No. 18 Miami Hits the Road to Take on Wake Forest

Oct. 27, 2009

TUESDAY PRESS CONFERENCE REPLAY

Jacory Harris Press Conference Quotes | Coach Shannon Press Conference Quotes | Game Notes

CORAL GABLES, Fla. – No. 18 Miami will play its third conference road game when the Hurricanes head to Winston-Salem, N.C. to take on Wake Forest Saturday afternoon. The game will be televised by ABC – the `Canes fourth appearance on the network this season.

Miami is coming off a heart-breaking overtime thriller to Clemson, 40-37, last weekend at home.

Sophomore quarterback Jacory Harris threw two touchdown passes, including a career-long 69-yarder to Travis Benjamin. He completed 17-of-27 passes for 256 yards and two scores. On the year, Harris has passed for 1,774 yards with 13 touchdowns, 10 interceptions and a 64.6 completion percentage. Heading into Saturday’s game against Wake Forest, he ranks 10th nationally and second in the ACC in passing efficiency (155.5).

Junior kicker Matt Bosher is coming off another good performance for the Hurricanes. He connected on field goals of 49 yards, 51 yards and 22 yards and made all four of his extra-point attempts. He was named a Lou Groza Award “Star of the Week.” On the season, he is 9-of-11 in field goals (81.8 percent) and has made 66 consecutive PAT’s.

Miami receivers Leonard Hankerson and Travis Benjamin combined for eight catches for 169 yards against Clemson. Hankerson currently leads the team with 20 receptions for 380 yards and three touchdowns. Benjamin has 362 receiving yards on 18 receptions.

Junior defensive lineman Allen Bailey is coming off a big game against Clemson. Bailey recorded four total tackles, which included three tackles for loss, two sacks and a forced fumble. He has 17 total tackles on the season with 6.5 tackles for loss. Colin McCarthy leads the team with 49 tackles and 6.5 tackles for loss while fellow linebacker Darryl Sharpton now has 46 tackles after a 10-tackle performance against Clemson.

GAME 8 INFORMATION
Date: Saturday, Oct. 31, 2009
Location: B B&T Field (Field Turf), (31,500) in Winston-Salem, N.C.
Kickoff: 3:30 p.m. (ET)

TELEVISION – ABC (Mirror Broadcast on ESPN2)
Bob Wischusen (play-by-play)
Brian Griese (color)
Tape Delay Telecast – CSS
Mon., Oct. 26 at 7 p.m.; Thurs. Oct. 29 at Noon

LOCAL RADIO – 560 WQAM, 1450 ESPN DEPORTES
560 WQAM
Joe Zagacki (play-by-play)
Don Bailey Jr. (color analyst)
Fans can also listen online at www.wqam.com
1450 ESPN Deportes En Español
Joe Pujala (play-by-play)
Joe Martinez (color analyst)

NATIONAL RADIO – ACC ISP RADIO NETWORK
Satellite: 212 (Sirius); 191 (XM)
Alan York (play-by-play)
Sonny Randle (color analyst)

WEBSITES
Miami (www.hurricanesports.com)
Wake Forest (www.wakeforestsports.com)

SCOUTING THE DEMON DEACONS
Wake Forest enters Saturday’s game with an overall record of 4-4 and a conference record of 2-2. The Demon Deacons have lost two straight coming into this weekend, losing road contests at Clemson and at Navy. All of Wake’s wins this year have come at home (Stanford, Elon, NC State and Maryland) while its lone home loss was against Baylor in the team’s season-opener.

The Demon Deacon offense is led by veteran quarterback Riley Skinner. Skinner is one of the ACC’s top passers, entering the game with a league-high 16 touchdown passes in addition to ranking fourth in the ACC in passing average (243.6), passing efficiency (148.3) and total offense (243.5). Josh Adams in the focal point of Wake’s running attack, with the junior tallying team-highs for carries (84), rushing yards (380) and rushing touchdowns (2). Marshall Williams is the ACC’s fourth-leading receiver, having caught 36 balls for 514 yards and five touchdowns thus far. He is joined in the receiving corp by more talented receivers in Devon Brown (403 yards) and Chris Givens (372).

