10 Takeaways from Miami's Win over Virginia
By Christy Cabrera Chirinos
HurricaneSports.com
MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. – There’s no doubt this one felt really, really good.
In the moments after the Miami closed out its 17-9 win over No. 20 Virginia on Friday night at Hard Rock Stadium, cornerback Gilbert Frierson did backflips. Around him, teammates danced. And coach Manny Diaz had a hard time wiping the smile off his face.
For the Hurricanes, who a week earlier had endured a heartbreaking loss against Virginia Tech, bouncing back against the preseason Coastal Division favorite Cavaliers was huge.
“It’s a very happy locker room right now, as you can imagine,” Diaz said. “Now, we maybe have a little bit more momentum that we can kick on for the rest of our season.”
Friday’s win did more than just give the Hurricanes their first conference victory of the season and Diaz the first conference win of his coaching career.
It ensured that, with five ACC games still left to play, Miami would remain in the hunt for its second division title in three years.
As the Hurricanes now prepare to turn their focus to Georgia Tech for yet another division game, here is a look at some of what they can take from their win over Virginia.
1. The Hurricanes, again, showed their resilience
Against Virginia Tech last week, Miami proved it could rally, fighting back from a 28-point deficit before eventually coming up short in a tough 42-35 loss.
This week, the Hurricanes showed a different kind of resilience.
While facing questions about quarterback play, offensive line play, its kicking situation and its defensive collapse against the Hokies, Miami wasted little time Friday proving the Hurricanes can’t be counted this season.
They scored on their opening drive. Forced a three-and-out on Virginia’s opening drive. And later, Miami put together one of the best fourth quarters it’s had all year.
Given some of the team’s struggles during the first half of the season, that may have surprised some – but not the coach who’s been working with them since January.
“Obviously, I’m extremely proud of our football team. It was a very hard-fought win, which is what we expected it to be. We had talked all week about how strong our culture was, even on the backs of some of these losses to start the season,” Diaz said. “If we trusted in [the culture] and continued to nurture it, the results would start to come. This game was a testament to that because we knew that it was going to be a game where persistence and being relentless was going to be the key.”
2. The defense looked more like itself
The Cavaliers came into Friday’s game averaging 32.2 points per game. They didn’t get into the end zone once against Miami.
The Hurricanes, with an assist from Diaz who was more involved in defensive preparations this week, held the Cavaliers to just three field goals. Miami also managed five sacks of quarterback Bryce Perkins, notched seven tackles for loss, forced two fumbles, recovered a fumble and blocked a field goal.
It wasn’t a perfect defensive showing – Virginia did convert on 9 of its 18 third-down chances – but it was a performance that looked more like what the Hurricanes have come to expect of themselves in recent seasons.
“You would hope that last week was an outlier. That just wasn’t us,” Diaz said. “There’s a lot of pride in the guys that play on that defense. There’s a lot of pride on that coaching staff. I thought they had our players very well-prepared this week. It was simply just a matter of doing our jobs and trusting ourselves.”
3. N’Kosi Perry delivers
With quarterback Jarren Williams sidelined by an injury, reserve N’Kosi Perry got his first start of the season and helped the Hurricanes pick up a much-needed win.
The redshirt sophomore was 16-of-27 for 182 yards with a touchdown and no interceptions. He had a hand in both of Miami’s touchdowns, completing a 17-yard scoring pass to DeeJay Dallas in the first quarter and then scoring on a 3-yard run with 2:31 left that extended the Hurricanes lead.
Given his struggles against the Cavaliers a season ago, there’s no doubt Friday’s performance was meaningful for Perry in multiple ways.
“Thinking about it now, it means a lot to me,” Perry said. “But before the game, we just needed a win. Our opponent never mattered. Even in our losses, our opponent never mattered. We feel like we beat ourselves every [loss].”
Said Diaz, “Last week we saw a new version of N’Kosi. We saw how much he had improved. There was this strange karma deal that he got this start against Virginia and the fact that he got to score not the winning touchdown per se, but the touchdown that iced it. For him to do that, that just shows that you don’t always get what you want when you want it, but if you continue to work hard, it comes. That’s kind of a mature concept. That’s hard when you are their age. But for him to battle like that, I think that it’s a great example for everyone on our football team.”
