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CHARLOTTESVILLE (pre-flight home) -- Hurricanes quarterback Brad Kaaya didn't know what hit him last night at Scott Stadium -- literally and figuratively.
Neither did receiver Herb Waters.
Thankfully, both are alive, if not well, this morning.
Waters, a warm, friendly junior from Homestead who is always smiling, was hit hard last night on a helmet-to-helmet episode during a kickoff late in the third quarter. From what I recall, he stumbled backward and his head kind of snapped back, and then he fell.
Doctors and trainers and lots of other people surrounded him for quite a while, and then he was strapped to a gurney and driven by cart off the field, as his teammates prayed on their knees and star tailback Duke Johnson cried.
He was taken by ambulance to University of Virginia Medical Center.
Thankfully, just before midnight, UM reported that Waters was released from the hospital and was cleared to return home with the team. That's awesome news that all of us needed to hear.
If you recall, last year's last home game was against Virginia, and in that game, UM cornerback Ladarius Gunter had the same type of experience with a neck injury. He also ended up being fine, after wearing a neck brace.
"I wouldn't say we lost our concentration, but everyone was sad after that,'' said UM safety Jamal Carter, who made his first career start because Deon Bush is injured (hamstring) and didn't travel. "He just waved to us and gave us a thumbs up so that we knew he was alright.''
Speaking of Deon Bush, UM needed him badly last night. After watching the touchdown play deemed No. 2 on ESPN SportsCenter last night -- the 23-yard pass that Canaan Severin of UVA acrobatically grabbed with one hand (gorgeous catch) and then fell into the end zone with 3:21 left in the second quarter to make it 10-7 Virginia -- it seems Bush would have known just what to do to prevent that.
Carter leaped awkwardly trying to make a play near, but not with, Severin. He needed to defend Severin and put a hurtin' on him (legally, of course). He also, obviously, shouldn't have spiked the ball after intercepting a 43-yard pass by Greyson Lambert with 12:30 left in the third quarter.
What was he thinking on the spike? I don't think much. I just think he's young and was very psyched about the pick and did something that he won't do again.
As for poor Kaaya, after getting sacked four times and pummeled much of the night, it's understandable that he was shaky and rushed some throws and made some errant ones. The kid is a fighter. Love his attitude.
"I told the team, 'You know, we've got senior night coming up next week. Forget about the seniors. Let's do it for Coach Golden. He always puts the team on his back, never pinpointing anybody. We need to just go out and do it for him. Let's not do it for anybody else. Let's do it for Coach Golden."'
Walford was basically asked why he felt compelled to defend Golden.
"Because, man, that's a great coach," Walford said. "He wants it as bad as we do. Every single week, if we come up short, he never points the finger at no player. He always takes the blame. I feel like it's time for the players to start taking the blame and lay it on the line for coach."
Linebacker Denzel Perryman, who had another impressive performance, with 15 tackles and a forced fumble, sat near Walford and agreed wholeheartedly. Both will soon be in the NFL.
"Clive pretty much just said it all," Perryman said. "It's time for us to take the blame and get the load off coach Golden. Like Clive said, he always gets up here in front of you all and puts the losses on the coaches. But at the end of the day it's on us. We're out there making the plays."
Perryman said he takes the criticism of Golden "real personal because a lot of people are looking at it from the outside in. They really don't know what's going on. Outsiders, they think they know football. That really gets to me.
"Whether it's family, friends, or just normal fans, that kind of stuff … they criticize the coaches, but little do they know, [the coaches] put us in great situations to make plays."
Added Walford: "I feel the same as Denzel. You've got a lot of people who think they know football looking from the outside in, that don't really know all the hard work and dedication that goes into calling certain plays and doing certain things. Me personally, I think coach Golden is a great coach. He always puts us in the right situation to come up and win the game.
"It ain't on the coaches. The coaches coach. The players play. The players have to actually get out there and win the game."
UM's final regular-season game is at 7 p.m. Saturday against Pittsburgh. At this point, nothing is a given, though UM plays very well at Sun Life Stadium. Hope some fans show for Senior Night.
Something kind of crummy for Hurricanes 'round the nation crossed my mind more than once. If UM should lose next week and then lose the bowl game, it would end the season 6-7.
Then again, if Miami wins its next two, it would finish 8-5. OK, not fabulous, to say the least. But it beats the alternative.
Off to the airport.
' prez of baseball ops to deliver keynote address at annual dinner
CORAL GABLES, Fla. – Miami Marlins president of baseball operations Michael Hill will serve as the keynote speaker at the 2015 First Pitch Baseball Banquet, head coach Jim Morris announced Thursday.
"We're honored to have Mike speak at our banquet," Morris said. "He's a great representative of college baseball and what it can do for you. He rose to his position very quickly at the age of just 43."
A 1993 graduate of Harvard University, Hill was selected senior class marshal and doubled as the Crimson's top rusher on the gridiron and baseball team captain. A 31st-round MLB Draft selection by the Texas Rangers, Hill played two seasons of professional baseball before joining the Tampa Bay Devil Rays' front office in 1995.
Hill has served in multiple roles in the Marlins' player development arm since joining the organization in 2002, rising through the ranks to general manager and eventually president of baseball operations. He spent five seasons in Tampa Bay and three seasons with the Colorado Rockies.
He was appointed to his current position with the Marlins in September 2013.
"He has a lot of pressure on him to build something special with the Marlins, and his first big signing was Giancarlo Stanton – I'd say that was a good one to start with," Morris said.
The son of a Cuban mother and African-American father, Hill is married to his wife Vivian and has three sons: Donovan, Xavier and Baron.
"It's a great start. It's always fun to know we're right there, and it's time to open our season," Morris said. "To have a guy Mike speak is even better - he represents our community not only as a Marlin, but as a Cuban-American and a college guy who has been successful."
The First Pitch Banquet is slated for Feb. 5, 2015. Stay tuned to HurricaneSports.com for more information about the First Pitch Banquet and other baseball preseason festivities.
MIAMI (6-4, 3-3 ACC) at VIRGINIA (4-6, 2-4 ACC)
> Kickoff, TV, radio: 7 p.m., ESPN2; WQAM (560 AM); radio CARACOL (1260 AM, Spanish).
> History: Miami leads 6-5 and won last year's meeting 45-26 at Sun Life Stadium.
> Background: Cavaliers, who beat Louisville earlier this year and fought UCLA tough at home before falling 28-20, have dropped four in a row and are playing for their bowl lives with an extra bye week to prepare for UM. The Hurricanes are coming off a tough-to-swallow 30-26 loss at home to Florida State, but have played their best under Golden over the last five weeks.
> Favorite: UM by 5 1/2
> Counting recruiting stars - Miami: Canes have three Rivals.com five-star recruits (RB Duke Johnson, CB Tracy Howard, DE Chad Thomas), 15 four-star recruits (eight on defense), 22 three-star recruits (11 on each side), 3 two-star recruits (two offense) and 2 no-star recruits (starters Nantambu Fentress and Thurston Armbrister) on their depth chart. The draft: Among that group 10 players are projected to be taken in next year's draft according to NFLDraftScout.com. Those are: RB Duke Johnson (2nd RD), MLB Denzel Perryman (2nd RD), LT Ereck Flowers (2nd-3rd RD), CB Ladarius Gunter (4th RD), WR Phillip Dorsett (4th RD), TE Clive Walford (4th RD), DE Anthony Chickillo (5th-6th RD), LG Jon Feliciano (6th-7th RD), DL Olsen Pierre (6th-7th) and C Shane McDermott (7th-FA).
> Counting recruiting stars - Virginia: Cavalier have three Rivals.com five-star recruits who are all freshmen (RB Taquan Mizzell, DT Andrew Brown, S Quin Blanding), 8 four-star recruits (five on defense), 28 three-star recruits (17 on offense), 8 two-star recruits (four each side) and four no-star recruits on their depth chart. The draft: Among that group, only one player is projected to be taken in next year's draft according to NFLDraftScout.com. Strong safety Anthony Harris, tabbed a second to third rounder and the second best at his position.
> When Virginia runs the ball: The Cavaliers like to run a balanced offense, but the last two weeks they've been forced to throw more in losses to Georgia Tech (35-10) and FSU (34-20), their only double-digit losses of the season. Senior Kevin Parks (5-8, 200) gets the brunt of the work, but hasn't exactly dazzled along with the overall running game, which ranks 92 in yards per game (142.0) and 93rd in yards per attempt (3.81). The Hurricanes, meanwhile, have done a nice job since getting torched for 318 yards by Georgia Tech. UM has given up just 307 yards rushing on 111 carries since then (2.76 a carry). Parks did run for 130 yards last year against UM so the Canes can't sleep on him. Edge: Miami.
> When Virginia throws the ball: Sophomore quarterback Greyson Lambert ranks 91st in QB rating (116.42), 52nd in completion percentage (159.94) and has thrown more intercetions (9) than TDS (8). Five different pass-catchers have at least 20 receptions this year. The top receivers are senior Darius Jennings (24 rec., 466 yards, 2 TDs), junior Canaan Severin (34-441-4) and senior Miles Gooch (24-371-1). Mizzell catches a lot of balls out of the backfield (33-190-0) as does Parks (28-166-2). The Cavaliers rank 103rd at converting red zone trips into TDs (50%), but they are good on third down (44.10%, 38th). The Hurricanes, ranked 22nd in pass defense (192.9 yards per game) and 21st in opposing QB rating (110.13), faced a much more talented team last week. This week UM will likely be without starting safety Deon Bush, who leads the nation with five forced fumbles and has had a stellar season, but was listed as doubtful with a hamstring injury. FSU scored its final 13 points after Bush left the game against UM. Virginia has allowed just 12 sacks all season (19th fewest). UM has produced 25 sacks (38th most). The difference here could be turnovers. Virginia has coughed it up eight times in four consecutive losses. UM has taken it away 11 times over its last four games. Edge: Miami.
> When UM runs the ball: The Cavaliers held the nation's third-leading rusher, Pitt running back James Conner, to a season-low 83 yards back on Oct. 3. And now they'll take their shot at trying to slow down UM's Duke Johnson, who has eclipsed the 100-yard mark six games in a row and ranks eighth nationally with 134.3 yards per game. Virginia is giving up just 3.22 yards per carry this season (13th nationally) and 118.6 yards per game on the ground (15th nationally). A lot of what UM does running the football, though, will be predicated on how the Cavs line up defensively in pass coverage. When teams have lined up against the Hurricanes in zone, they've preferred to run and had lots of success doing that lately. Sophomore Gus Edwards, who missed the FSU game with an ankle injury, should be back for UM to provide depth. Still, this is going to be a stiff test for both sides. Edge: Split.
> When UM throws the ball: Virginia's defense, run by Jon Tenuta, lives and dies off turnovers. The rank eighth nationally with 95 points off 24 takeaways. The Hurricanes had been doing a good job with freshman quarterback Brad Kaaya protecting the football. But the Canes coughed it up three times last week against FSU including twice on fumbles by tight ends. Virginia's secondary has talent (freshman safety Quin Blanding has over 100 tackles) and experience with strong safety Anthony Harris and cornerback Brandon Phelps back there (65 starts combined). But they haven't been dominant. The Cavs rank 71st in passing defense (229.2 yards per game), 56th in opposer passer rating (12.32) and they've given up 16 TD passes (63rd) despite the 13 interceptions. They essentially live and die with the turnover and sacks (27, 28th most nationally). If Kaaya and the Hurricanes can throw against Virginia's Cover 2, Cover 4 and Cover 8 packages underneath they'll have success. UM struggled last week when FSU went from playing man-to-man in the first half to zone in the second. Edge: Miami.
