Miami Hurricanes Football: Hurricanes Run For 335 Yards; Beat Down Bearcats, 55-34

A tumultuous week surrounded Al Golden and the Miami Hurricanes this week after their loss to Georgia Tech last Saturday. It was such a crazy week that the famous banner calling for Al Golden’s firing finally made an appearance at Sun Life Stadium right before the game started. Everyone wanted answers for the loss against GT, but Miami had a task at hand: beating Cincinnati.

Miami was a 17-point favorite coming in and earlier in the week, it looked like Cincinnati quarterback Gunner Kiel would be sidelined due to a rib injury. Kiel was a game-time decision and he ended up suiting up for the Bearcats, which might’ve gotten some fans nervous. But Miami responded.

Duke Johnson started this game off with a bang. Johnson took the first play of Miami’s second drive for 80 yards and a touchdown to give Miami another early lead. Duke continues to make Miami history and he became Miami’s all-time leader in all-purpose yards and it only took him 27 games to do so. His 162 yards in 10 carries performance on the day also put him fourth all-time in Miami’s rushing list, passing Clinton Portis.

Much like it’s happened all season, the Miami defense (which wasn’t too bad today) gave up the lead shortly after getting it. Cincinnati, who is known for their quick, explosive drives, had a methodical 13-play 80 yard drive that ended with a Kiel touchdown throw to Shaq Washington.

Kiel finished the game completing 31 of 56 (!) pass attempts for three touchdowns. The downfall with Kiel were his three interceptions on the day.

On the other hand, Brad Kaaya continued his spectacular freshman season with another good performance. The true freshman followed up that Cincinnati drive, with a beautiful throw to the corner of the end zone that landed right on Clive Walford’s hands. That touchdown put Miami up 14-7 and they never looked back.

Kaaya went 17/24 for 286 yards and three touchdown tosses, but most importantly: no turnovers. Kaaya was replaced by Jake Heaps in the fourth quarter, and Heaps was subsequently replaced by Ryan Williams, who made his first appearance since tearing his ACL during spring practice.

The defense had a good performance against Cincinnati. I think the 422 total yards by the Bearcats might not be indicative of the performance on Saturday. Cincinnati only had 30 rushing yards at the half on 16 attempts and that’s a huge improvement from the disaster we all had to sit through last week. The Miami defense came up with three interceptions against Cincinnati, which is just one shy of the total the Canes had coming into this game.

Ladarius Gunter had an interception early in the first quarter on an overthrown by Kiel. That turnover didn’t result into Miami points, but it was an indicator of things to come.

The Brad Kaaya-Phillip Dorsett connection made an appearance Saturday against the Bearcats. In the second quarter, Kaaya found Dorsett for 28-yards and a touchdown. The duo, however, wasn’t done there. But we’ll get to that.

Michael Badgley and Andrew Gantz traded a pair of field goals right before the half, and Miami held a 24-10 lead when the team’s hit the locker room for halftime.

One of Miami’s issues this season has been poor second halves. The team was poor against Louisville, Nebraska and Georgia Tech in the second half and it cost them. That wasn’t the case on Saturday.

Tyriq McCord, who also added a sack in this game, made an spectacular interception to start the second half, and he wasn’t done. McCord then threaded the sidelines and snuck in for a Miami touchdown. That was the first Miami touchdown from the defensive side of the ball this year. Raphael Kirby added an interception of his own late in the game to give Miami it’s third turnover of the game.

After Badgley and Gantz traded field-goals again, Kaaya and Dorsett struck for the sixth time this season.

Kaaya hung in the pocket and threw it to Dorsett for about 35 yards and the speedster did the rest. A one-on-one foot race and 79 yards later, Dorsett found the end zone to put Miami up 41-13.

Dorsett led Miami in receiving with 143 yards on 3 receptions. Number four leads the nation in yards per reception with 34 yards a catch (!!).

We all know how good Duke Johnson is, but he had some help on the ground. Joseph Yearby and Gus Edwards stepped up to the plate and helped Miami put up 335 yards on the ground against Tommy Tuberville’s squad.

Joseph Yearby had 8 carries for 113 yards. Per AP’s Tim Reynolds, that gave Miami it’s first multiple 100-yard rushers in a game since November 29, 2003 when Jarrett Payton and Tyrone Moss did it. Yearby broke a 62-yard run, but the drive was finished up with a Brad Kaaya quarterback sneak from the one-yard line. That was Kaaya’s first rushing touchdown and it put Miami up 48-20 late in the third quarter.

Miami’s onslaught on the ground continued when Gus Edwards broke a couple of tackles and took it down the left sideline for 40 yards and a touchdown. Edwards also came close to the 100-yard mark with 85 yards on 11 carries.

About the only thing that went wrong for Miami while running the ball was when Trayone Gray took his first handoff and fumbled the ball, which was picked up and taken back to the house by American Heritage alum, Carter Jacobs, which ultimately put the score 55-34 in favor of the Miami Hurricanes.

It wasn’t all pretty for Al Golden’s squad, but it was a win that they needed to get. The offense was clicking all day and put up 621 total yards against a bad defense. Miami had 13 penalties for 155 yards this game and that’s something that needs to be fixed.

Al Golden and co. have 12 days to prepare before they take on Virginia Tech on the road in a crucial game for the Hurricanes. But for now, they’ll enjoy a great win in front of the home crowd, and capped off a great week for the fans, especially Carter Hucks, who received today’s game ball.