoff bracket by the time he is healthy. 

 

At Media Day, Leonard said he hoped to play this season, but he offered no timetable for his comeback. 

 

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  1. Can the Nets star trio stay on the court together?

 

Due to various health concerns and PTO, James Harden, Kyrie Irving, and Kevin Durant only suited up for 13 games together, regular season and playoffs combined. Yet, they are on the books for over $120 million of the Nets cap space.  In that minuscule sample size, the star threesome has won 10 games and lost three while teasing spectators on what could be their final form offensively once they’ve learned each other’s tendencies.

 

Although, on the less-heralded side of the court, the Brooklyn Nets were 22nd in Defensive Rating according to NBA.com, and that starts with their three linchpins.  The only way this big three can begin to show a commitment to the side of the floor is if they manage to get on the court together consistently. Still, due to their supernova abilities attacking the opposing defense from all angles, the Nets don’t have to be better than average at guarding. 

 

Getting on the court may be an issue. Irving remains unvaccinated and he is ineligible to play in 41 home games per New York City ordinance. If he remains unvaccianted, the Nets take a serious blow to their title aspirations. 

 

  1. Epidemic of the selfish

 

Per ESPN, close to 40 players remain unvaccinated placing their teams in a competitive disadvantage if the unvaccinated player comes into contact with someone positive for COVID-19.  This forces the athlete into a week of quarantine when it wouldn’t if they were vaccinated.

 

The anti-vaxxers in New York City and San Francisco dig their teams a deeper hole because they will not be allowed to compete in 41 home games, per The Athletic.   

 

There are also the health risks that come with not being vaccinated.  The CDC says it’s harder to catch and pass on the virus when vaccinated, but these thick-headed individuals refuse to listen to wisdom from medical professionals. 

 

It is not a personal issue.  It’s a public health crisis, and these poor teammates who refuse to do the right thing are also becoming distractions for their clubs.

 

  1. Impact of Olympic competition on players next season

 

When great basketball players are around their peers, many return home with their skills fine-tuned and an enlightened mind. This comes from time spent learning the tricks and tools of the NBA’s elite and listening to a separate coaching staff than accustomed to.

 

After the 2014 FIBA World Cup that Team USA won gold in, the Splash Brothers came back and dominated the next regular season and playoffs, with Curry winning league MVP. James Harden finished second behind Curry, and he was also a part of Team USA. 

 

The United States team who won gold in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, features young players on the verge of superstardom, such as Jayson Tatum, Devin Booker, Zach Lavine, and Bam Adebayo. The experience these gentlemen gathered playing in the Olympics, which is essentially a different game because of the rule differences and increased physicality, is invaluable. This master class experience should keep them sharp and in shape heading into next season. Expect a significant amount of this team’s players providing more contributions for their clubs when the 2021/2022 season starts. 

Media Day Marked the Beginning of a New Day for the Miami Heat

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Today marked the first day that many new faces, as well as old ones, wore their Miami Heat threads in front of media for the 2021-22 season. It felt like the dawning of a new day. The bad vibes and weirdness of last season were officially behind everyone. As most Media Days go, it was time for optimism and looking ahead.

Nothing exemplified this more than Kyle Lowry stepping up to the podium saying “good morning. Good morning! Sh*t!” Trying to wake up a room full of media members the same way he hopes to wake up this Heat team into a better season. Welcoming them into a new day that’ll be better than the previous one.

The entire day was full of the feeling of a fresh start for so many people. Erik Spoelstra smiling in front of everyone as he talked about how great it was to have an actual offseason with a real training camp on the horizon. Spoelstra has always been a big believer in building habits and how having a routine can help in building them. He’d go on to say that “this offseason was good for everybody. The offseason felt very adequate, it felt long, we were able to get away.” Again, putting everything into perspective about how strange last season was for everyone.

It’s easy to understand Spoelstra feeling such optimism with the team being built so perfectly to what he wants to run. He would go on to say “the way the roster was constructed was done in a very thoughtful way.” This isn’t to say that Miami is a perfect roster — far from it. There are still noticeable holes on the team, but it certainly is apparent that the team has a set identity and pecking order. It’s a drastic difference to what happened most of last year where it took quite a bit to find themselves if they ever did.

One of the players that will be a part of the new identity was PJ Tucker who was wearing his new threads alongside a pair of Jordan 1 “Legends of Summer.” The NBA Veteran seemed to fit right into his new home as he called it “a match made in heaven.” Tucker spoke about how he envisions working next to Bam Adebayo and how easy it is to play with a guy like Bam. He revealed how much he plays pickup with Adebayo and how seamless it will be. Miami hopes that Tucker’s insertion will go as smoothly as those pickup games. And that’s not misguided hope that seemed to follow the team last year — instead, it’s real tenable hope.