> Special teams: Virginia kicker Ian Frye is a semifinalist for the Lou Groza Award. He's made 17-of-20 field goal attempts this season. He's missed from 46, 52 and 50 yards out. UM kicker Michael Badgley made career-long 45- and 46-yard field goals last week against FSU, but had another extra point blocked and missed a 29-yard field goal. The Cavaliers haven't returned a kickoff or a punt for a touchdown and haven't blocked a punt, a field goal or extra point this season. They did surrender a kickoff return of a touchdown in the loss at BYU, but have only surrendered two kick returns of 30 yards or more all season. UM has allowed seven kick returns of 30-yards or more including one for a score against Louisville. Edge: Virginia.
> Prediction: Several signs point to a Canes letdown. There's the FSU hangover; Virginia, coming off a bye, is playing for its bowl life; it's going to be cold and in the 30s. Truth is Virginia isn't that good and Miami is motivated. The Cavaliers generate much of their offense off turnovers and if the Hurricanes can avoid those they should win this game easy. I'm betting on just one or two UM mistakes and more from the home team. UM 36, Virginia 22.
It looks like four Hurricanes will be heading to this year's senior bowl: linebacker Denzel Perryman, cornerback Ladarius Gunter, receiver Phillip Dorsett and tight end Clive Walford.
Eric Galko, an editor at Optimum Scouting who also provides content for the Sporting News and the National Football Post, tweeted the news out Wednesday evening.
Expecting all four @MiamiHurricanes Senior Bowl invites (Perryman/Gunter/Walford/Dorsett) to accept. Doubt we see many guys pass this year.
— Eric Galko (@OptimumScouting) November 19, 2014
NFLDraftScout.com projects all four players as draft picks for the Hurricanes with Perryman currently tabbed as the best of the senior group at 58th overall (2nd round) -- seven spots behind junior tailback Duke Johnson, considered UM's top draft prospect.
Walford, who is enjoying a stellar senior season, has seen his draft stock rise over the last couple weeks and is now tabbed as the second-best available tight end, and the 74th best prospect (2nd or 3rd rounder). Junior left tackle Ereck Flowers is also receiving a lot of love after his stellar performance against FSU two weeks removed from knee surgery. Flowers is tabbed the 77th best prospect and the ninth best draft-eligible offensive tackle (2nd or 3rd rounder).
Truth is, though, Flowers could soar even higher -- maybe into the first round.
"I think he'll go first round or early second," an NFL scout who spoke on the condition of anonymity told me by phone Thursday. "I haven't watched the [FSU] tape yet. But I don't have to. He's a big, physical, good player. And he's tough as hell."
In article by NFLDraftScout.com's Rob Rang on Wednesday Flowers was been tabbed the 30th best prospect overall.
30. Ereck Flowers, OT, 6-5, 322, 5.26, Jr, Miami: Flowers returns to the Big Board after a very impressive performance against Mario Edwards, Jr. and Florida State. He dropped off the list after undergoing knee surgery in late October but certainly looked no worse for wear against the defending champs. Flowers is light on his feet and balanced in pass protection. He is aggressive and active as a run blocker, including looking for defenders in pursuit. If Flowers checks out medically, he's a likely first-round pick.
Gunter is tabbed as the 18th best available cornerback in the draft and projected to go in the fourth round along with Dorsett, ranked the 20th best receiver.
Senior defensive end Anthony Chickillo, now expected to play at Virginia on Saturday and make his 45th consecutive start, is rated the 18th best defensive end and is given a 4th or 5th round grade. Other Hurricanes seniors on NFLDraftScout.com's projected board include outside linebacker Thurston Armbrister (210th overall, 6th round), defensive tackle Olsen Pierre (228th overall, 6th-7th round), guard Jon Feliciano (234th overall, 6th-7th round), and center Shane McDermott (298th overall, 7th round-free agent).
Defensive end Anthony Chickillo, who hurt his knee in the loss to Florida State and missed the first two days of practice this week before returning on Wednesday, wasn't on Thursday's injury report for Saturday's game at Virginia. But safety Deon Bush, who was hurt on the same play Chickillo was late in the quarter, is listed as doubtful.
Sophomore Jamal Carter got most of Bush's work in the fourth quarter versus FSU at safety alongside former walk-on Nantambu Fentress. Bush ranks third on the team with 48 tackles and is tied for the lead nationally with five forced fumbles. He had an interception and a forced fumble versus FSU.
Backup offensive lineman Alex Gall, who last played some against North Carolina according to UM's participation chart, has been ruled out.
It stinks to be 6-4. It stinks to lose Florida State. Nobody in Coral Gables is happy about that.
But coach Al Golden and his players said Monday you can't lose sight of the big picture. And that's that this team has improved over the last five weeks.
"You can't escape your record. Your record says what you are. But I think over the last five weeks we've gotten better," Golden said. "And we've gotten better with practice, better collectively in all three phases. Although we came up short, we can't lose sight. Those are the same things that gave us an opportunity to win that game the other night. But for a play here or a play there, we were going to do it.
"We need some guys to take the next step now and say 'Throw it to me. I'll make that tackle. I'll make that play. I'll block in terms of protection. Or I'll kick it through.' Whatever that case may be, whichever one of those plays can make a difference we've got to learn to make it and go do it. That starts with me and obviously the coaches and trickles down throughout the organization. There's no question we're getting better. We're learning. And now we've got to go play this team [Virginia]."
The Cavaliers are 4-6 and sputtering since getting off to a decent start. But Golden said the Cavs are tough.
"They can play rock 'em, sock 'em on offense, big physical team on offense," Golden said. "And a heck of a defense. I've said it before a million times before we even got to this week. It's going to be a great challenge at night Saturday."
Fifth-year senior offensive lineman Jon Feliciano said the goal now is to finish 9-4 again and win a bowl game.
"We haven't done that here for a while. That's are our new goal," Feliciano said. "I was talking about it and I've been thinking about it. If we started the season off right now where we are at right now I think it would have been another undefeated game going [against] Florida State. We're a better team than last year. This is probably the best team I've been a part of either the record doesn't show it. We're so much better than we were went we went up to Louisville."
Would anything less than 9-4 at this point be a disappointment?
"Ummm… yeah," Feliciano said after a long pause. "I don't know if I'm supposed to say that but personally yeah. I want to leave the program in an upwards motion when I leave here. We want to win the rest of our games."
Hurricanes senior Clive Walford has been selected as one of eight semifinalists for the John Mackey Award, given to the most outstanding collegiate tight end in the country.
Walford leads all UM receivers with 33 receptions this season and ranks second on the team with 522 receiving yards through 10 games. He's tied for the team lead with seven touchdown receptions.
A midseason All-America pick by Phil Steele, Walford stands as the most prolific tight end in UM history. The 6-4 senior has 1,599 career receiving yards and 14 career receiving touchdowns – both all-time bests for the position.
Joining Walford as semifinalists for the Mackey Award are E.J. Bibbs (Iowa State), Evan Engram (Mississippi), Ben Koyack (Notre Dame), Jimmay Mundine (Kansas), Nick O'Leary (Florida State), Jean Sifirn (Massachusetts) and Maxx Williams (Minnesota).
Walford is looking to become the second Mackey Award winner in UM history, joining Kellen Winslow II (2003).
"I don't know how there's a better one out there," Golden said. "He made a huge commitment to come back. He's never looked back. He's gotten better in every aspect. I think you guys know there were a lot of times in the last couple years where he would have gotten caught on that [61-yard TD catch versus Florida State]. That speaks to his strength, his endurance, his lower body strength to be able to rep that out for 50 yards against those guys. He's blocking hard. He's unselfish. We ask him to pass protect. We ask him to do everything a tight end needs to do. We don't just split him out [wide] there. He had to block two war daddies out there the other night. He's a big part of why we've been averaging what we've been doing the last five weeks in the run game. So, really excited that he's a leader for us right now and I know he's excited to finish this season."
> Safety Deon Bush (hamstring) and defensive end Anthony Chickillo (knee) were not at Monday's practice in shorts and hats because they were receiving treatment for their injuries. Golden said both players remain day-to-day.
> Golden said running back Gus Edwards (ankle) is doing "great." Edwards missed the Florida State game and Golden said he was sorely missed when Duke Johnson started cramping up and missing plays in the fourth quarter.
"It was really just Joe in his first game [versus FSU]," Golden said. "Joe did a really good job, but to shoulder the load late in the game late in that game was a challenge for him and something we were not really prepared for going in. No question that made a difference."
> What did Golden have to say about the news coming out of the University of Florida regarding coach Will Muschamp's exit at the end of the season?
"I have the utmost respect for him," Golden said. "I think he's an excellent coach. It's an unfortunate circumstance for he and the University of Florida... I think he's a world class coach. I think he's phenomenal."
Muschamp, a former defensive coordinator, might look good in green and orange. You never know.
> Golden said receiver Phillip Dorsett showed NFL scouts in the Florida State game he's not just a fast receiver who runs vertical routes.
"He's more elusive," Golden said. "He caught a bender over the middle against two high [safeties]. You have to have courage, you've got to have guts to do that. And he did that. And then, of course, how he's blocking speaks for itself."
> Offensive coordinator James Coley said freshman Brad Kaaya proved in his performance Saturday the stage wasn't too big for him.
Coley said Kaaya made a bunch of nice throws. Among the best: his 22-yard loop pass to Duke Johnson on third down; the 61-yard TD pass to Walford; the slant to Standish Dobard and the pass freshman Braxton Berrios dove for and dropped in the end zone.
"The more he plays the better he gets," Coley said. "He came out firing on all cylinders. I love the decision making he made for the entire four quarters. We executed really well in the first half. He had a couple balls tipped in the second half, but he was going to the right guy. So, as long as he approaches the game like he's been approaching it and he's systematic like he, is he's going to play good football for the Hurricanes."
Coley said the Hurricanes stayed aggressive in their play calling in the second half. The Seminoles simply played further back in coverage and tried to take the deep ball away.
"We wanted to win the game," Coley said. "When they got really deep we weren't going to be stupid and throw the ball into triple coverage. I thought Duke made some really good runs. He had some seven, eight yard pops that allowed us to convert some third and shorts early because they were taking shots. Sometimes we went 3rd and 1 we hit the post because they thought we were going to pound it. It's one of those deals where in a game like that every play counts. If there's a dropped ball it counts. If there's a fumble it counts. Because it adds on to the next play."
> Of that drop by Berrios in the end zone, Coley said: "Braxton's made that catch before against Georgia Tech. He's going to make it again. He's going to make that play."
From Sunday night's day-after loss to FSU teleconference with Miami coach Al Golden:
I know there are no moral victories, but are there things you can take away from last night and keep these kids thinking about the opportunity of next two games and what an 8-4 season would mean?
"We were better on third down than we have been, we controlled the clock. We had 74 plays to their 61. We had 19.8 yards per completion and 9.3 yards an attempt. There were a lot of things we did well in the game. In the end we needed to be plus 1 in the to margin, we had a couple of costly to and we didn't convert a lot of our shots.
