ACC honors don’t reflect how dominant ’Canes defense was
CORAL GABLES — In their regular-season finale on Saturday against Pittsburgh, the Hurricanes defense was an absolute force, keeping the Coastal Division champion Panthers out of the end zone and holding Pitt’s vaunted running backs to a combined 69 yards.
That defensive performance in Miami’s 24-3 win on Saturday was the latest impressive showing put together by a unit that finished the regular season as the No. 2 defense in the nation and the top defense in the ACC.
But that group — which featured the ACC’s individual leader in tackles for loss and the stingiest pass defense in the conference — landed just one player on the AllACC first team, junior linebacker Shaquille Quarterman, who finished second on the team with 76 tackles.
Defensive tackle Gerald Willis, who had an ACC-high 18 tackles for loss, was a second-team All-ACC selection, as was Jaquan Johnson, who had a team-high 79 tackles, an interception, two forced fumbles and a blocked kick.
Offensively, both running back Travis
Homer and tight end Brevin Jordan earned spots on the second team. Cornerback Trajan Bandy, who had three interceptions and broke up eight passes, was a third-team selection.
Defensive end Joe Jackson, who was fourth in the ACC with nine sacks, was an honorable mention selection along with offensive lineman Tyree St. Louis, linebacker Mike Pinckney, cornerback Michael Jackson and safety Sheldrick Redwine.
And as one might expect, several Hurricanes players and coaches — including defensive coordinator Manny Diaz, who has been lobbying publicly for his players to earn postseason recognition despite Miami’s overall 7-5 record — expressed their frustration at the All-ACC snubs on social media.
“This just added more fuel for me to keep working,” Willis wrote on Twitter.
“Odds stacked against us but that’s nothing new,” tweeted Johnson, who was a preseason All-American.
Diaz, for his part, tweeted an eye-roll emoji shortly after the team was announced. Less than 48 hours earlier, the coach had raved about his group’s play in the win over Pittsburgh.
“I’ve been saying that we’ve got a lot of guys that are fun to watch. We’ve got a lot of guys that are fun to coach. I love to come here and watch these guys play and that’s how we felt. We felt like we had to repay every fan that was in the stands as if they had come to watch you play, you personally and then us collectively as a defense and then collectively as a team,” Diaz said on Saturday. “The situations that we get put in and the way that they play and the way they respond, they just go out there and go about their business and have fun doing it. …
“All of us as a coaching staff, we’re just so thankful to be able to coach these guys. This is a special unit, this is something that does not come around very often. This is a unit that should be appreciated for years to come. At this school, that’s hard. There have been some amazing defenses that have come and gone through here, but these guys deserve to be looked at with some of their peers. We have our part in our record not being what it should be, but these guys have put something on tape over a 12-game season that they can be proud of for the rest of their lives.”