Hurricanes Return To League Play With a Trip to Duke
Oct. 14, 2008
MIAMI HURRICANES AT DUKE BLUE DEVILS
Date: Saturday, Oct. 18, 2008
Location: Wallace Wade Stadium – Natural Grass, (33,941) in Durham, N.C.
Kickoff: 3:30 p.m. (ET)
TV: The game will be broadcast nationally on ESPNU, with Doug Bell(play by play), Charles Arbuckle (color analyst) and Abby Waner (sideline reporter).
Tape Delay Telecast: On CSS, Tuesday Oct. 21 at 1 p.m. and 7 p.m., with announcers Jason Solodkin (play-by-play) and K.C. Jones (color).
Local Radio: The Hurricanes Radio Network (WQAM 560 AM) will carry the game live with Joe Zagacki (play by play), Don Bailey Jr. (analysis) and Brian London (sideline reporter). Fans can also listen online at www.wqam.com.
Radio En Espanol: The game will broadcast in Spanish on 1450 ESPN Deportes (1450 AM) with Joe Pujala (play by play) and Joe Martinez (analysis).
Websites: Miami (www.hurricanesports.com) and Duke (www.goduke.com)
THE GAME
Miami returns to Atlantic Coast Conference play when the Hurricanes travel to Duke for an ACC Coastal Division matchup. Kickoff is scheduled for 3:30 p.m. and will be televised on ESPNU.
The Hurricanes are coming off a 20-14 nonconference home win against UCF. Miami’s defense limited the Knights to 78 total yards on 64 plays. Senior linebacker Glenn Cook matched a career-high with 10 tackles while fellow linebacker Darryl Sharpton added seven tackles.
Redshirt freshman quarterback Robert Marve will make his sixth collegiate start – his third start on the road. In two road games this season, Marve has completed 65 percent of his passes and threw two touchdown passes.
The Hurricanes are 20th nationally in overall defense and 16th in rushing defense. Miami’s return game has been producing field position lately. Miami held UCF to four yards rushing and the Knights averaged 1.2 yards per play on 64 total plays last weekend.
THE OPPONENT
Duke is coming off a bye week. In the Blue Devils last outting, they fell at Georgia Tech, 27-0. The Blue Devils passing game has thrived under Miami native Thaddeus Lewis. Lewis has thrown for 971 yards and seven touchdowns in five games. He has completed 60 percent of his passes and thrown just three interceptions.
Receiver Eron Riley has caught six of Lewis’ seven touchdown passes. Riley has 288 receiving yards. On defense, the Blue Devils have intercepted six passes, but are yielding 336.4 yards per game.
THE COACHES
Randy Shannon is 8-10 overall and is in his second season at Miami. Duke’s David Cutcliffe is 3-2 in his first season with the Blue Devils.
THE SERIES
This will be only the sixth game between the two schools, with Miami holding a 4-1 lead in the series. Duke won the first meeting in 1976, 20-7, but UM has won the last four meetings, including in Miami in 2007 and in Durham in 2006.
FORECASTING FOURTEEN
Thirteen Hurricanes – including five true freshmen – have already reached the end zone through Miami’s first six games. Graig Cooper (6), Travis Benjamin (3), Kayne Farquharson (2), Derron Thomas (1), Leonard Hankerson (1), Jacory Harris (1), Jason Fox (1), Shawnbrey McNeal (1), Javarris James (1), Aldarius Johnson (1), Thearon Collier (1), Sean Spence (1) and Glenn Cook (1) have all reached paydirt at least once this season. A number of players who see regular action will be looking for their first touchdown of the season on Saturday, including junior tight end Dedrick Epps, junior wide receiver Sam Shields, freshman wide receiver Laron Byrd and senior wide receiver Khalil Jones, among others.
Each of the last two seasons, UM has had 10 players with at least one touchdown six games in, and in both seasons only 14 players had scored a touchdown by the end of the year. In 2005, only 12 players scored touchdowns (eight at the six-game mark), while in 2004, 12 players had a TD at the six-game mark with 16 eventually scoring by the end of the season.
LOCKER ROOM LEVERAGE
Through Miami’s first six games, the Hurricanes are out-scoring opponents 109-to-55 in the first and third quarters combined. UM’s most-effective quarter is the first, where it is out-scoring opponents 59-24, for an average of 9.8-to-4.0 heading into the second quarter. The `Canes trail their opponents 26-33 in the second quarter before heading into the locker room at the half. When UM returns to the field for the second half however, the Hurricanes again have an edge over their opponents, out-scoring teams 50-31 in the third quarter.
MULTIFACETED MATT
Sophomore punter/kicker Matt Bosher is one of just a handful of players nationally that handles all of his team’s field goals, punts and kickoffs. Despite the difficutly of taking on so many tasks, Bosher has been one of the best specialists in the ACC the first half of the season. He ranks sixth in the league in overall scoring (7.8 points per game) in addition to ranking fourth in punting (40.5), third in field goals (1.5 per game) and fourth in field goal percentage (90.0). He is also tied with Clemson’s Mark Buchholz for a league-high 21 extra points and against FSU he showed even more versatility in converting a crucial fake punt with a nine-yard run on a 4th-and-4 to keep a UM drive alive late in the contest.
MIAMI VS. THE STATE OF NORTH CAROLINA
The University of Miami is 32-18-1 all-time versus teams from the state of North Carolina. Since UM joined the Atlantic Coast Conference in 2004, the Hurricanes are 8-4 against teams from the Tar Heel State. Prior to two late season losses to N.C. teams last season, the Hurricanes had seven straight wins against the state from late 2004 to early last year.
Before Miami joined the ACC, the `Canes rarely faced teams from North Carolina, playing just four games against N.C. teams from the time Dennis Erickson took over the program in 1989 to the team’s last year in the BIG EAST in 2003. Over that 15-year span, UM faced East Carolina three times and NC State once.
DID YOU KNOW?
– Of the 23 seniors on this year’s squad, 13 have already earned degrees, while the remaining 10 are all on course to graduate either in December of 2008 or May of 2009.
– Last spring, the NCAA released its annual Academic Progress Report (APR) and the Hurricane football team scored a 969, the eighth-highest mark out of the 119 Bowl Sub-division football programs. Miami’s score – also the third-highest mark in the 12-team Atlantic Coast Conference – put the team in the 80th-90th percentile nationally based on its performance in the classroom.
– Running back Graig Cooper’s six touchdowns this season is the most in a singles season at UM since Tyrone Moss and Sinorice Moss scored 12 and six touchdowns respectively in 2005.
