Takeaways from Miami’s Game Against North Carolina

MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. – During the course of their off week, the Hurricanes worked to improve.

Head coach Mario Cristobal said practices were physical and there was a “camp-like” approach. Quarterback Tyler Van Dyke spent time with offensive coordinator Josh Gattis and quarterbacks coach Frank Ponce looking to regain his footing after a tough outing. And team leaders said difficult conversations were had about the need to contain explosive plays and start quickly.

The hope was that all those efforts would help Miami open conference play with a win.

But while the Hurricanes were competitive and rallied late in their Coastal Division matchup against North Carolina on Saturday, ultimately, the Tar Heels held on for a 27-24 win.

The Hurricanes, who now have a stretch of seven conference games ahead of them, will again return to Greentree looking to continue improving so they can remain competitive in the division.

Here, a look at some of what Cristobal said the Hurricanes can take from their game against North Carolina.

1. The Hurricanes were resilient

Cristobal and his players haven’t sugarcoated it. The loss to Middle Tennessee two weeks ago was incredibly tough. But the Hurricanes were determined to find ways to bounce back from it.

On Saturday, though Miami fell behind and made some critical mistakes, the Hurricanes were resilient, giving themselves an opportunity to potentially tie or win the game on the game’s final drive.

Miami came up short and while Cristobal again reiterated that Miami isn’t looking for any moral victories this season, he did note he was pleased with his team’s effort Saturday.

“I’ll just go right to it: we knew we had work to do getting here at Miami and that’s what we’re all about,” Cristobal said. “Moral victories aren’t it, especially when you have opportunities. We gave ourselves an opportunity in the fourth quarter to have the ball and potentially tie or win the game. We came up short there as well. Do we see effort and better resiliency? Yes. Are there very fixable, should-not-go-sideways situations? Yes. And do you address those directly and bluntly? Absolutely. There’s no sugar-coating it. Just really upset.

“But I’m proud because the guys were grinding and they kept coming, no matter what. They really had the right attitude and right mentality, a really good pregame, and really good physicality.”

2. Van Dyke bounces back for a career day

There’s no doubt expectations were…