Miami Gardens, FL– The Miami Hurricanes suffered a heartbreaking defeat as they stormed back from a 28-0 deficit only to fall in the final minutes as Virginia Tech held on 42-35. Miami falls to 2-3 on the season as Virginia Tech improves to 3-2.
Hurricanes starting quarterback Jarren Williams had by far his worst performance of the season in which he threw three interceptions in the first quarter which contributed heavily to the Hokies going up 21-0 in the first quarter. Williams was quickly replaced by N’Kosi Perry who was tasked with trying to bring the team back in a tough situation. Down 28-0 with the end of the first half nearing Perry gave the Hurricanes life with a hail mary that bounced off tight end Will Mallory’s hands straight to Mark Pope for the touchdown.
The Hurricanes came out of the half looking strong but the damage had already been done. With 12:43 seconds left in the game Miami down 35-14 the ‘Canes finally found that momentum. After leading the team on a 10 play 65 yard drive that ended with a 13 yard Jeff Thomas touchdown, Perry led his team on another beautiful drive going 61 yards on six plays to find Thomas yet again. The decision by Head Coach Manny Diaz to go for two was a strange, but successful call as DeeJay Dallas took the wildcat snap to the right and dove to the endzone to put the ‘Canes within six with 4:55 remaining in the game.
Miami’s defense held their end of the bargain forcing a three and out giving the ‘Canes an opportunity to take the lead. DeeJay Dallas then with the most explosive play of the game shed an early tackle and burst his way to the endzone on a 62 yard touchdown run. The high of that scoring run to tie the game was quickly followed by a low as Bubba Baxa smashes the extra point off the right post.
The inch of life that Miami showed Virginia Tech in that moment was all they needed as Tech drove down 63 yards for a final touchdown. Perry and the ‘Canes with one minute left to play did all they could on a sloppy final drive that ended with an incomplete pass with the ‘Canes on the VT 10 yard line and it was all over.
Mistakes once again plagued Miami as they could not overcome the early turnovers and one could argue the missed extra point was the final nail in their coffin. Four turnovers on your first four possessions is always going to put your team in a hole and while the comeback shows that there’s a lot of fight in that Miami locker room there is also a lot of growing to do.
Manny Diaz after the game was pleased with the fight his team showed but admitted that there was a lot of work to do moving forward and did not want to make excuses for his team.
“The guys that we have in the locker room right now are hurting, badly, as you would expect.” Said Diaz “As a coaching staff, we couldn’t be more proud of the effort that we played with. To come back down from 28-0, if you ever want proof of the character of our young men, the effort that they play with, what they believe in each other and what they believe in this program, there is no better example than that. Our issue is that the errors that we made, giving them a 48-yard drive, a 23-yard drive and a 20-yard drive to go up 21-0 in the first quarter, are not complicated. We hurt ourselves with some penalties, too. I thought the difference in the game was the red-zone, them versus us.”
Indeed there is a lot of work to be done and after the showing of N’Kosi Perry some will argue that he should be the one under center moving forward for the ‘Canes. Diaz did say that Jarren their guy but there is a lot of work to do to get the Hurricanes back on track this season.
Miami has a short turnaround as they square off against a ranked Virginia team Friday night while Virginia Tech takes on Road Island next Saturday.
- Darrell Wilkinson TheSkyBoat.com
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