Berrios comes up with big-time plays
Senior receiver snags eight passes for 90 yards and two TDs.
TALLAHASSEE — Overshadowed no longer, Braxton Berrios has officially hit the big time.
Berrios, a senior from Raleigh, N.C., was one of the heroes of Miami’s 24-20 win at Florida State, catching eight passes for 90 yards and two touchdowns. He was electric, leaping and diving and breaking tackles to pick up critical yards during the come-frombehind win by the Hurricanes, who moved up two spots to No. 11 in the new Associated Press poll released Sunday.
He caught Miami’s first touchdown of the game, a 21-yard grab in the third quarter, which came after a 44-yard punt return. He added a 6-yard score to put Miami up 17-13 with 5:09 left. On the last-minute drive that gave Miami its first win over FSU in eight years, Berrios caught passes
of 17 and 11 yards, the final one with 11 seconds left that set up Santaluces High grad Darrell Langham’s winning touchdown catch.
As he told ESPN’s cameras after the game, paraphrasing former Miami star Santana Moss’ comments after the Canes beat the Noles in 2000: “Big-time players make big-time plays in bigtime games.”
That’s a line other UM players have used since that day, when the No. 7 Miami Hurricanes toppled then-No. 1 Florida State 27-24 in the Orange Bowl.
But few have earned the right to say it like Berrios, who on Monday was honored for his play against FSU by being named ACC Receiver of the Week.
He caught 21 passes for 232 yards and three touchdowns as a freshman, despite beginning his college career seeing more of UM’s training room than the practice field. Berrios tore his ACL in a high school All-American game shortly before he enrolled at Miami in January 2014, and UM doctors discovered the tear when he had his first team physical. Not only had Berrios played in the All-American game with the injury, he caught a touchdown pass.
Playing behind stars like Phillip Dorsett, Stacy Coley, David Njoku and, last year, freshman sensation Ahmmon Richards, Berrios finished with 12 catches for 86 yards in 2015, and 12 for 178 and two scores in 2016. He was one of the best punt returners in the ACC, but was aching to use his sure hands and speed to help Miami’s offense.
On message boards and social media, Berrios drew heat for not being dynamic enough or big enough (he is 5-9 and 186 pounds). Some wondered if Miami had better options at returner. Some online fans wailed about his dropped touchdown against FSU in 2014, and moaned when he was tripped up by FSU’s punter on a 43-yard, fourth-quarter return that set up the tying touchdown in last year’s game. Until Saturday, that was the longest punt return of his career, and it came in the final minutes against Miami’s biggest rival.
Even when he was clutch, he was criticized.
“It’s been a long one for me, especially the first three years, and especially with Florida State,” he said. “That’s something I knew as a senior, I knew as a leader, it was going to be in my hands, at one point or another.
“I knew coming into this it was do-or-die. We’re either going 0-4 against them, or we’re flipping that page. Personally, I was flipping that page.”
This year, with Richards, the former Wellington High Star, battling a sore hamstring, he has 18 catches for 282 yards and five touchdowns. He is the first Hurricanes receiver since Reggie Wayne in 2000 to grab a TD pass in each of Miami’s first four games. He also caught one in last year’s Russell Athletic Bowl, giving him the first five-game TD streak for a Miami receiver since Leonard Hankerson in 2010. His five touchdown catches are second in the ACC, and his per-catch average (15.67) is seventh.
Coaches praise him for good reason. They call him “Mr. Fundamental” for his attention to detail. They say he practices as hard as anyone. When Miami won at Duke two weeks ago, Berrios spoke about wanting to inspire young players who looked up to him when he was a star at Leesville Road High, 20 minutes away. In the classroom, he has a streak of straight-As dating to middle school.
He earned an A-plus on Saturday.