Miami Hurricanes Football: Kaaya, Scott Lead Miami Past Virginia Tech, 30-20

After two straight gut-wrenching losses for the Miami Hurricanes, the ‘Canes were able to bounce back and take down the Virginia Tech Hokies, 30-20, behind two touchdown passes from Brad Kaaya to Rashawn Scott.

Miami started off their ACC slate with a loss when they dropped last weekend’s game against Florida State, but Miami is now on the win column after beating the Hokies, and they snap a two-game losing streak.

The game started off well for the Hurricanes on Saturday.

After a punt on their first offensive drive, the Hurricanes defense capitalized on a mistake by starting quarterback Brenden Motley. Motley just lost the ball and Trent Harris was able to pounce on it and give Miami a three-yard field to work with. One play and six seconds later, Joseph Yearby ran it in for a touchdown to give Miami the early 7-0 lead.

Miami and Virginia Tech then traded a couple of field goals, to give the Canes a 10-3 lead late in the first quarter.

Miami had the lead up until a terrible defensive effort by the Hurricanes led the Hokies to a 9-yard touchdown pass from Motley to Travon McMillian. The Hokies running back had a good day for Virginia Tech, rushing for 99 yards on 16 carries, to go along with that receiving touchdown.

The two teams went on to trade another pair of field goals to make it 13-13 with :58 seconds left in the first half.

Al Golden and the Hurricanes were playing conservative, which drew a ton of boo’s from the crowd that actually showed up. Miami ran two straight running plays and then a Standish Dobard personal foul pinned the Canes deep into their territory and they faced a 3rd and 20. After the boo’s, Miami decided to take a shot down field with Virginia Tech jumping offsides, and Kaaya was able to convert downfield with Herb Waters to set Miami up in Hokies territory.

A couple of plays and a Virginia Tech penalty later, Miami found the end zone via a Kaaya touchdown to Rashawn Scott. Their first connection of the day.

Miami took a 20-13 lead into the half, and seemed to take momentum after the late touchdown.

In the second half, Miami’s defense started to play well, and that has been a theme throughout the season. Artie Burns continues to have a breakout season and was able to add two interception to his total, which is now 5. Burns leads the ACC in interceptions through the first 6 games.

While Burns got the big interceptions, the three players that absolutely stood out on defense were Chad Thomas, Al-Quadin Muhammad and Juwon Young.

Thomas and Muhammad were highly-touted pass rushers when they were being recruited and they’ve shown why these last two weeks. Muhammad was all over the field and was able to get to the quarterback for the second straight week. Thomas, who nearly tipped about a million balls last week, had a great game on Saturday and was able to pick up the first sack of his career.

Young, on the other hand, came in to the game after senior linebacker and captain of the defense, Raphael Kirby, was carried off the field with a right knee injury. Miami only said it was a “lower extremity” injury, but it sure looked like a torn ACL.

With Kirby going down, Young came in and played like a man in the second half. Young was fast and just knew what he was doing out there. He was playing hard and he was rewarded with by intercepting Motley in the third quarter.

The defense started playing well, but it was the offense that put this game away.

After a 33-yard touchdown throw to Isaiah Ford, the Hokies cut the Miami lead down to 23-20 and the Hurricanes offense needed to respond to avoid yet another late-game collapse. And #15 in green did just that.

Kaaya led the Hurricanes down the field and was able to connect with Scott for the second time Saturday on a quick two-yard pass to give the ‘Canes their decisive 30-20 lead.

A Burns interception in the next Hokies possession sealed the victory for Miami.

It wasn’t all pretty for the ‘Canes, in fact, it was mostly ugly, but they came away with a much-needed win. Miami has a lot of things to fix, especially the offensive line, and they’ll need to do that quickly because the Hurricanes host the Clemson Tigers next Saturday.

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