Hurricanes join ranks of defeated
PITTSBURGH — The Miami Hurricanes spent the better part of 13 months putting together the Football Bowl Subdivision’s longest active winning streak behind a series of comebacks that restored the program’s swagger.
Sluggish throughout the first half against Pittsburgh on Friday, the Hurricanes figured they would come out for the third quarter, hit the gas and survive — just the way they had time and again during their rebirth under second-year coach Mark Richt.
Nope. Miami’s perfect season is over, and the second-ranked Hurricanes can only hope their shot at a berth in the College Football Playoff isn’t gone, too.
Pitt freshman quarterback Kenny Pickett ran for two touchdowns and threw for another as the Panthers pulled out a stunning but decisive 24-14 win that sent Miami reeling into next week’s Atlantic Coast Conference title game with No. 4 Clemson, which plays at South Carolina today.
Alabama, Miami, Clemson and Oklahoma were the top four teams in the most recent CFP rankings released Tuesday.
The Hurricanes may have that glittery record and marquee wins over Virginia Tech and Notre Dame, but they’ve lived dangerously all year. Their uninspired performance with a perfect season at stake probably closes the door on two ACC teams getting into the four-team playoff.
“I still think there’s an awful lot to play for,” Richt said. “We have no idea what’s going to happen in the big picture. How many teams lost a game on a Friday and came back and got in the top four? How many teams lost one game and won a conference championship and got right back in it? Who knows? So we don’t know.”
A chance to put together the program’s first unbeaten regular season since 2002 vanished at chilly but hardly cold Heinz Field. Miami junior quarterback Malik Rosier completed
15 of 34 passes for 187 and two touchdowns and was briefly pulled in the fourth quarter.
The Hurricanes (10-1, 7-1) managed just 232 yards, a season low, and spotted Pitt a 10-7 halftime lead. The Panthers (5-7, 3-5) put together a pair of long touchdown drives engineered by Pickett, and the emphatic response from Miami never materialized.
“There’s multiple times where we play lackadaisical in the first half and in the second half we come out and explode, and it just didn’t happen,” Rosier said. “That’s something I’ve got to fix. I’ve got to motivate those guys in the first half so the second half doesn’t have to be some type of miracle second half.”
Miami stressed it had learned an important lesson after spotting Virginia a two-touchdown lead last week before recovering to extend its winning streak to 15 games. Yet the Hurricanes walked onto the Heinz Field turf in a weird spot.
The ACC Coastal Division champions are well aware their meeting with Clemson next Saturday will serve as the ultimate arbiter on whether the Hurricanes are worthy of consideration for the playoff. The loss to Pittsburgh might not matter as long as they beat the Tigers, last season’s national champions.
“We want to focus on Clemson, and if we win and we get in, great,” Rosier said. “If we win and we don’t, that’s just something we have to live with. It was our play that got us to where we’re at.”
A year ago, the Panthers handed Clemson its only loss of the season with a thrilling victory in Death Valley. A decade ago they stunned West Virginia in the regular-season finale, a setback that cost the Mountaineers a spot in the Bowl Championship Series title game.