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.