History Lessons: Bethune-Cookman Wildcats

Any takers on how many times Miami and Bethune-Cookman have met up?  Or when they first met? (No Googling) Bueller?

For those who don’t know, Miami and the Wildcats from Daytona Beach have only met twice – in 2011 and 2012.  What those seasons have in common is that Miami faced the BCC Wildcats the following week after Kansas State Wildcats quarterback Collin Klein ripped the hearts out of the Canes fans’ collective chests.

After seeing a Jacory Harris game-winning touchdown overturned in a 28-24 loss to Kansas State on September 24, 2011, the Canes rebounded the next week with a 45-14 thrashing of BCC.  In what was the Wildcats’ first ever matchup with a major college opponent in its then-86-year history, BCC started off hot, holding a 7-0 lead for the majority of the first half.  In fact, for the game, the Wildcats outgained UM 422-335 and held a nearly 2 to 1 edge in time of possession.  Miami would wake up behind 102 yards and 2 touchdowns on the ground from Lamar Miller, and Harris’s second touchdown strike to Tommy Streeter in the fourth quarter pushed the lead to a comfortable 31-14 margin.

In 2012, following Duke Johnson’s coming out party in a 41-32 win at Boston College, Miami was hammered in Manhattan, KS in perhaps Golden’s most humbling result to date.  The following week was a home tilt again against BCC.

And it was a further coming out party for Johnson.  Duke scored four touchdowns – three of them coming in different ways.  He had a 95-yard kickoff return for a touchdown, hauled in a 50-yard touchdown strike, and ran for scores of 1 and 28 yards.  He became the first four-touchdown Miami player since Tyrone Moss accomplished the feat against North Carolina in 2005.

Here’s hoping Saturday’s game is someone else’s coming out party.  Joe Yearby?  The return of milk-carton-pictured Stacy Coley?  We’ll see shortly.

Go Canes.