Defensively for Wake Forest, linebacker Dominique Midgett and strong safety Cyhl Quarles have 48 and 45 tackles respectively. Defensive end Tristan Dorty leads the Demon Deacons in sacks (3) and is tied with defensive tackles Tripp Russell for a team-high six tackles for a loss. Wake Forest has picked off five passes this year and forced six fumbles.

Kicker Jimmy Newman is 6-for-9 in field goals attempts this year while punter Shane Popham averages 37.3 yards per punt. In the return games, Devon Brown averages 7.2 yards per punt return while Chris Givens (21.2) and Lovell Jackson (25.7) handle the kick return duties.

JACORY NAMED SEMIFINALIST FOR DAVEY O’BRIEN AWARD
Sophomore quarterback Jacory Harris has been named a semifinalist for the Davey O’Brien National Quarterback Award® (The O’Brien) announced Monday.

Narrowed down from all 120 Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) quarterbacks, the list highlights 15 individuals who will vie for the oldest and most prestigious award honoring the nation’s best college quarterback. The 2009 O’Brien Semifinalists represent schools from the following conferences: ACC (1), Big East (2), Big Ten (2), Big 12 (3), Conference USA (1), Independent (1), Mid-American (1), Pac-10 (2), SEC (1) and the WAC (1).

Through seven games, Harris has completed 64.6 percent of his passes while completing 122-of-189 passes for 1,774 yards and 13 touchdowns. He has a 155.51 passing efficiency which ranks 10th nationally.

RUNNING FOR RECORDS
With 78 rushing attempts this season, senior Javarris James has moved from eighth place on Miami’s all-time rushing attempts list to third through the season’s first seven games. After passing Stephen McGuire (450 attempts) and Danyell Ferguson (454 attempts) against Oklahoma, James passed his cousin Edgerrin with six carries against Clemson last weekend. He now trails only Ottis Anderson (691 attempts) and James Jackson (541 attempts) heading into Saturday’s game at Wake Forest.

James also moved into the school’s Top 10 in career rushing yards against the Sooners, moving into eighth place with 1,963 yards before adding four yards against FAMU, 65 against UCF in Orlando and 56 this past weekend against Clemson. With 150 yards on the ground against Oklahoma, James passed Alonzo Highsmith (1,914), Tyrone Moss (1,942) and McGuire (1,953) on the list. Against the Knights, James not only passed Frank Gore (1,975) for seventh place all-time, he became just the seventh player in school history to amass 2,000 career rushing yards.

Against Clemson this past weekend, he passed Willis McGahee for sixth all-time in program history. He now has 2,088 career rushing yards heading into the game against Wake Forest this weekend.

In addition to Jams moving up UM’s career rushing charts, fellow running back Graig Cooper needs just 120 more rushing yards to enter the program’s all-time Top 10 all-time.

MIAMI IS 19th IN BCS RANKINGS THIS WEEK
After opening the season with record of 5-2 – including three wins against ranked opposition – the University of Miami is ranked 19th in the this week’s Bowl Championship Series rankings.

The `Canes currently have an average of .2491, right behind Ohio State (.3147) and Houston (.3085).

Two of Miami’s 2009 opponents are currently ranked in the BCS Top 15, with Georgia Tech at No.11 and Virginia Tech at No. 13.

BOSHER NAMED LOU GROZA AWARD “STAR OF THE WEEK”
Junior punter/placekicker Matt Bosher has been named one of three Lou Groza National Collegiate Place Kicker Award “Stars of the Week” after his performance against Clemson.

Bosher, who was named ACC Specialist of the Week last week, had another solid performance as he kicked three field goals and converted four point after touchdown attempts in Miami’s game with Clemson. He connected on field goals from 49 yards, 51 yards and 22 yards and extended his consecutive PAT streak to 66 straight. He also punted three times, averaging 46.3 yards per punt with a long of 55 yards and did not allow a return.

For the season, Bosher is 9-of-11 (81.8 percent) in field goal attempts with a season-long 51-yarder. He leads Miami with 53 points.