Canes hopeful about Mesidor’s status for Texas A&M
After breaking out in his debut for the Miami Hurricanes last week, Akheem Mesidor missed Game 2 on Saturday — and Miami missed him.
The Hurricanes are optimistic they won’t miss him too much longer.
The defensive lineman sat out Miami’s 30-7 win against the Southern Miss Golden Eagles with a lower-leg injury, WQAM reported, and Mario Cristobal said he believes he’ll be ready for next Saturday, when the Hurricanes go on the road to face the Texas A&M Aggies in College Station, Texas.
“We feel he is,” the coach said. “He got nicked-up midweek in practice, and we felt we could get to game day and have a full-speed player, and he wasn’t there yet, so hopefully by tomorrow, by Monday, Tuesday he will be.”
Mesidor watched No. 15 Miami’s win from the sidelines at Hard Rock Stadium, wearing a boot on his right foot. Fellow defensive lineman Elijah Roberts started in the sophomore’s place and the Hurricanes (2-0) struggled to generate pressure early in Miami Gardens, going into halftime with just one sack and two tackles for loss.
Although the Hurricanes finished with three sacks and six tackles for loss, Mesidor’s presence was missed after he had four tackles, a sack and a pass defended — leading to Gilbert Frierson’s interception, which he returned for a touchdown — in Miami’s seasonopening rout of the FCS Bethune-Cookman Wildcats last weekend.
It was Mesidor’s debut for the Hurricanes — he transferred to Miami from the West Virginia Mountaineers in April — and Cristobal said he “really was the defensive player on the field for us.”
His encore performance, though, had to wait.
NELSON, KNIGHTON RETURN FOR MIAMI
While the Hurricanes’ defense took a hit with Mesidor’s absence, their offense was back whole this weekend in South Florida.
Star tackle Zion Nelson and running back Jaylan Knighton — both starters at the end of last season — returned to the lineup after missing Week 1 with injuries, although they both “were on a play count,” quarterback Tyler Van Dyke said.
Still, both contributed receiving on two catches. Last week, Gore, the son of UM running back great Frank Gore Sr., rushed for 178 yards and two touchdowns.
“Yeah, that was definitely the main game plan,” UM defensive tackle Jake Lichtenstein said of stopping Gore. “[It] was, ‘These guys are gonna come in here and try to run the ball,’ so that was a huge emphasis. We’ve got to stop the run, so we did a great job of that.
“Obviously, we started a little bit slow. They came out and played good ball.”
Miami scored back-toback third-down touchdowns in a little more than two minutes to mount a 24-7 lead. The first: a powerful 7-yard rush by Thaddius Franklin to culminate a 13-play, 77-yard drive. The second: a 35-yard completion from Van Dyke to Key’Shawn Smith — Smith’s first touchdown of the season — on the opening play of the drive.
Tyrique Stevenson’s interception in the end zone with 2:28 left in the third quarter prevented a Southern Miss touchdown to secure UM’s cushion.
Xavier Restrepo led UM with six catches for 72 yards. Henry Parrish had 116 yards rushing and a touchdown on 24 carries. early, even though they didn’t start.
Knighton, after dealing with a soft-tissue injury late in training camp, ran for 17 yards on five carries. Nelson, who underwent surgery on his left knee in July and missed nearly all of fall camp, played both left tackle and right tackle.
Running back Henry Parrish Jr. and offensive lineman John Campbell Jr. both started their second straight games with those two working their way back from injuries. Parrish and Campbell were two of Miami’s top
The Hurricanes had to feel fortunate to get a 10-7 lead heading into halftime.
With 20 seconds remaining in the first half, Parrish barreled 1 yard for the UM touchdown. The Canes began the 10-play, 86-yard drive, their longest of the season in yardage, at their 14-yard line.
The drive included an 11-yard slant to Restrepo, 16-yard completion to Mike Redding III, 11-yard completion to Brashard Smith and 18-yard completion to Romello Brinson. It also included a 15-yard rush by Parrish that brought UM to the Southern Miss 30-yard line before Brinson’s catch.
UM scored first on a 30-yard field goal with 1:39 left in the opening quarter.
The Golden Eagles scored early in the second quarter on a 32-yard pass from Zach Wilcke to Jason Brownlee that culminated a six-play, 75-yard drive for a 7-3 lead.
“We’ve given up explosive plays and we’re not getting explosive plays, so we’ve got to go in there and just get better, grind, no BS, no nonsense,” Cristobal told WQAM at halftime.
“We’ve got to get to work, man.”
UM’s final six points performers last week, with Parrish scoring three touchdowns and Campbell receiving the highest Pro Football Focus grade of any of the Hurricanes’ starting offensive linemen.
Campbell’s play will leave Cristobal and Co. with a decision to make next week about which five offensive linemen to start at No. 6 Texas A&M. Nelson — who was a preseason All-American, according to The Athletic, College Football News and Athlon — might be too talented to keep on the bench, which means Cristobal came on fourth-quarter field goals of 33 yards and 48 yards.
Susan Miller Degnan: 305-376-3366, @smillerdegnan
might have to sort through some moving pieces on his line.
On Saturday, it was just important for Nelson to see some live action.
“Zion had a great spring and he’s missed all the time leading up to about two weeks ago,” Cristobal said. “When you’re an offensive lineman, you need those reps . ... He knocked a lot of the rust out today.”
THIS AND THAT
Star defensive tackle Leonard Taylor and offensive lineman Jakai
AClark both played after leaving Game 1 early due to injuries. Clark started his second straight game at center and Taylor, who made his first career start against Bethune-Cookman, rotated in along the defensive line and finished with two solo tackles, two tackles for loss and one sack.
Logan Sagapolu was fully dressed after missing the opener. Fellow offensive lineman Laurence Seymore did not dress for undisclosed reasons.
Cristobal heaped praise upon Anez Cooper for his debut performance against Wildcats and carved out a role for the offensive lineman against Southern Miss (0-2) in Week 2. The freshman mostly wore No. 37 and lined up as a jumbo-sized tight end — really, a sixth offensive lineman — for about a dozen plays against the Golden Eagles.
Freshman Isaiah Horton suited up for the Hurricanes after serving a one-game suspension to start his career. Fellow wide receiver Jacolby George and safety Jalen Harrell remained inactive, serving the final game of their two-game suspensions.
AAASusan Miller Degnan: 305-376-3366, @smillerdegnan