Recap: Miller Reaches 1,000 Yards as UM Rolls Duke, 49-14

MIAMI, Fla. (AP) — Lamar Miller ran for two touchdowns and became Miami’s first 1,000-yard rusher since 2002, Jacory Harris passed for three first-half scores and the Hurricanes scored on their first five possessions to roll past Duke 49-14 on Saturday.

Miller finished with 147 yards, giving him 1,016 for the season — the first Hurricane since Willis McGahee to reach that mark. Mike James also ran for two touchdowns for Miami (5-4, 3-3 Atlantic Coast Conference), which got scoring catches from Tommy Streeter, Phillip Dorsett and Chase Ford.

Sean Renfree completed 19 of 25 passes for 181 yards and a touchdown, plus rushed for another score for Duke (3-6, 1-4). The Blue Devils lost for the 44th time in their last 48 ACC road games.

“I thought we played all four quarters and in all three phases,” Miami coach Al Golden said. “Real pleased with the effort.”

Miller — who predicted earlier in the week that he would reach the mark Saturday — topped the 1,000-yard barrier in style.

Only six yards from the plateau, he took off on a 22-yard touchdown run with 8:56 left, a score that gave Miami its highest point total against a major-college opponent since beating Virginia 52-17 on Nov. 7, 2009. He also had a 3-yard TD run in the third quarter for the Hurricanes, who are 7-0 against Duke since joining the ACC.

Harris completed 14 of 20 passes for 202 yards for Miami, which rolled up 467 yards. Miami ran for 265 yards on just 39 tries.

“Everybody’s been working hard this whole week,” Harris said. “We’ve been putting in the work to get better.”

The Hurricanes visit rival Florida State next Saturday. And if there was any concern that Miami was looking ahead to the trip to Tallahassee, it was debunked quickly.

Miami needed only five plays to march 78 yards for the game’s first score, a 1-yard Harris pass to Ford — capping a drive that got done fasters than the officials’ review of the scoring play. Duke had a pair of false-starts on its ensuing drive and had to punt away, and Miami broke out a slew of offensive surprises to take a 14-0 lead.

Three different players — Stephen Morris, James and then Harris — took snaps on three successive Miami plays on the Hurricanes’ second drive, a march sealed by James’ 1-yard run on fourth down. A 2-yard touchdown pass from Harris to Dorsett early in the second quarter made it 21-0, and the Hurricanes were rolling.

Renfree got Duke within 14 points twice, first after engineering a 13-play, 64-yard drive that ended with his 4-yard touchdown pass to Conner Vernon, then again in the third quarter when he went up the middle for a 6-yard score that cut Miami’s lead to 28-14.

It was all Hurricanes from there.

Duke lost its last realistic chance to get back into the game with 12:46 left, when Hurricanes linebacker Sean Spence — already a three-time ACC player of the week winner at his position this season — got through the line and threw Anthony Boone for a loss on fourth-and-1 from the Miami 11.

The second of Miller’s two rushing touchdowns came after Ray-Ray Armstrong’s interception of Renfree with 9:44 left, and James’ second touchdown of the day was preceded by Boone fumbling the ball away with 7:40 remaining.

A month ago, Duke came to Miami and won — beating Florida International. That was Duke’s third straight win, harkening talk of ending a long bowl drought in Durham.

Now the Blue Devils face long odds of reaching the postseason. Duke needs three wins in its final three games to finish at .500.

And for Miami, it’s on to Florida State — a game that Golden alluded to even in his on-field interview just after the final whistle Saturday, saying the Hurricanes need no reminder of the challenge next weekend.

“We’ve got to be focused, adhere to the process and get better every day,” Golden said. “We haven’t done that consistently.”

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Final Notes

The COACH
Al Golden is in his first year as Miami’s head coach and owns an overall record of 32-38. He is 5-2 at Sun Life Stadium.

WEATHER
The weather at kickoff was 78 degrees under sunny skies with winds out of the northeast at 12 miles per hour.

ATTENDANCE
Attendance at the game was 62,053.

MIAMI’S CAPTAINS
Jacory Harris, Tyler Horn, JoJo Nicolas and Sean Spence.

MIAMI’S STARTERS
Miami’s offensive starters today were:
QB Jacory Harris, RB Lamar Miller, FB Maurice Hagens, WR Tommy Streeter, TE Chase Ford, TE Dyron Dye, G Brandon Linder, G Harland Gunn, C Tyler Horn, LT Brandon Washington, RT Seantrel Henderson.
Starting for Miami on defense were:
DE Anthony Chickillo, DT Darius Smith, DT Adewale Ojomo, DE Marcus Robinson, LB Sean Spence, LB Denzel Perryman, CB JoJo Nicolas, CB Brandon McGee, CB Mike Williams, SS Ray-Ray Armstrong, FS Vaughn Telemaque.

