Miami RB Parrish pumped for his first FSU rivalry game. ‘It’s a love and hate relationship’
Miami Hurricanes running back Henry Parrish Jr. ran hard as a teenage star at Miami Columbus High when the Hurricanes snapped Florida State’s seven-game winning streak in 2017, then proceeded to mount their own four-game winning streak — until FSU snapped that one last season.
In 2020, Parrish chose Ole Miss for his first two years of college football. Now, after transferring to UM before this season, the Miami-Dade Goulds native — UM’s leading rusher — finally will get the chance to experience the in-state rivalry on his own when the Seminoles (5-3, 3-3 Atlantic Coast Conference) and Hurricanes (4-4, 2-2) meet at 7:30 p.m. Saturday (ABC) at Hard Rock Stadium.
He’s ready — so ready that coaches didn’t use any other running backs in UM’s quadruple-overtime victory last week at Virginia.
“I’m really excited,’’ the 5-10, 190-pound third-year sophomore said, calling it a “love and hate relationship” between the teams, then adding on Tuesday that “it’s a hate toward FSU.’’
“I’m with it. I’m with everything that comes with it.”
Top rusher
Parrish leads the Canes with 554 yards and four touchdowns on 113 carries, a 4.9-yards-per-carry and 79.1-yards-per-game average. He also has 15 catches for 112 yards and two touchdowns. At Virginia he ran for a game-high 113 yards on 24 carries, including in overtime.
“It was pretty tough, but you just gotta put your head down and work,’’ he said.
UM’s run game has been meager at best. The Hurricanes are ranked 89th of 131 FBS teams in rushing offense, averaging 132.2 yards per game. Florida State is 69th in rushing defense, allowing 145.6 yards per game.
Multiple Hurricanes running backs have been injured since the start of the season and others, such as last year’s leading rusher Jaylan Knighton, are struggling. Knighton, a 5-10, 190-pound third-year sophomore out of Deerfield Beach High, had 561 rushing yards and a team-best eight rushing touchdowns last season in eight games. But he has fumbled three times this season, and now has 163 rushing yards and no touchdowns on 43 carries (3.8-yard average) in six games.
Sophomore Thad Franklin, a 6-0, 240-pound bruiser out of Hollywood Chaminade-Madonna, has 194 yards and five touchdowns this season on 44 carries (4.4 average) in six games.
And UAB transfer Lucious Stanley, a walk-on, has 83 rushing yards and no touchdowns on 14 carries (5.9) in four games.
UM coach Mario Cristobal said this week that Knighton “is a good football player,” and “his touches are coming.’’ Cristobal added Wednesday that tailback Don Chaney Jr., who sustained a lower-body injury in the preseason, could be back by the end of the season.
Consistency needed
Offensive coordinator Josh Gattis made it clear Monday that coaches don’t want to use just one back in games, putting Parrish, who already sat out at Virginia Tech three weeks ago with an undisclosed injury, “at risk.” He said coaches “do have belief in Jaylan and Thad— they practice really hard. But you’ve got to be able to carry that over to the games.”
“Unfortunately we’ve faced some adversity in games,’’ Gattis said, “whether that’s fumbles, whether that’s making people miss in space, one on one opportunities, protections, the whole thing. Right now we’re at that point in the season where you’ve got to start relying on consistency. That’s a very important piece to us, because when you look at us offensively, that’s a piece that has been missing.’’
Parrish was asked about the strain of being a “one-headed attack” at this point. “It don’t matter to me,’’ he said. “Whenever my number is called I’m going to do what I got to do to keep the chains moving and keep the offense on the field. Make plays, fly around and hopefully score touchdowns.”
Columbus to Ole Miss
At Ole Miss, Parrish ran for 554 yards and three touchdowns on 105 carries last season as the No. 3 back, adding 21 catches for 173 yards. Ole Miss ranked No. 3 in the SEC in rushing yards in 2021, with an average of 217.6 yards a game.
At Columbus, Parrish ran for 4,653 yards, averaging 9.3 yards a carry and 129 yards a game to become the Explorers’ career rushing leader. He was a first-team all-state selection as a junior and senior.
He said earlier this season that he transferred to UM because “it’s home.’’
“Mississippi is far away. I’m born and raised in Miami. It feels good to put on for the city.’’
Now he’ll get a taste of one of the city’s biggest rivalries.
“I’m fully prepared,’’ he said, “and just taking it day by day... All the guys [are] hyped. This is the moment we work for.’’
This story was originally published November 2, 2022 at 4:20 PM.
