subject: Ncaa Football Tickets - Hurricanes Look To Reassert Themselves [print this page] Most people who buy NCAA football tickets to watch the Miami Hurricanes would like to forget about last season. With all the turmoil surrounding the team, combined with a mediocre 6-6 record, consistency was difficult to muster. By putting last year away and concentrating on improvement this year, the team can build a solid foundation with its new roster. With only 10 returning starters, there are going to be plenty of new players on the Hurricanes this coming season. With several key areas to focus on, the team's offense will continue to be the source of most of the problems that it needs to improve.
Miami needs to continue cutting its penalties. Even though the team cut them in half from last season, there were still way too many stalled drives. If Miami had a more explosive offense, this might not be as much of an issue, but since they don't, it ends up costing Miami games. Simply put, Miami needs to stop making mindless penalties like they committed last season or it's going to be another challenging year for the Hurricanes' offense.
One of the main reasons why the team ended up at 6-6 last year was the defense's poor play. In the few games that the offense did enough to win, it was the defensive play that failed to get the stops when they were needed. Examples lie in games against Virginia Tech, Virginia and Kansas State, where even though the offense averaged 450-plus yards each game, all three games were losses due to poor defensive play. After ending the season ranked a lackluster #45 in total defense, it's time to allow younger players to get more playing time and see if they can make a difference.
Another thing that Miami can do to help themselves win is creating more turnovers. A lot of Hurricanes' fans might remember the great Hurricanes teams from way back when, who had an uncanny ability to create more turnovers. From forced fumbles to interceptions, the Hurricanes would capitalize on mistakes that other teams ended up making. Unfortunately, that's in the past right now, and Miami only created an embarrassingly-low 15 turnovers last season.
Off the field, the Hurricanes need to quickly get their heads on straight. With the season around the corner, the team cannot afford more distractions. Most of the suspensions that were given out last season had to do with the investigation by the NCAA, but there were still plenty of other off-field issues that Miami dealt with. From Ray-Ray Armstrong's violating team rules and Aldarius Johnson being suspended after lying about the investigation to the NCAA, to Seantrel Henderson already being suspended this April for two spring practices, it's bad enough that these issues are still ongoing.
The Hurricanes ended up putting up a decent effort against some good teams last season, but they need to find more consistency this year. If Miami scores more touchdowns and solidifies its defensive efforts, this could be a much better season than last year. If not, it's going to be another long one for the Hurricanes.
