BY SCOTT MORGANROTH
As the 2024 season continues to progress, Coach Mario Cristobal continues to eliminate ghosts out of his closet and lead the Hurricanes into the College Football Playoff picture.
Prior to the Hurricanes 52-45 win over the Louisville Cardinals on Saturday, October 19, Cristobal had to hear that he had never won a game after the bye week. Thanks to a 319 yards and four touchdown performance, QB Cam Ward buried this statistic.
He had help from running back Damien Martinez, who had 12 carries for 89 yards and a touchdown.
Ward’s top targets were Samuel Brown, who caught three passes for 125 yards along with one touchdown, and Xavier Restrepo, who had seven catches for 101 yards and a touchdown.
The Hurricanes amassed 538 yards in the effort and picked up a quality victory in the Bluegrass State.
The following week, the Hurricanes welcomed state rival Florida State to Hard Rock Stadium and Cristobal was 0-2 vs the Seminoles.
This was the 69th meeting between these two rivals.
Last season in Tallahassee, FSU defeated Miami 27-21 in a hard fought contest.
Ward had an efficient game as he passed for 208 yards, in a game that Miami leaned on its rushing attack. As a team, the Canes amassed 230 yards, 148 of those by Martinez.
In the first half, Mark Fletcher Jr. scored on a one-yard run, Martinez had an 18-yard scamper. Andres Borregales added a 20-yard field goal enabling the Hurricanes to take a 17-7 lead at the break.
The third quarter saw Borregales kick field goals of 42 and 45 yards to extend the lead to 23-7.
The only passing touchdown of the contest occurred from wide receiver Elijah Arroyo, who threw a seven-yard pass to Ward in the fourth quarter. The two point conversion failed and Miami led 29-7. The Canes ended the scoring as Martinez found the end zone again at 1:51, this time for 12 yards and the extra point way good to extend the lead to 36-7.
FSU scored another touchdown with 18 seconds left in the game and the final score was 36-14 before a sellout crowd of 66,200 at Hard Rock Stadium. Miami improved to 8-0 while the Seminoles dropped to 1-7.
The win was Miami’s first over FSU since 2020 and the Canes lead the all-time series 36-33.
At the post game press conference, it was evident that Cristobal and the rest of his players were not happy that they didn’t run up the score but the teams’ offense wasn’t totally in sync and Ward was sacked three times.
Miami dominated FSU in first downs 31-14 and led time of possession 35:22-24:29.
Leading Miami’s defense was linebacker Francisco Mauigoa with seven tackles, while linebacker Wesley Bissainthe had six stops and defensive end Akheem Mesidor had three tackles and a sack. The Hurricanes defense saw FSU convert 3-13 on third down conversions.
The real number to take note of was of Miami’s 445 total yards, 230 of them were rushing.
The Hurricanes outscored FSU 19-7 in the second half.
In week 10, the Duke Blue Devils came to town, led by former Hurricanes Coach Manny Diaz. Duke entered the game as 21.5 yard underdogs which seemed high to me for a squad that was 6-2 entering the contest.
Going into the game, Miami led the all-time series 15-5. Duke won the last game in 2022, 45-21 in Cristobal’s first season.
The Hurricanes got off to a fast start scoring the first two touchdowns.
On the first drive, Ward hit Restrepo for a 34-yard touchdown at the 11:54 mark.
On the second drive Ward struck again as he hit Cam McCormick for four yards and the score. The Canes led 14-0. It appeared as though the oddsmakers were on track with the point spread.
The Blue Devils got on the scoreboard at 2:28 mark as Peyton Jones rushed for an eight-yard touchdown. Miami’s lead was reduced to 14-7.
Diaz’s team showed some fight in the second quarter as they outscored Miami 14-3 and took a 21-17 head at halftime.
Blue Devils QB Maalik Murphy threw a 27-yard touchdown Shamir Hagans at 11:15 and with 1:47 left in the half connected with Jones for a for a six-yard strike.
The Hurricanes only score was a 29-yard field goal by Borregales.
This game would be a tale of two halves.
Miami outscored Duke 36-10 to blow the game wide open. Ward threw three touchdown passes and the team added a couple on the ground to pull away.
The numbers tell the story. The Hurricanes led in total yards 526-404.
Against FSU, Miami relied on the ground attack.
In this game, the Canes did their damage in the air by amassing 400 yards. Miami converted 6-12 in third down efficiency.
Murphy was 25-41 for 325 yards, three touchdowns and three interceptions. The Blue Devils top receiver was Sahmir Hagans who caught nine passes for 139 yards and a touchdown. Jones led the team in rushing with 71 yards and one touchdown.
Meanwhile, Ward performed like a Heisman Trophy candidate as he was 25-41for 400 yards, five touchdowns and had only one interception. Three of those touchdowns were to Restrepo, who had eight receptions for 139 yards and three touchdowns.
pic by Candy Ebling
Restrepo became Miami’s all-time leading receiver with 182 receptions and 2,573 yards.
As the season continues, the 22-year old Deerfield Beach High School graduate will be able to continue to pad those numbers.
Fletcher was Miami’s work horse on the ground with 12 carries for 65 yards and a touchdown.
There is no doubt that this was a complete team effort and Miami improved its record to 9-0 going into Saturday’s road game in Atlanta to face a 5-4 Georgia Tech squad which is trying to become bowl eligible. Miami enters this game as an 11 point favorite.
This game starts at Noon and you can watch it on ESPN.
But one of the key plays in this game was Ward converted an important two point conversion which he talks about in one of the videos in the story.
In fact, this story is loaded with videos of the past two games against Florida State and Duke.
This is a team that’s on a mission and despite the fact that the Canes haven’t faced many ranked teams means that as Ward continues to pile up big numbers and Miami wins; that will be enough to get them into the ACC Championship game next month.
Ward has amassed 3,333 yards along with 33 touchdowns. He transferred from Washington State and is making the most of his opportunity in Miami.
After the Georgia Tech game, the Hurricanes have a bye and return to action in their final home game of the year vs Wake Forest. The Demon Deacons currently have a 4-4 record and this game will be played on November 23 in Week 11. The time will be determined.
Miami will travel to Syracuse and face the Orange in Week 14 on November 30 during Thanksgiving weekend. Syracuse record at the moment is 6-2 and this is another opponent to not take for granted. No details have been released at this time are available for the network and time.
You can check our website for those updates.
But for now, there is a lot of work to be done and the Hurricanes and Cristobal know it.
The next three opponents have plenty to play for.
Scott Morganroth can be reached at southfloridatribune@gmail.com. You can find him on X @TribuneSouth.
To see his broadcasts, there is no cost to subscribe to the South Florida Tribune You Tube Channel.
Finally, Scott’s written a book called “Lessons From The Microphone” which can be purchased on Amazon-Kindle and Barnes & Noble.