4. Greg Rousseau impresses in his first start
Defensive end Greg Rousseau has been impressing teammates and coaches since arriving at Miami as an early enrollee in 2018. After being sidelined most of last fall because of an ankle injury, the defensive end got the first start of his Hurricanes career Friday and he delivered in a big way.
The 6-foot-6, 260-pound Rousseau notched seven tackles, a sack, two tackles for loss, a forced fumble and a quarterback hurry.
Not bad for a first-time starter who admitted he was a little nervous coming into the game.
“I definitely challenged myself. I knew that I had to go out there and uphold that standard,” Rousseau said. “Even when I wasn’t starting, there’s still that Miami standard that when you’re on defense, you have to be a dog. … I knew I had to be even more reliable and even more focused and dialed in on every little thing.”
5. Hello, Turner Davidson
The Hurricanes kicking issues have been a source of frustration throughout the first half of the season that seemingly culminated last week when Bubba Baxa missed an extra point that would have put the Hurricanes on top late in the fourth quarter.
Against Virginia, the Hurricanes called on walk-on Turner Davidson to handle placekicking duties and the redshirt sophomore – who learned he’d be starting just after warmups were completed – converted on both of his point-after attempts and delivered a 19-yard field goal, too.
His reaction when he learned he’d be kicking Friday? “Don’t miss,” he said.
He didn’t.
6. DeeJay Dallas continues to make plays
Dallas has, throughout the first half of the season, been a consistent playmaker for the Hurricanes and that continued against Virginia on Friday.
The junior had a team-high 77 all-purpose yards against the Cavaliers and his 63 rushing yards proved a game-high among all running backs. Dallas also scored the first receiving touchdown of his career on the game’s opening drive and finished with 14 receiving yards.
7. Missed shots
While the Hurricanes were able to move the ball effectively at times, Miami had some missed opportunities early against Virginia because of dropped passes. One first-quarter drive ended in part after back-to-back drops from receivers Mark Pope and K.J. Osborn.
Could part of the issue Friday been that Miami’s receivers are still working to re-establish chemistry with Perry and get used to how he throws the ball? It’s possible, Osborn said, noting one of the passes he dropped came in with some zip.
But, the receiver added, he believes things can improve on that front, especially when it comes to some of the deeper passes being called by offensive coordinator Dan Enos.
“We missed them. They’re 50-50 balls. Obviously, we want to come down with them,” Osborn said. “But we weren’t able to do it. Coach Enos continues to call our number, continues to call shots and I trust and believe in Kosi that we can make those plays and we will.”
8. There was progress on the penalty front
Penalties have been a source of frustration for the Hurricanes all season and more than once, Diaz has cited Miami’s lack of discipline as a factor in losses.
There were no such complaints Friday when the Hurricanes – who came into the game averaging 86 penalty yards per game – were whistled just four times for 32 yards, a season low.
9. The fourth quarter belonged to Miami
Against Florida earlier this year, the Hurricanes had a fourth-quarter lead and came up short. The same thing happened against North Carolina. And last week against Virginia Tech, the Hurricanes rallied back from a 28-0 deficit only to give up a late score that allowed the Hokies to escape with the win.
Finishing in the fourth quarter has sometimes been an issue for the young Hurricanes, but on Friday, that wasn’t the case. Not only did the offense put together two fourth-quarter scoring drives, but the defense twice did its job in the red zone, holding the Cavaliers to field goals instead of touchdowns.
“What changed today is that the team that made the plays in the fourth quarter was the Miami Hurricanes,” Diaz said. “The way we went down the field twice after obviously not moving the ball very well during part of the game … and score twice during the fourth quarter, ultimately, was telling in the victory.”
10. Midway through the season, the Hurricanes are still in the hunt
With Friday’s win, Miami managed to avoid making some dubious history and opening 0-3 in conference play for the first time in program history. And while the Hurricanes know they may need some help on the tiebreaker front down the road, they’re still alive in the race for the Coastal Division crown.
There’s little margin for error with conference games against Georgia Tech, Pittsburgh, Florida State, Louisville and Duke still remaining, but, if Miami builds on its win over the preseason division favorite, it can turn the season around.
The Hurricanes believe they can do that.
“I feel like we’ve still got more games to win, obviously. We want to keep winning,” cornerback Trajan Bandy said. “This is not it for us. We’re going to go right back [to practice] Sunday and try to get better and correct our mistakes and come back and be ready for the team next week.”
