In the five days since the Louisville loss, Hurricanes fans and former players unleashed quite a bit of venom. The complaints: poor offensive play-calling, shaky offensive line play, and scheme adjustments that have long been needed on defense.

It’s hard to tell if Saturday night’s 41-7 win over Florida A&M will get them off the coaching staff’s back considering there was a mixed bag of results against a Football Championship Subdivision team.

But some observations and reactions nonetheless:

> The Hurricanes started the same offensive line Saturday they did at Louisville, but right tackle Taylor Gadbois was replaced on the third series by freshman Kc McDermott. The two split series the rest of the way before the second and third team made its way into the game to end the third quarter.

UM, which ran for only 90 yards at Louisville, finished with 198 yards on the ground and Joe Yearby shined in the second half (95 yards on 14 carries).

The Canes had their best success running the ball in the first half behind its veteran left side of the offensive line. Duke Johnson ran behind left tackle Ereck Flowers and left guard Jonathan Feliciano when he broke free on a 55-yard run. Gus Edwards later scored on a 15-yard run behind that same side. It looks like when the Canes to run it will be behind those guys.

> Freshman quarterback Brad Kaaya took deeper shots downfield than he did at Louisville, but wasn’t always sharp. He threw two interceptions and finished 12-of-22 for 177 yards and two touchdowns. He is building some nice chemistry though with freshman receiver Braxton Berrios. The two connected on a big fourth down conversion in the second half.

“I thought Brad made some really nice throws,” coach Al Golden said. “I think it's unfortunate we snapped the ball three times thinking we had them offsides. One was incomplete. The other was an interception. That wasn't good there.

“We like to keep the ball outside the numbers there on the go route [on the interception intended for Herb Waters]. He brought it inside, brought the corner into the play. But there were some heck of a throws there too. I thought we did a pretty job protecting him versus all the zone pressure. Brad is going to continue to make progress and grow.”

Kaaya loves throwing to Berrios. Even though Berrios was still recovering from his ACL injury when Kaaya arrived in late May and the two didn't start working together until July, Kaaya said of Berrios: "Braxton is a really good man-to-man receiver. He's a good route runner. He's a guy that I look for on third down if it's man coverage. This is a guy I can really rely on."

> Junior cornerback Tracy Howard and senior Ladarius Gunter were beaten in coverage in the secondary. It wasn’t the result of playing far off the line of scrimmage. Both simply lost their receivers downfield. Miami fans won’t be happy to know linebacker Raphael Kirby was lined up against a slot receiver on third down early in the game (a constant complaint). UM didn’t get burned though on the play.

Coach Al Golden seemed pleased with the defensive effort overall. UM held FAMU to only five first downs, 25 yards rushing and 89 passing.

“Last week we had 72 plays,” Golden said. “That's probably 800 reps. Out of those reps on defense we only had 15 mental errors. They challenged each other this week to have less than that. They're cohesive right now. Everybody is fitting in the right gaps. We let up a couple deep ones we got to do a better job of playing the ball down the field. But we're keeping the quarterback in the pocket. We're tackling better. The defensive line -- we're playing more of those guys and getting more production for sure.”

> Receiver Phillip Dorsett was impressive. He had three catches for 44 yards and scored twice. He caught Kaaya’s first touchdown pass from four yards out and then split two defenders in the back of the end zone to make a diving 32-yard touchdown catch late in the first half.

"I know I had a post [route], and I thought because of the look they gave, I thought the play was dead," Dorsett said. "I wasn’t supposed to get the ball on that play. When I saw the ball go up in the air, the only thing I thought was I was going to catch it. No matter where I am, no matter who hits me, just catch the ball.”

What did Dorsett think stood out for Kaaya Saturday? “I would say his poise," he said. "He looked like he was ready this game. We made a pact as an offense…to not let the defensive players touch him this game. He looked a lot more comfortable back there. We said we were going to rally around him, because he’s our quarterback, and that’s what we have to do.”

> Sophomore Walter Tucker became the first Hurricane since Devin Hester (2005) to play on both offense and defense in a game. Tucker saw action at middle linebacker when Denzel Perryman left the game in the third quarter.

> Golden said Perryman, receiver Stacy Coley and Duke Johnson were all held out. He doesn't think there are any injuries. Perryman was standing on the sideline with ice on his right shoulder.

> Golden said quarterback Kevin Olsen, the starter leaving the spring after the Ryan Williams injury, is done serving his suspension.

> Defensive end Al-Quadin Muhammad did not play, but was on the sideline in uniform.