Miami Hurricanes vow to keep fighting after loss to UNC. But result still ‘stinks’
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Coach Mario Cristobal, his Miami Hurricanes and most of the Hard Rock Stadium fans had to have hope, faith, belief that the Canes could persevere and at least tie the North Carolina Tar Heels as UM charged down the field Saturday trailing 27-24 with 1:13 remaining.
The Canes had stopped the prolific UNC offense to get this final shot in their opening Atlantic Coast Conference game, and now it was their time — until it wasn’t. Quarterback Tyler Van Dyke’s interception after a career day ended the would-be comeback at the UNC 47-yard line with eight seconds left, and Cristobal and his players were again left with questions about what went wrong and how to get this team on the right path.
UM fell to 2-3 with its third consecutive loss as the Canes begin to prepare for their second ACC game at 12:30 p.m. Saturday at Virginia Tech (2-4, 1-2). But the players insist they are close and committed to Cristobal and each other and refuse to give up.
“It hurts,’’ defensive end Mitchell Agude said. “Everyone in the locker room is hurt right now, but that’s not going to define us. We’re going to keep on fighting. There is no loss that’s going to take the Miami Hurricanes down. We’re going to take it as a lesson and keep moving forward.’’
“Those guys are competitors so obviously emotions are high,’’ tight end Will Mallory said. “But there’s no sense of falling apart. This is something we obviously have to learn from. It’s unacceptable but we have a lot of football left. ...We learn from our mistakes, but we stay together.’’
The Canes have been up and down both offensively and defensively, finally improving the passing game with Van Dyke’s career-high 496 passing yards and three-touchdown day. Mallory had a career-high eight catches for a career-best 115 yards. And junior college transfer Colbie Young had his first three catches at UM, one of them for a 16-yard touchdowns.
“We’re headed in the right direction, I really believe that,’’ the quarterback said.
What happened to run game?
But the Canes whiffed in the run game with a sickly 42 rushing yards on 24 attempts, a 1.75-yards-per-carry average. After the Canes dropped to 2-1 with their loss at Texas A&M, they were still ranked 27th nationally in rushing offense. By Sunday, they were 69th.
On Saturday, their starter, Ole-Miss transfer Henry Parrish, ran 11 times for 19 yards, a 1.7 average. Veteran Jaylan Knighton ran four times for 13 yards, his (and UM’s) longest a 9-yard gain — the critical play on which he fumbled at the UNC 17-yard line to lose possession. A UM touchdown would have tied the score at 24. Instead, the Tar Heels drove 81 yards and ate up 8:21 off the fourth-quarter clock to kick a field goal and make it 27-17 with 4:10 remaining.
It made matters worse with starting center Jakai Clark and starting right guard Justice Oluwaseun knocked out of the game on consecutive plays in the first half. Oluwaseun “hurt himself pretty good,’’ the coach said. “I think Jakai is going to be OK.’’
At one point in the second quarter, UM had first-and-goal from the UNC 2-yard line, gained 1 yard on a Thad Franklin run and then was stuffed on two consecutive runs. On fourth-and-goal from the 1, Van Dyke had UNC’s defensive lineman Kaimon Rucker in his face and rushed an impossible pass that fell incomplete.
“Some things look like they’re there and all of a sudden, it’s one yard or no yards or two yards,’’ Cristobal said of the run game. “You know, you run power and you’ve got a good double team and you feel like you have a good kick out and it should be a successful play. Wide zone versus some of those things should be good, but we’re short. Sometimes, the double team is too thin. Sometimes, a guy allows penetration. Sometimes, we’re not reading it the right way. We’re out of sync in the run game. It’s not a matter of effort, but we’ve got to do a better job. We tried every which way to get the ball going on the ground — split zone, counter, power, wide zone. I mean, you name it. Then, Tyler got so hot that said, ‘let’s just go with it,’ and he did a really good job.”
‘Critical errors’
Cristobal said “critical errors typically tell the tale of a game like this,’’ and among them, UM had the lost fumble and interception, and botched defensive back coverages on two touchdowns.
But the defense also had a season-high five sacks, two interceptions and nine tackles for loss against a quarterback (Drake Maye) who came into Saturday leading the country with 19 touchdowns to only one interception.
“We gave ourselves an opportunity in the fourth quarter to have the ball and potentially tie or win the game,’’ Cristobal said. “We came up short. Do we see effort and better resiliency? Yes. Are there very fixable, should-not-go-sideways type situations? Yes. And do you address those directly and bluntly? Absolutely. Just really upset. But I’m proud because the guys were grinding and they kept coming no matter what...’’
The 1987 national champion Miami Hurricanes were honored on their 35th anniversary Saturday at halftime and Cristobal was asked to reflect.
“They’re one of the reasons I came to Miami, yes sir,’’ he said of that team. “I’ve been watching Miami football since I can remember, going to the Orange Bowl. That’s why we are here. We’re all about it. We’re all about the work and the lumps that come with it. It stinks and it’s painful to deal with but, you know what, that’s what we are here for. And we’re gladly ready for whatever comes with it to make sure we get back to a certain level and that’s what we’re going to do.”
This story was originally published October 9, 2022 at 12:58 PM.