 

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But Miami won’t let hope be the only thing powering them into the season. They have the motivation to cleanse the sour taste of last season’s playoff exit. “I don’t think that chip will ever leave. It’s embedded in me,” added Adebayo during his availability. While he may have been talking about the motivation to get better, there’s no doubt how much this applies to the way he and the team will have a chip to carry throughout the year. Past Heat teams have always operated in the manner that Adebayo speaks of; it’s how they received the reputation they have today.

Another player turning the page from last year is a very noticeably bigger Tyler Herro. You hear a lot about how guys “put on muscle” at the start of camp but most of that can be a lot of fluff. With a guy who came into the league as small as he did, there’s no mistaking how much weight he’s added. It feels appropriate that such a new look comes from a player who is ready to show the league that what they saw last season wasn’t him. A player who was constantly dealing with injuries and getting pushed around both literally and figuratively.

“I think it’ll help on both ends of the floor. Stay in front of my man easier, keep everyone in front of me. Offensively obviously being able to take bumps. My durability throughout the season, I wanna be able to be on the floor and be available as much as I can,” Herro added during the practice court availability. The Heat organization will hope to see how much Herro puts this to work on the floor. A lot of guys add weight, but fewer guys make it matter on the floor. It will help to learn from Jimmy Butler, who is sculpted like a statue, about the intricacies of using strength on the court to your fullest advantage.

 

It’s these types of stories that tell you how much adequate offseasons matter for an organization that prides itself on putting its players in the best possible position to succeed. It was difficult to put those players in those positions last year when everything was so topsy-turvy.

The weight of last year has started shedding and the light of a new season began to shine on this media day. The possibilities that Bam Adebayo spoke about in expanding his game out to the three-point line, while still being an inside threat with the addition of Kyle Lowry. The hopes of a Tyler Herro bounce-back season that puts him in contention for the Sixth Man of the Year award. The sweet nothings Jimmy Butler whispered into the ears of Heat fans about just how good Kyle Lowry will fit in. The pictures of Victor Oladipo in a Heat jersey once again teasing everyone of what’s to come even further down the road.

Everyone is ready to move ahead and as far away from last year as possible. Even Gabe Vincent is saying he’s ready to shoot the way he did in the G-League as he’s finally come to understand the shot mechanics the Heat staff introduced to him a while back. The entire team, staff, and fans are ready to turn that proverbial page after the horror story that was 2021.It’s a day to feel the first ounce of hope for what should be a fun season, Heat fans. Media Day is only the beginning and we have even more to look forward to in the coming weeks. It truly felt like a brand new morning in the world of the Miami Heat and, in the words of Kyle Lowry, “good morning!” It’s time for the Heat to wake up South Florida sports once again.

 

Everything Tradeshows is a one-stop-shop for trade show exhibit rentals and custom exhibit display purchase solutions to companies of all sizes.

Visit them at EverythingTradeShows or call 954-791-8882

Road to the Orange Bowl: Can Notre Dame come back to the ACC?

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The original fear going into the college football season was the SEC having two teams shoved into the playoff. The last time that happened, a team who didn’t play in the SEC title game went on to be the team who won the conference. 

However last year saw two ACC teams in the playoff. For one pandemic crazed season, Notre Dame was a full member of the ACC rather than simply an independent. 

This year the No. 8 Fighting Irish has returned to football independence and after four weeks, I’d bet the ACC wishes to have them back. 

The ACC looks to be out of the running for the College Football Playoff. Clemson suffered its second loss of the season and dropped all the way down to No. 25. It doesn’t help that the two undefeated teams are Boston College and Wake Forest. Neither team has garnered much respect going into the season so it takes a while for the committee and AP to catch on. 

Boston College proved to be an offensive force after beating Missouri 41-34 in overtime off the back of its rushing attack which is 19th in the nation in yards per game at 221.5. The Eagles will earn some respect if they beat Clemson and North Carolina State in the next two weeks.

Wake Forest also seems offensively inclined with a defense that averages 14.3 points per game, but its two best wins are the conference’s two last place teams. The Demon Deacons’ schedule is more backloaded with a November slate of North Carolina, NC State, Clemson and Boston College.

In a crazy way, the ACC’s best chance to spring board back into the playoffs may be for Boston College and Wake Forest to reach the end of the season with perfect records and their titanic clash to scintillate the nation. 