"I'm looking at my sheet here.. 6 or 7 shots in the second half and other than the one we hit to Clive up the seam, we really didn't have the explosive plays we needed to get to knock them out, whether it was the one we dropped just before half and then we missed the field goal that was a big turnaround. Certain the third and 11 that we knocked up in the air and then they caught and scored, was a four point swing there. Any of those plays could be the difference in the game. Our kids are going to understand that. It's not going to make them feel better but they're going to understand that moving forward."
Regarding second half, was conditioning an issue, is depth an issue?
"They made explosive plays. They are a deeper team. I don't think there's any question about that. They made some plays and we didn't. We had some opportunities. It's not like I'm sitting here giving you a laundry list of 15 things and they all had to happen. We just needed a couple of those things, better execution on a play, we gave up two long run that we haven't given up in a long time and both of them were missed tackles on the line of scrimmage, one was a 26 yard run and one was a 44 yard run and both those times they ran through a tackle. We hadn't done that in a while. We obviously missed an extra point that was big and we missed a field goal. A lot of different things that we need to do better."
Pretty young team that has seen a lot, what do you want them to take from what they've seen so far?
"A lot of our guys are growing. We're playing the defending national champions last night with a starting freshman right tackle. Joe Yearby is getting a lot of reps and obviously Kaaya at quarterback. So it's a great challenge for those guys. They're going to learn a lot. That's not going to relieve anybody's pain. More than anything we've got to stay strong, stay together, the seniors and leaders have got to continue to lead and we've got to finish. We've got to finish the season, we've got to go to a bowl game and we've got to continually go to a bowl games and start winning them and understand how to do that process. Most of the guys on our team have only been to one bowl game. We've got to learn how to do that. It all starts with packing our bags and going to Charlottesville this week. We've got to pick ourselves up and get going because this is a good team we're playing and I think everybody knows it's an excellent defense."
The extra point misses this year?
"We work on it like crazy. We were a little slow on that one so obviously we increased the probability that they would block it. And of course they did block on it. We had good timing on the field goal; We just hooked it. That's something we work on all the time. We've been unfortunate there a little bit because we lost Sean Harvey who's on that unit. Sean Harvey is on the wing and we lost him on Wednesday for this game. Hopefully he'll be back next week but we've had an inordinate amount of injuries there and sometimes that impacts the timing a little bit so we have to keep working it. We have a young kicker that's kind of learning on the run as well. He's doing well. We just have to keep working with him."
LT Ereck Flowers' knee? How is he?
"As I said last night, he played his ass off. He's a warrior. He's a competitor. I know everybody here appreciates the effort that went into that. He welcomed that challenge and he played well. No setbacks. He's in here today getting treatments again. He's been disciplined with it, he's taking care of it and we expect him to really leave that behind now and finish this season really well."
In second half you guys were up 23-10 and you throw pass to TE and he lost the fumble. Offense went back to running. Is that when you guys decided to be more conservative?
"Again, as I'm looking at it, Stan fumbled on play 17 of the second half after a 20-yard gain. Play 19 we had a 28-yard run, on play 20 we had a shot and had Joe open – we ran Clive and I think Phillip deep; we tried to take a shot and then Brad went to the flat late and it got batted, otherwise Joe Yearby is going to have a 20-yard gain; On play 22 we had a wide-open Stan again on a seam and the ball got deflected; on play 24 we took a shot and got hit and we were incomplete and we had to kick a field goal. On play 28 we took another shot with Phillip and Stacy and we had to settle for a checkdown. Our whole – and that's not including the five shots before Stan fumbled the ball -- mannerism, everything we were trying to do was trying to knock them out. They were playing a little bit more Cover 2 so we were getting some good runs in there. The longest run of the game came.. at the beginning of the fourth quarter Duke had a 28-yard gain so they were giving us some cover 2 so we were making more 7,8,9 yard runs than the 3,4 and 5 variety. Hey, we're OK with that because with Duke, he's going to get an X (explosive) play. It doesn't have to be a pass.
"But we took some shots in the second half. I'm looking at 9 or 10 right here. Other than Clive, obviously Stan [Dobard] we threw a slant to and he fumbled it, but other than Clive's 21-yard completion the seventh play we didn't connect on the ones we needed to connect on. We opened up with a double post to start the second half and then four plays later we take a shot down the Florida State sideline. We got him open and it's just out of bounds. I told those guys, don't leave anything in the bag. We didn't. They made some plays. We didn't. We had our opportunities. End of story."
Linebackers Denzel Perryman, Raphael Kirby
Running back Duke Johnson, receiver Phillip Dorsett
On the effort of his team...
"I'm real proud of the effort. I think there's no question they prepared and entered the game believing and knowing that they were going to win. Obviously we were just a couple of plays short at the end of the day. They made a couple more plays than we did. That was the difference in the game."
On an incompletion call in the fourth quarter...
"I was communicating and there were about three or four different views of it. The guy that I was talking to was pretty sure he never had possession of it."
On the performance of Florida State in the second half...
"They made more plays than we did. It was a hard-fought game. That's what this game should be like. This game should be like this every year. I'm proud of our guys for fighting. They fought their tails off. They just made a couple more plays than we did. It was as physical as anything we've been involved with. Hats off to [Florida State]. They made a couple of plays when they needed to."
On his team's final offensive drive...
"We were in good shape. We had three timeouts and 1:30 [left on the clock]. After the made first, Brad [Kaaya] took a little too much time on the ball there. I think he got a little confused with the look and we had to use a timeout after an incompletion, I believe it was. That was disappointing. But it didn't have any bearing on whether it was 3rd & 9 and 4th & 9. We didn't make a play. We got hit on 3rd & 9, and intercepted on fourth [down]."
On the injuries to Anthony Chickillo and Deon Bush...
"It's too early to tell. That was a big loss. Both of those guys were playing really well. Not having [running back] Gus [Edwards], as much as we wanted to run the ball, I think that hurt. Gus was kind of a game-time decision. He just didn't look like he was where he needed to be."
On if there is any solace after an impressive performance by his team...
"Not in that locker room right now. Nope. We have to make a couple more plays, it's as simple as that. We turned it over a couple of times. They made a couple more plays than we did. And that's it."
On the performance of quarterback Brad Kaaya...
"He's doing a good job. We're asking him to do a lot. That's a big stage and a big moment. I think we certainly can take from this that it's not too big for him. He grew up a lot this season and obviously we just needed to finish it better. We stayed aggressive with our play-calling, we left too many X plays on the field on offense. We really did. A couple of overthrows, a couple that we did not connect on. It came back to hurt us."
On miscues, missed field goals, turnovers...
"You can't make those mistakes in a game like this. We held them to a pretty close field goal. Stan [Dobard] catches a slant and he looked like he got us about 20 or 25 yards and then he put it on the ground. I'm not sure if I'm exactly correct, but I think we would have been on the 35-yard line there – we're knocking on the door again there. In a game like that, there are a number of plays that we needed to make. We just came up a little bit short."
On field position after penalties...
"The one we had that backed us up, we ended up getting 40 yards on the field and were able to swing it. If you didn't have the 15-yard penalty there, you're in much better shape. Too tough ones there – facemask and a late hit out of bounds."
On the second-half injury to Duke Johnson...
"I think it was a cramp. I don't know specifically. It seemed like it was a cramp, at least I know it was early on. I don't know if it became something else. He's playing really hard, obviously a lot of energy spent in the emotional part of the game. It would have been nice to have Gus [Edwards] to spell him a little bit more."
On the performance of Ereck Flowers, who returned from injury and started...
"Amazing. That guy is a warrior, Ereck Flowers. That guy...that's crazy what he did. He played a really good game, worked his tail off to get back after surgery. It wasn't too big for him. He played his ass off and he was ready to go."
Talked last night to Cassandra Mitchell, Miami running back Duke Johnson's No. 1 fan, who also happens to be his mother.
Cassandra had a feast Thursday night for the Miami Hurricane running backs and defensive backs.
It's called a "Unity Dinner,'' and Cassandra said that UM coach Al Golden started the tradition when he began coaching the Hurricanes in 2011.
"Every Thursday before home games they have a meeting,'' Cassandra said of the players, "and all the position groups break up and go to dinner.''
Usually, the running backs head to Cassandra's house in Miramar.
But because this week is the heralded UM-FSU game, the Mitchells invited the DBs as well.
"I wanted to invite the O-line,'' Cassandra said, "but I didn't think I could feed them all.''
What was served for this week's Unity Dinner? Just a little something special in honor of FSU quarterback Jameis Winston.
"Barbecue chicken, barbecue ribs, corn on the cob, baked beans, seafood rice, salad, steaks and... crab legs,'' Cassandra said, laughing. "That was my husband's idea. He had to have crab legs."
Duane Mitchell, Cassandra's husband and a Miami Beach police detective, "does the cooking,'' she said. Her dad, Alvin Williams, "does the barbecuing, and I do the seafood rice. They cook enough for an army.''
She said it's a pleasure to watch the players "interacting without being serious -- relaxing. They're laughing a lot. Everybody is on their phones, on Twitter, but I make them put their phones down.''
I asked Cassandra how excited Duke is for Saturday's game.
"You know,'' she said, "I can't get any emotions out of Duke. The only think he keeps saying is, 'It's just another game, Mom. Don't change anything, don't do anything extra. Let's keep it the same way since we've been winning.'''
Here's to some hearty appetites -- on and off the football field.
About 2,000 tickets remain unsold for Saturday night's showdown between No. 2-ranked Florida State (9-0) and the Hurricanes (6-3) at Sun Life Stadium according to UM.
Those tickets are $89 each and can be purchased at Canestix.com.
According to TiqIq.com, the average price for UM-FSU tickets on the secondary market were going for $231.14 on Wednesday -- nearly $80 more than the last time the two teams met in Miami in 2012.
According to SeatGeek.com, UM-FSU tickets were the third-most expensive tickets selling this weekend in college football entering the week. Auburn-Georgia and Mississippi State-Alabama were the only tickets selling for more.
> Starting left tackle Ereck Flowers (knee) and backup running back Gus Edwards (ankle) have been listed as probable on UM's injury report for Saturday. Flowers missed the North Carolina game and had minor knee surgery shortly after. Backup offensive lineman Alex Gall (back) has been ruled out.
Barring an unexpected setback, it's looking more and more like Ereck Flowers will be starting at left tackle for the Hurricanes on Saturday.
Coach Al Golden said Flowers ramped up his workload Wednesday and took more reps than he did during Tuesday's practice. During the 20-minute portion the media was able to watch practice, Flowers was lined up at left tackle with senior Jonathan Feliciano at left guard and freshman Trevor Darling at right tackle.
"Everyday is a step. Hopefully we'll have good luck and not have any swelling or setbacks," Golden said of Flowers. "He's doing great. He's getting the best care he can get in college football and just doing what he needs to do."
Golden said Feliciano could play left guard or right tackle Saturday and was taking reps at all three spots -- left tackle included. Golden said Darling worked at tackle and guard. Freshman Nick Linder, who has started the past four games at left guard, was also working at center according to Golden.
Golden said the Hurricanes will end up rotating linemen against the Seminoles. UM hasn't done much of that in games thus far, usually playing its starting five from beginning to end in close games barring injury.
"This is a heck of an outfit we're getting ready to play," Golden said. "So we're going to need to rotate anyway."
Even though they're still unbeaten, the Seminoles (9-0) dropped from No. 2 to No. 3 -- behind one-loss Oregon -- in the latest college football playoff rankings released Tuesday night.
