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Miami Beats North Carolina Convincingly

In what was definitely their most dominating ACC victory in many years, and maybe ever, your Miami Hurricanes beat the North Carolina Tar Heels in convincing fashion 47-10 at Hard Rock Stadium Thursday night.

Over 60,000 fans packed Hard Rock Stadium to witness No. 16 Miami (4-1, 1-0 ACC) thrash the visiting Tar Heels (1-3, 1-1 ACC) on Thursday night. The Hurricanes racked up 354 yards of total offense while running just 46 plays and the defense tallied 14 tackles for loss, forced a school record-tying six turnovers and scored three times in a commanding win over their division rival.
 
"Overall, just a great win," Miami head coach Mark Richt said. "1-0 in conference play. That's what we wanted to be. Now we have a little bit of rest, a little more rest than usual for next one against Florida State. We're looking forward to that."
 

North Carolina was the last team to beat the Hurricanes at home, but the win Thursday night was Miami's 12th straight regular season home win dating back to October 15, 2016 -- the longest such streak for the Canes since winning 26 straight from 1999 through 2003.
 
"First half, I don't think we could really play a lot better – offense, defense, special teams," Richt said. "I was very encouraged by what happened there."
 
Miami's defense doubled the Hurricanes' score when Shaquille Quarterman sacked Elliott to force a fumble that was recovered by Jonathan Garvin and returned nine yards for the Canes' first defensive touchdown of the season. It was Miami's first fumble returned for a touchdown since Michael Jackson against Notre Dame in 2016.
 
"It's special because even in the other games you could see sometimes the ball comes out, it is not actually a turnover," Garvin said. "But then we pick it up, we scoop it and then he had the guys, three men blocking for him. So you could see it come into fruition today. So something that we constantly practice. It just came to light really. "
 

Miami's defense struck again on UNC's following possession, as Surratt was pressured by Gerald Willis III and the quarterback threw an interception to defensive end Joe Jackson who then took the ball 42 yards to the end zone for the Hurricanes' second defensive score of the night and put the Canes ahead, 24-10. 
 
"Not a lot of times you get to see the defensive ends run," Jackson said. "I feel like I got pretty good speed, so I put a little show on for you tonight."
 
"Joe Jackson's one was probably my favorite touchdown from the defense tonight because he always said how he could play tight end and how he wants the ball," Perry said. "And he showed his feet tonight. It was very fun watching him."

"It's always fun to score points on defense, for the defense and the offense," Richt said. "Everybody loves it. The fans love it. There was a lot of ESPN highlights right there. Again, I felt first half, the entire team played like we should play. If we can put two halves together like that, offensively, we'll be in good shape. With the lead as it was, probably slowed things a little too much too early, in my play-calling."

The Hurricanes scored on defense for the third time, when Romeo Finley picked off Surratt on the opening play of the fourth quarter and returned the interception 83 yards for a touchdown. The junior wore the Turnover Chain for the first time in his career and scored his first career touchdown to put Miami up, 40-10. The touchdown tied a school record with three defensive touchdowns in a game, as Miami had three defensive scores on Sept. 23, 2000 in a 47-10 victory at West Virginia. 
 
"I don't remember three touchdowns… I mean, I don't remember that even as a fan watching a game and seeing a defense score three touchdowns," defensive coordinator Manny Diaz said. "Unless it's a JV game or something. But our guys, the thing I will give them credit for is we pressured the quarterback and we made the play. We didn't almost catch it. We caught the ball, we tucked it in and brought it back for a touchdown."
 
Redshirt senior Trayone Gray added Miami's final score of the night, a one-yard touchdown with 4:04 remaining in the game, to wrap up an 11-play, 61-yard scoring drive that put Miami ahead, 47-10.
 
"Second half, with a big lead, offensively [we were] trying to slow the game down a little bit and be a little more conservative," Richt said. "Not very good at that. Anyway, at the very end, we were able to hold the ball about six or seven minutes and give the defense a break. What happens when you score touchdowns on defense is you've got to go back and play defense again. So the time of possession for them was pretty high. We only ran 40-something plays – we had 46 plays. A lot had to do with just the fact that we were scoring on defense and how we were having to go play defense again." 

Game Day Blog: Miami vs North Carolina

Proceed as planned. Game day rules are in effect.

Take a shot each time the turnover chain makes an appearance.

