UM’s Kinchens sends love to fans after being rushed to hospital in win over Texas A&M
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Hospitalized Miami Hurricanes All-American safety Kamren Kinchens posted an uplifting tweet on Sunday afternoon, his first public communication with the outside world after being taken to Ryder Trauma Center near the end of UM’s game on Saturday night.
“I want to thank everyone for the prayers,’’ Kinchens posted on his social media account. “I’m doing better. Love y’all.’’
The post was accompanied by an emoji of hands throwing up the U.
Kinchens sustained an apparent head and neck injury with 1:58 left in Miami’s signature 48-33 win over Texas A&M and had to be stretchered out of Hard Rock Stadium after he was unable to get up off the field.
UM coach Mario Cristobal said after the game that Kinchens was in the hospital, but everything seemed “to be relatively normal” for the safety.
The junior remained down for several minutes, with players from both teams kneeling around him, after his head whipped backward on a fourth-quarter tackle. Kinchens was awake and talking as doctors tended to him, and strapped him into a backboard.
“He was just telling me he wanted to finish,” said fellow defensive back James Williams, who’s one of Kinchens’ closest friends and was standing over him while he was being strapped into the backboard. “‘I know you want to finish, but just breathe. Understand where you are and just breathe.’
“I was just telling him, ‘Look at me. Keep your eyes open. Breathe. You’re OK.”
The Ryder Trauma Center is at Jackson Memorial Hospital, and Cristobal went to meet him there after the game.
A tweet sent out at about 11: 45 p.m. by the Canes Football account of the University of Miami, courtesy of Kinchens’ mother Merdie Kinchens-Butler, showed a photo of a smiling Kinchens — described as “the heart and soul’’ of the Hurricanes by multiple players — throwing up the U from his hospital bed.
“All we can say is GOD is Amazing........’’ the caption reads, with the words “That’s one tough Cane” underneath the photo, accompanied by an emoji of crossed fingers.
“It seems like we’re going to be fine,” the coach said earlier from his postgame press conference. “That’s as hard as it gets. You’ve got parents in the stands, teammates. Football is unforgiving at times. I don’t think that’s the case here. I’m very hopeful. I don’t like to get ahead of myself, but I like to think positive and think everything is trending in the right direction, and we’ll get an update to everybody as soon as we get it.”
It’s possible no single player had more to do with the victory than Kinchens, too.
The defensive back was a first-team All-American last year after grabbing six interceptions, even as the Hurricanes failed to qualify for a bowl game for the first time in more than a decade and is “the heart and soul of this program,” quarterback Tyler Van Dyke said. He nabbed an interception in the third quarter and then recovered a fumble later in the half to help Miami fend off any comeback attempt by No. 23 Texas A&M.
The victory, Cristobal and multiple players said, was a testament to the Hurricanes’ changing culture and Kinchens is the driver of the change.
“He’s the heart and soul of the team,” Williams agreed. “He really wants to win. He really wants to change the culture here, doesn’t like losing. ... He not only pushed me, he pushes everybody around me to be great. He wants us to be great. He wants us to be better than we already are.”
When defensive back Jaden Davis transferred back home to Miami from Oklahoma back in May, he wasn’t entirely sure what he was stepping into. It only took him a few days to learn, because of Kinchens.
On one of Davis’ first days on campus in the offseason, Kinchens called everyone in for a players-only meeting.
“I’ve been places where you call a players meeting and some guys show up, some guys don’t some guys straggle in, but he called a players meeting and everybody was in the locker room 15 minutes before. Everybody was there on time,” Davis said. “This was before the summer, before we put in that grind, so it’s just like once I’ve seen that, I knew that these guys were ready to work and I came to the right place.
“That’s my guy. Like everybody said before me, that’s our leader. ... He’s in there at 5 a.m., he’s the last one to leave, so that’s my guy, you know? I’m praying for him and I hope, and wish the best for him.”
This story was originally published September 9, 2023 at 8:11 PM.