"They haven't lost in a long time," Golden said. "I can't imagine there's one, let alone two or three better [teams] than them in the country."
Florida State coach Jimbo Fisher, on the ACC teleconference call with reporters Wednesday, said he paid little mind to the latest rankings. His reaction? "Nothing," he said. "I kept watching film of Miami."
Still, one has to imagine the Seminoles will have some extra juice for Saturday's game considering the slight. "It can motivate you in that you want people to respect what you do," Fisher said of dropping.
"We've played a great schedule," he continued. "Oklahoma State had four straight years of 10 wins. Notre Dame is a great team. They had one bad game this past weekend. They played well against us. I'm very happy the way we've played. We're winning games and we're winning by significant margins also. You don't win games like we did last year. Nobody had done it in 68 years. But thing is we're very resilient. We're great in our way. Maybe, each team has a different style. But I love this team. They understand how to compete and playing extremely well -- especially when we're getting everybody's best week in, week out. Everybody plans for you in the off-season, studies you in the off-season when you're the champ. I'm very proud of this team and I think we've played well."
> Golden said freshman quarterback Malik Rosier has been playing the role of Jameis Winston in practice.
"We're wearing him out," Golden said. "He's had a tough week. He could be the MVP of the week though. Overall, he's getting better, doing a good job throwing the ball and running. He's athletic. Its a good fit for him. I really appreciate the kind of effort he's giving this week.
"There's only one Heisman trophy a year. That should give you an idea of how unique that young man [Winston] is. But we're getting what we need from [Rosier], which is great."
> Asked how many recruits will be at Saturday's game, Golden responded: "The max. I don't know what that is, but it's going to be a big number."
What would beating FSU mean for UM's recruiting efforts? "I say it to you guys every year, winning the game is great and it helps. But the recruiting is not seasonal anymore," Golden said. "It's year round. For a lot of these guys the relationships started two or three years ago. So, although it's a huge game and has great ramifications and all that, really from a recruiting standpoint we've identified who we want to go after and so have they. There may be some fence sitters. But other than that I'm not really thinking about that right now."
> Florida State hasn't returned any kickoffs for touchdowns this season and ranks 104th in kickoff return average this season (19.07 average). But that doesn't mean the Hurricanes aren't weary of their issues on kickoff coverage or the fact FSU's Kermit Whitfield led the nation last year with a 36.41 average and two scores. UM has surrendered seven kickoff returns of 30 yards or more this year (109th worst).
"We've got to get good kicks," Golden said. "It's hard to cover line drives when there's no hang. This group is going to test us here for sure. They got great returns and they got a lot of guys that block like crazy. It's going to be a challenge for us. But I hope we have the right mix."
NO. 2 FLORIDA STATE (9-0, 6-0 ACC) at MIAMI (6-3, 3-2 ACC)
> Kickoff, TV, radio: 8 p.m., Sun Life Stadium, ABC, WQAM (560 AM), radio CARACOL (1260 AM, Spanish).
> History: Miami leads 31-27.
> Favorite: Seminoles by 1 1/2 points.
> Counting recruiting stars - Miami: Canes have three Rivals.com five-star recruits (RB Duke Johnson, CB Tracy Howard, DE Chad Thomas), 15 four-star recruits (eight on defense), 22 three-star recruits (11 on each side), 3 two-star recruits (two offense) and 2 no-star recruits (starters Nantambu Fentress and Thurston Armbrister) on their depth chart. The draft: Among that group 10 players are projected to be taken in next year's draft according to NFLDraftScout.com. Those are: RB Duke Johnson (2nd RD), MLB Denzel Perryman (2nd RD), LT Ereck Flowers (3rd RD), CB Ladarius Gunter (4th RD), WR Phillip Dorsett (4th RD), TE Clive Walford (4th-5th RD), DE Anthony Chickillo (5th RD), LG Jon Feliciano (6th-7th RD), DL Olsen Pierre (6th-7th) and C Shane McDermott (7th-FA).
> Counting recruiting stars - FSU: The Seminoles have nine Rivals.com five-star recruits (five on offense), 26 four-star recruits (14 on defense), 16 three-star recruits (10 on offense) on their depth chart. The draft: Among that group, 13 are projected to be taken in next year's draft according to NFLDraftScout.com. Those are: QB Jameis Winston (1st RD), CB P.J. Williams (1st RD), DT Eddie Goldman (1st RD), CB Ronald Darby (2nd RD), DE Mario Edwards (2nd RD), WR Rashad Greene (2nd-3rd RD), LG Josue Matias (2nd RD), RG Tre' Jackson (2nd-3rd RD), LT Cameron Irving (2nd-3rd RD), TE Nick O'Leary (3rd RD), RB Karlos Williams (3rd-4th RD), DE Desmond Hollin (5th-6th RD) and CB Nick Waisome (7th RD).
> When FSU runs the ball: FSU averages just 32 rushes a game (113th fewest) and the running game ranks 104th nationally (129.89 per game). The 'Noles have faced six top-50 ranked run defenses including No. 2 Louisville (173 yards, 3 TDs) and No. 4 Clemson (13 yards, 2 TDs). Senior Karlos Williams has run for 520 yards and is averaging a pedestrian 4.37 yards per carry. Freshman Dalvin Cook, Mr. Florida Football last season at Miami Central, is averaging 5.27 yards per carry and has run for 416 yards and five scores. But he's fighting through a hip injury. UM's run defense led by Denzel Perryman has vastly improved (3.31 yards per carry ranks 17th nationally) and the team has faced some good backs already including Nebraska's Ameer Abdullah (1,250 yards, 5th nationally), Duke's Shaun Wilson (9.22 yards per carry, 2nd nationally) and Georgia Tech's Synjyn Days (6.21 yards per carry, 54th). The biggest improvement for the Hurricanes has been cutting down on the big play. Last year, the Canes gave up 15 run plays of 20 yards or more. This year, they have allowed just four (tied for 1st nationally). Coach Al Golden said that's a product of better tackling. If the Canes keep playing this way they will slow down FSU's so-so running game. Edge: Miami.
> When FSU throws the ball: The Hurricanes haven't faced a pass offense or quarterback quite like Jameis Winston this season. No, Winston is not having the kind of season (2,540 yards, 17 TDs, 11 INTs) he had a year ago (4,057 yards, 40 TDs, 10 INTs). But whatever struggles he has in the first half of games (63.9 comp. pct, 1,183 yards, 8 TDs, 8 INTs) he fixes them in the second half (69.8 comp. pct, 1,357 yards, 9 TDs, 3 INTs). Although FSU did lose a first round pick in receiver Kelvin Benjamin and a veteran pass-catcher in Kenny Shaw from last year's team, Winston still has Seminoles all-time leading receiver Rashad Greene to throw to. The former St. Thomas Aquinas standout ranks sixth nationally in catches with 71 and he's averaging 109.9 yards per game (8th most). Senior tight end Nick O'Leary (33 catches, 364 yards, 2 TDs) is also still around as a security blanket. Winston also has a pair of five-star freshmen in Homestead's Ermon Lane and West Palm Beach Cardinal Newman's Travis Rudolph, who only has 19 catches this season but ranks 62nd nationally with 16.21 yards per reception. Miami ranks 18th in opposing quarterback rating (108.17), but the Canes have only faced three passers ranked among the Top 50. And the best of that group, Cincinnati quarterback Gunner Kiel, played with bruised ribs against UM. He threw for 355 yards and three scores against the Canes (most of it came in the second half when the game was decided). Miami has plenty of veterans in the secondary -- led by corners Ladarius Gunter and Tracy Howard and safety Deon Bush -- so youth isn't an excuse. But this is a very tough assignment. UM had a season-high six sacks in its win over North Carolina. Winston has been sacked 19 times, but has four seniors blocking for him including three potential draft picks in left tackle Cameron Irving, left guard Josue Matias and right guard Tre' Jackson. Edge: Florida State.
> When UM runs the ball: The Hurricanes come in red-hot having churned out 994 yards rushing and nine touchdowns over their last three games after making a full-fledged commitment to the ground game (137 rushes compared to 60 passes). Running back Duke Johnson ranks eighth nationally in rushing yards per game (134.78) and 12th in yards per carry (7.68). Freshman Joe Yearby (6.48) and sophomore Gus Edwards (6.18) have provided a nice lift off the bench and rank 40th and 56th respectively in yards per carry. FSU's run defense ranks 25th in yards per carry (3.54) and 35th in yards per game (135.67), but the Seminoles haven't faced much in the way of prolific running backs or run offenses. Virginia's Kevin Parks (669 yards, 67th) and Notre Dame's Tarean Folston (562 yards, 99th) are FSU's only previous opponents ranked in the top 100 in rushing yards. No FSU foe before UM ranked in the top 50 in rushing. The Seminoles, though, are coming off their best day of the season stopping the run, holding Virginia to 37 yards thanks to nine tackles for loss and four sacks. The defensive line is anchored by potential first round picks Eddie Goldman and Mario Edwards. UM could have starting left tackle Ereck Flowers (knee surgery) back in the lineup Saturday, moving veteran Jon Feliciano back to right tackle and freshman Trevor Darling into a backup role. Edge: Miami.
> When UM throws the ball: The Seminoles lost two key members from their national championship-winning secondary to the draft in Lamarcus Joyner and Terrence Brooks. But there's still tons of talent around. Cornerback P.J. Williams is a projected first round pick and counterpart Ronald Darby is expected to be a second rounder. Still, the results haven't shown on the field often enough for FSU this season. The 'Noles rank 66th in opposing QB rating (they ranked 2nd last year) and have already given up more TD passes (15) and big plays (32 pass plays of 20 yards or more) than they did all last year. And they've only faced two quarterbacks ranked in the Top 50: Notre Dame's Everett Golson (313 yards, 3 TDs, 2 INTs) and Louisville's Will Gardner (330 yards, 1 TD, 1 INT). Canes freshman quarterback Brad Kaaya has better numbers than both of those guys. But he also has benefited from a very good running game over the last three weeks, helping him stay interception free. Kaaya, though, figures to be asked to throw more this week. He made plenty of tough throws at Nebraska earlier this season and had his best game (359 yards, 3 TDs). Nebraska ranks second in opposing QB rating. Florida State's pass rush is something UM feared last year, but the Seminoles have just 16 sacks this season. They had 35 last year. UM has allowed only 15. Receiver Phillip Dorsett leads the nation with 30.11 yards per catch and is always a big play threat. Senior Clive Walford ranks second among tight ends with six touchdown catches and leads the team with 29 catches. Where FSU could ultimately win this battle is on third down. UM has been a lot better on third down in its last two wins (13 of 28, 46.4%) compared to its season average of 30.69% (120th nationally). But that's because the Canes have run the ball and haven't asked Kaaya to throw on third and long (UM is 7 of 34 on 3rd down and seven yards or more). FSU isn't dominant on third down (82nd nationally at 40.71%), but they are good on 3rd and long (13 of 45, 28.8%). Edge: Even.
