The Miami Hurricanes earned bowl eligibility and sent the seniors out on a high note with a 52-27 win over the Louisville Cardinals on Senior Day and Homecoming at Hard Rock Stadium.
Here’s out Game Recap by Gaby Urrutia
Jarren Williams’ record-breaking performance leads Miami to a 52-27 win over Louisville on Senior Day #TheU #Canes #TNM https://t.co/hQascTHkK2 pic.twitter.com/GrjgcKu0dH
— StateOfTheU.com (@TheStateOfTheU) November 10, 2019
Here’s our 3 stars by KappaCane
Louisville at Miami: Three Stars of the Game#RecordSetting #SeniorDay #Blowout #Canes https://t.co/PXNagUnycu pic.twitter.com/E2MwN4Tigj
— StateOfTheU.com (@TheStateOfTheU) November 10, 2019
And now, let’s get into The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly.
The Good
- Winning!!! Winning is good! Winning on Senior Night is great! Winning on Homecoming is fantastic! Winning on Senior night, homecoming, and with 2 PREMIUM recruits on Official Visits (and many other recruits also on hand) is SPECTACULAR!!!!
- A fast start. 21 points in the first quarter. Hell yes. MORE OF THAT!!!!
- We got more of that. 52 points ties the most Miami has ever scored against an ACC opponent. Hell yeah!!!!!!
- QB Jarren Williams’s 1st quarter. 6-6 for 138 yards and 2 TDs. Seems decent, IYAM.
- Williams hit Dee Wiggins over the top for a 67 yard TD 1 play after Louisville scored to tie the game at 7. Love seeing both of those guys growing and improving.
When you switch to the closest defender but the joystick moves him the wrong way. pic.twitter.com/fWc6okuFAy
— Cam Mellor (@PFF_Cam) November 9, 2019
- Williams hit DeeJay Dallas for a TD on a screen pass. It wasn’t as impressive a throw as the one to Wiggins, but Williams showed great patience to pump fake the ball and then WAIT for Dallas to come open and the blocking to get set in front of him.
- Jarren Williams’s day. Not only did he start hot, he stayed hot. Williams ended the day going 15-22 passing for 253 yards and a program-record 6 TD passes. WOWOWOWOW!!! Congrats Jarren on your record setting day!
- A bit more context on Williams’s achievement today:
Williams surpassed this list with his 6th TD
HISTORY: Jarren Williams joins Bernie Kosar, Steve Walsh, Ken Dorsey, Brock Berlin, Kyle Wright and Stephen Morris as the only Miami QBs to throw 5 TD passes in the same game
— Manny Navarro (@Manny_Navarro) November 9, 2019
And Williams joined this list with that same throw
HISTORY: Jarren Williams' 6 TD passes today matches the ACC record for most TD passes in a game. Clemson's Deshaun Watson, Louisville's Lamar Jackson, Pitt's Tom Savage, Virginia's Dan Ellis, FSU's Chris Weinke, Duke's Steve Slayden are the others. Deshaun Watson did it twice
— Manny Navarro (@Manny_Navarro) November 9, 2019
- CB Al Blades Jr. partially blocked a UL punt halfway through the 2nd quarter. Really great individual play and set the Canes up on the UL 32 yard line, a drive that ended with one of Williams’s record 6 TD passes.
- The Offensive Line. Another game with a solid performance from this group. Louisville had just 1 sack on the day, and that was arguably because Williams held the ball looking for a receiver to come open. But there was time to pass and room to run. Good job, gentlemen.
- 3 turnover chain sightings. DJ Ivey and Al Blades Jr had interceptions. And Jimmy Murphy recovered a muffed punt.
- With no turnovers on offense, Miami had a +3 turnover margin. That’s what you love to see.
- RB DeeJay Dallas. 96 yards and a TD on 15 carries and a 14 yard receiving TD on a screen pass. And plenty of good pass protection work. Another solid day for Miami’s RB1.
- WR Mike Harley Jr. He, like his QB, had a career day: 6 catches for 116 yards and 2 TDs. Really awesome to see.
- WR Dee Wiggins. He got loose for the above-embedded TD. His defender is still looking for him LMAO. Wiggins ended the day with 3 catches for 85 yards and 2 TDs (oh yeah, he scored again in the 3rd quarter, too).
- LB Michael Pinckney. The senior playing in his final game at HRS had 8 tackles, 3 TFLs, a hurry, and a sack. Thanks, 56!
- LB Shaquille Quarterman. 6 tackles and 4 TFLs for the senior in his 48th consecutive start, and his final game at HRS. Thanks, Shaq!
- DE Jon Garvin. 2 tackles, 1.5 TFL, and a sack. And just a bunch of plays to remind you that he’s REALLY GOOD.
- K Camden Price hit his only FG attempt and all 7 of his XPs. Nice.
- P Louis Hedley continues to be the team MVP with his performance. 4 punts, 185 yards, a 46.5 yard average, a long of 54 yards, and 2 kicks downed inside the 20.
- 21 first downs
- 14 TFLs
- 3 sacks
- 2 interceptions
- 1 fumble recovery
- 5-10 on 3rd down
- Held Louisville to 5-14 on 3rd down
- 8.2 yards per play
- 15.8 yards per completion
- 11.5 yards per passing attempt
- 6.2 yards per carry
- 449 yards of offense
- 197 yards rushing
- Only 6 TFL allowed
- Only 1 sack allowed
- 13 chunk plays — 5 passes (15+), 8 runs (10+)
- 7 SUPER chunk (20+) plays - 4 passes, 3 runs
- 5-5 red zone scoring (4 TD, 1 FG)
- Holding Louisville to 2-5 red zone scoring (2 TDs though)
- Miami won the field position BIG. On average, the Canes started on their own 37, while Louisville started on their own 24. That’s 182 yards of hidden yardage advantage across 14 drives for the Canes. That’ll work!
