Miami football set for hostile environment at Toledo

The Miami football team will play a group of five team on the road for the third time in four years when they travel to Toledo on Saturday. The Rockets are the best of the three programs the Hurricanes will face in that time.

The Rockets are coming off an 11-3 season. One of those losses was 52-30 to the Miami football team at Hard Rock Stadium last season. The Rockets won their season opener 66-3 against Virginia Military Academy week one. Toledo had a bye last week.

Miami football rebounded from a brutal 33-17 season-opening loss to LSU. The Hurricanes defeated Savannah State 77-0 last week. The margin of victory set a program record and their points scored tied a school record. Both records were previously set against Savannah State in a 77-7 win in 2013.

Miami had to rally to defeat Toledo last season. The Hurricanes had to come back from a 16-10 first-half deficit to defeat the Rockets 52-30. Malik Rosier threw for 333 yards and four touchdowns and added a rushing touchdown. Mark Walton had his career high 204 yards and a touchdown.

Ahmmon Richards missed last year’s Miami football game against Toledo with a hamstring injury. He might miss Saturday’s game with a knee injury he suffered against LSU. Richards sat out Saturday’s win over Savannah State. Demetrius Jackson also missed the game against the FCS Tigers with a knee injury.

Miami expects a raucous crowd on Saturday at the Glass Bowl. The upperclassmen anticipate Saturday’s atmosphere to be similar to what the Hurricanes faced in a 45-10 victory at Appalachian State in 2016. Miami quarterback Malik Rosier discussed what they expect from the crowd on Saturday.

"“It’s the same thing as Appalachian State…I’m going in there and before we even got to the stadium, three or four hours before the game, the fans were literally waiting outside, hundreds of people. For us, it’s just going in there and winning, no matter if there’s a hundred fans there, a million fans…We are trying to go there and do our job, and we can’t let their atmosphere affect how we play. I think we did a great job versus Appalachian State. We had that first big run by Mark Walton, and it kind of killed the crowd…If we go out and we execute and we have a couple of good drives, I think the crowd will be taken out of it. And that’s our job, to take the crowd out by putting points on the board. They are going to be amped up because it’s versus Miami and everyone loves playing us.”"

Miami also played at Florida Atlantic in 2015. The crowd for that game obviously had a lot more Hurricanes fans. Miami was supposed to play at Arkansas State last season two weeks before they hosted the Rockets. The game was canceled because of Hurricane Irma.

Miami Head Coach Mark Richt reiterated Rosier’s thoughts about playing against a hostile Toledo crowd. He knows that this is a program building game for the Rockets.

"“It’ll be wild,…We’ll get everything they’ve got. I’m sure they’ll have every single seat sold and they’ll be standing room only. Their fans are going to be ready for a great battle. They’ve been excited about this for a while.Let’s face it — they played a game, had an open date, so the fans had time to get ready for two weeks. The coaches had time to get ready for two weeks, and the whole offseason.”"

As Rosier said getting off to a good start is essential. The Hurricanes actually did that against LSU, but not Savannah State. Miami put themselves in scoring range on the second and third drives against LSU.

Travis Homer lost a fumble on the Hurricanes second play from scrimmage against Savannah State. Miami went three and out on their second possession. The Hurricanes had four consecutive touchdown drives after that.

Miami came out strong last season against Toledo. The Hurricanes scored a touchdown on their first drive of the game. Michael Badgley added a field goal on the second drive to put Miami up 10-0.

The Hurricanes went three and out on the next two possessions and punted after five plays on the following possession. The Rockets then scored 16 unanswered points in the second quarter for the halftime lead.