Hurricanes tops in turnover margin

CORAL GABLES — A little confidence never hurts when preparing to face one of the nation’s top-ranked teams.

One of the things the Hurricanes can take pride in as they continue getting ready to face No. 6 Clemson is that no team in the country has a better turnover margin than they do.

Miami enters Saturday’s game with a +13 turnover margin, having lost the ball just twice while its defense has forced opponents into 11 interceptions and four lost fumbles.

Leading the way for the Miami defense is safety Artie Burns, who has a team-high five interceptions, while Rayshawn Jenkins has three.

Now, Miami’s secondary, and its defense as a whole, is preparing for the Tigers and quarterback Deshaun Watson, the ACC preseason player of the year, who is 10-1 as Clemson’s starter and is coming off his second career 400-yard passing game.

Though Watson has thrown seven interceptions through the Tigers’ first six games, the Hurricanes expect forcing him into mistakes will be a challenge.

“Those are two areas we set out to fix — our turnover ratio and our penalties,” Hurricanes coach Al Golden said. “We’re making progress with our turnover ratio and, obviously, we have to continue to make progress with our penalties. We’re going to get challenged. The ball is going to get challenged this weekend.”

Next game: UM vs. Clemson, noon Saturday, ABC