Miami, led by true freshman QB Jacurri Brown, breaks out for five TDs to win at Georgia Tech
One week after being embarrassed at home by archrival Florida State, the Miami Hurricanes traveled Saturday to Georgia Tech’s Bobby Dodd Stadium and pulled off the following rare feats:
▪ They won the game 35-14.
▪ They did it with true freshman quarterback Jacurri Brown making his first career start.
▪ They scored five touchdowns.
▪ They had four interceptions, three by sophomore Kam Kinchens — the last for a 99-yard touchdown that iced the victory with 2:36 left.
Job well done by the Canes (5-5, 3-3 Atlantic Coast Conference), whose last win before Saturday was 14-12 in quadruple overtime two weeks ago at Virginia and are now one victory from qualifying for a bowl with two games remaining in the regular season.
“Everybody in there is proud of our team for bouncing back the way they did, just being resilient, showing up to work and putting together a really good game — almost a complete game,’’ UM coach Mario Cristobal said. “Got some performances from a ton of guys. Obviously Jacurri got the start, did a lot of nice things and Jaylan Knighton ran really, really hard.”
Led by the 6-4, 210-pound Brown, whose hometown of Valdosta, Georgia, is three hours south of Atlanta, the Hurricanes scored their first touchdowns since early in the third quarter Oct. 22 against Duke. Brown replaced usual starter Tyler Van Dyke, who sat out the game with a shoulder injury he previously sustained.
Brown finished 14-of-19 for 136 yards and three touchdowns. He added 19 carries for 87 yards — high-stepping and even hurdling an opponent during his runs.
‘Juiced’
“I’m like juiced right now,’’ Brown said, when asked how sore he felt. “I won’t feel it until probably we land in Miami, and it’ll probably get up on me. But other than that I’ll be smooth. I’m used to it.”
UM tailback Jaylan Knighton also scored on a 2-yard run with 4:29 left in the game. He notched the second 100-yard game of his career, finishing with 118 yards on 16 carries.
And Kinchens, only a sophomore, became the first Hurricane to make three interceptions in a game since Kenny Phillips in 2006. He leads the ACC with six interceptions.
“That’s the goal,’’ Kinchens said. “You chase the greats.’’
Brown told the ACC on Regional Sports Networks he had lots of family and friends in the crowd of 33,857 at Bobby Dodd, including his mother and uncle. Along with a large contingent of UM fans who made the trip, they embraced and congratulated him and his teammates immediately after the game.
“Everybody wanted to come, especially when I told them, it was like everybody was ‘tickets, tickets, tickets,’” Brown said. “It’s crazy how God works: My first start comes back in my home state and it just feels great.”
Brown became UM’s first true freshman to start a game since Brad Kaaya in the 2014 season opener at Louisville. But UM lost that 2014 game.
The Canes evened their record for the fourth time this season. The Yellow Jackets fell to 4-6 and 3-4, and almost certainly won’t reach six-victory bowl status with No. 15 North Carolina and No. 1 Georgia as their remaining 2022 opponents.
Bowl goal
“We came back in after that Florida State game and said we had a three-game season to get back to [being] bowl eligible,” Brown said, “and that’s our goal.”
Brown’s first career touchdown pass came on UM’s opening drive and went 22 yards to senior tight end Will Mallory, who caught the ball at the 7-yard line and ran into the right side of the end zone to culminate an 11-play, 75-yard drive. UM led 7-0 at 8:44.
Brown ran four times for 18 yards in that first drive, including a 3-yard keeper for a first down.
Brown’s second touchdown pass went 4 yards to freshman tight end Jaleel Skinner for Skinner’s first career score. It came at 9:26 of the second quarter and culminated a 14-play drive that stretched 93 yards and put UM up 14-0.
Brown’s third touchdown pass was for 8 yards to Colbie Young with 7:52 left, culminating an eight-play, 51-yard drive and giving Miami a 21-7 lead.
Whopper drive
As fine as UM’s second-quarter 93-yard drive seemed, the Yellow Jackets came back later in the quarter with a 99-yard whopper. Georgia Tech started its drive at 4:49 from its own 1 after cornerback Al Blades Jr. downed another spectacular Lou Hedley punt before it reached the end zone. Sure enough, the Yellow Jackets drove those 99 yards on 15 plays and cut UM’s lead to 14-7 when Zack Pyron delivered a 9-yard touchdown pass to Nate McCollum with 30 seconds left in the half.
The drive included a face mask call on UM cornerback Te’Cory Couch, whose infraction moved the ball half the distance to the goal line at the 15 — and an interception that went through the hands of UM cornerback Tyrique Stevenson. Stevenson came back in the third quarter with a leaping interception that prevented a potential Yellow Jackets touchdown.
Georgia Tech scored a touchdown with 36 seconds left for the final score.
Cristobal told WQAM at halftime that Brown had “played really well, really composed. Have to come back and play even better in the second half.’’
“It’s next man up,” Brown said. “We’ve battled a lot this year, we’ve been through a lot this year and it just feels good. ... It’s great for this team, these fans.”
UM travels again next weekend for a game at No. 12 Clemson in South Carolina. The Tigers (9-1, 7-0) defeated Louisville Saturday. Game time had not been announced as of early Saturday evening.
UM hosts Pittsburgh at Hard Rock Stadium in the Nov. 26 regular-season finale. The Panthers are 6-4 and 3-3 after defeating Virginia early Saturday.
This story was originally published November 12, 2022 at 6:50 PM.
