6 telling stats from the Miami Hurricanes’ win over Duke to improve to 9-0
The No. 5 Miami Hurricanes once again rallied from a deficit to win a conference game, this time beating the Duke Blue Devils 53-31 on Saturday at Hard Rock Stadium.
The win moves Miami to 9-0 and 5-0 in Atlantic Coast Conference play.
Here are six key stats from the win.
9-0: At 9-0, the Hurricanes are one of just five Football Bowl Subdivision teams with a perfect record after Week 10. The others: the Oregon Ducks, BYU Cougars, Indiana Hoosiers and Army Black Knights.
Additionally, Miami is one of just two Atlantic Coast Conference teams without a loss in league play. SMU is the other.
10: This marked the third time this season the Hurricanes had to erase a second-half deficit of at least 10 points to win a conference game. They came back from down 10 points multiple times in the win against Virginia Tech and rallied from down 25 to beat Cal.
On Saturday, Miami was down by 11 in the third quarter against Duke before outscoring the Blue Devils 36-3 the rest of the way.
3,000 (and more): Cam Ward has already tied the Hurricanes’ record for single-season touchdown passes with 29 after his five-touchdown effort against Duke.
But Ward also hit a few more milestones on Saturday.
We’ll start here: Through nine games this season, Ward has 3,146 passing yards. He is the 11th quarterback in UM history with a 3,000-yard passing season and first since Malik Rosier in 2017. It’s the 10th-most passing yards by a Hurricanes quarterback in a season and just 497 yards shy of breaking Bernie Kosar’s school record of 3,642 passing yards set in the 1984 season.
The full group Ward joins, in reverse chronological order: Rosier (3,120 yards in 2017), Brad Kaaya (3,532 yards in 2016; 3,242 yards in 2015; 3,198 yards in 2014), Stephen Morris (3,028 yards in 2013; 3,345 yards in 2012), Jacory Harris (3,352 yards in 2009), Ken Dorsey (3,369 yards in 2002), Gino Torretta (3,060 yards in 1992; 3,095 yards in 1991), Craig Erickson (3,363 yards in 1990), Steve Walsh (3,115 yards in 1988), Vinny Testaverde (3,238 yards in 1985) and Kosar (3,642 yards in 1984).
But beyond that...
▪ With 400 passing yards against Duke, Ward now has eight 300-yard passing games and three 400-yard passing games this season. The eight 300-yard passing games tie Kosar’s single-season record from the 1984 season. Meanwhile, the three 400-yard passing games tie the Hurricanes career record, matching efforts from Stephen Morris (three in the 2012 season) and Torretta (three throughout his UM career from 1989-1992).
▪ For his career, which included two seasons at FCS Incarnate Word and two more at Washington State before transferring to Miami, Ward has 17,022 passing yards. That has him in fifth place on the NCAA’s all-time, all-division passing yards list.
2,573 (and more): Xavier Restrepo’s eight-catch, 146-yard, three-touchdown performance on Saturday vaulted him in the Hurricanes’ record book in multiple ways.
The biggest: His 2,573 career receiving yards are now the most in UM history, surpassing the previous mark held by Santana Moss (2,547).
Additionally, his 182 career catches are tied with Mike Harley for most in Miami history.
But there’s even more history for Restrepo.
He has 11 career 100-yard receiving games — the most in UM history.
He has multiple seasons with 850 receiving yards, something no other Hurricanes receiver has ever done, and has a chance to be the first Canes player with consecutive 1,000-yard receiving seasons as a result.
His 19 career touchdown catches are tied with Moss for seventh all-time in school history and just seven shy of Michael Irvin’s record of 26.
On the season, Restrepo has 51 catches for 856 yards and nine touchdowns.
53: This one is more of an emotional connection. The entire Hurricanes team on Friday attended the memorial service of Mark Fletcher Sr., the father of sophomore running back Mark Fletcher Jr. Fletcher Sr. was 53.
On Saturday, Fletcher Jr. scored the Hurricanes’ final touchdown on a 1-yard rush with 5:37 left in the game.
That touchdown gave the Hurricanes … 53 points.
In the two games Miami has played since Fletcher Sr.’s death, Fletcher Jr. has 136 rushing yards and two touchdowns on 27 carries — an average of 5.03 yards per carry. He has rushed for at least 65 yards in each of the past four games after logging just 142 total rushing yards through the Hurricanes’ first five games.
Four: The Hurricanes forced a season-high four turnovers, including three interceptions (by Mishael Powell, OJ Frederique Jr. and Jadais Richards) and a fumble recovery. It’s the first time Miami has logged that many turnovers in a game since Nov. 12, 2022, at Georgia Tech.
Miami scored 21 points off those four turnovers.
On the season, the Hurricanes are plus-six in turnover margin. UM hasn’t finished with a positive turnover margin since the 2020 season when it was plus-four.
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