Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Hurricanes
Miami is picked by writers to repeat as the ACC Coastal Division football champs.
CORAL GABLES — At last week’s ACC Kickoff in Charlotte, the Hurricanes made it clear: now that they’ve won their first Coastal Division title, they have every intention of winning another and returning to Charlotte for another chance to play in the ACC Championship.
Writers across the ACC expect Miami to do exactly that.
For the second straight year, the Hurricanes will enter the season as the projected favorite to win the Coastal Division, with Miami earning 998 points in a poll of writers attending last week’s kickoff event. The Hurricanes received 122 first-place votes in the balloting, well ahead of projected runner-up Virginia Tech, which had 16 firstplace votes.
Unfortunately for the Hurricanes, most of those writers expect this year’s conference championship to play out the same way last year’s did, with Clemson — who was projected to be the ACC’s Atlantic Division winner — defeating Miami to win yet another conference title.
This marks the fifth time the Hurricanes have been picked to win the Coastal Division since joining the ACC in 2004. Miami was picked to win the division in 2006, 2013, 2014 and 2017, although it wasn’t until last season that the Hurricanes finally broke through.
Now Miami, which went 10-3 last season, wants to build on its success.
The Hurricanes return a stable of talented offensive playmakers, including quarterback Malik Rosier, running backs Travis Homer and DeeJay Dallas, receivers Ahmmon Richards, Lawrence Cager, Jeff Thomas and Mike Harely and linemen Tyler Gauthier and Navaughn Donaldson. On defense, UM returns linebackers Shaq Quarterman, Mike Pinckney and Zach McCloud, along with defensive linemen Joe Jackson, Gerald Willis and Demetrius Jackson and safety Jaquan Johnson and cornerback Michael Jackson.
The Hurricanes say they feel confident they learned valuable lessons after last December’s 38-3 loss to Clemson in the ACC Championship. They believe they now have the ability and experience to keep pace with the powerhouse Tigers, who have won three straight conference titles.
“We’re definitely real close, I believe. A few slipups … Those last three games, actually, those were the slip-ups. We can’t get unfocused. We have to execute on every opportunity that we’re given and those were the games that we lost,” Johnson said. “That whole team, we’re working toward a better year this year.”
Added Richards, “You may see they have a lot more talent than us or they’re more experienced in big games than us. But I feel like we can play with them . ... ”
The Hurricanes were followed behind Virginia Tech, Georgia Tech, Duke, Pittsburgh, North Carolina and Virginia in the voting. Miami will face two significant road tests to defend its division crown, traveling to Georgia Tech and Virginia Tech on back-to-back weeks Nov. 10 and Nov. 17.
That stretch could determine the Hurricanes’ conference fate, though for now, the focus remains on improving and preparing for their high-profile opener against LSU on Sept. 2 in the AdvoCare Classic at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas.
“You don’t want to coach at a school where the expectations aren’t high and you don’t want to play at a place where expectations aren’t high. Our expectations are high,” coach Mark Richt said. “Our goal, obviously, is to win the Coastal, win the league and play in the championship, play in the College Football Playoffs. And everybody can say that and they do say that, but we believe it can happen.”
■ Three more Hurricanes have earned spots on the preseason watch lists.
Quarterman, already on the watch list for the Bednarik Award, was on Monday named to the watch list for the Butkus Award, which is given annually to the nation’s top linebacker.
Also earning recognition were Johnson and Michael Jackson, who both earned spots on the watch list for the Jim Thorpe Award, given to the nation’s top defensive back. Like Quarterman, Johnson is also on the watch list for the Bednarik Award.