Now or Never

Cincinnati was a feel good story last year after running the table and making it to the Sugar Bowl against Georgia. The No. 7 Bearcats were able to maintain their top 10 ranking by going 3-0 against Indiana and two mid-majors. 

The real test comes on Saturday at Notre Dame. Beat the Fighting Irish on national television and the Bearcats will be made men so long as they can run the conference table. 

Not good enough

Oklahoma is the only team in the top 10 to consistently go down the rankings for winning. A last second field goal against West Virginia isn’t good enough for the AP just like beating Tulane by five points wasn’t impressive either. At this rate, a loss might completely sink the Sooners chances at the playoff. 

Crashing the party

Arkansas put the nation on notice when they defeated Texas by 19 points in Week 2. Now after beating Texas A&M 20-10, the No. 8 Razorbacks are presenting themselves as a force to be feared in the SEC. They are the classic big and scary SEC team that runs all over and snuffs out hope with their defense. Arkansas allows 14.5 points per game, which is the 10th lowest in the nation, and average 261 rushing yards per game, which is good for 8th most nationally. 

The Razorbacks are running through the gauntlet. After Texas A&M comes a No. 2 Georgia team that just finished tenderizing Vanderbilt 62-0.

The Hawkeyes of Autumn 

The Iowa Hawkeyes are No. 5 thanks in large part to their elite defense (11 PPG). It’s surely not because of their offense, which was held to 54 rushing yards against Colorado State. Whether or not Iowa truly deserves to be in the playoff conversation will depend on how they handle 4-0 Maryland on Friday and No. 4 Penn State the following week. Pass those two tests and the pathway to the Big Ten title game is wide open. 

Dolphins Win Cardinals

Why an RPO based offense won’t work for the Dolphins

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After the shellacking against Buffalo, I re-watched the first two games of the season, putting an emphasis on the offensive play calls and personnel groupings.

I came away with the following that the Miami Dolphins should not base their offense on the RPO and adapt a more pro-style approach to help with better play calling, personnel groupings and situational calls.

Overview

The rumblings coming out of this off-season was that the Dolphins would run more RPO’s for Tua Tagovailoa. Boding well for him, he was a great RPO QB in college and a fast trigger to do it, there is a big issue about revolving an offense based on RPO’s. The NFL is not designed to accommodate RPO heavy schemes.

Frank Reich and the Eagles pedestaled it onto the national stage during their super bowl run in 2018. It was a new concept in the NFL, the Chiefs also ran it sparingly. The biggest key- compared to College rules and NFL rules is that in College, Offensive lineman have leeway to go 3 yards downfield in coverage compared to one yard in the NFL.  

The NFL has been cracking down on this as a result of increased RPO calls to maintain offensive and defensive balance.

When running an RPO, offenses have to remain simplistic with two to three options 3for the QB to do. This usually consists of the QB giving off the ball to the RB, and his first two reads on the field. The ball has to come out quick and the offense cannot get overly complex as you have to make the reads while defenders make their way to the QB.

The first few reads can be WR screens, slants, crossers and flat routes to get easy yards and move the chains. It acts as another form of running the ball without actually running the ball. In theory, you will likely have more defenders in the box leading at least one WR to get open.

Steve Sarkisian, former Alabama OC and current Texas HC, once said that the more options you give quarterbacks on RPO’s the more likely they’ll pass the ball. However, in the NFL defenses have adapted by overloading the box by taking away the run read, forcing the QB to pass the ball. 

The typical counter to RPOs, particularly in the NFL, is to play man coverage. The RPO is built around creating conflict for defenders on whether to play run fits or coverage assignments.

The QB then punishes indecision or an aggressive run fit with the quick pass. Man coverage erases that conflict by telling the defenders to stick to their men and dropping a safety down to ensure they still have enough numbers in the box to stop the run.

The Problem

In a RPO, the first assignment executed is run blocking. Once a lineman has leverage while maintaining his block on the defender he drives him downfield and onto the second level. If the QB opts for the pass play and the OL keeps going downfield to the second level it will be called as an illegal man downfield. Remember, the rules dictate an OL can be 1 yard down the field.

LB coaches have learned this and coach players to wait for the run play to develop before heading towards the LOS. If the OL gets upfield the LB can win with speed and put pressure on the QB to disrupt a pass’ timing or an open lane to get a sack.

Usually, RPO’s are done out of 11 personnel (3 WRs, 1 TE). Defenses counteract this by showing man coverage on the field side (wide side of the field). Miami has a 32% success rate in 11 personnel. Yeah, it’s a problem.