Canespace Prediction: UM 34 - UNC 13.

UM Beats FIU

The University of Miami football team beat Florida International University in convincing fashion last Saturday by dominating the line of scrimmage.

The best coach of the best team in the Country showed why they are so great.

The margin of victory was only 14 points in the end it made no difference.

It was really great.

And that is all.

Game Day Blog: UM vs FIU

Proceed as planned. Game day rules apply.

Take a shot for every time the turover chain makes an appearance.

Game for control of the 305 starts at 3:30 pm at Hard Rock Stadium.

Back It Up Baby

Through three games, Miami is No. 1 in the country in tackles for loss with 35 and rank first in third down conversion percentage defense, holding opponents to a 16% conversion rate. The entire Hurricanes defense is proud of its accomplishments and eager to maintain its status atop the NCAA.
 
"That is just a testament to the entire defense," defensive lineman Pat Bethel said. "Whether it's the coaches calling the plays and stuff like that or all of us on the defensive side are playing together like that and stopping dudes before they get to the line, that's always a big deal. And being able to lead the country is huge. We will try to keep that up."
 

The Canes have 17 different players that have combined for 35 tackles for loss over three games. Redshirt senior defensive lineman Gerald Willis leads the Canes with 7.0, while sophomore defensive lineman Jonathan Garvin has 6.0. 
 
"It starts with the style of play here," defensive line coach Jess Simpson said. "We talk about getting our feet across the line of scrimmage, running off the ball, never void of fundamentals – for the most part, our guys have done that really well. We can obviously do it even better. That's kind of our mindset and where we start from. That's ground zero for us."
 
Many assume that Miami is racking up tackles for loss because it is constantly blitzing, but defensive coordinator Manny Diaz assures that the Canes' success has nothing to do with trickery or exotic blitz schemes.
 
"We blitz very infrequently…it's not a ton this year," Diaz said. "We always are accused of blitzing more than we actually do because we play so downhill. Mike Pinckney made a tackle for loss last week for a seven- or eight-yard loss on a running play that looked like a blitz, but it's not. The gap opened, he read 'run' and shot in there before the lineman could get him. Our guys want to play downhill. We want to play on the other side of the line of scrimmage. When you've got guys like Gerald that are causing disruption amongst the offensive line, it's easy for the linebackers to find cracks in there to get TFLs."
 

Willis and Garvin have been especially impressive in 2018. In the first two seasons under Diaz and his defensive coaching staff, Miami had a total of six individual game performances of at least 3.0 tackles for loss. The Canes already have four such games in 2018 – two by Willis and two by Garvin.
 
"It means we're doing what we're supposed to do because that's a goal we set and we're achieving it," Garvin said. "All we have to do is keep being in our playbook, being in film study, and keep doing what we're supposed to do so we can make it happen." 
 
Diaz has been very impressed with Willis, who will serve as team captain for the second time in four games when the Canes face off against FIU on Saturday at 3:30 p.m. in Hard Rock Stadium. He leads the ACC and ranks fourth nationally in tackles for loss, averaging 2.3 per game.
 
"Gerald is playing as good as anybody we've had here, for sure," Diaz said. "He has always been quick and disruptive, but he's playing so strong and physical at the point of attack. You've got to give some credit to Jess Simpson and the way he is working with all of our guys on the defensive line. Our TFL [tackles for loss] numbers and sack numbers are all spread out among a big group of people, but Gerald certainly leads the charge."
 

Willis' success has been pushing his fellow defensive linemen to try and match his performances. The internal motivation has resulted in consistent excellence on Saturdays.
 
"We make it a big part, especially, not just on the defense or on the team, but especially on the D-line to kind of fire each other up," bethel said. "And you know, guys seeing him do that is like, 'okay, I got to get him now. I have got to compete with him now.' And I think that is a big part about pushing each other."
 
Other defensive linemen have benefitted from Willis' dominance, as teams are forced to try and double-team him and that opens opportunities for the rest of the talented players to wreak havoc in the backfield. Garvin has noticed teams have begun adding more layers to their protection schemes to try and slow the charging Hurricane defenders.
 
"What everyone likes to do is not leave any of us with one-on-one matchups since the first game," Garvin said. "Since the first game, they did that once and regretted it. It won't just be double teams on him."  
 

