FILM ANALYSIS: Inside look at run game vs. Miami (Ohio) helps answer if the Miami Hurricanes rushing attack is for real
The Miami Hurricanes piled up rushing yards in the season-opener – 250, to be exact. That was the most for UM since, well, the season-opener a year ago when vastly overmatched Bethune-Cookman yielded 305 rush yards. The team also had nine carries of 10+ yards on Friday night, the most since that happened 10 times in the Bethune game.
Somehow, though, this year’s running attack feels different than the 2022 opener.
So let’s flash back, for a moment. Last year fall camp began with the expectation that Ole Miss transfer Henry Parrish, highly touted returner Jaylan Knighton, Don Chaney, Thaddius Franklin and 4-star freshman Tre’Vonte Citizen would be more than enough to make it a great RB room. Instead Knighton missed the first few games and then had fumbling issues, Chaney and Citizen were injured and Franklin fell behind a walkon on the depth chart. So that left the undersized Parrish to try and fill an oversized role. He ended with 616 rush yards with a long carry of 24 yards, and the offense sputtered pretty much all season.
Now back to the current situation.
Parrish started Game 1, but he’s now a complementary piece in a deep running back-by-committee approach. He had his longest run at Miami in the opener (37 yards) and ended the game against the RedHawks with nine carries for 90 yards. Freshman Mark Fletcher added nine carries for 76 yards (long of 26), Nebraska transfer Ajay Allen ran nine times for 47 yards (long of 16) and Chaney added eight carries for 38 yards.
There were three rushing scores, from Parrish, Fletcher and Chaney.
The run game averaged 6.9 yards per carry.
That was against overmatched Miami (Ohio), of course, and next up is a much different challenge in Texas A&M. But if Miami is going to win Saturday, the run game will no doubt need to do its part. So it’s worth looking at how Shannon Dawson was able to break runs open in Game 1 … was it the O line or tight ends making the holes? Was it bad tackling by Miami (Ohio)? Were the running backs doing a lot of the work on their own?
Here’s a closer look at how the runs of 10 or more yards in the game came about:
FIRST QUARTER
1-10-UM 44. First play of game, Parrish gains 11
This is something typical in an Air-Raid type offense – spread the field with four wide and against two safeties high just pound the ball behind the offensive line. This will make a defense eventually creep closer to the line if you have success, which opens up the deeper passes. So you saw this on the first play of the game, and at the snap you don’t see much movement from the wall of the line in front. The linebacker is in read and react mode with Tyler Van Dyke in a read option … he breaks on the ball at the handoff and misses the tackle or it’s a short gain. It appears the scheme called for Matt Lee to come off his man to take out the linebacker, but Lee got caught up in the wash. So really this is a nice job by Parrish of making the play happen. Better LB play from the D and this is a gain of two or three. Of note: Jalen Rivers does a good job here forcing his man to turn inside, which gives Parrish the outside lane.
VERDICT: If LB makes open tackle it’s 2-3 yard gain
SECOND QUARTER
3-2-UM 30. Ajay Allen runs for 16-yard gain
Dawson dials up a jumbo set on this third-and-short with no one lined up out wide. At the snap the corner comes free and doesn’t seem concerned with Van Dyke keeping, trying to chase down Allen. At one point he’s a half step behind Allen, a yard behind the line. But it appears a DL breaking through the middle actually pushes an OL into the cornerback’s way, which prevents him from attempting a diving tackle. Meanwhile the Canes have sealed off the left side of the line using an innovative scheme. Lined up to the left of LT Jalen Rivers is OL Samson Okunlola (wearing No. 86 as a tight end to make the lineup legal) and blocking TE Cam McCormick is lined up just behind him to the left at the snap. It’s actually Okunlola and McCormick that seal things off on that side. Allen appears initially like he’s supposed to run a dive play, but cuts to his left with the cornerback bearing down on him and then has the big gap behind Okunlola/McCormick on his way to the 16-yard gain.
Also of note: On the right side of the line OL Matthew McCoy lined up attached to RT Francis Mauigoa (McCoy wore No. 81 to be a TE to make the alignment legal). And Isaiah Horton had gone in motion and was behind and to the right of McCoy, essentially a TE in that formation as well. It actually was Horton who should have blocked the cornerback coming in, but instead he went to help at the line. So that was a mental bust that almost caused a loss or no gain on the play.
VERDICT: Using OL Okunlola attached to the line pays off, with an assist from Allen on using his vision and burst to get away from the CB coming free and then around the left side
1-10-UM 46. A play after Allen’s long run it was Fletcher’s turn with a 19-yard pickup
Miami kept in part of its jumbo package on this play. On this snap it was McCoy lined up as an extra linemen to the left wearing 81, with McCormick behind him and just to the left. Now instead of also having the overloaded line on the right side it’s two receivers there. Xavier Restrepo comes in motion from right to left before the snap, and Miami (Ohio) has six pass rushers and two linebackers reading the run within five yards of the line. No matter. McCoy gets to the second level and pushes one of the linebackers back, which allows Fletcher to break to his left behind Restrepo giving great effort getting downfield as a blocker working to chip a DB. Fletcher breaks a tackle for five extra yards up the left sideline.