No QB should throw a screen pass in a 2 WR look on one side of the field when DB’s are playing press man or man coverage. Thus, defenses will expect and anticipate either a slant or stick flat concept on the other side of the field.

In this scenario, the run is taken away, you cannot throw a screen pass, what’s left is the stick play on the boundary which is a one-on-one matchup. Defenses they can load 6 defenders in the box, and DBs to cover each WR, leaving one safety to cover a TE and another to monitor the deep parts of the field or the middle hooks.

Similar to this:

We saw this on the very first play against Buffalo. The Safety doubles Devante Parker to make it a boundary throw and the play is dead as all options are covered up and Tua takes a sack from a free rusher. Another issue, sometimes because of scheme limitation– at time’s you have to allow a free rusher to come through.

If you take a look at Tua’s second read, Waddle is going deep but also covered up. Basically, the only read that could be successful would have been the run.

Which leads to another problem. Miami does not have aggressive run blockers that can allow their RB’s to get downhill.  Linebackers know they can slow play the run because it takes longer to develop. Also, defenses know how to cover up the main route concepts of RPO’s. Since runs are based off of RPO’s there is no actual running game. 

This in turn leads to no threat of a play action passing attack, defenses will not bite at all. They just have to send four to five blitzers at a time and get home and it has been working the last two games. 

In the NFL, there’s little to no margin for error and a high risk of either committing a penalty or forcing a throw off a bad read. RPOs are designed to be quick and generally only include low yardage  hitch routes, slants, and outside runs.

The Solution

NFL Defenses know how to workaround RPO’s, especially if an entire offense is based on the RPO. I may be overgeneralizing but what has Miami ran a lot of these past two weeks?

I am not saying that the RPO is a bad idea, it can work, it has worked in the past and is working now, but to a certain extent.

The overall point stands, if an offense is based on the RPO, vertical concepts and a real run game are diminished. You only hurt yourself.

“The biggest concern with RPOs is the quarterback getting hit… After all, part of the deal here is that they are blocking as if it’s a run play; they are not protecting the passer. [ESPN’s] Jon Gruden calls it ‘Ridiculous Pass-protection Offense,’ and I understand what he’s saying. We’ve got to get to where it’s sound, so we feel the quarterback can make a read, and if he’s correct in what he sees, then he shouldn’t take a hit”

– Former Oklahoma St, Current Penn St. OC Mike Yurcich

In the college game, they can serve as the main focus of an entire playbook, the same way the triple option is. It cannot be done in the NFL. 

In the NFL, RPOs are a wrinkle to a pro-style offense that can help force man coverage or bring better angles and numbers for the run game. However, without rule changes, they are nothing more than a gimmick to give the QB a fast option to punish an aggressive run defense.

What George Godsey and Eric Studesville need to figure out is play calling tendencies and personnel packages.

Last year Miami was successful running out of 12 Personnel (2 TE sets).

The numbers dont lie. In 2020, Miami had a 56% successful rate running plays in 12 personnel compared to 51% in 11 personnel (3 WR sets)

Per Sharp football stats, through two games of the 2021 season the Dolphins have a 55% success rate out of 12 personnel and a 32% success rate in 11 personnel. Miami has ran more 11 personnel (68 plays) compared to 12 personnel (38 plays)

Of the 38 plays, 16 were dropbacks, 11/14 on passing attempts, 1 TD , 7.6 YPA (yards per average), 1 sack and a 122.0 passer rating. 22 were run plays, with 4.6 YPC and 1 TD.

Of the 68 plays in 11 personnel, 57 were dropbacks, 27/51 on passing attemtps, 1 INT, 4.9 YPA, 6 sacks and a 58.4 passer rating. 11 run plays that went for 1.4 YPC.

Allowing Tua, Jacoby, or Reid see the defense on the field and instead of having pre-set plays. Tua sees the field best in shotgun, 12 personnel, and empty sets. He allows his playmakers to operate in space and distributes the ball.

Running 2 TE sets in 12 personnel seems like the best solution, with sprinkles on RPO and direct play calls emphasizing run or pass plays to help make it easier on the Offensive Line and the Quarterback.

Lets hope they find a solution and implement it in against the Raiders

 

Follow Hussam Patel on Twitter

 

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Everything Tradeshows is a one-stop-shop for trade show exhibit rentals and custom exhibit display purchase solutions to companies of all sizes.

Visit them at EverythingTradeShows or call 954-791-8882