> Special teams: Florida State has gone 136 consecutive games without giving up a kick return for a score -- the longest streak in the nation. UM, meanwhile, has struggled in kickoff coverage giving up seven returns of 30 yards or longer (109th worst) including a touchdown to Louisville. FSU speedster Kermit Whitfield has just one return this season longer than 30 yards, but led the nation last year with a 36.4 kick return average. UM's Stacy Coley, one of the most explosive freshmen in the country last year, ranks 36th in kickoff return average (24.69) but is going up against a Seminoles kick coverage team that's longest return allowed was 34 yards. Seminoles kicker Roberto Aguayo is 37 of 39 for his career on field goal attempts and has made three from 50 yards or longer including a career-long 52-yarder earlier this year against Wake Forest. Miami walk-on kicker Michael Badgley has gone 7-of-8 on field goal attempts and has a career-long of 42 yards. His only miss was from 50-plus. UM punter Justin Vogel has been a valuable weapon of late and has pinned opponents inside their 20-yard line on 20 of his 38 punts this season. FSU's Cason Beatty has allowed returns on just 16 of his 34 punts and has had 11 go inside the 20. FSU's Rashad Greene has had two punt returns over 20 yards this season and his 10.00 average ranks 28th nationally. Edge: FSU.
We asked Hurricanes nose tackle Mike Wyche today about left offensive tackle Ereck Flowers at UM's weekly press conference -- held shortly after Tuesday practice ended.
Flowers, a 6-6, 324-pound junior out of Miami Norland High, had surgery to repair a torn meniscus two weeks ago tomorrow (Wednesday), and returned to a walk-through practice (no pads) yesterday, when he had braces on both knees and did some, not all, of the drills.
How's Ereck Flowers looking in practice?
Wyche: "Oh, Big E? He's doing real well. He's a fighter. he's a competitor. And he's one of the toughest O-linemen I ever played with."
Can you believe someone comes back that soon from surgery? Wednesday will be two weeks.
"He's a different type of breed,'' Wyche said. "He wants to play. That's Big E for you.''
Meanwhile, UM coach Al Golden listed freshman Trevor Darling as the starting left tackle on the new depth chart released Tuesday. The depth chart has Sunny Odogwu listed ast the left tackle backup.
Jonathan Feliciano is listed as the starting right tackle, with Trevor listed as his backup.
When asked about those depth chart listings, Golden said, "He and Jon [Feliciano], if Ereck doesn't play, those two guys will be playing tackle, like they did last week."
How do you think Jon did at left tackle? "Good,'' Golden said. "They both can play either side. I think Trevor played both sides in the game -- maybe I'm wrong. Obviously we have to see how Ereck progresses the rest of the week. Those are the three tackles that we'll see in the game.''
How did Flowers look today? Golden was asked. "Good. Again, I wouldn't say we're cutting him loose yet, but he made progress. And to follow up on yesterday he didn't go backwards. That's the relief that we needed to see.''
Bottom line: If Flowers can at all get out there and play, he'll likely start, or at least be inserted in the game to see how he does.
Ereck Flowers wants to play Saturday against Florida State.
The issue now is if his surgically repaired knee will respond the way he wants it to.
Wearing braces on both knees and moving gingerly, UM's starting left tackle was out with his teammates for a 60-minute practice in shorts and helmets Monday morning. The big test, coach Al Golden said, will come Tuesday when practice ramps up with real contact. Golden said he "would not bet against" Flowers being ready to play.
"I know he wants to play, has been working like crazy since two Wednesday's ago [when he had surgery]," Golden said. "Today we eased him into drills, a little bit of movement. Hopefully we don't have a setback, no swelling. But we have a long way to go."
Center Shane McDermott said Flowers is "making a miraculous comeback." McDermott said he's asked Flowers several times how much pain he's in following surgery and Flowers has told him, 'No. I'm fine. I'm good. I'm ready to go.'
"That just shows the toughness Ereck has," McDermott said. "Doesn't matter if he's hurting or not he's going to say he's fine he's good to go. So we're excited."
The Hurricanes moved veteran right tackle Jon Feliciano into Flower's spot and freshman Trevor Darling made his first career start in Feliciano's spot in the win over North Carolina two Saturdays ago.
"Trevor did a great job," McDermott said. "It's really hard for a freshman to come in and execute, especially the offensive line. It usually takes two years for a guy to develop into college speed for an offensive lineman. He just executed the best he possibly could. I'm really proud of him. He came out there, listened to us, did his job and he's getting better every single day."
Golden said Flowers will continue to work on his conditioning in a controlled environment this week to prepare for the game. Golden also noted running back Gus Edwards (ankle) was further ahead than Flowers in his comeback and believes Edwards will be ready to play against Florida State.
> Backup guard Alex Gall was held out of Monday's drills and was in a red non-contact jersey. "We're still behind with him," Golden said of Gall. "There's no update on him other than his status has not changed."
> The ACC announced it will determine a kickoff time for UM-Virginia on Nov. 22 after Saturday's game against the Seminoles.
Hurricanes coach Al Golden, never one to dwell on individual awards during the season, was asked a Heisman-related question about Miami running back Duke Johnson Wednesday during the Atlantic Coast Conference coaches' teleconference.
Question: "We're in award kind of preseason, you might say,'' the reporter began, before Golden interrupted with a tongue-in-cheek "Awesome.''
Question continued: "And I know your focus is going to be anywhere but that, but, just, do you think Duke Johnson, right now, has a Heisman case?''
Replied Golden: "You're talking to the wrong guy. I don't even watch TV during the week or anything. I was able to watch some games last week because we had an early game. You guys are the ones that watch all the different teams and get all the different stats. I'm just focused on our program and our team.
"I know he's playing at a high level. I said it before, we're privileged to have the opportunity to coach him everyday and be around him. And we're very grateful for his attitude and the way he's practicing and it's hard to imagine anybody playing better right now.
"I'll leave the rest of it up to you guys. I think he's having a heck of a year and I know he's got a lot to prove in his mind over the next month or so.''
Johnson now is sixth in the nation in rushing yards (1,213) and in yards per carry (7.68), and fifth nationally with 165.1 all-purpose yards per game.
To make your Heisman Trophy vote toward the one vote that Nissan gets, go to this site. Johnson had 1 percent of the fan votes as of Wednesday.
If Johnson has a great game against Florida State a week from Saturday, expect the junior tailback to be firmly in the Heisman race.
Get ready for the rowdiest Miami Hurricanes football game of the year.
The Atlantic Coast Conference just announced that No. 2 Florida State (8-0, 5-0 ACC) vs. Miami (6-3, 3-2) will kick off on national television -- ABC -- at 8 p.m. Nov. 15 -- a week from this Saturday.
According to UM, a limited number of tickets are still available for the matchup, starting at $89. Visit CanesTix.com for more information.
The Hurricanes lead the all-time series, which began in 1951, 31-27, but have not defeated FSU since a 38-34 victory at Tallahasse in 2009.
The last time UM won a home game against FSU was a 16-10 overtime victory in 2004.
Coach Al Golden postponed his usual day-after-game teleconference to Monday morning. We just talked to him.
He was asked about having an extra week to prepare for No. 2 Florida State (8-0). But as has been Golden's philosophy all along, he said he will concentrate on the Hurricanes this week and "move on'' to Florida State after that.
So, this week, it seems, will not be focused on Florida State. However, let's be realistic. I have a feeling most players will be busy not only concentrating on their own studies, but on the tendencies of FSU as well.
Here's what Golden said about that:
"We're going to alter everything that would be a normal practice week for sure. Priority No. 1 is getting the team healthy and rested up; No. 2, getting stronger; No. 3, making sure that any academic work that we have moving forward for the next couple weeks, that we devote a lot of our schedule time to academics, actually yield that time to them so we can get that stuff done; No. 4, we need to improve and then No. 5, as a staff, obviously, we have to move on to Florida State."
Is it a fine line between giving the players rest and preparing them for what seems to be the toughest opponent on your schedule?
"From our standpoint, this week is going to be about taking care of the academics, getting rested up, getting stronger, doing all those things and once we get into game week we'll focus on Florida State,'' Golden reiterated. "This whole week is going to be about us, taking care of the things we need to take care of and executing our plan.''
When asked to give an injury update on running back Gus Edwards (ankle), offensive lineman Alex Gall (back) and starting veteran left offensive tackle Ereck Flowers (knee surgery last Wednesday), here's what Golden said:
"I don't really have an update for you. We hope Gall will be back next week. Again, it's an incredible opportunity for him to play. We miss him tremendously because he has played, he does have experience. Individually, he'll never get a better opportunity than right now, so hopefully we can get him back.
"Ereck is making progress. I don't know what that means. No one knows what that means.
"And Gus, we're going to take care of him this week and see where his injury goes. I really have no idea of where he's at right now. I haven't really asked him to do anything."
Not much of an update injury-wise, but that's pretty much the case with most coaches -- especially when you have the best team you'll face all season next on the schedule.
That game is Nov. 15. I believe we'll find out the kickoff time sometime today.
Here is the audio of the post-game press conferences from the Miami Hurricanes after their 47-20 romp over North Carolina on Saturday.
Stacy Coley's sophomore season hasn't gone the way he expected it to. But at least he's putting a smile out there for the world to see.
One of the most electrifying freshmen in the country last season (he ranked second nationally with a 21.8-yard average the 67 times he touched the ball as a receiver or return man), it's almost startling that Coley hasn't found a way to break loose yet this season.
For one, he scored 10 touchdowns last season (seven receiving). But seven games into 2014 (he missed one game with an injury), Coley has yet to find the end zone.
As a receiver in 2013, he ranked third on the team in catches (33) and second in yardage (591) and made seven starts. This year, he's started one game (Louisville) and has 12 catches (seventh-most on the team) for 72 yards (eighth-most) and his longest catch has gone for 17 yards. Last year, Coley had eight catches go for more than 20 yards.
As a return man, he's had just two kickoff returns longer than 30 yards this season (he had five last year) and just one punt return longer than 20 yards (he had five last season).
"For me, I just feel like my season isn't going as planned," Coley said Tuesday. "But right now I'm just going to keep pressing forward, keep focusing and put God first."
The thing is Coley isn't getting a ton of chances either. His 18 receiving targets rank seventh on the team behind Braxton Berrios (38), Phillip Dorsett (35), Duke Johnson (32), Clive Walford (32), Malcolm Lewis (27) and Herb Waters (23). And that's with eight of those targets coming in his only start in the opener.
Last week at Virginia Tech, Coley ran a jet sweep on a wildcat formation and picked up two yards. He had one pass thrown his way -- a quick flare pass he turned into a 13-yard gain in the fourth quarter with Miami already ahead 30-0.
"Whenever I get another opportunity or just get the ball in my hands I have to try and make something happen," Coley said.
Is it frustrating? "No. Not at all," he said. "I'm just happy the team is winning. I'm a team guy. It's not about me. It's about the team. Whatever I can do to help the team I just do it."
If he can get the ball in his hands this week he'll have a pretty good chance to score against North Carolina's secondary. The Tar Heels ranks 119th in pass defense (302.1 yards per game) and have allowed 20 touchdown passes this season. UNC is pretty good on kickoff coverage (16.16-yard average). The Tar Heels ranks ninth nationally and have surrendered just one return longer than 30 yards this season.
> UM coach Al Golden said after Wednesday's practice that he remains in regular contact with sophomore defensive end Al-Quadin Muhammad and fully expects Miami's top 2013 recruit to return to the team in January.
"He's 256 now," Golden said. "He's getting stronger and bigger. He's eight weeks away, but whose counting? We're just trying to offer support, making sure he's doing the little things he needs to do and we'll gladly welcome him back in January."
