Miami Hurricanes get another game Saturday. Now it’s at Duke instead of Wake Forest
The Miami Hurricanes will indeed be playing football Saturday.
The Atlantic Coast Conference announced Sunday night that the University of Miami, which had next weekend’s Dec. 5 game at Wake Forest called off (COVID-19 at Wake), will instead play at Duke in Durham, North Carolina.
The game will kick off at 8 p.m. and be televised by the ACC Network.
The reason Miami (7-1, 6-1 ACC) is able to play Duke (2-7, 1-7) is because Florida State, which has its own COVID-19 outbreak, was supposed to play at Duke next Saturday but had that game announced Sunday as one that will not be played.
Since Duke belongs to the ACC, UM will not have to reschedule the Wake game.
Duke had five turnovers and lost 56-33 to Georgia Tech on Saturday.
The Hurricanes, ranked 10th in the College Football Playoff rankings and ninth in the AP and Coaches polls, last played Nov. 14 at Virginia Tech but have had the past two weekends off because of a COVID-19 outbreak in the UM program. Then, this weekend, the Canes learned about the Wake game not being played and thought they might have to spend yet a third consecutive week idle.
Regardless, Miami players, like players on all ACC teams, must be tested for COVID-19 at least three times this week, the final time on Friday.
Miami’s coronavirus outbreak included coach Manny Diaz, who told reporters on Wednesday that the Canes would begin practicing Monday and that he would be there, though he couldn’t be sure of how many players would be available and healthy enough to take part.
Before the coronavirus pandemic caused the ACC to completely revamp the 2020 league schedules, UM had been scheduled to play Duke at Hard Rock Stadium in the regular-season finale Nov. 28. But when the schedules were rearranged, Duke was taken off UM’s schedule.
Because of the pandemic, Notre Dame was added just for this season as an ACC member in football, and the usual Atlantic and Coastal divisions were merged into one 15-team division. Duke and Miami normally belong to the Coastal.
After Duke, Miami will play North Carolina at Hard Rock on Dec. 12, before ending the regular season at home Dec. 19 against Georgia Tech (but only if UM is not in the ACC title game).
This story was originally published November 29, 2020 at 9:49 PM.
