Why Miami's first loss could prove to be very costly to their season
Miami fell flat on its face in a big way on Saturday with a last-second, 23-20 loss to Georgia Tech. However, as Gary Ferman of CaneSport put it, the Hurricanes must now not allow this one to turn into two or worse as they move on from here.
Ferman examined the effect that this weekend’s loss could have on Miami’s season during ‘Andy Staples On3’ on Sunday. After a 4-0 start to the year, he thinks this could now make their remaining seven games more of a toss-up depending on how the players react and respond.
“You want this to be a season of progress. Let’s face it – this could go either way now,” Ferman admitted.
“How about the psyche of the players? To lose a game like that? And now they’ve got to go through this gauntlet here in the next five weeks or so and play some very tough football games? This is not a program that has held together very well in these situations in recent history,” said Ferman. “How do they bounce back from this disappointment? If they bounce back well, then, at the end of the season, this is just a blip on the screen.”
Coming into this weekend, Miami was looking like a contender for the ACC Championship. It’s just one game but, after this loss to the Yellow Jackets, that goal is more up in the air.
Still, while that’s still the endgame, Ferman knows Miami can’t get too far ahead of themselves. They have three ranked matchups and contest with Clemson left which is why, from here, he suggests that they take it a week and game at a time and let the chips fall where they may come the postseason.
“Get yourself back into this thing. Show that you are having a season of progress that it looked like you were having,” said Ferman. “Carolina then Clemson. You’re going to have to go to Florida State. You do get Louisville at home which, hopefully, will be a positive thing if it breaks well. But I think, more than anything, they’ve got to take it one game at a time.”
“This is not a built program yet, it’s not a complete football team,” Ferman said. “I think they’ve got to just take it one week at a time, keep trying to get better, and just see where it takes them. They can’t really be worried about, right now, December.”
A defeat in your first conference game, specifically as a near 20-point favorite, is not ideal for any team. It’s even less so for Miami considering what was appearing to be on the table for them and the fashion in which this came. However, as Ferman said, it’s now on the ‘Canes to decide what their season will be the rest of the way following this tough pill that they just swallowed.