In a Coastal Division clash, the 16th-
ranked Miami-Florida Hurricanes welcome the Virginia Cavaliers to Land Shark
Stadium for a pivotal ACC matchup.
The Hurricanes are coming off an emotional win, as they rallied past Wake
Forest 28-27, in a Halloween thriller last weekend.
"Offense couldn't do anything, defense struggled in the first half," said head
coach Randy Shannon. "And then finally we started getting turnovers and the
offense started moving it a little bit, and that helped us out. And I think
that shows you where this team can go and be at."
It was certainly a gritty effort and a nice bounce back for Miami, which was
coming off a 40-37 overtime loss to Clemson the prior week. With the win, the
Hurricanes kept alive their hopes in the Coastal Division race. Miami is 3-2
within the conference, including a win over Georgia Tech, and it trails both
the Yellow Jackets and Duke, which have only one conference loss each.
As for the Cavs, they too are in the running for the division title, although
their hopes took a hit with a 28-17 setback against Duke last weekend.
"A lot of kids played their heart out today to make it different, but there
were just too many gift points," said coach Al Groh. "There were 10 points we
can attribute to turnovers and a couple of mental errors that resulted in long
plays."
Virginia has now dropped two straight on the heels of a three-game win streak
and it sits 2-2 within the conference, but just 3-5 overall. A loss this
weekend would mean the Cavs have to win their final three games just to become
bowl eligible.
In terms of the all-time series, Miami owns a 4-2 edge over Virginia and that
includes a 24-17 overtime victory in Charlottesville last season.
The Cavs had virtually no success moving the ball on Duke last weekend,
managing only 196 yards of total offense. Furthermore, the offense turned the
ball over twice and that included a Jameel Sewell fumble which was returned
for a touchdown to push Duke's lead to 25-17 with just over three minutes
remaining. It was another poor effort from this offense, which has scored just
four touchdowns in ACC play this season.
Aside from the fumble and a pick, Sewell did his best to help Virginia move
the ball and he threw for 86 yards and a score and added a second touchdown on
the ground. Sewell has totaled 11 touchdowns (five rushing) on the season, but
the Cavs are producing a mere 277.5 total ypg as a team.
The team's inability to gain yards consistently is by no means solely Sewell's
fault, as the Cavs' ground attack has been inept. The team is gaining a poor
98.1 ypg on the ground with an average of just 2.8 yards per carry and that
simply won't get the job done.
Virginia has one of the better pass defenses in the nation, but last weekend,
the unit was torched for 343 yards by Duke. The Cavs, who are allowing just
175.2 ypg through the air this season, gave up several passing plays of 30 or
more yards in the setback. The defense though, bent, but never really broke,
and held Duke's offense to one touchdown, while rolling up six sacks.
"I'm very pleased with the way they responded," Groh said about the defensive
line. "We had some schemes that we thought would get some pressure and they
did a really, really good job all week of tuning, as well as of executing,
during the course of the game."
Virginia had just 10 sacks heading into the game, so the effort was clearly a
positive one. Nate Collins accounted for two of the sacks and he also finished
with a team-best 10 stops in the losing cause. It was another solid effort
from Collins, who paces Virginia with 57 tackles, eight TFLs and five sacks on
the season.
Jacory Harris threw for 330 yards and three touchdowns, as the Hurricanes
rallied from a 13-point fourth-quarter deficit for a 28-27 win over Wake
Forest this past weekend. Despite being sacked five times, the sophomore
gunslinger got the job done and capped a nine-play, 82-yard drive with a game-
winning 13-yard touchdown pass to Travis Benjamin with just over a minute
left.
"He got hit tonight," said coach Shannon. "He got hit a lot tonight and that
shows the kind of maturity he has. But then he responded back and had
confidence in his offensive line."
Without a doubt Harris has taken his share of hits, being sacked 24 times,
but he has responded well and has completed 62.1 percent of his throws for
2,104 yards and 16 touchdowns.
Benjamin and Leonard Hankerson have teamed up to give Harris a pair of
reliable targets each week and they have combined for 889 yards and seven
touchdowns on the season. Last weekend, Hankerson hauled in five balls for a
team-high 97 yards, while Benjamin pulled in four receptions for 50 yards and
the crucial score.
Miami's defense came out flat against Wake Forest and was abused for 555
total yards, including 408 through the air. The defense, which is allowing
only 349.9 total ypg on the year, stepped up in the second half, however, and
gave up just one touchdown after the break.
"We made a couple of changes," said coach Shannon. "We went with a lot of dime
packages on first and second down, which got us where we needed to be at. But
also we did a lot of stuff inside with our defensive linemen to game them a
little bit, to get the quarterback not just stepping up and getting freebies."
The adjustments certainly helped, as did the four turnovers the Hurricanes
forced. Miami had forced just six turnovers through the first six games, but
it improved greatly over the last two, generating seven takeaways.
Allen Bailey turned in a solid effort for the Hurricanes, as he recorded both
of the team's sacks, to go with five tackles. It was his second straight
multiple-sack effort and he now has a team-best seven for the season.
©2009 Sports Network. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