THE MIAMI-DUKE SERIES
Miami leads the all-time series, 8-1 and the Hurricanes have won the last eight meetings dating back to 1983. Miami has outscored Duke in the all-time series 329-147. Today’s final score was the third-largest margin of victory in the series against Duke. In 2005, the Canes won 52-7 (45 points), in 1983 Miami defeated Duke 56-17 (39 points) and today downed the Blue Devils 49-14 (35 points).

THE CANES WIN OVER THE BLUE DEVILS…
Gave the Hurricanes their eighth consecutive victory over the Blue Devils and a .500 Atlantic Coast Conference record.

MIAMI IN NOVEMBER
Miami is now 195-127-8 in the month of November.

HARRIS TOPS 8,000 YARDS
Against Duke, QB Jacory Harris became the second Miami quarterback to pass for 8,000 or more yards in his career. Harris entered the game with 7,895 passing yards and collected 202 against Duke to end with 8,097 yards. The other Cane was Ken Dorsey with 9,565 yards. Harris also became the 19th quarterback in the ACC’s history to do so.

SCORE A TD, THEN SCORE SOME MORE
For the first time this season, Miami scored touchdowns on its first four possessions. Each of UM’s first five touchdowns were by a different player. Those TDs were scored, in order, by Chase Ford, Mike James, Phillip Dorsett, Tommy Streeter and Lamar Miller. It’s also the second time this season that the team has opened the game with at least three scoring drives, including the October 15 game at North Carolina when Miami opened with five consecutive scoring drives – TD, TD, FG, FG and TD.

HARRIS MOVES INTO FOURTH IN THE ACC
With three touchdown passes in today’s game, Jacory Harris moved into a fourth place tie with 68 career touchdown passes with North Carolina’s Darian Durant (2001-04). Below is a chart of ACC touchdowns.
Name – School – Years – Total Passing Touchdowns
1) Phillip Rivers, NC State, 2000-03, 95
2) Chris Weinke, Florida State, 1997-2000, 79
3) Russell Wilson, NC State, 2008-10, 76
4) Jacory Harris, Miami, 2008-present, 68
Darian Durant, North Carolina, 2001-04, 68

MILLER TOPS 1,000 FOR THE SEASON
R-So. Lamar Miller started the game with 869 rushing yards, and gained 147 against Duke to top the 1,000-yard rushing mark. His 22-yard TD run in the fourth quarter gave him 1,016 yards. Miller is the eighth player in school history to cross the plateau. The last Hurricane to top 1,000 yards was Willis McGahee in 2002, who gained 1,753 on the ground. Below is a chart of 1,000-yard rushers.
Player- Year- Rushing Yards- Rushing Attempts
1) Willis McGahee – 2002, 1,753, 282
2) Edgerrin James – 1998, 1,416, 242
3) Ottis Anderson – 1978, 1,266, 224
4) Clinton Portis – 2001, 1,200, 220
5) Edgerrin James – 1997, 1,098, 183
6) Danyell Ferguon – 1995, 1,069, 212
7) Lamar Miller – 2011, 1,016, 173
8) James Jackson – 2000, 1,006, 201

POINTS ADD UP
Miami scored 49 points on seven TDs against Duke, the most points scored since the Canes defeated FAMU 48-16 on Oct. 10, 2009.

MIAMI ONLY SCORES TOUCHDOWNS
Miami only scored touchdowns and extra points in the game against Duke. The last game that Miami scored seven at a time was against Duke in 2010 when the Canes scored four TDs and extra points.

LONGEST OPENING DRIVE OF THE SEASON
It took Miami only five plays to cover 78 yards and score against Duke, the longest opening drive for the Canes this season. The previous long was 71 yards on 13 plays against North Carolina.

JAMES COLLECTS A PAIR OF LONG PLAYS
Junior RB Mike James racked up a pair of long plays (25+ yards) in the first quarter. James reeled in a 36-yard pass and gained 32 yards on a rush in the first quarter against Duke. The reception was his career-best and the rush tied the longest of his career. His previous long reception was 18 yards at Clemson on Oct. 2, 2010 and his longest rush was 32 against Duke last year.

FIRST TD FOR FORD
Senior TE Chase Ford reeled in his first touchdown of the season, a one-yard pass from Jacory Harris on the first drive of the game.

MIAMI SCORES 28 IN THE FIRST HALF
The Canes scored 28 points in the first half against Duke, passing the previous high of the season, 27 points against North Carolina.

