Miami dives into critical ACC play Thursday against Virginia amid usual Coastal chaos
Remember the days of Al Golden, when University of Miami football players kept repeating the word “Coastal?”
Not “ACC.’’ Not “national championship.’’ Just “Coastal.’’
Now, there’s nary a “Coastal” peep out of coach Manny Diaz’s Hurricanes, who face, yes, fellow Coastal Division competitor Virginia in Miami’s Atlantic Coast Conference opener at 7:30 p.m. (ESPN) Thursday at Hard Rock Stadium.
The Coastal, as usual, is an unpredictable potpourri of mediocrity marked by unexpected disappointments, like anticipated power North Carolina’s 1-2 league record and preseason division favorite Miami’s 2-2 overall record.
The Virginia Cavaliers (2-2, 0-2) are a combination of very good (nation’s No. 1 passing offense, led by left-handed quarterback Brennan Armstrong) and very bad (defense allowed 96 points and 1,172 yards combined in past two games to North Carolina and Wake Forest). With a victory Thursday, the 5 1/2-point-favorite Hurricanes, who have a 71 percent chance of beating Virginia, according to ESPN’s computer-generated College Football Power Index, would get to their bye week unblemished in the ACC with a winning overall record and time for injured players to heal.
Regarding injured players, sixth-year senior starting Miami quarterback D’Eriq King is not expected to play in this game as he continues to heal from a shoulder injury. Second-year freshman Tyler Van Dyke, who excelled (10 of 11 for 270 yards and three touchdowns) in his first start last week against Central Connecticut State, will likely get the start Thursday.
Also expected to play again is true freshman quarterback Jake Garcia (11 of 14 of 147 yards and two touchdowns), who also impressed last week in his college debut.
Coastal ‘eating itself’
Diaz was asked this week by Richmond Times-Dispatch ACC beat writer Mike Barber if it was “weird,’’ for the Hurricanes, who have yet to face an ACC team, “to sit back while the division is kind of eating itself and have to wait your turn?”
“I haven’t thought about it like that,’’ Diaz said. “What we know is we’ve got the eight straight — this one and then a bye and then really seven straight after that. We know what we expect in our league. There are a lot of good football teams in this league. Sometimes games that people think are upsets is in a weird way disrespecting a team that’s winning.
“I said all offseason that NC State [plays Oct. 23 at UM] has a really good football team, and people knew Wake Forest had a good football team, and Boston College and teams like Pitt [hosts UM Oct. 30]. This is a deep, deep league with anybody that can get you pretty much on any weekend.”
Tough week
Diaz had another tough week, even after UM’s 69-0 win against CCSU, as fans continued to rant their dissatisfaction with the program, and the coach defended the Miami administration and its commitment to football in a nearly six-minute monologue Monday to start a Zoom news conference. On Tuesday, during his weekly WQAM slot, Diaz confronted the “negativity: factor.
“Look, I get it,’’ he said. “The program has been where it’s been. We’ve had some false dawns, and it’s easy for people on the outside to criticize. ... Going back to the Miami when I was growing up, there’s always been criticism of Miami from the outside. What’s most important is that internally, even though we can still understand short-term results — like I mentioned the first three games, it’s my responsibility to get the team to play better — we can’t turn on ourselves because that affects our recruiting and that’s been the cycle we’ve been in.’’
Added Diaz: “That’s what it’s like to be at a school with high expectations. If you don’t want that maybe this is not the place for you to play or for you to coach.”
UVA offense
Miami’s biggest challenge this week is 6-2, 215-pound fourth-year junior Armstrong, who leads the nation in passing yards per game with 426 and is second nationally with 1,705 passing yards. He has thrown for 300 yards in four consecutive games, and set Virginia’s single-game passing record with 554 yards in the 59-39 loss to UNC.
Receiver Dontayvion Wicks is sixth nationally with 460 receiving yards, and 6-7, 265-pound tight end Jelani Woods is a huge target across the middle.
“First of all he’s a lefty and he makes great throws,’’ UM cornerback Tyrique Stevenson said of Armstrong. “he doesn’t put his receivers in harm’s way. He just makes great decisions.”
Stevenson noted that “the first thing that really stands out” with the Cavaliers “is they do a lot of shifts and motions, you know, eye candy to make the defense panic, because they know that once they motion and shift the whole defense has to change and that calls for the back end and the D-linemen and the linebackers to do a lot of communication.”
Diaz reiterated that he knows “what’s at stake’’ beginning Thursday.
“We think we’ve got as good a shot as anybody,’’ he said.
This story was originally published September 29, 2021 at 2:04 PM.