While Willis has been the headliner, the Canes have gotten plenty of disruption in the opposing backfield from a variety of defensive linemen.
 
"Joe Jackson has played really, really hard and been really, really solid," Simpson said. "Jonathan Garvin has done a super job and is a rising star. He could really be a great player. He cares about the game, it's important to him. Some of those other young guys have done a good job as well."
 
Sophomore Jonathan Ford and freshman Nesta Jade Silvera are two other young linemen that have caught the attention of their defensive line coach. Simpson loves how well the 6-foot-5, 300 lb. Ford is moving and penetrating and is encouraged with the growth Silvera has shown since he arrived on campus over the summer.
 
"I've seen a guy who's hungry and wants to learn, who knows he has a lot to learn but has had a great attitude about it," Simpson said of SIlvera. "I always talk about getting one percent better. If you look at his progression through camp, you can slowly see him starting to climb and do things a little bit better every day. That's what ball is – the details of learning how to do the fundamentals, the details of the fundamentals and being able to take those drills to the field and being able to execute in those 11-on-11 situations."

Game Day Blog: Miami vs Toledo

Proceed as planned.

Miami scores on their first drive and is up 7-0 early in the first quarter.

Rout Improves Ranking

The Miami Hurricanes moved up one spot in each major poll Sunday, checking in at No. 21 in the Associated Press Top 25 and No. 20 in the Coaches Poll. 

The Hurricanes, who routed Savannah State 77-0 at Hard Rock Stadium on Saturday night, were ranked No. 22 by the AP and No. 21 in the coaches' poll last week after losing badly to LSU at AT&T Stadium in Dallas.

Sophomore defensive lineman Jon Garvin, who delivered an eight-tackle performance, and freshman tight end Brevin Jordan, who totaled career-best marks in catches (seven), receiving yards (52) and touchdowns (two), were among Miami's top performers against the Tigers.

Miami's position of No. 21 in the AP Top 25 marked the 20th straight appearance in the poll, extending the sixth-longest streak in program history. Miami's 20th consecutive position in the AP poll represent the 10th-longest active streak in the country.

The Miami Hurricanes continue their schedule on Saturday, Sept. 15 with a trip to Toledo, Ohio for a match up against the Rockets (1-0).

Kickoff for the match up, set for broadcast on ESPN2, 560 WQAM and 990 AM ESPN Deportes is set for 12 p.m. ET.

The Texas Chain Saw Massacre

We came, we saw, we got massacred Texas Chain Saw style. 

That was the story of your Miami Hurricanes visit to AT&T Stadium in Dallas, Texas on the Sunday before Labor Day.

The stadium was as beautiful as advertised but the LSU Tigers mauled Miami and won convincingly 33-17 in a totally lopsided affair.

The game was basically close until the end of the first quarter but was never in doubt beyond that as Miami simply could not score.

Blood and guts were everywhere and it was not pretty as the Hurricanes got sawed up big time in "The Big D".

The same old UM offense under Mark Richt showed up and stunk up the place in another hapless and pitiful performance. They had no clue what to do or how to do it and looked lost and confused. Every phase of the offense was poor.

The Miami defense also did not hold up their end of the bargain as they got beat physically and mentally over and over again. The vaunted and often feared turnover chain never made it out of its carrying case, and as a result, the momentum never swung for the Hurricanes.

It was a horrible game and a horrible way to waste a couple thousand dollars on supporting what has now appears to be a bad investment.

Based on this performance, here is what we think about the current situation and what should happen now:

1. Richt is an average head coach and has not lived up to the hype (his team was completely unprepared).
2. Richt is a below average offensive coordinator (his play calling and the offensive execution were awful).
3. His son should be fired at QB coach tomorrow. He hasn't done anything for anybody.
4. QB Malik Rosier is not good. He is inaccurate and inconsistent at best and has regressed since last year.
5. The offensive line is itself offensive and their coach should be fired yesterday. Weakest link on the team.
6. The Canes should go for it on fourth down and whatever because their punter and special teams are embarrassing. 
7. The defense needs to go back to basics and stop telegraphing their blitzes before the snap.
8. The fans, cheerleaders and band are the best part of this "team".

This nonsense needs to stop and stop now. Otherwise this season will be lost, and this team will regress once again.

And that is simply too much to take for the Hurricane faithful who spend BIG money to celebrate their team, not to suffer humiliation.