Miami Hurricanes Football: Miami Beats Up Bethune-Cookman, 45-0

The Miami Hurricanes were back on the field after a disappointing 2014 season and they started off the new season with a strong performance against an inferior Bethune-Cookman team.

The Hurricanes beat down the Wildcats, 45-0, on Saturday night, but it wasn’t all smooth until a lightning delay sent both teams back to the locker room in the second quarter with Miami leading 10-0.

Brad Kaaya, who has some lofty expectations to live up to in his sophomore season, looked a little bit off to start the first game of the season, but after he settled down he got into a nice groove, especially with wide receiver Rashawn Scott.

After Kaaya connected with junior tight end Standish Dobard from five yards out for the first touchdown of the season, Michael Badgley connected on a 25-yard field goal to give the Hurricanes a 10-0 lead heading into the second quarter. Unfortunately for the Canes, they lost sophomore receivers Braxton Berrios (ankle/knee) and Stacy Coley (hamstring) for the remainder of the game.

With two of his top targets out of the game, Kaaya then looked to Scott and the senior wideout responded. Kaaya threw one up for Scott in the end zone and Scott did a good job to fight for the ball and haul in a 17-yard touchdown pass to extend the Canes lead to 17-0 after the lightning delay. Scott finished with 6 receptions, 100 yards and that touchdown.

Kaaya settled in and threw for 173 yards and 2 touchdown.

The story of the last week or so was who will handle the running back duties for Miami and all three of Miami’s running backs had a nice night on Saturday.

Yearby had a nice 25-yard touchdown run that ended up with him making a Bethune-Cookman defender silly with a sick cut back. The sophomore running back finished with 40 yards on 6 carries for the Hurricanes. The real story, however, was how smooth and impressive freshman Mark Walton looked.

The Booker T. Washington standout led the Hurricanes with 85 yards on 10 carries and was able to punch in a five-yard touchdown run in the third quarter to extend Miami’s lead to 38-0. Trayone Gray also had a couple of nice runs late in the game and finished with an impressive 77 yards on 8 carries and a two-yard touchdown to ultimately put the Canes up 45-0 with 2:27 left in the game.

While the offense showed some signs of life after the 74-minute lightning delay, the Miami defense absolutely dominated Bethune-Cookman Saturday night. The defense looked aggressive and wasted no time to get their first sack of the game on a cornerback blitz by Corn Elder.

Elder got the first sack for Miami in 2015, and he also had the first punt return touchdown of the season. The junior corner returned one for 72-yards late in the second half, and this was after he returned a punt for 70-yards that was called by earlier in the half thanks to a questionable fair catch called against Miami.

Elder was definitely one of the standouts for the Hurricanes during the season opener.

Miami’s defense held the Wildcats to just 79 yards of offense on Saturday and that’s a good start to a defense that’s going to be under the microscope all season long.

Rayshawn Jenkins and Artie Burns both recorded an interception for the Hurricanes, while Elder, Trent Harris, Ufomba Kamalu, Marques Gayot and Kendrick Norton recorded a sack.

With the 45-0 win, it’s the first shutout for Miami since 2010 when they did it against Florida A&M.

Next up for the Hurricanes is a “road” game against Florida Atlantic in Boca next Friday at 8:00 PM. FAU lost a high scoring game, 47-44, to Tulsa on Saturday afternoon.

Some more notes:

– The third and fourth quarters were reduced from 15 to 10 minutes long after a long lightning delay and a big Hurricanes lead at halftime.

– Al-Quadin Muhammad and Tyre Brady were both suspended prior to tonight’s game for violating team rules.

– Brad Kaaya has thrown a touchdown in every single college football game he’s played in.

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