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Miami Hurricanes Football: Duke Johnson Against the Florida State Defense

By Andrew Ferrelli

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The Miami Hurricanes will face off against the number 3 ranked Florida State Seminoles this Saturday night in a game that Duke Johnson will certainly have an impact on. Duke Johnson is currently having his best season as a Miami Hurricane and will hope to continue his dominant play against this bitter rival. This game has an extra special meaning to Johnson, and not just because it is against an in-state rival.

Last year, Duke was having a great season until he broke his ankle in a game against Florida State. That injury ended his season and sent the rest of the Hurricanes’ season into a downward spiral. This is a huge game for the Hurricanes and for Duke Johnson on a personal level. November 15th is a date that Johnson has been looking forward to for awhile now and he expressed this to SunSentinel beat writer Christy Chirios earlier this week.

So far this season, the only thing that has been able to slow Duke Johnson down was a bench on Virginia Tech’s sideline that tripped him up during his 249 yard rushing performance.  Johnson has been absolutely on fire lately , totaling 512 yards of offense and 5 touchdowns in his last two games alone.  Through 9 games, Duke has over 1,200 rushing yards which is nearly 300 yards more than he has had in either of his two previous seasons. Duke is playing at a level that he has never been at in the past and has continued to look better and better each week. Johnson has had over 100 yards rushing in each of the last 5 games and eclipsed the 150 yard mark in four of those games.

Aiding Duke Johnson in his quest for another monstrous performance this Saturday is the fact that he will be playing against the lowest rated FSU rush defense in the last 5 years. FSU’s rushing defense ranks 35th this season after ranking 2nd, 3rd, and 19th the past 3 seasons. Florida State has already given up  more 150+ yard rushing games than they did all of last season and they have yet to see a rushing attack like Miami possesses or a back like Duke Johnson. Miami ranks top 40 in rushing yards per game, while none of FSU’s other opponents this season are even ranked inside the top 55. Duke Johnson ranks 8th in the country in rushing with 135 yards per game. The highest ranked running back FSU has faced so far? Desmond Roland of Oklahoma State, who ranks 69th with 73 rushing yards per game.

This is arguably the biggest game in Duke’s career. Behind the whole hated rival and ankle injury story, are two other plot lines that have been steadily rising over the last few weeks. With a big game Saturday, Duke Johnson can boost himself up the Heisman voting boards and the Miami record books. Duke’s impressive recent games have him receiving some Heisman love and this prime time game on national TV is the perfect stage for him to really catapult himself into the front pack of the Heisman race. Like the Heisman polls, Johnson is also climbing up the Miami all time record books. Duke now ranks second in all time Miami Hurricane rushing yards, just 252 yards behind former Cane great Ottis Anderson. It would take an absolutely insane game for him to reach that mark this week, but it is something to keep watching as the season progresses.

Duke Johnson is already among one of the best Hurricanes of all time and a huge game in an upset of the highly ranked Seminoles would cement him as another Miami legend. Duke has been looking forward to this game for a long time and will try his best to dominate and take over this game. If the Canes’ running game lead by Duke Johnson gets going this Saturday, there may very well be another shakeup at the top of the polls.

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