Hurricanes picked up a win but it wasn’t pretty
MIAMI GARDENS — The Miami Hurricanes picked up another Atlantic Coast Conference win on Saturday night, but it certainly wasn’t themost satisfying of their victories.
Virginia entered as losers of three straight, all by three-score outcomes, and after starting with a flash in the two quick deep passes to cover 75 yards for an opening touchdown, UM had to scratch and claw at the end.
Here are 10 things we learned in the Hurricanes’ 19-14win over the Cavaliers:
The King-to-Harley connection: Miami needed a receiver to step up, and the senior Michael Harley took it upon himself to accept that challenge.
Of D’Eriq King’s 322 passing yards, 170 of them went to Harley, a career high for the St. Thomas Aquinas product. It wasn’t just the big 43-yard touchdown over the top to start. Seven of Harley’s receptions went for first downs, five of the mon third-downplays.
Maybe too simple?: One reason why offensive coordinator Rhett Lashlee’s scheme is touted is because of how simple it is for his players. It allows them to play fast and react, whichis necessary in an up-tempo style.
As Miami sloshed through the heart of game after the opening two-play touchdown drive, a lot of the offense felt predictable: Either inside zone-read runs or quick screens to the perimeter.
Virginia didn’t seem fooled by muchof it, and outside of Harley’s first-down receptions and Mark Pope’s incredibly acrobatic diving catch deep down the sideline, the offense didn’t come up with many chunk plays after the first touchdown.
There were six surprise scratches pregame: Eight players were unavailable for the Miami Hurricanes. Six of them were surprise scratches, as it was known junior tight end B rev in Jordan had a neck/shoulder injury and freshman offensive lineman Issiah Walker was still awaiting NCAA transfer clearance from his move fromthe Florida Gators.
The other six were all freshmen: Receivers Xavier Restrepo and Michael Redding III, quarterback Tyler Van Dyke, safety Brian Balom, linebacke rCorey Flaggand defensive lineman Elijah Roberts.
UM is not announcing reasons players are unavailable when it releases its pregame unavailability report an hour before kickoffs during 2020 season played amid the coronavirus pandemic.
Carter with another targeting penalty: Senior safety Amari Carter needs to take a deep, introspective look at thewayhe attacks defenseless receivers with a pass coming theirway.
He was flagged for the sixth time in the past two seasons for targeting on the field, four of which have been upheld upon review. Carter’s helmet-to-helmet hit on UVA wide receiver Tavares Kelly, a St. Thomas Aquinas grad, on the first defensive play disqualified him.
It put Miami, already without fourth safety Balom, in a bind at the rest of the night, leaning on Bubba
Bolden and Gurvan Hall to play without rotating, having freshman Jalen Harrell see his first meaningful reps when Hall left momentarily, and having striker Gilbert Frierson play safety briefly.
Mallory early, but wasn’ t thrown to later: As big a game as Harley had, it appeared tight end Will Mallory could leave a similar imprint on the game after he made initial 32-yard snag over the back of a defender down the sideline before Harley’s score and later had a 26-yard reception on the second series.
Hewas only targeted one other time the rest of the way, however, late in the first half on a third andpass to the end zone. We didn’t see any fake QB draw action from King to then hit Mallory over the top, which was effective theweek before against Pitt when Mallory also stepped up in Jordan’ s absence.
King attributed Mallory’ s lack of targets to flow of the game and what Virginia did defensively.
Lack of run game early, freshmen outgain Harris: Miami only had 30 rushing yards on 20 attempts in the first half Saturday, in numbers that count sacks as negative rushing yards in college.
The run game got going in the second half, and itwas mainly the freshman duo of Donald Chaney Jr. and Jaylan Knighton over junior lead back Cam’Ron Harris. As Harris finished with 8 yards on eight carries, Chaney had 43 on 10 attempts and Knighton 37 on 12 carries. Chaney scored the fourth-quarter touchdown from the Wildcat formation that put the Hurricanes up two scores, which was necessary as the defense allowed one more touch down late.
No game-changing plays from D: Make no mistake: The Miami defense was solid throughout, aside from the opening series and the late breakdownin the secondary that resulted in a touchdown while UM had a two-possession
lead.
But only two tackles for loss on Saturday, something that’s usually a trademark of Manny Diaz’s defenses. Bradley Jennings Jr. had a sack, and Waynmon Steed picked up the other TFL.
As the Cavaliers hung around, there was never a big Turnover Chain moment to shift the momentum and flip field position until Quincy Roche’ s final fumble recovery as Virginia was attempting to lateral its way to the end zone at the end.
Lack of red-zone scoring, killing drives: Miami had four opportunities in the red zone and only one resulted in a touchdown. The Hurricanes have to convert down there as themargin should’ve been greater when putting together 444 yards of offense on 78 plays and 23 first downs.
In the third quarter, UM got down to the Virginia 1-yard line but was pushed back and settled for 3points. Miami’s second offensive series, while not reaching the redzone, set the tone for this trend. UM got to the UVA 30-yard line, but back-to-back sacks took the Hurricanes out of field goal range.
Miami gave up five sacks, resulting in 26 yards lost. King was culpable for at least a couple of them, holding on to the ball too long, while right guard DJ Scaife also was beat on a stunt on one of them.
Borregales’ first miss a block: Of those three missed red-zone chances, Miami kicked a field goal twice. Before that, Jose Borregales had his first failed attempt as UM kicker since transferring from FIU. Itwas a block. Virginia’s D’ Angelo Amos broke through and got a piece of Borregales’ 42-yard attempt. He came back later with good kicks from32 and 20. The dreaded B-word: Bye. As odd as it may sound to dread an idle week, UM is 0-4 with Manny Diaz as head coach coming off of byes.