There have been no sure things so far this year in college football. Just ask any fan of the #2-ranked Alabama Crimson Tide, who a week after conquering top-ranked Georgia suffered an inconceivable loss to Vanderbilt. Or a Rocky Top afficiando of #4 Tennessee, who were embarrassed by Arkansas on national prime time television.
But if you happen to be a supporter of The U, aka Miami’s Hurricanes, you may be breathless and muttering, but at least for now your team is still undefeated. And last night, in their first-ever Atlantic Coast Conference matchup played mere minutes from the Pacific Coast, in a national late night window safely detached from any significant competition outside of a medicore SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE, they proved their mettle yet again.
As ESPN’s Kyle Bonagura wrote in a story that dropped mere minutes ago:
For the second straight week, Miami avoided a near-certain defeat to remain unbeaten, this time rallying from a 25-point second-half deficit to beat California 39-38.
Miami quarterback Cam Ward played a brilliant fourth quarter as the Hurricanes scored the final 21 points, connecting with Elijah Arroyo on a 5-yard game-winning touchdown with 26 seconds left.
Ward led four straight touchdown drives to end the game and spoil what looked like the most monumental day in years for the Golden Bears (3-2, 0-2 ACC), who hosted ESPN’s “College GameDay” for the first time and were on the verge of their second win over a top-10 team in the past 21 seasons.
Instead, Ward made sure the rare sellout crowd at Memorial Stadium went home unhappy after overcoming a 35-10 deficit in the third quarter. That gave the Hurricanes (6-0, 2-0) a second straight dramatic victory after needing a replay review to hold off Virginia Tech 38-34 last week.
For ‘Canes supporters, Ward has been a godsend, and this performance keeps him squarely on Heisman Trophy watch. And with two Top 5 losses elsewhere, and a bowl berth already assured, this has already been the most encouraging season they’ve seen in Coral Gables since 2017.
But there’s still some locals that need some mollifying, as the hometown HERALD’s Susan Miller Degnan felt compelled to write earlier today:
Two critical fourth-down plays in the second quarter and an ill-advised decision could have been disastrous on Saturday for the Miami Hurricanes.
Those plays contributed to UM’s third-quarter, 25-point deficit from which the Canes nearly didn’t recover.
Nearly didn’t.
Because of Miami’s stunning comeback, the Hurricanes are still in the hunt for a perfect season.
But those early miscues made the win a lot tougher than needed.
The two fourth-down plays in the second quarter — one on offense and one on defense — were followed by eventual Cal touchdowns. Meanwhile, Ward’s first pass of the third quarter, a doomed decision in which he threw across his body to the opposite side of the field, was intercepted by Cal’s Nohl Williams and returned for a 40-yard touchdown to put the Golden Bears up 28-10.
After Cal quarterback and Miami Columbus High grad Fernando Mendoza had tied the score at 7 with a 57-yard, first-down touchdown pass to Jack Endries, the first fourth-down scenario came on the first play of the second quarter. Miami was driving at fourth-and-2 from the Cal 45 when Ward completed a pass to tight end Elijah Arroyo, who was tackled 1 yard shy of the sticks.
“It was a long 1-[yard], about 1 ½,’’ UM coach Mario Cristobal said. “I just felt like, ‘Eh, we’ve run the ball well [and] I’ve been leaning on these guys.’ Arroyo is a dangerous guy to cover … and when we slipped him out there, they’re in cover zero. That guy took a great angle and before we could get turned around and up the field he cut our legs underneath us.”
With the kind of tradition, checkered though it may be, that the U has of true greatness and national titles, it’s almost understandable that this kind of reminder of how thin is the razor’s edge these ‘Canes have been skating on was necessary to have been brought up. But it does get a little easier and more traditional going forward. After a bye week, they have consecutive home games with the only other current Top 25 team they are scheduled to face for the rest of this year, Louisville, followed by their underperforming state rival Florida State. Then, a November schedule will feature a mixed bag of mediocre conference challenges including Duke, Wake Forest, Georgia Tech and Syracuse.
As we know, Miami’s got a lot of distractions and plenty of entertainment options, especially on late balmy Saturday nights/Sunday mornings. The fact that a college football game was able to be at least competitive with South Beach hot spots demonstrates how far these ‘Canes have already come. And they actually could go further.
Courage…