Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Their moment in the spotlight
’Canes prepare for prime-time contest
Historically, when the Miami Hurricanes have been in the national spotlight, they had a top-10 ranking and were competing for a national championship.
As it builds toward restoring that national prominence, there are several other factors contributing to why No. 17 Miami has the prime-time 7:30 p.m. slot on ABC against No. 18 Louisville on Saturday — with ESPN’s College GameDay highlighting the weekend’s only matchup between two ranked teams.
For starters, the COVID-19 pandemic has the SEC still a week away from starting, the Big Ten a month away and the Pac-12 without a start date to its postponed season; the Virginia-Virginia Tech ACC rivalry game was postponed, sliding Miami-Louisville from its original 3:30 time; and the Hurricanes and Cardinals are only in the top 20 because of how many teams are excluded from those rankings.
But after both teams got their initial tune-up against Conference USA opponents last weekend, they prepare for a critical ACC opener that could have
major implications on the crowded race to face prohibitive favorite Clemson in the restructured conference title game.
“It’s very exciting,” said star redshirt senior quarterback D’Eriq King, who transferred to UM from Houston in the offseason.
“This is one of the reasons I came here: to play in big games like this, Saturday night college football.”
The last big win for the Hurricanes (1-0) came last November versus Louisville (1-0), a 52-27 victory in which former Miami quarterback Jarren Williams threw six touchdown passes. It preceded a demoralizing run of three consecutive losses — to FIU, Duke and Louisiana Tech — to end a disappointing 2019 season.
UM coach Manny Diaz has stated this week that last year’s result “means nothing” because of how different and improved the two teams are. Miami will look to stop “probably the best outside-zone running team in America,” as Diaz put it, and the Cardinals’ formidable trio of quarterback Micale Cunningham, running back Javian Hawkins and wide receiver Tutu Atwell.
“If you were playing fantasy football in the ACC,” Diaz said, “their combination of quarterback, running back and wide receiver are right up there in the top three. Them, Clemson
and North Carolina, I would think, would be the top three in terms of skillposition explosion on offense.”
Last year, Atwell, a Miami
Northwestern grad, burned the Hurricanes for an 80-yard touchdown in his homecoming at Hard Rock Stadium. He finished with six receptions for 142 yards.
“Tutu Atwell is as dynamic of a player as we’ll see,” said Miami defensive coordinator Blake Baker of Atwell, who had 1,276 receiving yards and 12 touchdowns as a sophomore last season. “Obviously, we got beat by him a couple of times last year, and we weren’t the only team when you look at his body of work.
“[He’s] dynamic with the ball in his hands with receptions or with jet sweeps, but he’s fast. He’s really, really fast, and you can’t coach speed, so we’ll have to know where he’s at [at] all times.”
Miami got a glimpse of the outside-zone run in last week’s 31-14 win against UAB, but nothing like what Louisville presents.
“We’ll have our hands full,” Baker said. “I think this week presents a different challenge. UAB was probably new to them schematically to what they showed the previous year, so they haven’t had as many at-bats as a team like Louisville, who’s done this for a couple of years now.”
Said linebacker Zach McCloud: “Everything they do, they do well. As a defense, you’ve got to be able to pride yourself on stopping the run first. If you don’t stop the run, they don’t have to do anything else. I’m sure they will, but they won’t have to do anything else.”
Cunningham is a threat to run and pass, as exhibited by throwing for three touchdowns and rushing for another in Louisville’s season-opening win against Western Kentucky. UM faces the unenviable task of trying to slow the dualthreat ability of Cunningham and explosiveness of Hawkins.
“He’s fast, and he can throw the ball,” said linebacker Bradley Jennings Jr. of Cunningham. “Javian Hawkins, he’s a very fast guy, one of the smaller dudes (5-foot-9, 196 pounds), but he can hit the hole hard, hit it on those big stretch plays. He’s one of those guys we got to look out for to stop the run.”
Offensively, despite how dangerous King can be, it doesn’t figure to be as easy for the Hurricanes as it was last year against the Cardinals.
Louisville defensive coordinator Bryan Brown is expected to have his unit playing better in his second season.
“They are much more confident in what they’re doing,” said Diaz. “Their linebackers are so active. They’re so downhill and destructive in the backfield, which creates a lot of pressure on the quarterback.
“They played at a different speed last game.”
After Miami dominated UAB with 337 yards rushing, the Hurricanes likely will have to find more balance and more explosive plays in the passing game to have success against Louisville.