Slow start dooms ’Canes in loss to FSU
TALLAHASSEE — The Miami Hurricanes entered their matchup against rival Florida State on a three-game winning streak and appeared to have fixed many of their issues from the beginning of the season.
But on Saturday at Doak Campbell Stadium, many of those struggles popped back up for Miami, ultimately leading to its 31-28 loss to the Seminoles in Tallahassee.
UM started slow on both sides of the field due to undisciplined penalties on defense and a lack of precision on offense, trailing FSU, 17-0, at the beginning of the second quarter.
The Hurricanes rallied in the second half to take a 28-20 lead with 11:04 left in the game, only for the Seminoles to score 11 points in the final five minutes — including the game-deciding Jordan Travis 1-yard touchdown run with 26 seconds left and Travis’ two-point conversion on the ensuing play — to give FSU the three-point lead it ultimately won the game with.
The loss was the first for Miami (5-5, 3-3 ACC) to Florida State under coach Manny Diaz after the Hurricanes entered Saturday on a four-game winning streak in the rivalry, while the Seminoles (4-6, 3-4 ACC) kept their hopes for bowl eligibility alive with the win. Seminoles (4-6, 3-4 ACC)
“This defeat will be hard for our guys,” Diaz said. “It’s emotional, but they can use this as fuel. This is what this rivalry is all about. That was a proper Miami-Florida State game. It’s been a few years since we had one.”
Here are 10 things we learned from UM’s Saturday loss:
1 . Undisciplined play hurts Miami
Miami set a bad tone for itself early with five defensive penalties on FSU’s drive possession — three offsides and two personal fouls (unnecessary roughness and a horse-collar tackle) that helped the Seminoles take an early 7-0 lead.
The Hurricanes finished with eight penalties in the first quarter and a season-high 14 for 105 yards for the game. UM’s defense was responsible for nine of those penalties, with a potential 10th penalty (offsides) on FSU’s 2-point conversion declined.
Diaz attributed the team’s miscues to maybe being “overhyped”, but UM has struggled with penalties for most of the season. The Hurricanes are 114th out of 130 FBS teams in penalties per game with 7.7.
2 . Starting slow once again
A key reason why the Hurricanes entered Saturday with a winning streak was that they started games strong and took early leads in recent games. Neither was the case against FSU.
UM trailed 14-0 at the end of the first quarter after having three turnovers and recording 31 yards on 20 plays in the opening 15 minutes. The Seminoles took their 17-point lead with a field goal early in the second quarter after forcing Miami to punt toward the end of the opening period.
Saturday had a similar pattern as Miami’s other three conference losses: fall behind early and rally for a comeback attempt starting midway through the second quarter. Unlike their losses to Virginia and North Carolina, the Hurricanes did have a late lead, but they didn’t hold on for the victory.
3 . Van Dyke’s performance
A significant reason for Miami’s slow start was quarterback Tyler Van Dyke taking over 1 ½ quarters to establish his rhythm as a passer, which also happened in the losses to Virginia and UNC.
Van Dyke went 3 of 11 for 13 yards and two interceptions in the first quarter and was missing his targets on deep pass attempts that he was routinely successful on in UM’s previous three wins. He was stripped-sacked by FSU defensive end Jermaine Johnson II for a third first-quarter turnover.
The second-year freshman said he wasn’t unsettled because of the environment Doak S. Campbell Stadium, adding that his throws were just “a little bit” off early on. He finished 25 of 47 for 316 yards, four touchdowns and two interceptions after a strong second-half performance.
4 . James Williams’ injury
True freshman safety James Williams was banged-up heading into the matchup against FSU with an upper-body injury and left the game toward the end of the second quarter with an apparent lowerbody injury.
Williams didn’t play a defensive snap in the second half, with UM having fellow true freshman Kam Kinchens (77 snaps) and Avantae Williams (56 snaps) carrying the
workload at safety for the rest of the game.
The Hurricanes are already thin at safety due to Bubba Bolden’s season-ending injury and Gurvan Hall Jr. leaving the program, so James Williams’ status this week will be monitored heading into UM’s matchup against Virginia Tech (7:30 p.m. on the ACC Network) on Saturday at Hard Rock Stadium.
