Steve Kim’s Canes Corner. To put it simply, this was perhaps the worst effort I’ve ever seen from a Hurricanes team in a game that they were supposed to care about.

Yeah, you could argue that the loss to Middle Tennessee State was bad, then you had the defeat to Duke. But that could be rationalized by stating that those weren’t rivalry games that were played on prime time in front of a national audience.

The hope was that this disappointing first season under Mario Cristobal could be salvaged with a strong finish in November, starting with this game.

The Hurricanes came ready to play and were fired up… for all of three plays. After seemingly getting off the field in the opening drive, a pass interference extended the Noles drive, and a few plays later Jordan Travis hit Ontaria Wilson for 56 yards on a deep post pattern to put FSU up 7-0.

At that point, the game was over.

To be as blunt as possible, the team seemed to pack it in early. Defensively, guys didn’t seem to have much interest in tackling Trey Benson, or containing Travis inside the pocket. Run fits and gap integrity were poor. Certain guys had no interest in really putting their bodies on the line.

Offensively, a damaged Tyler Van Dyke wasn’t able to finish the first half. And with that, Jacurri Brown got the majority of the snaps over Jake Garcia (who now looks to be the third quarterback on the depth chart). Brown, a true freshman, is a gifted athlete who gives Miami an athletic component that they have never had before. But the problem is that he’s very raw and undeveloped as a passer. Any time he’s in the game, the offense becomes horribly predictable and one-dimensional.

With that, tonight happened.

Perhaps it’s not fair to put all the offensive woes on coordinator, Josh Gattis, but ultimately he is responsible for the unit’s production. And the production has been abysmal. This isn’t what was expected from the Broyles Award winner. He just doesn’t seem long for Miami.

The highlight of this game for Hurricane fans in attendance was the tailgating. Many of them were seen leaving before the end of the second quarter. I can’t say I blame them. This was as bad a loss as I’ve seen from this program. There seems to be a severe disconnect between Cristobal and the current players. It seems guaranteed that there will be a mass exodus to the transfer portal at the end of the season.

I was asked if this was worse than the infamous 47-0 blowout to FSU in 1997. Honestly, I think this is worse. In that season, Butch Davis and the program was feeling the effects of probation and had a stripped down roster. Also, that year the ‘Noles were an elite team, one that lost just one game that season This here was a 5-3 squad who came into Hard Rock and stuffed the ‘Canes into a locker.

That squad, which went 5-6, was over-matched at times but they never seemed disinterested.

What took place was absolutely disgraceful.

This is rock bottom, right?