Ahmmon Richards didn’t sugarcoat what he saw when he went back through Miami’s offensive line tape from the Wake Forest game. The interior, in his view, had a rough night - and not in a way that can be brushed off as a one-off.
Mario had already pointed in that direction on the Joe Rose Show, saying center was fine, tackles were fine, and the guards were “hit or miss.” Richards took that as a pretty clear sign that this isn’t a locked-in group right now. The line is still being sorted out, and outside of maybe McCoy and Samson, nobody’s job feels fully secure.
What bothered Richards most was how often Darian Mensah took clean shots because the pocket broke down inside. He pointed to one play in particular where a safety got a free release from eight yards out and hit Mensah full speed, untouched, right in the ribs.
In Richards’ view, that simply can’t happen. Mensah, he said, is one of the best quarterbacks in college football, and the interior has to do a better job communicating so he isn’t left exposed and uncomfortable.
Richards also said he doesn’t see enough edge from the guards yet. His gripe wasn’t about toughness as a person-to-person issue - it was about what’s showing up on Saturdays.
He wants to see guys get knocked down, get back up, and respond on the next snap instead of staying down and letting the moment pass them by. He compared it to a street fight where one guy never swings back.
The second-half shift to a screen-heavy approach, Richards argued, wasn’t Dawson being cautious for the sake of it. It was survival.
If the interior can’t generate push and the quarterback keeps getting hit, the offense has no choice but to get the ball out quickly. Wake Forest, he said, figured out Miami couldn’t consistently handle stunts and mug looks inside and kept leaning on that advantage.
And now, with every team left on the schedule having seen the same film, that pressure is going to keep coming until Miami proves it can handle it.
The strange part, according to Richards, is that the tackles have been the strength so far. That’s the opposite of what the preseason conversation looked like, when the concern centered on whether Samson could hold up and how McCoy would handle tackle. Instead, Richards called the tackles “lights out,” while the interior has become the problem spot.
That inconsistency shows up in the run game too. Richards pointed to a series where Mark Fletcher breaks a 15- to 20-yard run on one snap, then the next play gets blown up for a two-yard loss. To him, that up-and-down nature is the offense’s biggest weakness up front, and it has to be cleaned up before anyone starts asking for more from the unit.
He also addressed the buzz around Cantwell. Richards said the spring hype was real, and that Cantwell was handling left tackle well in practice, especially in one-on-ones.
But he was quick to note that practice reps against the same defensive linemen every day are not the same as facing a live opponent that has studied your weaknesses and attacks them for four quarters. Add in the fact that guard is a new position for Cantwell, and there’s a real mental adjustment on top of the jump in competition.
Even with the risk, Richards wants Cantwell on the field. He acknowledged that the reaction could turn fast if Cantwell strings together a few strong series and then gets beat badly once, especially with the money tied to his recruitment.
But his view is simple: sitting a player doesn’t help him grow. If Miami wants Cantwell to develop, he needs snaps, even if he takes some lumps along the way.
For Richards, the bottom line is plain. Patience doesn’t mean satisfaction, and the group up front is not there yet. Everybody in that building knows it.
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