Before we get to anything else on this joyous night for Hurricane fan, our thoughts are with All-American safety, Kam Kinchens, who was left prone on the field late in the game and had to be carted off the field. It put a damper on what was otherwise a memorable day at Hard Rock Stadium. Mario Cristobal indicated that Kinchens was showing positive signs.
Again, it's not our place to speculate on anyone's health but we certainly hope for the best, regardless.
Now onto the game, well, it turns out that this years Miami Hurricanes might actually be pretty good. Certainly better than last years 5-7 campaign. It's clear that Cristobal has things going in the right direction early into his second season as the head coach of his alma mater. But to me, the man of the hour is Tyler Van Dyke.
On Saturday, he was....him. As he lead the Canes to a big 48-33 victory over the 23rd ranked Texas A&M Aggies.
The strong-armed Van Dyke was 21-for-30 for 374 yards and five touchdowns. The knock of TVD coming into this contest is that despite his past gaudy numbers, he had failed to ever lead Miami to a big win (although perhaps the 2021 win at Pitt and Kenny Pickett should count towards that ledger) but this was exactly the type of performance that will has restored faith in Van Dyke.
In my best Terrell Owens: that's my quarterback.
On a day when the Miami rushing game never really got going (24 carries for 77 yards, which included a negative 12 yards from Van Dyke on sacks) it was the Shannon Dawson Air Raid that carried Miami to victory. After falling behind 17-7 behind some special teams blunders, Van Dyke time and time again delivered the ball with poise and accuracy. This was the guy we saw in 2021. Yeah, I can see why Alabama wanted to poach him.
One of his best throws was a late first down toss to Cam 'Grown Man Strength' McCormick in the fourth quarter. He surveyed the field and delivered an accurate pass to McCormick, who seemed to be his third read. (This also spoke to the Oline unit that consistently gave him clean pockets against the Aggies front which is stocked with 5-star recruits.)
We get this Van Dyke, and this Miami team will be a tough out every week from here on in.
- Can we put some respect on Xavier Restrepo's name? The guy is always labeled as 'scrappy', 'overachiever' or whatever term that suggests he's not a bona-fide player at this level. Once again, all he did against the Aggies was make key plays. It was 48 yard catch-and-run down 10-0 in the first quarter that ignited this offense. Then later on just kept producing first downs to extend drives. Nobody plays harder than this guy. So yeah, maybe is scrappy -- but he's also one of the most important players on this squad.
- I don't have a lot of complaints about this game. Hey, you know what they say about being 2-0 it beats being 1-1. But a minor quibble is that the Miami pass rush didn't get home as much as expected, and lost containment on a game Conner Weigman a few times. But it's hard to fault their effort, overall. The first two A&M touchdowns came off short fields after special teams errors. Weigman is a talented young quarterback, and he hung tough on Saturday. But it took 53 pass attempts to get to 336 yards, and was picked twice.
Meanwhile, the Aggies rushed for 97 yards on 29 carries. Yards were tough to come by against this Miami front seven. There's no doubt that Lance Guidry and Dawson have been major upgrades at the coordinator spots for coach Cristobal.
- And I can't forget James Williams. This game right here, was really the first time he played like that 5-star recruit. He was a real enforcer back there. The only thing that can hold him back is the modern-day targeting rules.
- And speaking of Cristobal, yeah, he has the reputation of being a rather conservative coach. A Cuban Woody Hayes if you will. But on a day when running lanes were much more sparse than last Friday night, he allowed the throw game to flourish and it certainly didn't look like Dawson was handcuffed in any way. On the final touchdown on third down late in the game, instead of a run up the middle and trying to grind the clock, punting and hoping for a defensive stand, a deep fade to Jacolby George was dialed up, and it went for 64 yard house call.
So yeah, it turns out Cristobal isn't averse to having a wide open offense, or scoring a lot.
- Finally, wanted to point out the attendance/crowd that showed up on Saturday to Hard Rock. Yeah, I've said it before, we will never be Happy Valley, or Tuscaloosa. South Florida/Miami is a tough market, and it's anything but a college town. But the people that do show up on a consistent basis to support the Hurricanes are great. My hats off to you guys. Take a bow, you guys deserve it.
I found it rather ridiculous that Kirk Herbstreit said that Hard Rock would be splilt 50-50 between UM and A&M fans. If the Aggies fan base made up even a quarter of who showed up on Saturday afternoon, I'd be surprised. It was a true home-field advantage for Miami this weekend, no matter what the narrative is.
This game was far from a sell-out but once again the atmosphere was pretty doggone electric, and I'd like to think we provided some energy to our beloved Hurricanes. I wouldn't say it was like the 2017 Notre Dame contest, which was a prime time affair, and was a sold to capacity. But I was told by more than a few folks that on television it just sounded very loud.
I want to give a salute to the student section. Seriously, I know they take heat for not always being there, but they were well represented and really into the game throughout. They did their part. I saw that they had orange towels that they were waving around for this 'orange out'. It looked great. But it got me thinking, if you're going to do something like this: why not give out those orange towels to everyone that shows up? One of my gripes with the way the university runs and markets this football program is that they always seem to go the cheap route.
Also, as always the tailgate scene was incredible at Hard Rock. Shout out to the guys at CanesUnfiltered for doing their thing as the rains came down pretty hard before the game. This win here, was for all us diehards, I think better days are ahead.
Now, with that said, there will probably be no more than 25,000 as Miami faces Bethune-Cookman on Thursday night. Hey, I'm a realist.
- Finally, going back to Cristobal, there is no denying the impact of this win. And yeah, it's just one win in the second game of his second season, but after the '22 debacle, he and this program needed this. There would be no morale victories, here. Last year after the loss to the Aggies -- which began their tailspin -- a bitterly disappointed Cristobal stated that the mere act of effort isn't worthy of praise.