> Even though he churned out a career-high 249 yards on the ground in the win at Virginia Tech, Duke Johnson said it wasn't his best game as a Hurricane and that he found plenty of things on tape to improve on.
"I don't think I've played a perfect game yet," Johnson said. "There's always something I can do better in. Like on the play where Brad threw the ball to me and it was low, but I still dropped it. That's a negative because I touched the ball with both hands."
Asked if that was his one mistake against the Hokies Johnson smiled and said: "Probably running into the bench too. That's probably a minus. That's definitely a minus."
> Carter Hucks, the eight-year-old Make-A-Wish kid who was with the Hurricanes in their wins over Cincinnati and at Virginia Tech, entered the hospital Wednesday and is set to receive his bone marrow transplant on Nov. 6. Golden said there is constant communication between Carter and the team, especially Johnson, his favorite player.
> What did Gus Edwards do better during his breakout performance at Virginia Tech? "Run behind his pads," Johnson said. "One thing we tried to tell Gus was he's not a scat back. That's not what he does. He can do it at times, make a couple guys a miss. But for the most part when he's going, we want him to run straight, run behind his pads. We tell him 'a lot of guys don't want to tackle you as it is. A lot of guys move out the way. So run behind your pads and run strong and when you get to the next level just have fun, do what you do.'"
> Offensive coordinator James Coley said quarterback Brad Kaaya had a menu of plays to choose from against Virginia Tech depending on the coverage he saw.
"He had the ability to exit out of the pass game and get into the run, which he did the first several plays," Coley said. "If he had a bad count in the box, he could go into a pass. Man, he did that all night long."
Coley said he kept telling Kaaya he was doing a great job even though he stats (7-of-16, 92 yards, 1 TD) didn't necessarily show it.
"We're starting to see the leader of Brad Kaaya, not just the quarterback Brad Kaaya," Golden said Wednesday. "We're starting to see him comfortable in his own skin and grow as a leader. Those are the two things I would say, his decision making in terms of protecting the football, as it relates to protecting the ball, then leadership, feeling more comfortable as a leader, not just a quarterback."
> Even though North Carolina ranks 109th in run defense (210.63 yards per game and 20 TDs allowed) and has just 13 sacks on the season (91st nationally), both Coley and senior offensive lineman Jonathan Feliciano, who is moving over to left tackle this week, said the Tar Heels scheme could be problematic for UM.
"They do a really good job making things look messy for you," Coley said. "They give you funky looks and things aren't they way they're supposed to be with regard to how you see a defense until a ball snaps. So, they'll make some plays especially the guys in the perimeter because of those looks and then up front they're constantly moving and bringing some untraditional blitzes."
Said Feliciano: "People aren't going to give them much credit because they're not statistically ranked high but they do a lot of things that mess the o-line up and mess the whole offense up. They do a lot of weird stunts, weird blitzes. That caught us off guard last year too. It was a close game last year and I know that they're going to come down here and bring it again."
> What does Kaaya think of the Canes running the ball down opponents throats (88 rushes for 699 yards) instead of throwing it (41 passes for 378 yards) the last two weeks?
"That's fine. Keep feeding them," Kaaya said of his running backs. "Sooner or later, playaction is coming. If they're going to play coverage, deep coverage, then we're going to keep running the ball. "
Is that what teams have been doing more? "Yeah. Certain teams," he said. "Virginia Tech came out like that. First play of the game they're playing their safeties are 30 yards deep, cornerbacks 15 yards deep. All week long we saw them load the box and play man defense and then first play they completely change all that. Maybe that's what he saw or was baiting us to throw. I don't know. It worked for us."
Said James Coley: "Week in and week out probably for the last five weeks we've gone into the first series and really within the third or fourth play, said 'Hey they're not playing what they thought they were going to play. This is different.' Part of it is because of Brad. Part of it early is because of Duke and Dorsett and Stacy with his threat he gave last year with all the screen stuff. So you get a lot of funky looks and Clive's made a presence in the middle of the field. Teams have really adapted to what they've done for us. So we've had to adjust within drives and within games some stuff we probably didn't see in practice. I'm sure it will be the same way this week."
> Coley said freshman quarterback Malik Rosier has been doing a great job running Miami's scout team this season. Rosier is one of 16 players UM plans to redshirt.
"We don't get a lot of work with him except for a few times, but he's very sharp," Coley said. "If I pulled him in to talk about the game plan for North Carolina he would know all the checks. "He may not have all the reps that Brad has, but he's definitely soaking up stuff in meetings and really it made you feel good as a coach somebody cares as much as he does to not only execute his role in the scout team, but know what's going on."
> Like Golden said last week, defensive coordinator Mark D'Onofrio mentioned linebacker Raphael Kirby as the player who has made the biggest strides since the first week of the season.
The Miami Hurricanes men's basketball team has been picked to finish 10th out of 15 teams in the ACC preseason poll released on Wednesday afternoon.
Duke was picked as the ACC preseason favorite for the 15th time in the 46-year history of the poll, and the 14th time under current head coach Mike Krzyzewski. The Blue Devils were also tabbed as the favorite prior to last season.
North Carolina (12 first-place votes) finished second in the voting, followed by ACC newcomer Louisville (three first-place votes), defending ACC champion Virginia (seven first-place votes) and Syracuse (two first-place votes). Each of those four teams has joined Duke in most preseason Top 25 national rankings.
North Carolina junior guard Marcus Paige, who averaged 17.5 points per game and led the ACC in free-throw percentage (.911) last season, received the nod as the ACC Preseason Player of the Year.
The regular season begins for all 15 ACC teams the weekend of Nov. 14-16. In addition to an 18-game regular-season conference schedule, the 62nd annual ACC Tournament will again consist of 14 games and will be played from Tuesday through Saturday (March 10-14) at the Greensboro (N.C.) Coliseum. This season's ACC Tournament championship game will be the first since 1981 played in prime time on a Saturday night.
ACC Operation Basketball 2014-15 Preseason Poll (First-place votes in parenthesis)
Team & Points
1. Duke (41): 935
2. North Carolina (12): 870
3. Louisville (3): 847
4. Virginia: 824 (7)
5. Syracuse: 706 (2)
6. Pitt: 592
7. Notre Dame: 515
8. Florida State: 506
9. NC State: 478
10. Miami: 442
11. Clemson: 330
12. Wake Forest: 221
13. Georgia Tech: 195
14. Boston College: 184
15. Virginia Tech: 155
2014-15 Preseason All-ACC Team (votes in parenthesis)
Marcus Paige, North Carolina (63)
Montrezl Harrell, Louisville (58)
Jahlil Okafor, Duke (57)
Malcolm Brogdon, Virginia (55)
Jerian Grant, Notre Dame (24)
ACC Preseason Player of the Year
Marcus Paige, North Carolina
ACC Preseason Rookie of the Year
Jahlil Okafor, Duke
University of Miami left tackle Ereck Flowers underwent surgery Wednesday morning to repair a torn meniscus, a source familiar with the situation told The Miami Herald.
The specific knee on which he had surgery was not revealed.
Also undergoing knee surgeries Wednesday at UM Hospital were fellow offensive tackles Kc McDermott and Taylor Gadbois, both of whom injured their left knees against Duke Sept. 27.
McDermott's injury was not an ACL tear, but not sure of the exact nature of the repair.
Don't yet know the injury of Gadbois, who is out the rest of the season (as is McDermott).
Flowers, a 6-6, 324-pound junior, will miss at minimum the North Carolina game, and likely the Florida State game at Sun Life Stadium on Nov. 15, though some close to the program hope he can return for FSU. The scenario also exists that Flowers will be unable to return this season.
Flowers will be replaced by current senior right tackle Jon Feliciano Saturday against North Carolina. True freshman Trevor Darling, a 6-5, 310-pounder out of MIami Central, will play right tackle. Though Darling was a highly rated recruit, he has minimal experience this season playing on the line.
The Miami Herald first learned that University of Miami left tackle Ereck Flowers is out for at least one game, and possibly the rest of the season with a knee injury, a source familiar with the situation said Tuesday morning.
UM offensive coordinator James Coley confirmed the news saying Flowers was injured late in the game against Virginia Tech. Coley said senior Jonathan Feliciano took snaps at left tackle Tuesday and freshman Trevor Darling has moved into Feliciano's previous spot at right tackle.
Flowers, a 6-6, 322-pound junior out of Miami Norland High, is regarded as one of UM's best linemen -- if not the best. He has started 25 games including the last 21 at left tackle for the Hurricanes.
The Hurricanes have now lost their three best offensive tackles to injury this season. Former starting right tackle Taylor Gadbois, a redshirt sophomore, injured his left knee against Duke, and recently had surgery.
Gadbois' backup, four-star recruit and now true freshman Kc McDermott -- the younger brother of UM center Shane McDermott -- also injured his left knee against Duke. UM coach Al Golden said Monday after practice that McDermott is done for the season.
The Canes (5-3, 2-2) host North Carolina (4-4, 2-2) on Saturday at Sun Life Stadium.
Darling, a 6-5, 320-pounder out of MIami Central, is another highly regarded former recruit, but has played sparingly. Coley said he replaced Flowers for four plays late in the Virginia Tech game.
We all talked to Duke Johnson today after his phemonenal performance at Virginia Tech -- 249 yards and a touchdown rushing and another 37 yards and a touchdown receiving.
He finally has his 1,000-yard season, has 2,903 career yards and is just 58 yards shy of surpassing Edgerrin James for No. 2 on the Hurricanes' all-time rushing list.
I asked him if he was on track to graduate this year, because he had previously said it would be easier to make a clear decision if already had his degree in sport administration.
He then informed us that he probably has another semester after this academic year.
How will that affect his decision as far as whether to enter the NFL Draft?
"Cassandra,'' he said of his mom. "It's all on Cassandra. That's a decision that we have make -- majority her.''
So, I called Cassandra Mitchell this afternoon and asked her about it.
"Wow. I thought he was, like, right at the door,'' she told me. "I've been talking to Duke about staying because I saw the Duke game when he tweaked his ankle a little bit. So, besides getting his degree, I'm like, OK, maybe he gives it another year. That ankle would heal completely and I think he'll be a little more confident. I think sometimes he babies it and favors it. Then I think sometimes it's mental with him. When he thinks about it, then he might start limping a little bit. I'll be like, 'Why are you limping? Is it hurting?'
"'No,''' he'll say. 'So why are you limping?'''
"I think it's a mind thing with him sometimes."
Mitchell said the one factor that concerns her is possible future injuries.
"Everybody from my job, my Facebook friends, give their little opinions or what have you. The thing is the injuries. While I want him to heal, you never know if he'll get hurt again. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know.
"It was good seeing him out there really tearing it up. That's something I haven't been able to see this year, just watch him enjoy playing football. Thursday he enjoyed playing football and it showed. That's my only concern. Everything else can wait.
"We don't know what the rest of the season may hold.
"I'm worried that he could get injured, but also just know that I want him to get his degree because once he gets into the NFL, the demands of their schedule. It was hard for him [in college]. He wanted to be an engineer, but because of their workload he had to major in something else. So, I can only imagine at the next level, how much time would you really have?
"The degree isn't something I want him to keep putting off. I tell him it's ultimately his decision. I'm going to tell him what I feel but right now I'm mixed.
"I think another year would give him more confidence and put him where he really wants to be at, and then he'd have his degree and everything would be right there. It sounds too good to be true, right?'''
