“Are you not entertained?!?”
Impossible to not channel the legendary Maximus Decimus Meridius in the wake of Miami’s thrilling, gladiator-like comeback at Cal; the Hurricanes in a 35-10 third quarter hole, before a furious 29-3 rally—ending the Bears’ upset dreams with a 39-38 instant classic.
All the intangibles were laid out going into this new-look ACC match-up; the 3,000+ trek from Coral Gables to Berkeley, late night kickoff, ESPN’s College GameDay on Cal’s campus for the first time in school’s history, as well as the weeklong subplot that Miami was gifted a win by an overturned Hail Mary to survive Virginia Tech at HardRock last Friday night in a 38-34 barnburner.
Of course this showdown wasn’t without “controversy” in a college football world where “The U” might not be back—but the hate for the Canes is proving alive and well, as Mario Cristobal and his squad are most-certainly on the mend and the masses aren’t digging it.
The haters, rivals, critics and naysayers who forced themselves to stay up until almost 2:00 a.m. ET for the conclusion of this miraculous ending—with no wiggle room down the stretch—a desperate effort to diminish Miami’s comeback due to a non-targeting call with 1:50 remaining in the fourth quarter; the Bears nursing a 38-32 lead.
For those who only caught the highlights or social media morning-after outrage, Cal quarterback Fernando Mendoza took off on 3rd-and-12 and made it four yards before he was popped by Miami linebacker Wesley Bissainthe; a lowered left shoulder to the right side of Mendoza sent the quarterback flying.
No call on the field, as ESPN commentators Rece Davis and Brock Osweiler viewed it as a routine play—until a “booth-initiated review” changed the narrative.
“What an unbelievable hit—clean hit, legal hit,” shared Owseiler initially, before stating it was at least worth looking at—which eventually took place almost a minute and a half after the play ended; the play on the field ultimately standing before the NFL quarterback turned color commentator unraveled and rambled on about the definition of targeting.
The entire focus of this piece could revolve around what is or isn’t targeting—but let’s be honest; the over-focus on this play is solely rooted in the call going Miami’s way, as there’s only national outrage in moments that go against a Hurricanes’ opponent.
Case in point; listening to Aaron Taylor, Rick Neuheisel and Brian Jones wetting themselves on a CBS Sports recap talking about the overturned Hail Mary against Virginia Tech—before Adam Zucker eventually gets a word in and asks if the referees got the no-catch call correct—which all agreed was the case; they just thought it should’ve stood as it was called on the field because of how long the review took.
Brilliant logic, fellas—making two wrongs into a bigger wrong.
Lost in this manufactured controversy, the fact Miami was down six and took over on their own eight-yard line with 1:28 remaining—the Canes trailing since Cal tied the game 7-7 with 3:58
In a normal world where a college football villain isn’t in a hero’s role, the entire narrative these past two weeks would’ve been on thrilling comebacks—how championship-caliber teams dig down deep and find a way to win—while Miami players, coaches and fans are told that officials and the Atlantic Coast Conference bailed the Hurricanes out, in effort to preserve an undefeated season while keeping quarterback Cam Ward atop the Heisman Trophy list.
Of course no mention that Miami was dinged nine times for 110 yards in penalties while Cal was hit six times for 43 yards; a blind-eye seemingly turned on a lot of chippy behavior from Bears’ defenders all night—linebacker Cade Uluave running his mouth and over-celebrating all night, while he and his defense were laying on top of Canes’ wide receivers and running backs; eventually baiting Isaiah Horton into a reaction on Miami’s final possession, where the receiver’s retaliation changed a 2nd-and-5 to 2nd-and-20 from the Bears’ 25-yard line.
Miami had to overcome a 3rd-and-20 with :47 remaining; Ward dumping it off to running back Damien Martinez for the 22-yard gain, setting up the five-yard touchdown strike to Elijah Arroyo two plays later—a drive that started with a 77-yard hook-up between Ward and Xavier Restrepo, immediately flipping the field.
On the previous possession, it was Ward to Restrepo for a tight 13-yard pick-up on a 4th-and-10; just like the two connected on 4th-and-6 one drive earlier when Miami was in a 38-18 hole.
The Canes needed to convert a 4th-and-3 when it was still a 38-10 game; Ward to Horton and capped with the 13-yard pass to Martinez before the two-point conversion hook-up with Restrepo to make it a 20-point deficit—Miami’s defense needing to bow-up, while the offense played catch-up and there was no margin for error on either side of the ball.
