Damien Martinez earns a pair of All-ACC Week 9 awards

After rushing for 148 yards on 15 carries with two touchdowns and adding one reception for 21 yards Miami running back Damien Martinez was named by Pro Football Focus to their Week Nine All-ACC team. Martinez was also named the ACC Running Back of the Week by the conference on Monday.

Per David Lake of Inside the U, Martinez earned an overall grade of 83.9 and a 79.8 pass-blocking grade. The 21-yard reception by Martinez came on third-and-20. Martinez ran for nine first downs versus Florida State including the two TDs. Miami ran 40 times for 230 yards and three TDs.

Mark Fletcher had 15 carries for 71 yards and a TD after his father died last week. Martinez has helped carry Miami offensively in the last two weeks after rushing for 89 yards on 12 carries with a memorable 30-yard TD to clinch the 52-45 win at Louisville last week.

Martinez is moving up the ACC rankings. He is currently 11th in the ACC averaging 66.13 rushing yards per game. Martinez has 529 rushing yards and is fourth in the ACC with four TDs on the ground. Martinez is also fifth on Miami with 11 receptions for 151 yards this season.

With the Miami running game becoming more prominent in the last two games, Martinez will become a much bigger part of the offense over the final four regular season games and into the postseason for the Hurricanes. Miami has rushed for over 200 yards in each of the last two games after being below 200 in the previous three.

Martinez will have a chance to continue his success on Saturday versus a Duke run defense that is 15th in the ACC allowing 160.38 yards per game. Duke is eighth in the ACC allowing 3.89 yards per carry. Martinez is 11th in the ACC averaging 5.69 yards per carry. Expect Miami to try and establish the run versus Duke.