Maybe not.
Johnson seems vulnerable injury-wise, but he also usually gets up and keeps on motoring. I don't know how much higher in the draft he could go next season, because at this rate he'd at least be a second-rounder.
NFLDraftScout.com projects him as a second-rounder and the fifth best draft-eligible running back.
But can you imagine him back next season? If the line holds up, and I think it could, that offense could be amazing.
Here is everything coach Al Golden talked about Friday during his teleconference the day after UM's 30-6 win over Virginia Tech in Blacksburg:
Q: How did you come out injury wise?
"I think Joe Yearby will be fine. I think Juwon Young will be fine. Both of those guys. Obviously Joe didn't play. Juwon got hurt in the first half. Everybody else is good to go."
Q: You've talked about wanting to play the complete game. Was this as close as you've gotten to one since coming to Miami?
"It was the most complete game we've played this year. I thought Cincinnati we played really well in all three units for three quarters and this one I thought we played really well. We could have done a couple things better late in the game, but again your mindset changes a little bit when you're up 24 or 31 late in the game. I thought it was a good performance."
Q: What happened to Juwon Young?
"Juwon actually got a hamstring too."
Q: How much did having the bye week off help?
"I think we needed the rest. I opted to only practice once last week. So we really didn't get a tactical advantage on Virginia Tech. Again, I just thought the rest was more important based on how the season was going with the three night road games away not getting back until 5 a.m. three times and I just thought the rest was better and I think it showed up last night for sure."
Q: Is there anything going on with Herb Waters who didn't play?
"Is there anything going on with Herb Waters? No. We ran the ball for close to 400 yards and that's just the way the game played out. We didn't anticipate Virginia Tech playing us the way they did play us. And then obviously when they continued to play us that we continued to run the ball. It just was a function of personnel groups. I don't want to start any rumors or whatever your question is coming from it's unfounded. I don't understand it. We just won the game 30-6 on the road in Lane Stadium. I think the guys gave an incredible effort and the receivers especially -- Malcolm and Phillip and all those guys were so unselfish blocking all night. I really appreciated it."
Q: What did you like most about the way you played on defense?
"We didn't miss many tackles. Our tackling percentage, we're still working through it in terms of our quality control and making sure we don't miss anything. If there's anything we need to correct we're going to do that. But we didn't miss many tackles. We fit them pretty good. We were very unselfish up front. Everybody was spilling the ball and directing the ball where it needed to be -- either to the linebacker or the safety. And I think when the defensive lineman had opportunities they made plays. I thought the pass rush was good. I wish we could have finished it with a couple more sacks. But we certainly made the quarterback uncomfortable, made him move his feet and alter a lot of his throws especially when we had them backed up with the field position."
Q: Does this feel like the biggest win or most impressive win you guys have had since coming to Miami?
"I don't get into all that, respectfully. You guys analyze that. We're pretty much putting a bow on this thing by 6:30 tonight and then moving on to North Carolina. So, I'll leave that analysis up to you. But a year ago we needed a two-minute drive to win at Chapel Hill and it seems like the last two years we've won big games on Thursday night in really tough environments. So I think from that standpoint our team had a good look, a lot of confidence and again there's a lot of teams that go into that place and fall victim. So I was glad glad that we didn't."
Q: What was it like having 8-year-old Make-A-Wish kid Carter Hucks around again for the game?
"It's been awesome. We have an opportunity to bring joy and fulfillment, Carter's dream to and he and his family. At the same time we think he's doing the same to us. He's been a lot of fun, a lot of joy to be around. Great attitude, great personality. Obviously we're blessed to have him around. Hopefully we'll see him again soon.
Q: Why has the running game been so explosive and productive (699 yards on 88 attempts) over the last two games?
"Like I said earlier I think we have a lot of unselfish guys right now. If you look at Duke's first long run against Cincinnati, Malcolm Lewis is on the right side and he gets a great block on the safety. Phillip is on the front side and he gets a great block. Otherwise it's a seven-yard gain. The offensive line has been doing a good job. Danny [Isidora] is making a lot of progress. And Nick Linder is making a lot of progress. Alex Gall. I think those guys are making progress. But we're getting a lot of unselfish play. We really asked the receivers, both tight ends Clive and Stan and Tucker, to simply go out there and block for three hours and they all did it pridefully and willfully and did it really well. I think that is a characteristic that's really hard to come by. I'm glad we're starting to see that."
Q: You had fewer penalties (4 penalties, 28 yards) against Virginia Tech. Did that come from coaching, guys understanding the line better?
"I think there is a line and we want them to walk that line and we want them to be aggressive. One of the things about being disciplined is self governance and the last couple games we got into a couple selfish penalties whether it was a retaliation penalty or celebration. So we can't have any selfish penalties. Last night, again, I go back to being unselfish. We were unselfish last night in a lot of the ways we played the game and I think penalties was one of them. I just think we were very unselfish. There were a number of opportunities to retaliate and we did not. I think if we got on the perimeter and we were blocking and starting to hold them we let them go. I just think from that standpoint we were smart and disciplined and unselfish and that's what corrected the penalties. But we've got to keep going."
Q: How big a jump has Raphael Kirby made over the last month?
"I can't believe you said that because we were just talking this morning. This last four weeks -- I don't even know how to describe it. We were just talking this morning. This last four weeks I don't even know how to describe it. He's so process-oriented right now. His preparation is through the roof. He's practicing really hard. He's playing mike and will for us. So again, it goes back to him being mature, being unselfish, saying you know what I'll play whatever spot you want us to play. His production over the last month has been really, really good and I just can't say enough about the direction he's going, leadership and really consistency is the word I would describe."
Q: How about Jermaine Grace's improvements?
"Jermaine Grace is a talented young man who is really working harder and harder each week on the mental aspects of the game, on his preparation, on his film study. And he has to continue to do that. When he marries those two he has a chance to be a formidable presence for us. I hope that he sees know, he understands and he accepts that challenge. That's going to be the challenge week in and week out. The offense we're going to see this week is a lot different in many ways than the offense we just saw. He's going to have to invest again mentally and from a preparation standpoint and back it up physically, which he has been doing. His effort has been really good. We just have to get that mental aspect down, I really believe if he can marry those two he's going to be tough."
Q: What's the schedule moving forward?
"We actually have a team meeting in about 10 minutes. So we're going to knock out this film, get that cleaned up, make sure any mistakes we made last night we don't let them sit or forget about them. Let's clean that up, be honest about it. Whenever you get a big win, some guys want to sweep stuff under the rug. We don't want to do that. If we made mistakes whether its technique or mental errors or whatever the case may be depending on your positions we get it cleaned up. We're going to do that and then I'll give them off [Saturday] and then normally they have Sunday off. So we'll stay with that schedule and return on Monday."
The Hurricanes' 30-6 blowout in Blacksburg Thursday night keeps them very much in the race to win the Coastal Division with four games left to play.
Here's a look at how the division stacks up the rest of the way from a Canes perspective:
Duke (6-1, 2-1 ACC)
> Wins: at Georgia Tech 31-25, Virginia 20-13
> Losses: at Miami 22-10
> Remaining games
- Nov. 1 at Pittsburgh (4-3), Noon (ESPNU)
- Nov. 8 at Syracuse (3-4)
- Nov. 15 vs. Virginia Tech (4-4)
- Nov. 20 vs. North Carolina (3-4), 7:30 p.m.
- Nov. 29 vs. Wake Forest (2-5)
> The Breakdown: The Blue Devils rebounded from their loss at Miami on Sept. 27 with a pair of back-to-back wins in Atlanta and at home over the Cavaliers to take control of their own destiny in the Coastal. At this point, the two toughest games left on the schedule for Duke appear to be at Pitt, which they'll have two weeks to prepare for, and a Thursday night showdown with rival North Carolina just five days after facing Virginia Tech. The good news for UM is they own the head-to-head tiebreaker with Duke. The bad news: it's unlikely the Blue Devils will lose more than two ACC games the rest of the way, if that. Duke's ranks fifth nationally in scoring defense (15.1 ppg) and the only offensive juggernaut still on the slate is Carolina.
Pitt (4-3, 2-1 ACC)
> Wins: at Boston College 30-20, Virginia Tech 21-16
> Losses: at Virginia 24-19
> Remaining games
- Oct. 25 vs. Georgia Tech (5-2), 3:30 p.m. (ESPNU)
- Nov. 1 vs. Duke (6-1), Noon (ESPNU)
- Nov. 15 at North Carolina (3-4)
- Nov. 22 vs. Syracuse (3-4)
- Nov. 29 at Miami (5-3)
> The Breakdown: Behind running back James Conner (172 carries, 959 yards, 11 TDs) and a decent defense (14th in scoring, 18.6 ppg) the Panthers will be a formidable final hurdle for the Hurricanes to close out the regular season. Pitt can do Miami's dirty work over the next eight days by beating the Yellow Jackets (who own the head-to-head tiebreaker with UM) and bringing Duke back to the pack.
Virginia (4-3, 2-1 ACC)
> Wins: Louisville 23-21, Pitt 24-19
> Losses: at Duke 20-13
> Remaining games
- Oct. 25 vs. North Carolina (3-4), noon (ESPN3)
- Nov. 1 at Georgia Tech (5-2), 3:30 p.m. (ESPNU)
- Nov. 8 at Florida State (7-0)
- Nov. 22 vs. Miami (5-3)
- Nov. 28 at Virginia Tech (4-4)
> The Breakdown: The Cavaliers weren't supposed to be in this race, but are very much players in it after an impressive start to the season. Their losses are at home to a ranked UCLA team by eight points and on the road at a ranked BYU team by eight points. The Hurricanes are just 2-3 all-time in Charlottesville and have lost two in a row there.
Georgia Tech (5-2, 2-2 ACC)
> Wins: at Virginia Tech 27-24, Miami 28-17
> Losses: Duke 31-25, at North Carolina 48-43
> Remaining games
- Oct. 25 at Pittsburgh (4-3), 3:30 p.m. (ESPNU)
- Nov. 1 vs. Virginia (4-3), 3:30 p.m. (ESPNU)
- Nov. 8 at N.C. State (4-4)
- Nov. 15 vs. Clemson (5-2)
- Nov. 29 at Georgia (6-1)
> The Breakdown: The Yellow Jackets have been on a slippery slope since beating the Canes in Atlanta. They've given up 79 points and 952 yards over their last eight quarters in back-to-back losses. With a head-to-head win over the Canes in their pocket, the Yellow Jackets would win the tiebreaker if they finish in a two-way tie with the Hurricanes. But at this point that doesn't look like that will happen. They've got a tough road game this Saturday and still have to host a good Clemson team.
Miami (5-3, 2-2 ACC)
> Wins: Duke 22-10, at Virginia Tech 30-6
> Losses: at Georgia Tech 28-17, at Louisville 31-13
> Remaining games
- Nov. 1 vs. North Carolina (3-4), 12:30 p.m. (ESPN3)
- Nov. 15 vs. Florida State (7-0)
- Nov. 22 at Virginia (4-3)
- Nov. 29 vs. Pittsburgh (4-3)
> The breakdown: The Hurricanes have dropped four in a row and seven of their last nine to the Seminoles and haven't beaten FSU at home since 2004. Beating the defending national champions and reigning Heisman Trophy winner Jameis Winston at home will be a tall order, which means winning the other three ACC games are musts. The only game UM probably won't be favored in aside from FSU is at Virginia. If the schedule plays out with UM winning three of its final four except FSU the Canes will finish 5-1 in the division and the only team they'll lose a head-to-head tiebreaker with is Georgia Tech.