VERDICT: Great job of blocking up front, great effort block by Restrepo and nice physical running by Fletcher, who gets the gap between McCoy, McCormick and Rivers
2-4-Hawks 29. Two plays after his 19-yard gain, Fletcher picks up another 10 yards
On this play Miami has three receivers right with McCormick in the slot left. At the snap it’s Fletcher getting the carry to his left. This was actually a bit of a bust by Miami in the sense that the play looked like it called for Jalen Rivers to take out a linebacker with Matt Lee pulling to his left to take on the right defensive end. Just one problem – Rivers should have chipped the end before releasing inside … Rivers is left with no one to block. And because Rivers didn’t chip the DE, Lee doesn’t anticipate the DE getting into the backfield right where Fletcher is headed. Lee runs right by the DE who has come free, looking to block down the field. Good news is the DE was too slow to get to Fletcher, coming up empty on a diving tackle attempt. So Fletcher was free to go down the left sideline with Lee blocking ahead of him.
VERDICT: This play is likely a bust against a faster defensive end, but it worked out fine in this situation. Why Rivers released to the inside on a run designed to his side seems like a mental bust, and UM was fortunate it wasn’t a loss of a yard or two.
1-10-UM 25. Parrish runs for gain of 10
This was somewhat of a “gimme.” With 57 seconds to play in the half the RedHawks weren’t taking any chances gambling to stop the run, so UM had a clear numbers advantage in the run game. At the handoff Parrish had nothing but yards of green grass in front of him, and it was an easy double-digit gain.
Something to note here: The read-option actually cost Miami, because if Xavier Restrepo wasn’t running a route to the left flat he could have been downfield getting a hat on No. 21 (DB Michael Dowell). If Restrepo had done that Parrish would have probably cut left and been running a lot longer.
VERDICT: An easy pickup with a big push by the line … with a minute left, the RedHawks were just trying to stop the big pass play at this point. Parrish did a nice job finding the spot between Javion Cohen and Jalen Rivers for the 10-yard gain.
1-20-UM 38. Parrish breaks free for 37-yard gain
Similar to the above play, Miami (Ohio) is intent on not allowing the big pass play here with only 15 seconds remaining before halftime. They line up in a typical 4-3 and two safeties high. A key here schematically is Cam McCormick pulling from his spot at tight end to the left and running up the middle ahead of Parrish. He takes out the linebacker and Parrish is free to do his thing. WR Xavier Restrepo also has a nice block downfield to help spring him, a recurring theme, and WR Isaiah Horton also does a nice job with a downfield block. Noticeable on the play is how small the defensive tackles are for the RedHawks, perhaps because they anticipate a pass coming given the situation.
VERDICT: Probably not a popular call if it doesn’t break free, and it helped that the front line of Miami (Ohio) showed no interest in even trying to do anything on this play. Meanwhile the Canes’ linemen showed effort with the receivers also doing a great job blocking downfield. And you saw the result.
THIRD QUARTER
1-10-Hawks 26. Fletcher runs in 26-yard TD
This one is set up by Anez Cooper doing a great job pulling from right guard around to the left side where he teams with Matthew McCoy (OL lined up attached to the line as a TE) and TE Cam McCormick to open a huge hole for Fletcher. Fletcher does the rest, speeding past the DBs and untouched on his way to the end zone.
VERDICT: Schemed up and executed perfectly, the left side of the line had a huge hole just like you draw it up on the White Board and Fletcher did the rest.
FOURTH QUARTER
2-7-Hawks 12. Parrish runs in 12-yard TD
This is an interesting one, because it appears the play is actually designed to go up the middle. Prior to the snap Restrepo is in motion from right to left (and fakes taking a handoff), while just after the snap TE Cam McCormick runs from the left side of the line and crashes into the middle of the line to try and forge an opening (another indication this run was supposed to be up the middle). Parrish gets the handoff and does have a seam up the middle and to the left but perhaps doesn’t think it’s big enough (or he doesn’t see it). So he bounces the run off the right side and has to beat three defenders that are in good position to make the play. This should be a gain of four or five yards. But Parrish feints inside and then quickly makes a move toward the sideline to evade one tackler. Another defender almost falls down after falling for the head feint inside. And then that defender got in the way of the third defender. Parrish wins a race to the corner of the end zone. Touchdown.
VERDICT: This one wasn’t drawn up the way it happened, but hey, a touchdown is a touchdown. Great individual effort by Parrish even if the play didn’t go as designed.
1-10-Hawks 20. Chaney runs in 20-yard TD
With Emory Williams at QB, this is a nice job by Chaney. It’s designed as a run left, but Malachi Clark blows up Luis Cristobal into Chaney’s face, so he cuts back to the right and has room to run. Chaney speeds between two defenders who do a poor job trying to tackle him, and then he bowls over freshman DB Raion Strader at the goal line for the TD. Welcome to college football, Mr. Strader.
VERDICT: This was a great individual effort by Chaney. Some poor tackling and effort pursuit by Miami (Ohio) didn’t hurt, either.
SUMMARY
As you can see from the above, the long runs for Miami came a variety of way and for a variety of reasons (from defensive failure to great OL/TE/WR blocking to RB freelancing when there’s nothing as designed). So now it will be interesting to see Saturday how this running attack can fare in terms of explosive runs against a defense with a lot more talented front seven … but also one that really was bad against the run a year ago (in 2022 Texas A&M ranked No. 122 in the nation allowing 208.8 yards per game).
It does seem this running backs room is “for real” compared to the one of a year ago, and there should be some optimism the rushing attack can get things going to help open up the passing game on Saturday.
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