The Miami Hurricanes got into the W column for the first time in the 2019 season with a 63-0 victory over the Bethune Cookman Wildcats.

Here’s our Game recap by Gaby Urrutia

Here’s our 3 stars from the game by Candis McLean

And now, with no further delay, let’s jump into The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly.

The Good

• Winning. I know it’s a buy-game against an FCS HBCU team, but this team needed a win. And winning is good. So, that’s good! WE WON!
• QB Jarren Williams. It wasn’t perfect for Williams today, but it was pretty damn good. 19/24 for 254 yards and 3 TDs will do. And he led the Canes to touchdowns on 5 of his last 6 drives in the game. Solid.
• RB DeeJay Dallas. The junior eclipsed 100 yards for the 3rd consecutive game. On top of that, he had 3 TDs, all in the first half, to help Miami build a 21-0 lead, which they would extend as the day progressed.

• All of DeeJay Dallas’s 3 TDs
• Jarren Williams’s 2nd quarter. After starting a bit uneven, Jarren was on first in the 2nd stanza, and helped lead the Canes to a 28-0 halftime lead.
• Plenty of guys got game experience today. 10 players ran the ball. 10 players caught passes. This is what you love to see against a team like Bethune.
• 328 yards of offense in the first half
• Welcome to the show, Mark Pope! The sophomore WR had more than 100 yards total offense, including 92 receiving. He should have had a TD early in the game if Jarren throws a better ball, but Noodles showed why he was a borderline 5-star recruit a couple years ago.
• Former Walk-On Jimmy Murphy scored a TD and it was awesome.

• holding Bethune to 69 (NICE) yards of offense in the first half
• holding Bethune to 137 yards of offense total. FOR THE GAME. As it should be.
• keeping Bethune out of Miami territory. Not just the endzone, Miami’s half of the field didn’t see a single snap from the Wildcats all day today. That’ll work!
• Bethune got across the 50 on the last 2 plays of the game. UGH. Ruined a great stat for me.
• Shut out Bethune.
• Little aside, but did you know that burgeoning tennis superstar Coco Gauff is a Canes fan? Cuz she is!

• 12 chunk plays — 7 passes (15+), 6 runs (10+)
• 26 first downs
• 12.8 yards per completion
• 9.79 yards per pass attempt
• 35:36 time of possession
• 71 plays
• 590 yards total offense
• 8.3 yards per play
• Held Bethune to 2.9 yards per play
• Only punted twice, with a 43.5 yard average. The first punt was 51 yards and I love that stat!
• 8 TFLs
• 2 sacks
• 1 turnover forced (fumble recovery by Robert Knowles)
• 0 turnovers on offense

The Bad

• A couple missed tackles early.
• Almost letting Bethune score at the bitter end of the game. Yeah, we broke up the last pass of the game to preserve the shutout, but it shouldn’t have even been that close, really.
• 4 chunk plays allowed — 2 passes (15+). 2 runs (10+)
• 5 penalties for 45. Okay, that’s really 4 for 30 if we exclude the late penalty on Jimmy Murphy after his TD run. The goal here should be 0, so this is in the “ bad” category, but it’s actually a lot better than we’ve seen recently from the Canes.
• 6/8 scoring in the red zone. Better, but empty trips in the red zone, including getting stopped on 4th and short inside the 5, qualifies as “bad” IMO.

The Ugly

• Another missed FG by Bubba Baxa. He’s 4/8 on the year after missing a 30 yarder today. There’s a case to be made that his previous misses have contributed greatly if not outrightly cost Miami the Florida and North Carolina games. IDK what needs to change, but it needs to change now. We can’t keep missing kicks.
• Getting stopped on 4th and 1 inside the 5. C’mon man. That’s terrible.
• 4/9 on 3rd down. Miami was looking to improve on their 23% conversion rate on the year, and this showing moved the need up to.....30%. That’s ugly no matter how you slice it. The overall number. The number today. And the fact that we faced nine 3rd downs against Bethune.
• To be fair, Miami started 0/5 on 3rd downs, so they converted their last 4 in a row today, which makes things look better, for sure. But, until we see consistent production in this area against quality opponents, I’ll leave this here....for now.
• Injuries. Lorenzo Lingard didn’t dress as a precautionary measure. Brevin Jordan and Mark Pope both left the game with apparent injuries. Miami doesn’t have the depth to withstand injuries, especially to players of Jordan’s caliber.

Team Grades

Offense: B

After a slow start, the Canes got rolling behind Jarren Williams and DeeJay Dallas. And, we saw a multitude of skill players touch the ball today, too. And, lowkey, the offensive line stepped up and did their job (yes, against an overmatched opponent) and that counts too. I would have liked to see the deep shots become TDs instead of chunk plays that didn’t find the endzone, but this was a step forward across the board. Keep it up.

Defense: A

Shutout. 137 yards allowed. 8 TFLs. 2 sacks. 11 punts forced. This is what the defense should look like against an opponent of this caliber. Salute.

Special Teams: C-

Returns, coverage, and punting were all great. But.......another missed FG by Bubba Baxa is a big, BIG red flag. 2 grades off for that. Whatever the issue is, it needs to be fixed, and fast. We can’t have a competitive team with a 50% kicker.

Coaching: B+

A bit of a slow start in the first quarter, but otherwise, a well directed game that hit all the high notes. Maybe we could have seen another turnover or two, but those don’t always come. I thought Diaz and Co. did a good job to settle the team down and get things going in a proper direction. Minimal, if any, operational mistakes. Timeouts used well to curtail bad plays or operational penalties. It was pretty clean from the sideline today, so bravo.

That’s it. Yes, there are nits to pick, but overall, this was a step in the right direction.

Those are my thoughts. Share yours in the comments section below.

On to Central Michigan.

Go Canes