Miami’s offense last season under Rhett Lashlee was pass-heavy averaging 38.7 passing plays per game compared to 34.3 rushing. This season, we will likely see more balance as Josh Gattis emphasized that this aspect of the offense is what makes Miami unique.

“Balance is what makes us unique as an offense,” said Gattis in Monday’s press conference. “When you have the ability to have that type of diversity in what you do, it makes it very hard to defend, because people have to defend everything rather than trying to stop one thing. What allows you to have that diversity is your players. It’s basically doing what your players allow you to do, what they can handle, and what they do best. We’ve built our system here to feature our players and what they do best.”

Miami’s offense scored ten touchdowns in its opening win over Bethune. However, there was an imbalance in the difference in passes to runs. Albeit it was a blowout win, which usually leads to more runs than passes at the end of the game, the discrepancy was 42-23 in favor of the run.

Gattis called plays from the coach's box and feels that he gains an advantage by seeing things from the birdseye view. Also, in the box, he is able to remove emotion from decision-making and believes he can better see what an opponent is trying to do defensively.

"It’s a totally different view from upstairs. The peace and calmness that you have to think and make wise decisions."

By routine and repetition, Gattis found himself doing things that he would normally do on the field.

“I actually fell into a rhythm on Saturday that has never happened to me in the box before,” Gattis said. “I was actually signaling the personnel like I do in practice. I kept putting my hand up and I had to realize that I’m not on the field anymore, I’m in the box.”

The 2021 Broyles award winner also serves as Miami’s wide receivers coach and has a team of assistants helping to manage the emotions of the players during the game.

“Just being a resource for those guys to instill confidence and that was one of the biggest things for us. It’s not necessarily the Xs and Os or the technical things, it’s when someone leaves the field, to give that guy a hi-five. When they do something great reinforce that they did. Something positive so we can build that confidence up on the sideline and have those guys go back out there on the next series and be very, very confident.”

Miami is now focused on the next opponent in Southern Miss. The Golden Eagles lost game one in quadruple overtime to Liberty and Gattis is focused on a more aggressive defense he will see this Saturday at Hard Rock Stadium.

“This is a team coming in with a chip on their shoulder,” Gattis said. “A ton of talented players on the defensive side. Very aggressive defensive play caller. I think their blitz rate is about fifty percent. They bring it. So we’re going to have some challenges upfront. Obviously blocking movement, being able to ID things, and keep our quarterback clean in protection. As we show who we are people are going to try to defend what we do best. That’s one of the things that you have to be conscious about in college football is also self-scout yourself. Figure out how people are going to attack you and try to have the answers for it.”

Although Miami’s offense helped to score 63 points on Saturday, Coach Gattis felt that Miami could have put up more points.

“Believe it or not we left a lot of meat on the bone,” Gattis said. “We have to show up hungry and eager to learn this week and that’s going to be the challenge. But still keeping ourselves in a humble mindset. We are going to be a reflection of our processes. If we focus on the process of winning each week, the results will come with it."

Saturday’s game is scheduled for noon eastern time.