UM heads to Dallas
for its season opener against a hardnosed LSU squad.
ARLINGTON, Texas — This was, in so many ways, as highly anticipated a season opener as the Miami Hurricanes have had in years.
Miami arrived at AT&T Stadium on Sunday evening with its highest preseason ranking since 2004. The Hurricanes returned 14 starters from their first 10-win season in more than a decade, and after winning the first ACC Coastal Division crown in program history last year Miami was voted the preseason favorite to win the division title again and return to Charlotte for another appearance in the ACC Championship Game.
The pervasive thought was that Miami would take advantage of an unproven LSU team that was breaking in a new quarterback and had questions at several other positions, including running back.
All of those thoughts were very, very wrong.
Practically from the get-go, No. 25 LSU thoroughly dominated every phase of the game in what was eventually a 33-17 win over the eighth-ranked Hurricanes at the AdvoCare Classic at AT&T Sta- dium that was eerily reminiscent of the teams’ last meeting — LSU’s 40-3 drubbing of the Hurricanes in the 2005 Peach Bowl.
Just as very little went right for Miami that night, Sunday was the stuff of nightmares. Despite all the preseason hype and expectations, the Hurricanes looked more like the team that dropped three straight to end 2017 and not one bit
like the team that won 10 games to start last season and was ranked as high as No. 2 in the College Football Playoff rankings last November.
Against LSU, Hurricanes quarterback Malik Rosier — who at times struggled with his accuracy last season but was still named the Miami’s starter by coach Mark Richt in July — threw two interceptions. The Hurricanes’ new-look defensive line, which was playing without a trio of former starters in Chad Thomas, RJ McIntosh and Kendrick Norton, had a tough time with LSU’s offensive line. And even Miami’s kicking game had issues, with freshman kicker Bubba Baxa missing an early field goal and sophomore Zach Feagles shanking his first three punts.
And the Tigers, who came into Sunday’s game posting an unblemished 3-0 record in games played at AT&T Stadium, took every possible advantage. Senior running back Nick Brossette, called on to try to fill the void left after the departure of Derrius Guice, gashed the Hurricanes defense and scored practically untouched on a 50-yard touchdown run late in the first quarter that gave LSU a 10-3 lead it wouldn’t relinquish.
That run helped set the tone for the rest of the night, Brossette finishing with 125 yards and another touchdown run, this one a 1-yarder that put LSU up 17-3 with 9:21 left in the first half.
After that, Miami’s problems only got worse. Two possessions later, LSU linebacker Jacob Phillips picked off an errant Rosier pass and returned it 45 yards for a touchdown.
By halftime, the Hurricanes had put together an ugly litany of stats. Among them, Miami was 0-of-6 on third-down conversions and was penalized eight times for 75 yards. That all prompted Richt to note on the ABC broadcast that the Hurricanes had endured “a lot of self-inflicted wounds” and that “just about everything that could have gone wrong, almost everything, went wrong.”
The second half brought more of the same punishment for Miami, which didn’t get a touchdown until Rosier scored on a 3-yard run with 13:57 left. In the meantime, several Hurricanes — including receiver Lawrence Cager, running back DeeJay Dallas, defensive ends Jonathan Garvin and Demetrius Jackson and defensive tackle Gerald Willis — dealt with at least minor injuries, though several returned to action. The Hurricanes added another touchdown midway through the fourth quarter when freshman Brian Hightower caught a 32-yard scoring pass from Rosier, but it was too little, too late for Miami. Early jabs
During pregame warmups, tempers flared between the teams after several of the Tigers’ defensive backs ran along Miami’s side of the field. Several Hurricanes sprinted down to the LSU side of the field where coaches and support staff quickly intervened before any punches were thrown.
Things got testy again later when — as the Tigers left the field to head into the locker room — several Hurricanes players, led by linebacker Mike Pinckney, stood at the edge of the field, staring down the LSU players. During the pregame coin toss, officials warned both teams to avoid “any extracurricular activities.”