Texas A&M defensive coordinator Joe Kines might want to visit Lowe's or Home Depot on Sunday before the Aggies take a look at the film of the Miami game.
On Monday, Kines described his defense as having "two bricks and a little mortar between those two bricks. That's all we got and everyone wants to know what color the roof is."
That roof fell in seconds after A&M jumped to a 7-0 lead on Saturday at Kyle Field.
Any momentum the Aggies had from their longest play from scrimmage this year -- a 62-yard touchdown pass from Jerrod Johnson to Mike Goodson -- was erased in just a few minutes. A&M's defense didn't play worse from there, but it didn't improve enough to make a difference in Miami's 41-23 victory.
"We are just now starting to put the bricks and mortar together," Kines said. "We're still tackling, getting off blocks. We're still trying to run to the ball, and when we get that done, we'll start worry about something else. It's kind of like my wife's cooking. It's just a fact -- you can like it or not like it -- it's just a fact you have to deal with. I've dealt with that for 48 years."
Hopefully for the Aggie faithful, Kines won't have to deal with what he saw Saturday for too much longer.
A&M's gave up five plays of more than 25 yards, two of which came on the Canes' first six snaps. It could have been three, but Graig Cooper could only get credit for 19 yards on his second touchdown run.
Miami entered Saturday's game coming off a 3-point effort against Florida, and the Hurricanes had a redshirt freshman quarterback starting his second collegiate game. Miami also had gone 29 games without scoring more than 40 points against Football Bowl Subdivision teams, and the last 40-plus performance came against Wake Forest when it was the doormat of the ACC.
But the newest Miami quarterback's name rhymes with Favre, and the Aggies made him look like the future Hall of Famer.
Robert Marve, who set numerous Florida high school records, has a good chance of leading the Hurricanes back to the lofty position they held for two decades when they won five national championships. But he'd only thrown 16 collegiate passes coming into Saturday. He went 16 of 22 for 212 yards against A&M, completing many of his passes to other freshmen.
With the Aggies struggling to fill gaps and keep up with the speedy Hurricane skill players, Miami averaged seven yards a play, and, one could argue, that's despite Miami shutting it down in the fourth quarter.
Marve wasn't the only Hurricane to shine. Cooper had 128 yards on 16 carries after getting 31 on 15 carries against the Gators.
Kines took much of the blame for the defense's showing and especially for Miami's quick strikes when A&M's key defenders were not in their gaps.
"Sometimes explosive [plays] are a result of trying too hard, trying to make a play instead of just relaxing and doing your job," said Kines after the game. "It always comes back to me. I didn't do a good job of getting them in place."
The effort is there for A&M's defense, no question. And to the players' credit, they are taking responsibility while trying to keep a positive attitude.
And they should. Saturday's game was only the Aggies' third crack at running Kines' schemes.
"We're getting better. That doesn't mean a whole lot today," Kines said. "Sometimes growing hurts, and we're growing. We are a better football team than we were three weeks ago."
Do the Aggies have time to turn it around before they jump into the Big 12 portion of their schedule? If they don't, it could spell trouble, for A&M will be facing some offenses very used to scoring 40-plus points a game.
Richard Croome's e-mail address is richard.croome@theeagle.com.
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Posted by: On: 9/23/2008
Comment Title: Ive been watching football attently now for...
....close to 30 years, yet I am young enough still (i think) to realize that Byrne, Sherman, Kines dont pack the energy requiered in the college game, to recruit, relate, and motivate. On another note, why is this team so clueless? They looked down right foolish (we'll just keep it nice for now) It's as if it was the Marshall team that first rebuilding season. Ridiculuos! These guys did practice before the season started, right? Furthermore, If the current players stink so bad, then why shouldn't our brilliant coach just start playing some of those freshmen from now on? We are into next season territory 25% into the season.
Posted by: On: 9/22/2008
Comment Title: RE: SHINER
Smoothly, no. Fundamentally proficient, yes. These young men have played football before and do have a certain degree of ability. They have pride in their ability and expect their coaches to take advantage of it. It ain't happening. BEEN THERE, DONE THAT !!!
Posted by: Shiner On: 9/22/2008
Comment Title: Hasty assessments
So they should have everything together and running smoothly after 3 games? That is perfectly absurd. You do that and you will have a new coach every 3 games! We got a long way to go, that is for sure, but even I can tell that we are more aggressive this year than the last five. If we had not put up with Fran for so long, we would not be demanding instant results from Sherman. It's not his fault we had Fran; he and his staff deserve more than 3 game conclusions.
Posted by: On: 9/21/2008
Comment Title:
And Sherrill was 26 years ago, and that was the southwest conference, and HE DID IT ILLEGALLY !!! Can you spell probation. This is sad,sad, sad when that is all you have to hang your hat on. Welcome to the internet, Big 12, and the big time business of NCAA Football.
Posted by: On: 9/21/2008
Comment Title:
Just remember, everyone, that the exact same things were being said in 1982 about Jackie Sherrill. We need to give Coach Sherman as much time as Jackie got.
Posted by: On: 9/21/2008
Comment Title:
This exhibition should convince anyone watching that we are in need of talent AND coaching if we don't start recruiting that talent NOW !!!! I see our freshmen/sophs against their freshmen/sophs and chalk the difference up to talent and coaching. I DON'T CARE WHO YOU ARE...if you believe you can continually be happy with the 2/3 star talent then you are doomed to 110 "rebuilding" years in a row. You better go get 'em and stop all the excuses and you better go get them with a "John Gruden" type personality instead of someone that 18 year old speed-burner identifies with as his grandfather. If you can recruit, you can recruit from day one...you don't have to wait for anything or anybody. Next, missing your defensive assignment, blowing a coverage, cutting a route off a little short...THAT'S COACHING. We are too far into this season (which started last spring) for this stuff to be happening. It's embarrassing if nothing else. Who else in the country can draw 84,000 to see this show.
Posted by: miller58 On: 9/21/2008
Comment Title: Hot Seat!
My personal opinions: It was a little cooler if you were sitting at Kyle watching Sherman's 2 and 3 star most undisciplined A&M team I can ever remember. Randy Shannon's disciplined fish led four and five star team was a pleasure to watch in contrast! Byrne's and Sherman's seats just got even hotter though after this debacle, if that's possible? miller58
Posted by: WHYNOT On: 9/21/2008
Comment Title: SLOPPY
CAN'T SEEM TO GET ANYTHING RIGHT ! SORRY FOLKS,....KINES IS NOT EFFECTIVE! NOT SMART AT ALL...NEEDS TO GO & SOON ! ENOUGH SAID.