Miami Hurricanes Vs. North Carolina Tar Heels: By the Numbers
By Juan Toribio
Oh how great it is to wake up on a Sunday morning and know that the Miami Hurricanes put on a show on Saturday. The ‘Canes played extremely well for the second week in a row and crushed North Carolina, 47-20.
Miami’s defense played well and Duke Johnson should be in the Heisman conversation. The entire game was just really fun. But now, we try and take it a step further and break down the game: by the numbers.
3080
We just HAVE to start this off with a Duke Johnson history tracker. Johnson now has 3080 rushing yards and moved up to second place in Miami’s all-time rushing list, passing Edgerrin James. The Duke only has one name to pass and that’s Otis Anderson. Anderson is Miami’s all-time leading rusher with 3,331, but the clock seems to be ticking on that record. Only needing 251 yards, Duke Johnson is awfully close to being the all-time leading rusher at a school that is often referred to as “RB U.” Oh, and he’s done it in only 29 games. Otis Anderson played in 43 games.
6
Remember when Miami’s defense couldn’t stop anyone on the ground? Well, that seems to be changing. The jury is still out on the defense and we’ll find out more against Florida State, but allowing only six rushing yards against any team should be celebrated. Duke Johnson averaged 9.3 yards per carry, so he would’ve outgained UNC in just one carry. That number is helped out by bad snaps on punts and sacks, but it’s still a ridiculous number to see on the stat sheet. Next up? Karlos Williams and Dalvin Cook.
7
The Canes got to North Carolina’s quarterback Marquise Williams seven times yesterday. Two of those seven sacks were taken off the board due to a personal foul and a face-mask penalty, but 5 sacks is still the most sacks Miami’s defense has accounted for this season. This shows that Coach D’Onofrio is getting more aggressive in his play call. To give you an idea of the changes, 3 of those 7 sacks were from defensive backs. It was a really good performance from the Miami defensive line, and when you get to the quarterback, it makes the game a whole lot easier.
278
278 is the average of yards Miami’s defense allows when they win. The average on the three losses this season is 387. That’s more than 100 yards and throughout the course of a game, that makes a ton of difference. The ‘Canes have played much better defense the last three weeks and they’ve strung together 3 straight wins. There’s things that still need adjusting, but with 14 days to prepare for Florida State, Miami’s defense should be ready to go. Or at least I hope so.
690
It’s only right that we start with a Duke Johnson stat and that we end with a Duke Johnson stat. Miami’s running back has totaled 690 total yards in the last three games. If you’re good with math, that’s an average of 230 yards per game. We also need to take into consideration that the Hurricanes have blown out their last three opponents and Johnson hasn’t been asked to do almost anything in the fourth quarter. So if you take away fourth quarters, that’s 9 quarters. That’s two games and a quarter. 690 divided by 2? 345 yards. At this pace, Johnson breaks Otis Anderson’s record against FSU. Wouldn’t that be something? Virginia Tech and North Carolina combined for 520 yards the last two weeks. You have to give some love to the defense, but number 8 out-performed those two teams by 170 yards. That’s ridiculous.
It would be an absolute crime for Duke Johnson to not be in New York for the Heisman presentation. Even if he’s not a legitimate contender, he needs to be a finalist. Appreciate this, ‘Canes fans, because we might not see anything like this for a really long time.