The cynics will constantly find ways to distract from what-is for a bevy of reasons.
Maybe they bought in prematurely in the past, embarrassed that they doubled-down when they should’ve laid back; now jaded after almost two decades of eating crow as a Hurricanes fan; to the point where they’re damaged goods and can’t even accept what’s sitting right in front of them.
Miami beat Ball State like a drum, 62-0 at a rain-soaked HardRock on Saturday afternoon—the Canes improving to 3-0 and and the convincing shutout enough for pollsters to move them from No. 10 to No. 8 in the latest rankings.
159 points scored over a three-game span to start a new season; the most-ever in Hurricanes’ history—while it’s three games in a row for Cam Ward throwing for 300-plus yards; the transfer quarterback now with 1,035 yards on the season, as well as 11 touchdowns and one on-the-run, cross-body pick throw at Florida in the opener—a mistake that had him rushing for the iPad on the sidelines so he could immediately relive and work through the mistake.
Ward earned a seat the bench one drive into the second half, leading Miami on a six-play, 71-yard drive—extending the lead to 38-0 before yielding to Emory Williams with just over ten minutes left in the third quarter; the Canes tacking on another 24 points with back-ups, while keeping the Cardinals out of the end zone and limiting Ball State’s offense to 115 total yards on the day.
Ajay Allen proved to be this week’s workhorse back with 104 yards and a touchdown on the day, while five Miami running backs combined for 243 yards and two rushing touchdowns—while Ward and Williams spread the ball around to 12 different receivers for 507 yards and six scores—Jacolby George leading the pack with 109 yards and a touchdown, while Xavier Restrepo found the end zone twice on three receptions.
If this recap comes off clinical or matter-of-fact, that’s because of the Hurricanes’ surgeon-like precision, preparedness and process going into a theoretical trap game against South Florida next Saturday night in Tampa—while others believe the meeting with the Bulls is the actual trap, six days prior to a Friday night home conference-opener against Virginia Tech.
NO TRAP GAMES IN A FULL-FOCUS SEASON
By definition a ‘trap game’ is a showdown with a seemingly easy-to-beat opponent that the better team hasn’t prepared for—or respected—a they would a more formidable foe; overlooking the underdog having backfired on many a decent team over the years.
Georgia has a bye next week before a road trip to take on the same Alabama program that knocked them out of last year’s College Football Playoffs with an SEC Championship title game upset; a road trip to Kentucky this past weekend called a ‘trap game’ all week before the Bulldogs survived the Wildcats, 13-12 in Lexington.
Kirby Smart and crew rode a 29-game win-streak into last year’s conference title game, as well as back-to-back defending national champs—a history of winning big playing into the trap game concept—but for a Miami program just learning to win consistently a game, there are no trap games for the Hurricanes; every showdown this season a one-game title shot where this program has to prove itself and earn every spoil of their success.
It’s easy to knock the caliber of opponent these past two weeks; Florida A&M and Ball State both sub-par programs and teams Miami was expected to roll—so the Hurricanes did all that was in their control, but utterl dominating both and avoiding the kinds of boneheaded mistakes this program has made in the recent past.
750 total yards and 62 points against Ball State in an all-business outing, where the starters were on the bench just after halftime—seven penalties for 77 hards in the first half the correctable moment from this outing; jumping offsides and late hit calls not impacting this showdown, but problematic down the road in more heavily contested outings.
Last week was all business was well; 549 yards and 56 points against the Rattlers—Ward yielding to Reese Poffenbarger by late third quarter in a 46-9 game—another week where a back-up quarterback got his shot to run the offense, while Ward was able to clock-out early, though penalties still needed some cleaning up with eight going for 58 yards.
Still, can’t recall a year where things got off to a better start—not just record-wise, but by Miami passing the eye and smell test as the Canes not only look the part, but it’s crystal clear that this team hasn’t even needed to get out of second gear yet this new year.
WHERE, WHY & HOW LAST YEAR SELF-IMPLODED
Comparing and contrasting to last fall, Miami had that sloppy start against Texas A&M; down 10-0 early to the Aggies before opening things up; Tyler Van Dyke with his five-touchdown, 374-yard performance as the Hurricanes put the game away late with a 64-yard strike to George with 2:37 remaining for a 48-33 upset.
We’ve oft pointed out here that winning covers up all flaws, while losses tend to expose what’s long been hiding in plain sight; Miami and Van Dyke looking solid enough in encore performances against Bethune-Cookman and Temple; those respective 48-7 and 41-7 wins feeling good-not-great as conference play kicked off the first weekend of October when Georgia Tech visited—this year’s test being next Friday night’s home showdown against Virginia Tech as the Hurricanes kick off league play.
Van Dyke unraveled against the Yellow Jackets; three massive interceptions, some horrendous reads and deer-in-headlights sideline moments as if the quarterback completely forgot how to play the game he grew up playing.
Mario Cristobal famously blew the would-be comeback with a non-kneel, which led to a phantom fumble and two bang-bang offensive plays where Georgia Tech pulled off a miraculous comeback—but the season was lost when Miami’s quarterback lost his mojo and the the team unraveled right there with him—two interceptions and a fumble the following week at North Carolina, while the defense gave up 508 yards and 41 points in the loss.