Well, on this day, they will be praised for getting the job done.
Again, it's not our place to speculate on anyone's health but we certainly hope for the best, regardless.
Now onto the game, well, it turns out that this years Miami Hurricanes might actually be pretty good. Certainly better than last years 5-7 campaign. It's clear that Cristobal has things going in the right direction early into his second season as the head coach of his alma mater. But to me, the man of the hour is Tyler Van Dyke.
On Saturday, he was....him. As he lead the Canes to a big 48-33 victory over the 23rd ranked Texas A&M Aggies.
The strong-armed Van Dyke was 21-for-30 for 374 yards and five touchdowns. The knock of TVD coming into this contest is that despite his past gaudy numbers, he had failed to ever lead Miami to a big win (although perhaps the 2021 win at Pitt and Kenny Pickett should count towards that ledger) but this was exactly the type of performance that will has restored faith in Van Dyke.
In my best Terrell Owens: that's my quarterback.
On a day when the Miami rushing game never really got going (24 carries for 77 yards, which included a negative 12 yards from Van Dyke on sacks) it was the Shannon Dawson Air Raid that carried Miami to victory. After falling behind 17-7 behind some special teams blunders, Van Dyke time and time again delivered the ball with poise and accuracy. This was the guy we saw in 2021. Yeah, I can see why Alabama wanted to poach him.
One of his best throws was a late first down toss to Cam 'Grown Man Strength' McCormick in the fourth quarter. He surveyed the field and delivered an accurate pass to McCormick, who seemed to be his third read. (This also spoke to the Oline unit that consistently gave him clean pockets against the Aggies front which is stocked with 5-star recruits.)
We get this Van Dyke, and this Miami team will be a tough out every week from here on in.
- Can we put some respect on Xavier Restrepo's name? The guy is always labeled as 'scrappy', 'overachiever' or whatever term that suggests he's not a bona-fide player at this level. Once again, all he did against the Aggies was make key plays. It was 48 yard catch-and-run down 10-0 in the first quarter that ignited this offense. Then later on just kept producing first downs to extend drives. Nobody plays harder than this guy. So yeah, maybe is scrappy -- but he's also one of the most important players on this squad.
- I don't have a lot of complaints about this game. Hey, you know what they say about being 2-0 it beats being 1-1. But a minor quibble is that the Miami pass rush didn't get home as much as expected, and lost containment on a game Conner Weigman a few times. But it's hard to fault their effort, overall. The first two A&M touchdowns came off short fields after special teams errors. Weigman is a talented young quarterback, and he hung tough on Saturday. But it took 53 pass attempts to get to 336 yards, and was picked twice.
Meanwhile, the Aggies rushed for 97 yards on 29 carries. Yards were tough to come by against this Miami front seven. There's no doubt that Lance Guidry and Dawson have been major upgrades at the coordinator spots for coach Cristobal.
- And I can't forget James Williams. This game right here, was really the first time he played like that 5-star recruit. He was a real enforcer back there. The only thing that can hold him back is the modern-day targeting rules.
- And speaking of Cristobal, yeah, he has the reputation of being a rather conservative coach. A Cuban Woody Hayes if you will. But on a day when running lanes were much more sparse than last Friday night, he allowed the throw game to flourish and it certainly didn't look like Dawson was handcuffed in any way. On the final touchdown on third down late in the game, instead of a run up the middle and trying to grind the clock, punting and hoping for a defensive stand, a deep fade to Jacolby George was dialed up, and it went for 64 yard house call.
So yeah, it turns out Cristobal isn't averse to having a wide open offense, or scoring a lot.
- Finally, wanted to point out the attendance/crowd that showed up on Saturday to Hard Rock. Yeah, I've said it before, we will never be Happy Valley, or Tuscaloosa. South Florida/Miami is a tough market, and it's anything but a college town. But the people that do show up on a consistent basis to support the Hurricanes are great. My hats off to you guys. Take a bow, you guys deserve it.
I found it rather ridiculous that Kirk Herbstreit said that Hard Rock would be splilt 50-50 between UM and A&M fans. If the Aggies fan base made up even a quarter of who showed up on Saturday afternoon, I'd be surprised. It was a true home-field advantage for Miami this weekend, no matter what the narrative is.
This game was far from a sell-out but once again the atmosphere was pretty doggone electric, and I'd like to think we provided some energy to our beloved Hurricanes. I wouldn't say it was like the 2017 Notre Dame contest, which was a prime time affair, and was a sold to capacity. But I was told by more than a few folks that on television it just sounded very loud.
I want to give a salute to the student section. Seriously, I know they take heat for not always being there, but they were well represented and really into the game throughout. They did their part. I saw that they had orange towels that they were waving around for this 'orange out'. It looked great. But it got me thinking, if you're going to do something like this: why not give out those orange towels to everyone that shows up? One of my gripes with the way the university runs and markets this football program is that they always seem to go the cheap route.
Also, as always the tailgate scene was incredible at Hard Rock. Shout out to the guys at CanesUnfiltered for doing their thing as the rains came down pretty hard before the game. This win here, was for all us diehards, I think better days are ahead.
Now, with that said, there will probably be no more than 25,000 as Miami faces Bethune-Cookman on Thursday night. Hey, I'm a realist.
- Finally, going back to Cristobal, there is no denying the impact of this win. And yeah, it's just one win in the second game of his second season, but after the '22 debacle, he and this program needed this. There would be no morale victories, here. Last year after the loss to the Aggies -- which began their tailspin -- a bitterly disappointed Cristobal stated that the mere act of effort isn't worthy of praise.
Well, on this day, they will be praised for getting the job done.