Miami gave up their share of big plays early in the game; down 25- with 8:06 remaining in the third quarter due to mental lapses that saw Mendoza finding tight end Jack Endries for a 57-yard touchdown reception that got Cal on the board late first quarter. The Bears then stuffed the Canes on a 4th-and-2 pass to Arroyo and saw Mendoza getting it to Trond Grizzell for a 51-yard pick-up, setting up Jaydn Ott to punch it in from five yards out two plays later.
Facing a 4th-and-1 with a 14-10 lead, Cal looked to run it up the gut for the easy first down, but Miami called a timeout.
On the ensuing play, some well-timed trickery as a dump-off to Ott went for a 66-yard touchdown—the running back seemingly stepping out ten yards into the run, but officials not noticing the gaffe in a game they were supposedly throwing for the Canes—letting the hometown Bears just own the momentum.
The anti-Miami bias and hate; it’s caused another wave of Canes Derangement Syndrome amongst college football fans who aren’t all about ‘The U’ and who want to hang an entire game and comeback on one play, completely ignoring that Miami trailed 35-10 with 18 minutes of game time remaining.
The Canes also went on to out-gain the Bears 278 yards to 26 the final quarter of play, while outscoring the home team, 21-3 down the stretch.
The outrage has spilled over to direct shot at Ward, as well—be it during the throw down with Virginia Tech and two bad throws that led to interceptions—as well as an ill-advised cross-body pass that led to a pick-six at Cal, extending their early third quarter lead to 28-10; the trolls rushing to social medial after any turnover and spinning the mistake into some premature ending of a potential Heisman campaign.
Of course there’s a reason one should let the clock hit 0:00 before any biased in-game prognostication, as Ward closed out the Hokies with a 343-yard passing day, four touchdowns through the air and one with his legs—with a season-best 437-yard performance in Berkeley, throwing for two touchdowns and rushing for a 24-yard score that cut the deficit to six late the fourth quarter.
Credit to Cal, like Virginia Tech before them—the Bears came to play; a reminder that when the Canes are rolling, Miami is everybody’s biggest game and circled-in-red match-up. The gates for ESPN’s College GameDay opened at midnight and the broadcast went live at 6:00 a.m. PT, which looked and felt like the dead of night for a game that wouldn’t kick off for roughly another 14 hours for the record 52,428 in attendance for Cal’s first home ACC game.
Miami marched it 63 yards on five plays on the Canes’ second possession; getting Cal in a 4th-and-20 position on the Bears’ opening drive—seemingly in early control, before miscommunication saw cornerback D’Yoni Hill in no-man’s-land long enough for Endires to find some wide open space for an easy, game-tying 57-yard score.
The Canes managed a mid-second quarter field goal to make it a 14-10 game, but the offense was stalling out and the defense saw another mental lapse—Ott slipping out of the backfield, linebacker Raul Aguirre filling the gap expecting run, while blitzing cornerback Meesh Powell blew by the running back, expecting Mendoza to rush—allowing a wide-open pitch-and-catch that went for the 66-yard score.
Cal found the big play a few more times on their final touchdown drive mid-third quarter; Mendoza dumping it off to Javian Thomas for a 56-yard gain on a 3rd-and-15—where one big block sprung the running back past pretty much all of Miami’s linebackers and secondary—the Canes arguably not anticipating much after defensive tackle Simeon Barrow crushed Thomas for a five-yard loss the previous carry, pinning the Bears at their own 15-yard line where a more conservative play call was probably the expectation.
Endries went for 20 yard on the next play, before back-up quarterback Chandler Rodgers was in on 1st-and-Goal for a nine-yard touchdown run that probably caused a lot of Miami fans to turn off their televisions—as well as rivals and others rooting against the Canes in this late-night affair.
Again, the will to win and the fact that nobody outside of Miami players and coaches didn’t flinch when down 35-10 halfway through the third—this is precisely the type of football that would have the casual observer rooting for the comeback Canes, no?
For the two decades this program has been done, the tired company line has been trotted out by the media and opposing fans—how the game of college football is better when ‘The U’ is a competitor.
Of course these sentiments are often shared mid-season when Miami is unraveling against mid-tier competition and stumbling towards another 7-5 campaign—this 6-0 start, two monster comebacks and a transfer quarterback in the Heisman conversation all exposing those hypocritical well-wishes.
They all wanted Miami back in-theory, while their true colors are now showing with the Hurricanes looking like a competitor.
The double-standard even shows on a weekend when four other Top 10 teams took a dive; Miami seemingly getting more shit for close games against a Virginia Tech or Cal than teams who actually lost.
Alabama gave up 40 points in a loss at lowly Vanderbilt while Tennessee’s high-octane offense was grounded, only scoring two touchdowns and blowing a 14-3 lead in a 19-14 road loss at Arkansas; SEC bias allowing the Crimson Tide and Volunteers to only drop to sixth and seventh respectively.
