Miami Hurricanes disappointed in run defense against UNC

The Miami Hurricanes defense entered Thursday night’s game against North Carolina fifth in the country in rushing yards allowed per game and fourth in yards per carry against. The Tar Heels shredded the Canes for over 200 yards in a 47-10 loss.

No game is perfect. Even with 21 points scored and ten allowed the Miami Hurricanes defense was disappointed in how easy it was for North Carolina to run the football. Miami entered Thursday’s game fifth nationally allowing just 78.75 rushing yards per game and they were fourth allowing 2.14 yards per carry.

North Carolina ran for 215 yards on 40 carries and a touchdown against the Miami Hurricanes defense. That comes out to 5.14 yards per carry. The Tar Heels success on the ground on Thursday night got lost amidst the euphoria of the three defensive scores and Miami almost completely shutting down UNC’s passing game.

The 215 yards allowed and 5.4 yards per carry were the most against Miami this season. It was the most rushing yards Miami has allowed since Syracuse ran for 264 yards and averaged 5.2 YPC last season in a 27-19 loss at Hard Rock Stadium last season. That was the third game in a row Miami allowed 200 yards rushing in 2018.

Florida State ran for 203 yards and Georgia Tech 226 in Miami victories the two weeks prior. North Carolina’s 5.4 yards per carry were the most Miami allowed since Virginia Tech averaged 5.7 while running for 251 yards in a 37-16 victory in 2016.

Miami Defensive Coordinator Manny Diaz spoke about the Hurricanes run defense after the game.

"“There’s a lot of really disappointing things about tonight. We played the quarterback run game very poorly. You could see some of the effects may be of the short week and in the preparation and just trying to grind it and pack it all in and they obviously were committed to running the quarterback.They had some new things that they had not shown in the first couple games of the season. But it was just you know a guy would do something wrong and this play and a guy wasn’t wrong in that play…We got a locker at halftime where you know things were going well but it was not a performance that we, we weren’t playing clean in the run game and we knew that if we can stop the run they were in a hard time beating us throw(ing) the football…We came out and we were better that in the third quarter but, but there’s there’s plenty on film that and give credit on Carolina to now we said their backs are good players, they’ve got good wide receivers and, and then the quarterback his legs were an issue.Well yeah and that’s kind of we actually challenged our guys to do that you know can we can we win a game you know this. “"

Miami is going to have to improve the run defense and get back to where they were the three previous weeks. The Hurricanes dominated the two Group of Five teams and one FCS team they played. LSU and North Carolina both had a lot of success running the football.

The Tigers and Tar Heels combined to run for 371 yards and averaged 4.81 yards per carry. We can throw the game against Savannah State out. St. Thomas Aquinas or Miami Central would have given the Hurricanes a better game. Toledo had moderate success with 112 yards on 36 carries. Miami held FIU to 17 yards on 24 carries.

In fairness to Diaz and his defense, they dared North Carolina to beat them through the air and they couldn’t. All three defensive touchdowns came on pass plays. Two were pick sixes and the other was a strip sack, scoop and score.

Miami faces two of the nations’ best running backs in October. Florida State’s Cam Akers is averaging only 68.5 yards per game this season, but he is at 4.6 YPC. It seems like Willie Taggart is not using him correctly. The Sophomore ran for 121 yards on 20 carries in the Seminoles loss to the Hurricanes last season.

Boston College’s A.J. Dillon is even more efficient than he was as a Freshman last season. Dillon has 491 yards and four touchdowns and is averaging 6.3 yards per carry. He is eighth in the country in rushing yards per game.

The Miami rush defense dropped significantly after playing North Carolina. They are now 20th in the nation allowing 106 yards per game on the ground. The Hurricanes allow 2.83 yards per carry which is nearly three-quarters more per attempt then they were allowing before they played the Tar Heels, that’s still12th in FBS.