Long awaited
Hurricanes finally set to play UAB in season opener after unprecedented offseason
Miami Hurricanes coach Manny Diaz summarized the team’s 2020 season opener against UAB as best he could — with the long-awaited game finally here.
“This is an occasion that we were not sure was going to happen,” he said earlier this week.
It was an offseason that sent college athletes home in the spring due to the COVID-19 pandemic, brought them back to campus for summer workouts and then gave them an on-again, off-again outlook in the 11th hour that was the month of August. With some conferences postponing their season into the spring, Miami and the Atlantic Coast Conference decided to move forward.
With players testing for the coronavirus three times a week to remain available to compete and stadiums limiting their seating capacity, the muchanticipated season kicks off at 8 p.m. Thursday from Hard Rock Stadium against the Blazers, a formidable Conference USA opponent.
“I think all those emotions will be short-lived once the foot hits the football,” Diaz said. “Once we get ready to line up for kickoff, it’s all about ball, and we’ve got a lot of respect for the team that we’re playing.”
The Hurricanes will debut star grad transfer quarterback D’Eriq King and new offensive coordinator Rhett Lashlee’s uptempo, spread offense with Air Raid elements. But in 2020, even for coaches and players that have been together for years, nothing is familiar.
“I don’t know if anything is normal this year, whether you’ve been here 20 years or it’s your first year,” Lashlee said. “Not having full stadiums to masks and all the things that we’re going to do to keep our guys safe. What I really hope is that, as soon as that first ball is kicked off, for the most part for the players, that’ll be about three hours that we’re just doing what we’ve done our whole life: Coaching and playing football, bringing some joy to their lives and to people around the country.”
Said King: “It’s a great feeling. A couple of months ago, nobody
thought we’d be playing right now.”
For players subject to all the testing that “can be” nerveracking, as redshirt senior linebacker Zach McCloud said, there will be some sense of normalcy for those four quarters of football after months of abnormalities.
“Just being able to go out there and run out of the smoke with the team, it’s going to be really emotional for the whole team,” said senior defensive tackle Jonathan Ford. “I’m excited to just go out there, compete and see what this team has to offer this year.”
A limited seating capacity of 13,000 fans will affect the atmosphere. Hard Rock Stadium certainly won’t be as rowdy as it normally would be for a Hurricanes night game.
“That’s not a problem,” said McCloud. “I played high school football [in front of fewer fans], so that’s the least of my concerns.”
Of greater concern for Miami, starting a new season1-0 after 2019 saw the team go 6-7 in Diaz’s first year as head coach. The Hurricanes, before a run of 10 consecutive ACC games in a revised 2020 schedule, can’t fall to another Conference USA team after dropping two late last year against FIU and Louisiana Tech.
UAB is no slouch with 28 wins and two division titles over the past three seasons since returning from a program hiatus.
“They really don’t have a weak
ness,” Diaz said. “Pretty much everything they do, they do extremely well, especially on the defensive side of the ball.”
The Blazers (1-0) have ranked in the top 10 in total defense each of the past two seasons. On the surface, it would be tough to tell this season after they only beat Central Arkansas of the FCS, 45-35, last week in their opener. Diaz felt, however, that the score was misleading and he is aware of the advantages UAB has after merely playing a game following such an unprecedented offseason.
“A team that has played a game, has tackled and been tackled, as opposed to only being able to tackle in scrimmage situations, which of course, we all lost due to missing some of spring football,” Diaz said, “that’s going to be a challenge.”
This is especially true with the physical running style of Blazers senior running back Spencer Brown, who is second only to Clemson’s Travis Etienne in active career rushing yards heading into this season.
The Hurricanes will look to limit him and sophomore Jermaine Brown Jr. in the running game, as well as junior quarterback Tyler Johnston III and senior wide receiver Austin Watkins Jr. in UAB’s passing attack.
“I know they play hard,” Ford said. “We’re looking to match their intensity or give even more throughout the game.”