The RedHawk Report

Here's the scene of the first really big game of the season, Yager Stadium, Oxford, Ohio. Expect a big crowd, its homecoming down there.









Season review to date

• W14-13 over Ball State. This is a quality win. Maybe not the quality win it appeared at the time, since Central trounced the Cardinals, but still, BSU played Nebraska very tough. On the road, that's a good win for Miami.
• L to Minnesota in 3 Ot--we beat them in OT, but I'd say that the 3 OT is largely on par with how we did up there.
• Blow out L to UC--well, UC has blown lots of people out. That's a high quality football team. Brian Kelly can coach. The game was in Oxford, so getting blown out like that at home does sting a little.
• Blow out L to Colorado--Complete melt down comparable to our BC game---except Colorado isn't a Top 10 team.
• Tight win over Syracuse in Oxford. Syracuse blooooooooowwwwwws. You'd hope to beat them worse on your home field.
• Win over Kent on road, in division. Very nice win for the Red Hawks. Kent seems to be under performing this year, but that's one more road win in the MAC than we have.

In summary, two nice wins in MAC play, both on the road. Less than ideal results against Colorado and Syracuse, and to a lesser extent UC. This program is coming back, and I think this will be our best test to date. (By that I don't mean Miami is better than BC, or not better than WKU. Just that this is a team we are really evenly matched with for the first time this year.)

I started to look at their MAC stats to see what we might learn, but its really tough. The Colorado and UC games make things look worse than they might be, especially as it relates to their D. Neither BSU nor Kent scored much, that's for sure. Now, neither plays the style we do, so perhaps we can exploit a weakness. However, it appears they play good D.

One thing is evident. They are having trouble scoring points. (see below). Our defense simply must excel under these circumstances for us to win. If they do, (and we take care of the football) I have to believe we can score enough to win the game.

Injuries. Miami has been hit by an absolute plague of injures. Their Sr. TB and QB are out for BG. Also, a WR and a D-tackle went down as well. See below from the Dayton Daily News.

First it was senior tailback Brandon Murphy, team captain. Injured. Out for the season. His career at Miami done.

It's possible, perhaps even likely, the same fate has befallen Miami's other senior captain, quarterback Mike Kokal.

In a span of 4 minutes and 4 seconds of the RedHawks' 20-13 victory at Kent State last weekend, Miami lost sophomore wide receiver Dustin Woods to a shoulder injury, Kokal to a knee injury and junior defensive tackle Ben Huddle to a knee injury.

Clearly, this works in our favor. When I mentioned this to someone earlier this week, I was met with something along the lines of "don't you want to beat them at their best?" And my answer is, I want to beat them, and I could care less how depleted they are.

Of course, the central question is who will QB. The answer is Junior Daniel Raudabaugh, who has played this year. Chatter on the Miami boards is that he has a good arm, but maybe not the touch passer Kokal is. Here's what the Dayton Daily News said:

Raudabaugh made his first start of the year in the 42-0 loss at Colorado on Sept. 22, and completed just 11-of-32 passes.

The 6-foot-4 native of Coppel, Texas, had been much more effective when he came off the bench in the fourth quarter at Minnesota on Sept. 8 and passed for 222 yards and two touchdowns.

Raudabaugh did not play in Miami's 17-14 victory at Sycaruse, but last week he was brought in against Kent State after Kokal was hurt and completed 8-of-12 passes for 186 yards. His on-target passes resembled those he had thrown at Minnesota, not the wildly overthrown attempts at Colorado.

In other words, I think he can play if we aren't getting pressure and covering. I wouldn't count on him bringing the team down.

On balance, I will repeat the theme. Miami, in my view, based on this year's record, as good a team as we are. We can beat them, and we need to, but we're going to have to play well down there, something we simply have never done consistently. If we win, its another sign that this program is really back.

More from the Sentinel's JackBlog.....

• Mickey Mann, a linebacker, is out for the BG game with a knee injury
• Andre Bratton, a running back, is out for the season with a knee injury.
• Brandon Murphy, a running back, is out for the season with a knee injury.
• Matt McKeown, offensive line, is out for the season with a shoulder injury.
• Mike Kokal, quarterback, is out for the BG game with an injured knee.
• Ben Huddle, defensive line, is out for the BG game with an injured knee.
• Cory Jones, running back, is probable for the BG game with a injured knee.
• Dustin Woods, wide receiver, is questionable for the BG game with an injured shoulder.
• Jerrid Gaines, defensive back, is probable for the BG game with an injured leg.