Miami falls to North Carolina in heartbreaking ACC opener for third consecutive loss
The fresh start is over — and so is any honeymoon period for University of Miami coach Mario Cristobal just five games into his tenure.
The Hurricanes opened their Atlantic Coast Conference slate Saturday at Hard Rock Stadium with another frustrating performance, losing their third consecutive game 27-24 to the North Carolina Tar Heels and falling to 2-3 overall.
“I’ll just go right to it,’’ UM coach Mario Cristobal said. “We knew we had work to do getting here at Miami and that’s what we are all about. ...Moral victories ain’t it, especially when you have opportunities. We gave ourselves an opportunity in the fourth quarter to have the ball and potentially tie or win the game. We came up short there as well.”
One thing is for certain: Canes quarterback Tyler Van Dyke can’t be blamed for this one.
After being benched in UM’s last game two weeks ago, Van Dyke completed 42 of 57 passes for a career-high 496 yards, three touchdowns — and an interception with eight seconds left that sealed UNC’s victory. His top target, tight end Will Mallory, had eight catches for a career-high 115 yards.
“The guys that we got in there,’’ Mallory said of the locker room, “it’s frustrating. Those guys are competitors so obviously emotions are high and people are frustrated. But there’s no sense of falling apart. This is something we obviously have to learn from. It’s unacceptable but we got a lot of football left. And the last thing we could ever do is fall apart.’’
Van Dyke’s 16-yard touchdown pass to Colbie Young with 2:20 left in the game got Miami within three points. The Hurricanes nearly recovered their subsequent onside kick before it was ruled that Al Blades Jr. was out of bounds when he swatted the ball to keep it in play for what seemed like a UM recovery by Chase Smith. Instead, North Carolina took over.
UM’s running game was nonexistent, averaging 1.75 yards a carry with 42 total yards on 24 rushes.
UM forced a three-and-out to get one final possession, which started at the Miami 10-yard line with 1:13 left. Van Dyke completed five of his first eight passes to get Miami to the UNC 47 before being intercepted by DeAndre Boykins.
UM has not had a lead for the past three games.
UNC, which beat UM for the fourth consecutive time, hit a 19-yard field goal that culminated an 81-yard drive that took 8:21 off the clock to go up 27-17 with 4:10 left.
“You have to congratulate Miami,’’ Tar Heels coach Mack Brown said. “It’s amazing how young people fight so hard to win a football game. I’ve often said, whoever made scoreboards in some cases didn’t make it fair, because Miami didn’t lose the game, they just ran out of time. It was that kind of game. Both teams played so hard. It’s probably two even teams if you look at it. Two great quarterbacks with a lot of skill. Neither one running the ball as much as they would like. Defenses that really stepped up and played well in the second half.”
UNC star quarterback Drake Maye, who entered the game with 19 touchdowns against just one interception, finished 19 of 28 for 309 yards, two touchdowns and two interceptions.
Miami, a 3 ½-point favorite coming off a bye week, has begun its ACC slate at 0-1, with the final seven regular-season games all league opponents. UNC (5-1, 2-0 ACC) belongs to UM’s Coastal Division in the league, which will make it even tougher for the Hurricanes to win the Coastal en route to a goal of playing in the ACC title game.
Not only did UM’s quest for early ACC supremacy take a hit, the announced crowd of 53,751 included at least nine of Miami’s 17 Class of 2023 commits, plus other top recruits as well. How they view the program and where they fit in remains to be seen.
The last time the Hurricanes started 2-3 was just last season under former coach Manny Diaz. In 2021, UM went to 2-4 before finishing 7-5 by winning five of its last six games.
With UNC up 24-17 and the Canes driving from the Tar Heels 26, the ball slipped out of tailback Jaylan Knighton’s hand after he ran through a hole on fourth-and-1 for what would have been a first down. UNC’s Giovanni Biggers recovered with 12:31 left in the game. That began the 81-yard game-sealing drive.
“On that eight-minute drive they got a couple of draws... just quick passes to get the ball going and the clock to keep running,’’ said defensive end Mitchell Agude, who had one of the Hurricanes’ season-high five sacks. “We just have to be stout in the D-line, stout in our technique, stout in our alignment — especially with our DBs and everyone on the defense. Just gotta keep working to get that number down so we can give the offense more time.’’
UNC made it a one-touchdown lead — 24-17 — at 7:58 of the third quarter on a seven-play, 24-yard drive that ended with a 38-yard field goal by Noah Burnette.
The Hurricanes were forced to punt on their opening drive, and pinned the Tar Heels at the UNC 5-yard line. But on third-and-3 from the UNC 26, Maye’s pass was caught at the UNC 48 by J.J. Jones, who beat Canes cornerback Tyrique Stephenson and sprinted down the left sideline for a 74-yard touchdown. Stephenson tried to catch up but wasn’t even close. The Tar Heels led 7-0 at 8:55 of the first quarter.
UM took over at its own 25, drove to the UNC 30 in five plays, then stalled and was left with nothing when Andy Borregales’ 53-yard attempt sailed wide left. After two drives, Van Dyke was 5 of 6 for 56 yards.
The Canes took over on downs when they stopped UNC on three plays from within the 8-yard line. By the time the drive was interrupted by the first quarter’s end, Van Dyke was 7 of 8 for 74 yards. When the drive continued, Van Dyke’s first pass was a 41-yard completion to Jaylan Knighton. Four plays later, UM had first-and-goal from the UNC 2.
Thad Franklin rushed for 1 yard on first down, but UM was stopped on its next three attempts from the 1. In the process, center Jakai Clark and right guard Justice Oluwaseun were injured and left the game on consecutive plays. To make matters worse, the Heels took over at the 1 and drove 99 yards on eight plays, culminating with a 2-yard rushing touchdown by Omarion Hampton. UNC led 14-0.
The Canes roared back by scoring on their final three drives of the half — a 20-yard touchdown pass from Van Dyke to Key’Shawn Smith, an acrobatic 7-yard pass to Henry Parrish and a 38-yard field by Boregales with two seconds left (following Keontra Smith’s interception).
Van Dyke’s throw to Parrish came with UNC’s Myles Murphy hanging from the quarterback’s left side. But Van Dyke, in the midst of being tackled, leaned to his right and threw for the score.
In between UM’s two touchdowns, Maye hit Josh Downs for a 15-yard touchdown.
Van Dyke finished the first half 20 of 25 for 289 yards and two touchdowns, more than twice the yards than he threw in the loss to Middle Tennessee State.
UNC, booed by UM fans as they ran into their locker room, led 21-17 at the half.
Miami travels to Blacksburg, Virginia, to meet the Virginia Tech Hokies at 12:30 p.m. Oct. 15. The Hokies were scheduled to play at Pitt at 3:30 p.m. Saturday. The Hokies were 2-2 overall and 1-1 in the ACC heading into Saturday.
This story was originally published October 8, 2022 at 7:47 PM.
