For full disclosure, I watched most of the Miami-Texas A@M game while on press row at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas for the third go-around between Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez and Gennadiy Golovkin. And quite frankly, most of my focus was on the game at College Station.

Lets be honest, the fight was rather uneventful for much of their 12 rounds.

The Hurricanes out-gained, out-first down’d, had more time of possession, yet still lost the game 17-9. It was actually a record breaking performance from the Miami offense.

Here are some Tuesday afternoon thoughts on this frustrating loss…

– A lot of heat is being put on Tyler Van Dyke (21 for 41, 217 yards), who failed to lead UM into the end zone and seemed to miss some key throws (specifically that deep crossing route to Michael Redding in the fourth quarter that looked to be a big play). He looked anything like a future first round draft choice.

I wonder, is Van Dyke truly comfortable in this Josh Gattis system. Last year as he went on this record breaking run in ACC play, he thrived in the Rhett Lashlee spread, which seemed to suit him much better.

It has to be asked: does Gattis need to adapt this offense a bit more to TVD, and perhaps even add a bit of tempo to the mix.

– Speaking of Van Dyke, last year he leaned heavily on Charleston Rambo (79 catches for 1,172 yards and 7 touchdowns). The Sooner transfer was clearly the number one option, one that was incredibly reliable and won his share of 50-50 balls. Right now, with Xavier Restrepo sidelined for several weeks, there is no clear primary target.

And with that, Van Dyke looked like a rudderless ship out there. Only the coaches can really tell if you if the breakdowns in the pass game are on the quarterback or the wide outs. But this much is clear, Miami doesn’t have anyone on the outside that truly threatens a defense over the top. This looks to be a very methodical offense in 2022. This can only be remedied in the off-season through recruiting and the transfer portal.

– Gattis is getting a lot of heat, and the bottom line is that it’s his offense and he’s judged by results. But to be honest, outside of a few calls in the red zone (specifically the runs with Van Dyke), I thought he called a pretty good game. But Miami’s efficiency in the red zone wasn’t good enough. Five trips, three field goals will get you beat against most teams.

– Miami ran the ball well against a highly touted SEC front (36 carries for 175 yards), with Jaylan Knighton and Henry Parrish moving the chains consistently. But I do wonder why they didn’t give the ball to Thad Franklin more as they got closer to goal line. He had just one carry for negative one yard this past weekend.

I’d rather the ball be handed off to 22, than to have Van Dyke run it in those situations.

– The defense for the most part played a very strong game. They gave up two touchdowns, one of which came on a short field after Tyrique Stevenson’s muffed punt in the first quarter. This unit — especially as they work in some of the younger ‘backers — will only get better.

– OK, onto Middle Tennessee St, my view is that this is the type of game where Gattis should open it up and see if they can get Van Dyke back in sync, and see which receivers can make some plays downfield. Coach Hayes(who runs an excellent YouTube channel) says all the time that to be good at running your offense, you have to actually be willing to run it during a game. He doesn’t believe in ‘saving stuff’. He told me this during halftime of the Bethune-Cookman game.

He had a point.

So my view is, we know we can push people around upfront and create running lanes. Why not work on the throw game as they go into ACC play?

Well, the Miami Herald reported and the legend can confirm that Jacolby George will be out indefinitely with an unspecified injury.

Ah geez, we can’t catch a break!!