North Carolina (3-4, 1-2 ACC)
> Wins: Georgia Tech 48-43
> Losses: at Clemson 50-35, Virginia Tech 34-17
> Remaining games
- Oct. 25 at Virginia (4-3), noon (ESPN3)
- Nov. 1 at Miami (5-3), 12:30 p.m. (ESPN3)
- Nov. 15 vs. Pittsburgh (4-3)
- Nov. 20 at Duke (6-1), 7:30 p.m. (ESPN)
- Nov. 29 vs. N.C. State (4-4)
> The Breakdown: The Tar Heels haven't been able to stop anybody on defense (rank 127th out of 128 FBS teams in scoring defense with 43.3 ppg). And nobody has really stopped them from scoring either (38.7 ppg, 17th nationally). Quarterback Marquis Williams has been a one-man wrecking crew. He's completed 64.5 percent of his passes for 1,776 yards, 15 touchdowns and six picks and leads the Tar Heels in rushing with 448 yards and four touchdowns on the ground. Carolina lost 50-43 at Notre Dame scored plenty on Clemson. It's unlikely the Tar Heels will remain in contention for the division with the schedule they've got left, but you never know.
Virginia Tech (4-4, 1-3 ACC)
> Wins: at North Carolina 34-17
> Losses: Georgia Tech 27-24, at Pittsburgh 21-16, Miami 30-6
> Remaining games
- Nov. 1 vs. Boston College (4-3), 12:30 p.m. (ESPN3)
- Nov. 15 at Duke (6-1)
- Nov. 22 at Wake Forest (2-5)
- Nov. 28 vs. Virginia (4-3)
> The Breakdown: As bad as the Hokies looked Thursday night against the Hurricanes it's not out of the realm of possibility they turn things around and win out -- especially with two weeks to prepare for a trip to Duke. After all, this is still a team that won on the road at Ohio State back on Sept. 6 and has won the Coastal four times. At least the Canes own the head-to-head tiebreaker against the Hokies.
Two-way tie:
1. Head-to-head competition between the two tied teams.
Three-way tie (Note: Once a team is eliminated from the tie, the tie-breaking procedures restart for the remaining teams. If the three or more team tie can only be reduced to two teams, the two-team tiebreaking procedure will then be applied):
1. Combined head-to-head winning percentage among the tied teams.
2. Winning percentage of the tied teams within the division.
3. Head-to-head competition versus the team within the division with the best overall (divisional and non-divisional) Conference winning percentage, and proceeding through the division. Multiple ties within the division will be broken first to last, using the league's tie-breaking procedures.
4. Combined winning percentage versus all common non-divisional opponents.
5. Combined winning percentage versus all non-divisional opponents.
6. Winning percentage versus common non-divisional opponents based upon their order of finish (overall conference winning percentage) and proceeding through other common non-divisional opponents based upon their divisional order of finish.
Forget the win over the Florida Gators last season.
This was the Canes' most impressive, most complete victory of the Al Golden era.
Until Hokies backup quarterback Mark Leal connected with Isaiah Ford for a 14-yard touchdown pass with a minute and 30 seconds left to play, the Hurricanes were on the verge of putting together their first shutout over an FBS opponent since they beat FIU 35-0 back in 2006.
Instead, they'll head home with a 30-6 beat down of Frank Beamer's Hokies in Blacksburg that breathes life back into their Coastal Division title hopes and puts them 5-3 overall and 2-2 in the ACC.
That's much more than anyone expected. Vegas favored Miami by just 2 1/2 points coming in. And why not? UM was 0-3 on the road this season and there was nothing they had to done recently to give you faith they would play as well as they did Thursday.
Some of the highlights:
> Led by Duke Johnson and Gus Edwards the Hurricanes ran for a season-high 364 yards against a Hokies run defense that ranked 29th nationally coming in (123.29). Last year, the Hokies held UM to 28 yards on 24 carries with Johnson hurt and lost for the season. Consider this: UM has run for 699 yards over its last eight quarters. The Canes had 800 total over their first six games.
"It was great man freaking running the ball like that," right tackle Jon Feliciano told WQAM after the game. "Duke had a great game. Gus had a great game. It felt like whoever would get the ball would make a play for us.
"I was kind of mad we were taking knees at the end of the game. I wanted go back out there and get 400. That's what we were talking about on the sidelines."
> As noted by many Johnson ran for a career-high 249 yards on 29 carries (one shy of his career mark) and also had two catches for 37 yards including a 22-yard TD catch seconds before the half. Johnson's 249 yards are tied for the third most in UM history with Lorenzo Roan. Only Edgerrin James' 299 yards vs. UCLA in 1998 and 271 yards at Boston College in 1997 rank higher.
The only thing that could stop Johnson Thursday was the Hokies bench (the actual metal sitting area). Johnson crashed into it as he ran out of bounds early in the fourth quarter. He later tweaked his right ankle late in the game (I'm not sure why he was still in there). But WQAM's sideline reporter Josh Darrow said Johnson was treated with "pain gel" and was fine.
Johnson by the way has run for 1,036 yards this season and has 11 100-yard rushing games under in his belt now including four 100-yard games in a row. "I think this is what the team needed -- a big performance," Johnson told ESPN afterward. "I just did what the coaches told me to do all week in practice -- to trust my o-line."
> Gus Edwards, getting the most action he's seen all season because Joe Yearby was hurt (ESPN reported a hamstring), ran for 115 yards on 15 carries. He scored on a 38-yard TD run to put UM ahead 30-0 in the fourth quarter.
> Coach Al Golden said the game plan coming in was to stay out of third and long situations at all costs. Miami ran the ball 53 times and threw it only 16 (Brad Kaaya finished 7-of-16 for 92 yards and a touchdown). It turned out to be the perfect formula to dominate the Hokies. Miami held the ball for 37 minutes and 52 seconds, easily their season-high.
> Virginia Tech ranked second nationally in sacks coming in with 28 total. The Hokies had none against the Hurricanes and just three quarterback hurries and three tackles for loss.
> Miami, ranked 127th in third down conversions coming in, finished 7-of-15 on third down. The Hokies had the fourth-ranked third down defense in the country (26.26 percent).
"That first third and long, [offensive James Coley] puts the draw in there and we get it against a blitz," Golden said. "That was our M.O. coming in. We were not going to get in a bad percentage third down and let them turn the game on that play. I thought James executed the game plan perfectly."
> Defensively, the Canes forced three consecutive turnovers to start the second half and are now 13-0 under Golden when creating at least three turnovers in a game.
The turnovers: safety Deon Bush simply took the ball away from running back Marshawn Williams near the goalline to prevent a Hokies touchdown on their opening drive of the third quarter. Tracy Howard then stripped a Hokies receiver of the ball and Jermaine Grace pounced on it at the UM 32. Denzel Perryman then crushed a Hokies running back and Grace pounced on that one as well at the UM 17.
> Virginia Tech finished with 262 yards of total offense (77 came on the final scoring drive of the game). That's the fewest yards Virginia Tech has put up since Alabama held them 212 in the 2013 season opener.
> Perryman led the Canes with 11 tackles. WQAM reported Perryman was hit hard in the ribs during the game, but fought through the pain. Safety Nantambu Fentress was next with nine tackles.
> UM had six tackles for loss including a pair of sacks (Anthony Chickillo, Grace each had one). Chickillo also batted a ball at the line of scrimmage.
"Takeaways, red zone stops and third down stops -- that's the difference," Golden said of his defense. "That's what we hadn't been doing altogether... You see how powerful it can be when we can do that.
""They got a little mojo there in the third quarter to open it up. I could see our guys were going for the ball. We tackled pretty well. For the most part the first guy on the scene was getting the tackle. We leveraged the screens really well. We put that to bed so it wouldn't become a problem. And then we pursued really well. Again, great effort, very active, very aggressive up front. I don't think we got many sacks, but we were around the quarterback a lot and altered a lot of throws."
> Defensive coordinator Mark D'Onofrio called several blitzes with his linebackers early including the first two linebacker blitz I had seen from the Canes all season. It turned into a Jermaine Grace sack.
> On special teams, UM gave up a 58-yard kickoff return to open the second half (the seventh return of 30 yards or more this season). Golden said it was too low of a line-drive kick. But overall, the special teams units were very good. No bad snaps from the new long snapper Frank Gabriel and punter Justin Vogel was an unsung hero. He had three punts pinned inside the 20 including one on the one-yard line.
"We didn't want special teams to be a factor in this game," Golden told WQAM "We did a good job with that and obviously we won the other two phases."
> Miami was flagged only four times for 28 yards. They were flagged a season-high 13 times for 155 yards against Cincinnati two Saturdays ago.
> Carter Hucks, the 8-year-old Make-A-Wish kid from South Carolina who spent a week with the team before the Cincinnati game, was on the sidelines with the Hurricanes again Thursday. He's set to have a bone marrow transplant in the coming days.
"I asked him what he was doing next weekend," Golden told WQAM afterward. "He sat in here, he was on the field with us, came in our huddle. He's just tremendous. He's fun to be around."
Nothing like a road win with the boys!! 🙌
— Brad Kaaya (@TrinidadBrad) October 24, 2014
Man that W feels good! 🙌🙌 proud of the squad!
— Corn Elder (@AIR_CORN23) October 24, 2014
Great team win! That's what we bout boiiiiiiii 💯💂
— Raphael Kirby (@killaXkirb) October 24, 2014
For proof of the Hurricanes' success on Thursday-night ESPN games, go no further than here.
According to ESPN, coming into Thursday's game, the Hurricanes were 16-3 in Thursday-night telecasts, 10-1 at home on Thursday-night ESPN telecasts and 6-2 on the road. Their losses: 28-21 to Virginia at Sun Life Stadium on Oct. 27, 2011; 41-23 at Georgia Tech on Nov. 20, 2008; and 21-17 at Pitt on Sept. 19, 1997.
The first box shows Miami's games at home on Thursday-night ESPN telecasts. The second box shows road games. Note that Al Golden is 2-1 in ESPN Thursday-night games while the Miami coach. He beat Virginia Tech in 2012 and at North Carolina in 2013 and lost to Virginia in 2011.
Houston 10 @ Miami (Fla.) 40
Pittsburgh 10 @ Miami 38
Pittsburgh 21 @ Miami 28
West Virginia 20 @ Miami (Fla.) 22
Louisville 38 @ Miami (Fla.) 41
Boston College 14 @ Miami, Fl 17
Texas A&M 17 @ Miami (Fla.) 34
Virginia Tech 14 @ Miami (Fla) 16
Georgia Tech 17 @ Miami (Fla.) 33
Virginia 28 @ Miami 21
Virginia Tech 12 @ Miami (Fla.) 30
Miami (Fla.) 33 @ Rutgers 0
Miami (Fla.) 17 @ Pittsburgh 21
Miami 43 @ Pittsburgh 21
Miami (Fla.) 48 @ Louisiana Tech 9 (at Shreveport)
Miami (Fla.) 38 @ Houston 13 (at Reliant Stadium)
Miami (Fla) 23 @ Georgia Tech 41
Miami (Fla.) 31 @ Pittsburgh 3
Miami (Fla.) 37 @ North Carolina 23