The Bad
- Only 26:58 time of possession. I know Louisville didn’t really do TOO much today, but they had the ball for a long time and they scored 27. I’d like to see Miami hold the ball a bit more. But we scored a lot and fast so you can’t be TOO upset about this one.
- A couple drops I’d like to see get caught.
- Allowed Louisville to hold the ball for 33:02. Like I said, that’s too much, but it’s mostly a product of Miami scoring so damn fast they didn’t have much T.O.P.
- Some holding calls against Louisville uncalled.
- A couple HORRIBLE calls on Miami, particularly 2 roughing the passer calls on Rousseau and Patchan. Both were atrocious, and had the game been closer, I’d be more upset about it.
- 5 penalties for 55 yards. Not terrible but we’ve seen cleaner games.
- TE Brevin Jordan not playing due to injury. I just want the best players to play, but Jordan was out with a foot sprain sustained at Florida State last week. Missing this game gives him an extra week to get healthy ahead of next week’s bye and the last 2 games of the regular season. Get well soon, Brevin. We need you, buddy.
The Ugly
- Coverage bust and poor tackling allowed Louisville to complete a shallow crossing route to Tutu Atwell, and it ended up going 80 yards for a touchdown. Yikes.
- Allowing 496 yards of offense. IDC IDC IDC. That’s too much. WAY too much.
- Allowed 168 yards rushing. Sure, that’s under Louisville’s season average (nearly 220ypg), but without several busts on defense, this would have been a much lower number, as would their score total. I don’t like it.
- Allowed 4.8 yards per carry.
- Allowed 328 yards passing. This team doesn’t throw and can’t throw. And they threw for A LOT against us today. Need to tighten up. Yes, even with 2 INTs and 27 points allowed in a game where we scored nearly double that much. Fix it. Tighten up.
- Allowed 18.2 yards per completion
- Allowed 11.3 yards per passing attempt
- Allowed 18 first downs.
- MANY missed tackles and assignments. These mainly came on the scoring drives and plays, but Louisville had far too much space to operate for my liking.
- Allowed 14 chunk plays — 8 passes (15+), 6 runs (10+)
- Allowed 11 SUPER CHUNK (20+) plays — 7 passes, 4 runs. THIS IS DISCONCERTING TO ME!!
- Not ugly for us but Louisville had 14 penalties for 111 yards. Guess that Hard Rock Stadium homefield advantage means something, eh?
- Only 7 points off 3 Louisville turnovers. If you get the ball, you gotta cash it in.
- Louisville fans. Crying about “dirty plays” while they had 15 penalties and many more that could and should have been called. These people talked CASH SHIT all day long, relishing in their 3 game win streak against Miami. I saw the memes. I saw the pictures on twitter of Devante Parker from that bowl game standing over Deon Bush. I saw all that. Then you wanna cry about Miami being dirty? Shut the fuck up. Y’all are soft as shit and so is your team. To call Miami dirty is complete BULLSHIT and I won’t stand for it. Louisville fans are some of the worst I’ve ever seen or heard from, and I’m glad we blew their asses out today. My only regret is that Miami didn’t score MORE points against the Cardinals this afternoon. Go to hell, Louisville fans. And I mean that sincerely.
Team Grades
Offense: A
Left a few too many points on the field for me to give an A+. But Miami scored early and often, and had a literal record-setting day from the QB. We can pick nits here, but hanging half a hundred on an ACC team with as many strong individual performances as we saw today, and a STELLAR day from the OL? That’s an A to me.
Defense: C+
It was fine, but it wasn’t great. Missed assignments in the passing game and missed tackles in the running game. Louisville isn’t really that great and they had so many chunk and super chunk plays thatisn’t wonderful. Miami stepped up when they needed and got a couple key turnovers, but this effort wasn’t the best we’ve seen from the Canes D, and this grade reflects that.
Special Teams: A+
1/1 FG and 7/7 XPs. Incredible punting. Great kickoff and punt returning. 0 penalties on specials. And largely contained UL’s dynamic return guys on both kickoff and punt return. Best special teams game of the year.
Coaching: A
Manny Diaz has been steadfast that Miami is building something. Even when the Canes were losing games they shouldn’t have early in the year, the new Head Coach never wavered in his belief. And that’s paying off now. Miami’s offense had their best game of the year. And the defense, though they had their problems today, contained an explosive offense well enough to secure a 25 point win. And to do this on Homecoming, Senior Day, and in front of some premium recruits on official and unofficial visits is huge. Absolutely massive. No, IT WASN’T PERFECT!!! But this kind of preparation, particularly on the offensive side of the ball, is what I want to see. No let downs. Few breakdowns. And a beatdown of a capable ACC opponent. Hell yes. Bravo to Manny and the staff.
(this is the grade I know you’re probably going to push back on, but IDC. This was a great effort by the coaches)
That’s my take on things. Hop in the comments and share yours!
Miami sends the seniors out with a win, and in the process secures bowl eligibility heading into the 3rd and final bye week of the year. That’ll work!