The Miami Hurricanes turnover chain has been the talk of college football this season. There is far more to what goes into forcing turnovers than the reactions that the Miami Hurricanes fanbase has when the chain comes out.
Wisconsin Head Coach Paul Chryst spoke about the Miami Hurricanes propensity for forcing turnovers with reporters recently. Miami finished second in the nation in turnovers forced with 30 and in turnover margin at 1.25 per game.
The Hurricanes five-game stretch that began with Syracuse on October 21 and ended with Virginia on November 18 produced 19 turnovers. The Hurricanes fell one turnover short of setting a record against Virginia. Miami had four turnovers in each of the four games before playing the Cavaliers.
The Hurricanes turned the Cavaliers over three times. That was one short of Miami becoming the first team in Football Bowl Subdivision history to force four turnovers in five straight games.
Chryst was quoted on the Big Ten Focused Website Land of Ten discussing Miami’s propensity to force turnovers. He was asked:
"Miami has done a nice job of turning teams over. What have you seen from them?“Chryst: I think a lot of their takeaways are kind of team defense takeaways that a lot of the picks, obviously whoever is getting it, is finishing that. But there’s pressure on the quarterback. They’re playing fast and running to the ball. It’s a good defense.”"
The Miami Hurricanes defense this season has been far more than forcing turnovers. They also made big plays by often visiting opponents’ offensive backfields.
South Bound & Down
The Hurricanes were second nationally averaging 8.8 tackles per loss in 11 games. They had to cancel their week two game against Arkansas State because of Hurricane Irma. You have to wonder if that had been played would Miami have led the nation. The Hurricanes had 105 tackles for loss totaling 398 yards.
Wisconsin has often struggled to move the ball this season on offense. If Miami can shut down the Badgers running game, their pass rush should thrive against a weak Badgers pass offense. The Hurricanes pass rush led the country in sacks per game. Miami averaged 3.58 sacks per game.
The Miami defense will be challenged by a stout Wisconsin offensive line. The Badgers finished 36th nationally allowing just 1.54 sacks per game. They only threw the ball 22.4 times per game though.
Wisconsin finished 110th in the country with just 23 turnovers on the season. Only eight of those were fumbles. If Miami can limit the Badgers tough running game they will have a great chance to force Badgers quarterback Alex Hornibrook into interceptions.
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The Badgers threw 15 interceptions this season, all by Hornibrook. That was 112th out of 129 FBS teams. Miami’s 17 interceptions were ninth in FBS this season.