Williams game-managed Miami to a win over Clemson, while another porous outing out of Van Dyke—two interceptions against Virginia—was savaged by a Kam Kinchens pick-six and tough Mark Fletcher overtime touchdown run.
Road trip to North Carolina State on a two-game win-streak? Another three-interception performance out of Van Dyke; Miami in a 10-6 battle late, before falling 20-6.
Williams and the defense hang tough at Florida State a week later? Van Dyke comes off the bench with 2:30 remaining—Miami down 27-20 after Williams was carted off with a season-ending injury on a fourth down run—the redemption moment lost, going two-of-seven for 29 yards, ending with a fourth down pick; 11 interceptions over a five-game span.
What started out a promising 4-0 run in year two for Cristobal, quickly became a damaged-goods, wheels-off disaster of a season when an aloof, overhyped quarterback unraveled in real time and Miami lacked any offensive identity—defenses no longer needing to worry about the passing attack and doubling-down to stop the run.
All of this to say why the hype train was so big around Ward; not just for the athletic skills—but for that alpha dog leader this coaching staff clamored for at the quarterback position.
ALL-BUSINESS, ALL-ALPHA DOG ENERGY
Three weeks into a new season with no true signature win—though a 41-17 win over Florida at The Swamp is certainly nothing to sneeze at, even if the Gators have since unraveled—there is a sense of next-level focus, professionalism, maturity and showing up big that Miami has displayed thus far, and with Ward at the helm, there’s no reason to believe that will change anytime soon.
If anything, the expectation is that this Hurricanes team will get better with each new opportunity, more time together and stepping into each new one-game season and challenge.
South Florida is no slouch year two under Alex Golesh, but again for those talking ‘trap game’ and shouting at other fans to not look past the Bulls—a reminder that this coaching staff knows good-and-hell-well the task at hand.
This USF squad hosted Alabama at Raymond James Stadium last September; a game tied 3-3 at the half and a 10-3 dogfight until the Crimson Tide put it away late fourth quarter with a final touchdown in a 17-3 nail-biter.
Fast-forward to last week and a revenge-opp to prove last year as aberration; Alabama nursing a 14-13 early fourth quarter lead and South Florida narrowing the gap to 21-16 with 6:45 remaining before the Tide rolled with a 21-0 run to put it away, 42-16.
Aside from a teachable moment for Miami coaches—simply pointing to film of South Florida putting up an eight quarter fight against a world-class program like Alabama these past two years—the Hurricanes get another chance to silence critics and doubters while going back into prep-mode and facing off against a Bulls squad that some will call to upset the Miami, or at minimum for a game “closer than the experts think”.
The four-letter network tossed this one on their main channel at 7:00 p.m. ET next Saturday night; prime time billing just before ABC rolls into their game of the week—No. 6 Tennessee trekking to No. 15 Oklahoma for what is now an SEC head-to-head battle between the Volunteers and Sooners; a much bigger game than the Hurricanes and Bulls, but also the only other notable game on that evening—equating to a lot of eyeballs tuning in to see if this Miami team is for real.
STAY THE COURSE ONE WEEK AT A TIME
Tons of football left to play this season, but worth taking a moment to at least acknowledge that while the competition hasn’t been stellar these past two weeks, the Hurricanes showed up to treat both showdowns completely prepared and bringing the fight to a few upset-minded squads right out the gate. No slow starts, no sloppy play, no letting either the Rattlers or the Cardinals heading back north with any type of moral victory or positive takeaways as both were put away by halftime, while pushed around the latter part of the afternoon by Miami’s second- and third-stringers.
Insult to injury for rivals, as well—the Hurricanes taking care of business while Florida State stumbled to 0-3 after Mike Norvell and crew fell to his old Memphis program in Tallahassee, while the Billy Napier hot seat is fire-engine red after Florida looked identity-less in a home loss to Texas A&M, rebuilding in first-year mode under former Duke head coach Mike Elko, who got the win with a back-up quarterback while the Gators couldn’t get any real production out of either of theirs.
While Miami keeps its focus on it own schedule and has no business worrying about any rival until Florida State stumbles down to HardRock on October 26th, every step forward for the Hurricanes—while the Seminoles and Gators tank—remains a breath of fresh air on the recruiting front.
Miami took a hefty step forward with both undecided and committed recruits when routing Florida in The Swamp and celebrating in front of three dozen Gators’ recruits—including LSU cornerback commit, 5-Star DJ Pickett, as well as cornerback 4-Star Ben Hanks and wide receiver 3-Star Josh Moore—all kids from South Florida who have the Canes heavily on the radar and are absolutely deemed flippable if Miami continues rolling while rivals falter.
Not even one-third through this brand new season, recruiting chatter will become the focus two months from now—but worth noting some of these names now when circling back to pivotal moments as this season continues playing itself out.
Business as usual; Miami looks the part at 3-0 and showing up big the past three weeks saw a rise from No. 17 to No. 10 and now No. 8 with South Florida on deck.
Another big-step-forward opportunity for the all-business Hurricanes this weekend against the Bulls. Stay the course, gentlemen. It’s a ‘U’ thing…
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.