Miami Gardens, FL – The University of Miami took the first step in righting the ship as they stomped the Bethune-Cookman Wildcats 63-0 in the home opener. Manny Diaz’s team took control after a slow 7-0 first quarter and piled on eight touchdowns to put the Wildcats away and gave Diaz his first win as a Head Coach.
Entering the second quarter ‘Canes running back DeeJay Dallas broke the game open as he found a gap and turned on the jets to burn the defense for 52 yards and hit paydirt. Dallas showed off plenty of power to match the speed of the big run and finished the day with 108 yards on just 12 carries and racked up three touchdowns. The junior was described as a “spark plug” by quarterback Jarren Williams and really stood out in this contest.
Williams wasn’t the only one with praise for Dallas as coach Diaz raved about his junior running back after the game.
“I think that he is a guy that you want to build the identity of your offense around.” Said Diaz. “When you think of the Miami Hurricanes’ offense, you think of some hard-running, downhill great tailbacks, and I think DeeJay [Dallas] wants to be in that legacy. He aspires to be one of those types of guys so, the fact that that he can get behind our offensive line, which is improving week in and week out, and get downhill on people, whether it’s in the dirty four or if he wants to break it long, shows that he has great versatility.”
Aside from Dallas, Jarren Williams has continued to show improvement as a passer and had another game with great accuracy going 19 of 24 for 254 yards and added three touchdowns to the mix. The redshirt freshman pushed the ball downfield more in this game making big plays including a 54 yard bomb to Mark Pope that made things happen in a hurry. Williams and company led Miami to 590 total yards on offense.
The ‘Canes defense played steady and consistent and absolutely smothered Bethune-Cookman’s offense holding them to just 137 total yards. The Hurricanes defense was playing so well that the Wildcat offense did not cross the 50 yard line into UM territory until the very last minute of the game. Defensive back Robert Knowles was the only player to don the swag of the turnover chain around his neck but as a whole the ‘Canes defense was overwhelming.
It was a big game for many of lesser known Hurricanes players as well. Mark Pope broke out with over 100 yards, Larry Hodges, as a freshman tight end caught his first two touchdown passes of his collegiate career and team favorite Jimmy Murphy ran it in for his first ever touchdown and fired up the rest of his team. Coach Diaz as well as many other teammates heaped on the praise for Murphy. “He(Murphy) is a guy that everybody on the team has the utmost respect for and, to see him get in the endzone and even the way that he scored, was no surprise to anybody.”
The Hurricanes return to action next Saturday as Miami faces off against Central Michigan. The game will be at Hard Rock Stadium at 4:00PM/EST and can be seen LIVE on the ACC Network.
- Darrell Wilkinson TheSkyboat.com
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