Depleted Canes squad aims to end bowl malaise
The often maddening, sometimes exhilarating 2023 football season draws to a close for the University of Miami on Thursday in the city that never sleeps.
The Hurricanes only hope that this time the result will be uplifting.
Miami — with starting quarterback Jacurri Brown playing for the first time this season — will face Rutgers at 2:15 p.m. (ESPN) in the Bad Boy Mowers Pinstripe Bowl at New York’s Yankee Stadium.
The Hurricanes (7-5) are 1-10 in their past 11 bowls. They finished 5-7 last year and didn’t qualify for the postseason. In 2021, Miami was to play Washington State in the Sun Bowl, but pulled out because of a UM outbreak of COVID-19.
Rutgers (6-6), coached by former UM defensive coordinator Greg
Schiano, is 6-5 in its bowl games dating to 1978. The Scarlet Knights, on a four-game losing streak, have lost three of their last four bowls and haven’t won one since 2014.
The good news for the Hurricanes:
The weather is forecast to be unseasonably warm (with a slight chance of rain). Temperatures should hover in the low 50s most of the game, unlike in 2018, the only other time UM played in the Pinstripe. That night the thermometer dipped into the 30s, and UM lost 35-3 to Wisconsin.
The last UM bowl victory was Dec. 28, 2016, against West Virginia in the Russell Athletic Bowl in Orlando. Before that, the last UM bowl victory was on Dec. 31, 2006, against Nevada in the MPC Computers Bowl in Boise, Idaho.
That’s a serious drought. “Anybody that’s playing in the postseason has earned the opportunity,’’ UM coach Mario Cristobal said Wednesday during a Zoom session. “That’s something our team takes to heart. Hard work pays off, and this team has certainly done a
really good job of fighting through adversity. For us, that’s what it’s all about.”
No matter how much Cristobal’s Canes have improved their attitudes toward the postseason from former years — Cristobal said the Hurricanes “had an arrogant approach’’ unless they were “playing for it all’’ — the reality is that this is not the same team it was even a month ago.
Several Hurricanes, including six starters, have left to enter the NFL Draft or transfer to another program. The most important of their positions: quarterback.
Fourth-year junior quarterback Tyler Van Dyke transferred to Wisconsin. And backup Emory Williams, the true freshman who started two of his five games, sustained a compound fracture of his left, nonthrowing arm last month at Florida State.
In their place Thursday: sophomore Brown, who hasn’t played a single snap this season after playing in eight games — two of them starts — in 2022.
His backup is fifth-year senior walk-on Jayden George, who hasn’t played in a game for Miami.
“The whole team is excited for him,” Cristobal said of Brown. “He’s a tremendous competitor. He has shown when he’s gotten into games before that he’s extremely productive and can really make explosive plays.
When a guy like that gets the opportunity to have the spotlight on him and all the reps he’s had throughout the course of the last four weeks, it builds a lot of confidence.
“The confidence is reflected in his teammates and their approach to practice and their energy and their enthusiasm that surrounds him.
“...So we’re looking forward to him playing.”
FINAL GAME?
UM followers are waiting to see if this will be
Brown’s final game as a Hurricane; he might choose to transfer in light of Miami planning to sign a top quarterback from the portal. When asked, Cristobal declined to speak about quarterbacks in the portal.
Last season, the 6-4, 220-pound Brown was 27 of 45 (60 percent) for 230 yards and three touchdowns, with three interceptions.
His two starts included an excellent performance Nov. 12 at Georgia Tech. He was 14 of 19 for 136 yards and three touchdowns, with 87 yards rushing, in a 35-14 victory.
Brown also started at Clemson in UM’s penultimate game in 2022. He was hit hard and sacked three times, completing 6 of 13 passes for 53 yards and no touchdowns with one interception.
Brown, a quick, agile runner who can take off and evade defenders, formerly struggled with accuracy. But offensive coordinator Shannon Dawson said recently he had been “great.’’
“He is excited and ready to go,’’ Dawson said. “There’s obviously things we’ll do with him that we won’t do with other people, but for the most part 80 to 90 percent of what we do is what we do.’’
Added Dawson: “His accuracy has been fine.’’
Expect to see a lot of running, including some by possible wildcat fill-in Brashard Smith, UM’s speedy kick returner.
Miami, which opened weeks ago as a 41⁄2-point favorite, was a 21⁄2-point underdog Wednesday.
The Miami starters who have opted out of the bowl en route to the NFL Draft include safeties Kam Kinchens and James Williams; defensive tackle Leonard Taylor III; and offensive linemen Matt Lee (center) and Javion Cohen (left guard).
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Others, among them veteran linebacker Corey Flagg Jr., running back Don Chaney Jr., defensive end Jahfari Harvey, 6-5 wide receiver Colbie Young, and, of course, Van Dyke, are transferring and no longer on the team.
That makes for a new lineup dotted with inexperience and youth.
But Cristobal said sixthyear senior starting defensive tackle Branson Deen, who is eligible for the draft, will play.
The coach also said redshirt freshman running back TreVonte’ Citizen, who tore his ACL before his first season in 2022, will be available.
Defensive linemen Akheem Mesidor and Nyjalik
Kelly will not play because of lingering injuries.
SCARLET KNIGHTS
The Scarlet Knights have had no major defections from their lineup, with Big Ten leading rusher Kyle Monangai (1,099 yards and seven TDs) recently announcing he’s returning for 2024.
Expect Rutgers to pound its run game Thursday, given the possible rain and one of the nation’s worstranked passing games. Rutgers, with QB Gavin Wimsatt, is ranked 124th of 130 FBS teams in passing offense (142 yards a game), 120th in total offense (307.4) and 102nd in scoring (22.6 points a game).
But Rutgers is strong on defense, ranked 20th overall (313.7 yards allowed a game), 27th in scoring (21 points allowed a game) and 10th in passing yards allowed (175.9).
“There’s a lot of really fine programs that are not playing in the postseason,’’ said Schiano, “so we don’t ever take it for granted.
“At Rutgers our goal was to get it back to where we’re going to bowl games every year. Then hopefully you’re playing for championships. That’s the plan. ... Now we have a great opportunity to play a really good Miami team at Yankee Stadium. We’re really fired up to do that.”