JAMES SCORES TWO TDs
Junior RB Mike James scored the Canes’ second touchdown of the game on a one-yard rush then added a second TD in the fourth quarter, a six-yard rush. James now has six TDs on the season, five on the ground.

FIRST-CAREER TD
Freshman WR Phillip Dorsett recorded his first-career touchdown, a two-yard pass from Jacory Harris in the second quarter.

MILLER TIME
Lamar Miller now has eight career games of 100 or more rushing yards.
Date-Opponents-Yards
11/06/10 vs. Maryland 125
11/20/10 vs. Virginia Tech 163
09/05/11 at Maryland 119
09/17/11 vs. Ohio State 184
09/24/11 vs. Kansas State 106
10/01/11 vs. Bethune-Cookman 102
10/08/11 at Virginia Tech 166
11/05/11 vs. Duke 147

SPENCE TACKLES DUKE
Miami’s leading tackler Sean Spence once again led the Canes in tackles with eight tackles, five of which were solo.

STREETER NUMBERS ADDING UP
Junior WR Tommy Streeter continues to be a lightning rod for the Miami offense. Entering the game, the Miami native ranked fourth nationally with a 21.57 yards per catch average. Of Streeter’s 38 receptions on the season, 13 have gone for 25-yards or more, including a catch of 27 yards against Duke. The 6-5 speedster also has nine TD receptions on the season, leading the team.

STREETER MAKES BIG PLAYS
Streeter has made his mark with 13 big plays this season, including his career-long 57-yard reception against Virginia. See the chart below of Streeter’s big plays (25+ yards) of 2011.
Harris to Streeter, Virginia, 57 yards
Harris to Streeter, Bethune-Cookman, 56 yards
Harris to Streeter, Virginia, 51 yards
Harris to Streeter, Georgia Tech, 48 yards
Harris to Streeter, Georgia Tech, 32 yards
Harris to Streeter, Ohio State, 29 yards
Harris to Streeter, North Carolina, 28 yards
Harris to Streeter, Duke, 27 yards
Harris to Streeter, Bethune-Cookman, 27 yards
Harris to Streeter, North Carolina, 27 yards
Harris to Streeter, Virginia, 26 yards
Harris to Streeter, Virginia Tech, 26 yards
Harris to Streeter, North Carolina, 25 yards

PERRYMAN WITH BACK-TO-BACK BIG GAMES
Freshman LB Denzel Perryman has collected at least five tackles in his last six games after starting the season with three-straight games with three tackles. Perryman made seven tackles vs. Duke, Virginia, Georgia Tech and Bethune-Cookman, six at Virginia Tech and five at North Carolina.

Quotes for Duke Players

Wide Receiver Donovan Varner
On the tough road to being bowl eligible…
We have lost some tough games this year. We lost a rough one to Wake Forest, our opening game against Richmond and a dogfight with Virginia Tech. It’s tough but we have to move on and win these last three.

On Head Coach Dave Cutcliffe’s decision to onside kick…
It gave Miami good field position. It’s just unfortunate. Miami played really well and you have to give credit to them. We did not play our best football but we are looking forward to moving on to next week.

Quarterback Sean Renfree
On the offense’s success in today’s game…
We did a lot of things well. We mixed it up, running and passing. We were very balanced. The play-calling was unbelievable; it gave us great opportunities to get easy completions down the field. But there were some opportunities we left out there, especially on third downs.

On the balance of the offense…
We just thought we could run it against Miami. We certainly wanted to balance it out a little bit more. The play-action helps slow down the rush against the passes. Upfront our offense line did a phenomenal job and that allowed us to run the ball.

On the touchdown pass to Connor Vernon that was upheld…
It was definitely fortunate. That is really the only way I can explain the play. It was just a good play by Connor (Vernon).

On the final games of the season…
If you are a competitor it is a good situation to be in. It is nose to the grindstone. Anybody that wants to compete and is looking forward for pressure situations, something is on the line every game. I know all the guys I’m playing with are up for the situation.

Wide Receiver Conner Vernon
On the touchdown catch that was challenged and upheld…
I knew to some extent that if I was forced out, I was able to come back in. The only thing I was unsure about was if I had landed inbounds. According to replay I did. But I knew if I was forced out, I could be the first one to touch the ball.

On Head Coach Dave Cutcliffe’s decision to onside kick…
We came out strong in the second half with a quick score. We were hoping to get the ball back and keep the momentum on our side with another score. It would have been 28-21 if we would have scored then. It would have been a completely different ballgame. That was the plan then and we just failed to execute it.

On getting behind early in the game…
We knew we still had our game to play. We just made some early mistakes, which didn’t help our cause. We knew our game plan was going to work and that is what we stuck with in the second half.