Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
’Canes insist securing bowl still a motivator
CORAL GABLES — There will be no berth in the ACC Championship Game, no opportunity to play in one of college football’s major bowl games like last year’s showdown against Wisconsin in the Orange Bowl.
Still, as the Miami Hurricanes try to end their four-game losing streak and turn their focus to Saturday’s game at Virginia Tech, they say they are motivated not only to keep playing for each other, but to secure a postseason bowl berth, even if they wind up in one of the conference’s less attractive games.
“That’s really the No. 1 thing right now above personal goals because this is our seniors’ last chance,” defensive end Jonathan Garvin said Tuesday. “They came back to give us a chance to win. Things didn’t go as planned so we owe it to them to get them to a bowl game.”
Added defensive tackle Gerald Willis, “That’s our main goal, to get into a bowl game, finish out strong, especially get the seniors to a bowl game.”
At this point, that’s not even a guarantee.
Through 10 games, Miami (5-5, 2-4) hasn’t secured the sixth win the Hurricanes would need to qualify for the postseason. And their last two games won’t be particularly easy.
While Virginia Tech (4-5, 3-3) has struggled this season much the way Miami has, Saturday’s game is in Blacksburg and the Hurricanes haven’t won a road game against a Power-5 opponent since Oct. 28, 2017.
And the Hurricanes are set to close out the regular season with a Nov. 24 game at Hard Rock Stadium against a Pittsburgh team that sits atop the Coastal Division standings and may be in need of a win against Miami to secure the division crown and a berth in the ACC Championship Game.
But as badly as the Hurricanes want to earn a postseason berth, there’s also the fact they also just want to win a game again. Miami hasn’t lost five straight since 1997 and this group of Hurricanes insist they want to make sure that particular bit of history doesn’t repeat itself.
“Bowl games are sometimes a bridge to the following year. We saw that with the West Virginia game after the ‘16 season and how that spring boarded us into the ‘17 season,” Hurricanes defensive coordinator Manny Diaz said. “But right now the reward, the goal is go play your best game. Our best game is out there and go find a way to put it together. Offense, defense, special teams. Go play a game like we should play because we’re running out of at bats to do it. What a great weekend to do it up in Blacksburg.”
And Diaz reiterated on Tuesday the point Hurricanes coach Mark Richt has made multiple times throughout Miami’s fourgame losing streak, which is that the Hurricanes haven’t given up their season.
Both coaches have now said they believe that won’t happen and Diaz specifically said there’s been significant amount of conversation about that topic in his meeting room.
“The great thing is we have is that we’ve created a unit that takes a lot of pride in how we play and it would be a frightening thing to be the guy that lets down all the other guys that play defense, to be that guy,” Diaz said. “Because if our locker room senses it, if we sense it, the pack’s going to take care of it and they’ve been told and demanded to do that. It would be a bad idea to be the guy that all of a sudden let their level of performance drop because of what our record is. I think having a great locker room, having great leadership helps with that.”
One of those locker room leaders — preseason All-American safety Jaquan Johnson — took to social media after last week’s loss to Georgia Tech to remind his teammates, and Miami’s fans, that the Hurricanes aren’t about to quit, as tough as things have been, writing Saturday night on Twitter, “I don’t care what nobody say, we not gone quit and we gone win! [sic]”
“After that loss, I already knew what was coming. A lot of fan talk, a lot of media talk and I just wanted the team — plenty of the players follow me on Twitter — I wanted the team to see that the leader, he’s not quitting,” Johnson said. “He’s not relenting at all. He’s going to come out and do everything he has to do to try and get us a ‘W’ and try to get us to a bowl game.”