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Canesport.com Publisher’s Note: “Mind Games” is a column written for CaneSport each week by John Murray, a noted sports psychologist and author who has developed an index for evaluating the mental performance of players and coaches in games. We think it will provide all of us with a unique viewpoint as the Hurricanes navigate through the season.

I see it every day in my practice. As a sports psychologist working with athletes at every level of sports, I always tell my clients that there is a ton to gain from losing. The truth is that Miami was really not ready for Notre Dame last Saturday. As painful as it all was, think of the growth potential with all these young players. They are so young, and they will never want to have a day like that again. There is really only one way to go from here and it has to be way up from what we witnessed.

It was indeed a very bad day at the office for the Canes, but I had a sense this was coming if you read my last Mind Games Column. NC State had outperformed Miami even though Miami won the game, and yet NC State was nowhere near as good as upcoming Notre Dame. This worried me immensely. It told me that Miami was probably in for a big shock and that they better not gloat in 4-1 euphoria too long.

Football is emotional and this kind of thing happens a lot. Teams win when they shouldn’t and then get taught an old fashioned lesson the following week. Other teams grind away with better performances but lose (the Miami Dolphins are a good example in their losses to the Jets and Cardinals despite outperforming them on the MPI) and this can lead to great results later as the players keep striving to get better and eventually get their due reward. They never get an inflated sense of well-being and the slight fear keeps them sharp and hungry.

Despite my warnings, many only saw more big “Morris to Dorsett” bombs and timely turnovers. Big plays should always be pursued, but they are often here one day and gone the next as we saw with all the mistakes last Satuday. Great coaches and players knows that careful execution, total focus, and consistent playmaking throughout a game are far more reliable and effective weapons. Those are also precisely the factors picked up best by the MPI. Why do you think the MPI correlated with winning more than any of the other more traditional variables (including points scored and given up) in my study of the factors responsible for winning the Super Bowl? I’m most interested in what wins for my clients!

Coach Golden is great and he will have this team back soon. Let’s not lose sight of the fact that we are 3-0 in the ACC. This can still be a much better year than in the recent past. We’re still a year or two away from a national title run, so let’s re-focus and go after North Carolina.

Thanks for supporting the Canes and for your growing understanding of the value of the MPI. I wanted you all to prove me wrong last Saturday and I wanted the Canes to really destroy those Irish, but as I suspected in the pre-game column, the numbers do not lie and performance is still the best overall determinant of winning.

Let’s take a look at the numbers now. The Actual Performance Chart is below:

Notre Dame

Offense: .625 Defense: .513 Special Teams: .409 Pressure Offense: .500 Pressure Defense: .556 Total Pressure: .550

Total MPI Score: .566

University of Miami Offense: .423 Defense: .346 Special Teams: .536 Pressure Offense: .333 Pressure Defense: .444 Total Pressure: .429

Total MPI Score: .395

Many of you are familiar with percentiles and z scores used in statistics, and they show up a lot in the school system, on national tests, and in research papers. If you are not familiar, just know that they help us understand data better.

In looking at any data set, it makes sense to have a normative sample to compare your findings to as a point of reference. Since I’ve rated hundreds of previous games with the MPI, and have a growing and solid comparison sample, I can tell you which scores are most impressive (e.g., way above or below average) and which are just run of the mill scores similar to past games. You can’t always tell by just looking at the numbers, but z scores are amazing in what they reveal.

Using this approach, let’s see what really happened last Saturday by ranking the eight most extreme findings from the game, starting with the most extreme findings first:

1. Notre Dame’s rushing yards (376) was the single biggest factor and off the charts so far it goes into the next room This was also evidenced in that two of their runners went over 100 yards.

2. The second most extreme statistic was Notre Dame’s total yards gained (587).

3. The third greatest finding was how horrible Miami’s overall performance was (MPI-T = .395).

4. The fourth biggie was the sheer ineptitude of Miami’s defensive unit (MPI-D= .346).

5. Finding five was Notre Dame’s overall dominance of Miami (MPI-TD=.171). They were 17 percent better and that is huge in football terms.

6. Factor six was the dominance of Notre Dame’s offense over Miami’s defense (MPI-OD=.279), about 28% better.

7. The seventh most impressive finding was Notre Dame’s time of possession (an almost 40 to 20 minute advantage).

8. The final big finding from this game was Notre Dame’s offensive performance (MPI-O=.625).

It was interesting that neither team had a turnover, but Miami committed nine penalties, and yes, I did think the referees favored the Irish but I am not making any excuses. Just saying!

This Saturday Miami is in for the battle of their lives on defense. They need to stop a very good 32nd ranked running team in North Carolina. Even Notre Dame is not ranked that highly in rushing yards despite their running of the bulls against Miami last week. So mission one has to be: STOP THE RUN!

North Carolina can be a scoring machine. They are ninth nationally in points for. Did I say STOP THE RUN?

Miami’s passing game is better than that of the Tar Heels, and I expect that Stephen Morris will get back to his winning ways and look for Phillip Dorsett to have some sweet redemption.

But this is all predicated on a very basic need. Did I mention that Miami needs to stop the run?

Go Canes!

Dr. John F. Murray, described as “The Freud of Football” by the Washington Post, is a South Florida native and licensed clinical and sports psychologist in Palm Beach. He provides mental coaching and sports psychology services, counseling, speeches and seminars. He recently authored his second book, “The Mental Performance Index: Ranking the Best Teams in Super Bowl History,” destroying stigmas about the mental game in sports and showing football teams how to perform better and win more games by enhancing team performance assessments and training. For further information call Dr. Murray at 561-596-9898, visit johnfmurray.com or email johnfmurray@mindspring.com.

I hope you enjoyed this journey into the world of sports psychology.