5 . Special teams letdown
Lou Hedley averaged 46.8 yards per punt on his five attempts, but the Hurricanes’ coverage on his final punt negatively affected their chances of beating FSU.
With Miami leading 28-23 with 2:29 left in the game, Hedley punted on fourth-and-1 from UM’s 46, with the Seminoles returner Ontaria Wilson calling for a fair catch at FSU’s 20.
None of the four Miami players around Wilson ran behind him, with the ball taking its first bounce at FSU’s 21 and before bouncing five more times and rolling into the end zone for a touchback.
The Hurricanes had the opportunity to force FSU to start its final drive inside its own 15-, 10- or even 5-yard line, but the Seminoles started their last possession on their own 20, which helped set up their eventual game-winning drive.
6 . Late breakdowns
Two key plays engineered FSU’s game-deciding possession.
First was Travis connecting with running back Ja’Khi Douglas on a 59-yard pass on a fade route after Douglas beat Kinchens in man-toman coverage to get the Seminoles on UM’s 21 with 2:08 remaining.
The Hurricanes seemingly had FSU in an advantageous spot five plays later, with the Seminoles facing a fourth-and-14 from UM’s 25 with just over a minute left in the
game, but Miami rushed three and had a linebacker “spy” on Travis, who completed a 24-yard pass to Andrew Parchment in the gap between Te’Cory Couch, Tyrique Stevenson, Avantae Williams and Kinchens, which Diaz happened because of a “lack of execution.”
7. Clock mismanagement
Ahead 28-23, twice Miami allowed eight seconds to run off the clock after it was apparent the Seminoles would be scoring a go-ahead touchdown.
After a video review showed Parchment’s fourth-down reception ended at Miami’s 1-yard line, the clock, which had been stopped at 58 seconds as the review was executed, melted down to 50 before the Hurricanes stopped it with their second timeout.
On the next play, Travis was stopped inches short of the goal line, with the whistle blowing with 44 seconds left. Instead of immediately calling UM’s final timeout, Diaz and co. let the clock elapse from 44 seconds to 36 before asking for the stoppage.
Travis scored the game-deciding touchdown 10 seconds later, giving Van Dyke and the offense a near-impossible 26 seconds to work with instead of a much more forgiving 42.
Van Dyke completed a 20-yard pass to Charleston Rambo to get Miami to its 45 and ran to the line of scrimmage to kill the clock, but there were only two seconds left in the game (instead of 18) — one less than the rule requiring at least three seconds are on the clock for a spike.
8 . Johnson dominates for Florida State
Johnson was already an ACC Defensive Player of the Year candidate entering Saturday, and his dominant performance against the Hurricanes only helped his chances
of winning the award.
The Georgia transfer had five tackles for loss, three sacks and forced a fumble, beating both Miami starting offensive tackles Zion Nelson and Jarrid Williams at the line of scrimmage for big plays.
Johnson leads the ACC in tackles for loss (16) and sacks (11) and is second in both statistical categories behind Louisville’s Yasir Abdullah in conference-only games.
9 . ACC Championship hopes gone
The Hurricanes were eliminated from contention for the Coastal Division and the ACC Championship game with Saturday’s loss.
With two games left against Virginia Tech and Duke, the best conference record UM can finish with is 5-3. The two teams above Miami in the Coastal Division — Pittsburgh (8-2, 5-1 ACC) and Virginia (6-4, 4-2 ACC) — play each other on Saturday at Heinz Field.
Even if Miami, Pittsburgh and Virginia all finished with 5-3 regular-season conference records, the Cavaliers would win the tiebreaker over the Hurricanes since they won the teams’ matchup in late September.
1 0 . Impact on recruiting
Multiple top in-state high school prospects — including four-star Miami Central linebacker Wesley Bissainthe and four-star Dillard defensive lineman Nyjalik Kelly — attended Saturday’s game.
Bissainthe and Kelly are top targets for both UM and FSU.
Neither players have made their commitments, and it isn’t yet known how — or if — Saturday’s outcome will affect their decisions, but losing to their in-state rival certainly couldn’t have helped the Hurricanes, whose 2022 recruiting class ranks No. 61 in the nation according to 247Sports’ Composite ranking.