The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly: Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets 2024 edition

That f****** sucked

Terrible. Horrible. No good. Very bad. Atrocious.

Miami laid an egg and in doing so saw their undefeated season come to an end in Atlanta, with a 28-23 loss at Georgia Tech.

Mike Schiffman made the trip to Atlanta for today’s game. I’ll post his 3 stars later, once it’s finished.

In the meantime, let’s dive into this week’s installment of The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly

The Good

• QB Cam Ward had good stats, even if they weren’t as impactful as they’d previously been. 25/39 passing (64% completions) for 348 yards, 3 TDs, 0 INT. Ward also ran for -5 yards on 5 carries and lost a fumble, which ended Miami’s final possession of the game.
• Updating the Cam Ward season stats: 241 for 361 passing (66.8% completions) for 3,494 yards with 32 TDs and 6 interceptions. He’s also added 182 yards and 3 TDs rushing, and 1 catch for 7 yards and 1 touchdown.
• RB Damien Martinez. 81 yards on 15 carries.
• WR Jacolby George. 7 catches for 88 yards and TD.
• WR Xavier Restrepo. 4 catches for 78 yards and a TD.
• WR Isaiah Horton. 5 catches for 37 yards and a TD.
• LB Kiko Mauigoa. 11 tackles and a TFL.
• LB Jaylin Alderman. The best defensive player on the field for Miami today. 9 tackles, 2.5 TFLs.
• CB OJ Frederique. 5 tackles, 2 PBUs, and lockdown coverage all day. A superstar.
• DT Ahmad Moten. Miami’s best DL today. 3 tackles and a TFL but his impact in the backfield was more than that.
• K Andres Borregales. 1/1 on FG (41 yards), 2/2 on PATs.
• The entire kick and punt coverage units. They did a great job backing GT up and not allowing their returners to get any room. This was probably their best collective performance of the year.
• Normally I’d list a bunch of counting stats here. But not today. We lost.
• Cam Ward with a LASER to Elijah Arroyo for a 74 yard touchdown, setting the record with his 30th TD pass this season.

• Ward became the first Hurricanes QB to throw for 30 TDs in a season with the touchdown to Arroyo

• WR Xavier Restrepo broke a tie atop the list to set the new all-time catches mark for the Hurricanes

• Cam Ward with this gorgeous throw to Isaiah Horton for the touchdown!

• Cam Ward with another touchdown, this one to Xavier Restrepo to bring Miami within 5.

The Bad

• Losing. It fucking sucks.
• Losing to Georgia Tech for a 2nd consecutive year.
• Cam Ward. I’m sorry, even with the high completion percentage and counting stats, Ward wasn’t really good today. He missed too many open receivers — didn’t even see Arroyo and George open for TDs on separate plays — was too cavalier with the football, and continued to hunt big plays instead of taking what the defense gave him in many instances. Sure, he was able to get away with it, mostly, but not in the end.
• Allowed 4 TFLs
• Allowed 3 sacks
• Advanced stats were evenly matched, but Miami was woeful in several areas they usually dominate. Specifically, explosive play rate — Miami’s bread and butter on offense — and 3rd down success rate. Conversely, GT did pretty much whatever they wanted, especially on 3rd down, and that was a key to their upset win.

• Nice job GT confusing Cam Ward and forcing the miscommunication on 3rd down. Hard Arroyo WIDE OPEN over the middle and missed the read. Miami had to settle for 3.

The Ugly

• Now having to hope for help from another team just to make it to the ACC Championship game.
• If you’re wondering, Clemson needs to beat Pitt. We’ll talk more about it later, but that’s the help Miami needs. In addition to winning their final 2 games.
• Having your undefeated season end against a team you’re better and more talented than.
• Honestly, the effort on defense, too. GT ran the ball whenever and wherever they wanted, and Miami seldom did a damn thing to stop it.
• Miami went 3/10 on 3rd down and 1/4 on 4th down. Simply atrocious performance, especially when you consider this is less than half the normal conversion rate in these situations.
• Missed tackles. All the missed tackles.
• Never adjusting to what GT was running on offense. Just lining up and allowing them to out-leverage us again and again and again.
• Allowing 5.6 yards per carry
• Allowing a season-high 271 yards rushing, GT’s 2nd high total of the season.
• Allowing Georgia Tech hold the ball for 34:48
• 0 sacks on GT’s 16 passing attempts
• A general lack of pass rush pressure, which has been a consistent issue over the last few games for Miami
• 2nd play of the game, GT runs power and gashes Miami for 65. They scored 2 plays later.

• GT scores 2 plays later. Jaden Harris with the whiff, doesn’t even touch the RB on his way to the end zone. Pathetic.

• Blatant and clear DPI by Georgia Tech not called. That’s the most obvious penalty in the world. HOWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW was that not called?!

• This play call on 4th and 1 was horrible. Either run it heavy or rollout right. Not to the left with a right handed QB. Ugh.

• Down 21-16, Miami allowed this 27 yard completion on 3rd and 18 to start the 4th quarter. GT would eventually score a touchdown to extend the lead to 28-16 on this drive.

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Team Grades

Offense: F

Running game was working, but seldom used. Miami only called 19 actual run plays today. Cam Ward had some nice counting stats, but they were largely empty calories. Yet another TD came off the board due to penalty (this one correctly called). 23 points on 438 yards of offense. Miami scored just under half their per-game average 47.4 points. The worst 3rd and 4th down conversion rate of the year. Stopped on 3 separate 4th down attempts. Multiple wide open receivers either missed or not seen.

Defense: F – x34:48 (GT’s time of possession)

Allowed a season-high time of possession, rushing yards, and 3rd down conversions to a decidedly average Georgia Tech team. Continually misaligned and out-leveraged. Missed a million tackles. And it cost Miami the game.

Special Teams: A

One of their best performances of the year, to be honest. Joyce good with 42 yards per punt. Borregales perfect on kicks and good depth on kickoffs. And the best performance of the year from the kick and punt coverage units. This was the best part of the team today. Which, is good to finally see it click, but tough because that means the other 2 units were not up to snuff.

Coaching: F-

Dawson dialed up some stuff on offense, but shied away from what was working far too often. And, he couldn’t figure out how to get Miami to covert on money downs at all. The yardage was a lot of empty calories, and that’s on him. Lance Guidry was atrocious today, too. His defense was continually out of position, not to mention the horrible tackling or the multiple coverage breakdowns. Some Canes fans are calling for Guidry’s job, and I’m not in a place to defend him anymore after today.

Cristobal taking that timeout before the punt at the 2 minute warning was a blunder from a time-management standpoint, but if he saw something he thought would allow GT to convert a fake, he’s duty bound to call timeout. I, and several others I saw on social media, believe he should have taken a timeout immediately after the 3rd down tackle BEFORE the 2 minute warning, which would have changed the calculus.

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That’s it for this installment of The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly. Hop in the comments and keep the conversation going.

Go Canes