Familiar foe
FIU coach Butch Davis prepares for challenge of facing Hurricanes.
CORAL GABLES — Two Miami Hurricanes veterans — safety Jaquan Johnson and receiver Ahmmon Richards — haven’t practiced much ahead of Saturday’s game against South Florida foe FIU.
On Thursday, Hurricanes coach Mark Richt made it official, announcing neither will play against the Panthers.
With Johnson and Richards missing so much practice time, and the Hurricanes set to open ACC play next Thursday against North Carolina, Richt’s announcement was hardly a surprise.
Johnson, a preseason AllAmerican who leads the Hurricanes defense with 22 tackles, strained his hamstring late in the first half of last week’s game against Toledo. Though he was seen working on a conditioning bike on the sideline during the remainder of the Hurricanes’ 49-24 win over the Rockets, he did not re-enter the game.
Richards, meanwhile, has been dealing with a knee injury that Richt described as a bone bruise immediately after it happened in the Hurricanes’ seasonopening 33-17 loss to LSU on Sept. 2. The former freshman All-American and Wellington High standout did not play against either Savannah State or Toledo and will miss his third straight game. It’s been a brutal start for Richards, who was plagued with hamstring, ankle and knee injuries throughout last season.
While Miami’s deep receivers corps has been able to handle the loss of Richards the last two games, Saturday will mark the first time the Hurricanes’ secondary has to play without one of its leaders.
Johnson, a senior, started all 13 games for the Hurricanes last season and appeared in all 13 games in both 2015 and 2016.
Without him, sophomore Amari Carter, a former Palm Beach Gardens standout, will likely be called on to try and fill the void left by Johnson’s absence.
Carter missed last week’s game at Toledo while attending the funeral of a family member, but has practiced this week and defensive coordinator Manny Diaz said he should be ready for a bigger role as needed.
“Amari has a calm presence about him. He’s a very intelligent young man, certainly a very tough guy. Whenever you have a situation where it’s a ‘next man up’ deal, you don’t need to wear a cape. You don’t need to be Jaquan. You can just be Amari,” Diaz said. “We love the things he brings to the table. We really missed him in Toledo last week, for sure. He would have gotten a lot of run if he was there. But now is his time and, I think, he feels very confident that he’s ready to go.”
Jarren Williams hurting
Reserve quarterback Jarren Williams is also dealing with an injury and could be unavailable Saturday against the Panthers.
The freshman did not practice Wednesday or Thursday because of a lingering abdominal issue. Richt said the team is trying to be cautious with him moving forward.
“He’s got a little bit of a chronic abdominal strain. It’s nothing big, but it was enough to say let’s just let it quiet down,” Richt said. “It was bothering him earlier. I can’t remember if it was camp or when it was bothering him before, and then it was fine for quite some time. Then it started creeping up on him again. We just don’t want to make it worse, so we shut him down the last couple days.”