Miami also sits behind one-loss Georgia as well as undefeated Penn State and Oregon; the Hurricanes taking grief for their schedule this far—yet their 64th-best strength-of-schedule remains a hell of a lot better than the 94th-best Ducks and 95th-best Nittany Lions to date.
Again, rankings-schmankings here in mid-October; Miami needs to worry about winning six more ball games and turning 6-0 into 12-0, punching their ticket to the ACC Championship game in December—taking care of business obviously taking precedent over being concerned with where others rank—but in the context of a bias- and U-hate related conversation, the slights are apropos.
Before the legendary Jimmy Johnson left Miami for the Dallas Cowboys at the end of the 1988 season, his parting words to his Hurricanes were “Beat Notre Dame”—wanting them to avenge for a controversial fumble that allowed the Irish to emerge 31-30, en route to a national championship.
Johnson also made one more thing clear on his way out the door based on how that game played out; “You can never leave it in the officials’ hands”—which was both true, while also playing into Miami’s long-running us-against-the-world narrative—the Canes jobbed more times than one can count over the past several decades.
Case in point, Miami saw Jacoby George flagged for spinning a football post-score against Virginia Tech—while the receiver had another score pulled off the board on a phantom hold on offensive lineman Jaheim Bell in the same game—and nobody batted an eye.
Same for the 66-yard Ott run, where not only did the running back clearly step out early in his run—his touchdown celebration saw him piling in with Bears’ cheerleaders, taking their pom-poms and dancing around for a few moments—again, just kids having fun when a team like Cal does it, yet excessive when it’s thuggish-ruggish Miami.
Just like it was in the past, Canes fans have to grow thicker skin the more relevant this program gets—and the two-decade absence from the limelight, as well as the advent of social media and an entire new generation of college football fans who weren’t even alive the last time Miami was a player; buckle-in as the deep-rooted hate towards this program is only going to intensify as the wins pile up.
Six down and six to go, with the hopes this bye week will not only give this roster time to get healthy—Miami needing back left tackle Jalen Rivers, guard Ryan Rodriguez and cornerback Damari Brown for the final half of football—as well as a much-needed mental reset here in mid-October.
Here’s also hoping that a more-established running game on that back-end of this season results in a heavier dose of Mark Fletcher, who was eased into the season carefully due to a foot injury in last year’s bowl—while the Canes are yet to go deeper into the rotation with more late-game usage of Ajay Allen and bursts of Jordan Lyle.
Miami threw every ounce of itself into a road opener against Florida at ‘The Swamp’, only to return home the feast on two cupcakes in Florida A&M and Ball State. A tricky road trip to South Florida followed; the proverbial ‘trap game’ as many called it—only to mow down the Bulls and find themselves in a true battle with the Hokies.
A week of naysaying and distractions followed; the Virginia Tech, last-ditch-effort Hail Mary that wasn’t to be used against these Canes, while Miami worked to keep its focus for the program’s biggest road trip west since trekking to Seattle to take on Washington back in 2000.
The past is the past and the only place for this team to look is ahead; fully-focused on what looks to be an offensive shootout at Louisville, followed by keeping emotions tempered for what-on paper looks like it should be a healthy takedown of reeling Florida State.
Former Canes head coach Manny Diaz heads south with Duke the first week of November—the Blue Devils still in good-enough shape based on what former coach Mike Elko left behind when Texas A&M came calling—before going up against arguably one of the tougher defenses Miami will face this year in a revenge game against Georgia Tech in Atlanta.
Senior Day at home against Wake Forest and a Thanksgiving weekend road trip to Syracuse to close the regular season.
On paper, it feels like Miami’s toughest stretch is in the rearview—at South Florida, home against Virginia Tech and the long distance trek to Cal—but it’s most-certainly a stretch of one-game mini-seasons every time these Hurricanes take the field between now and the end of November.
Out the gate, this schedule always felt manageable if Miami could survive that opener at Florida—and when all is said and done, the biggest week of the 2024 season might just be October 12th—as a perfectly-timed bye and opportunity to recalibrate will have these Hurricanes looking as fresh and clean as they did at the end of August.
Christian Bello has been covering University of Miami athletics since the mid-nineties. Getting his start with CanesTime, he eventually launched allCanesBlog—which led to a featured columnist stint with BleacherReport. He’s since rolled out the unfiltered, ItsAUThing.com where he’ll use his spare time to put decades of U-related knowledge to use for those who care to read. When he’s not writing about ‘The U’, Bello is a storyteller for some exciting brands and individuals—as well as a guitarist and songwriter for his Miami-bred band Company Jones, who released their debut album “The Glow” in 2021. Hit him on Twitter for all things U-related @ItsAUThingBLOG.
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