No. 8/8 Canes Focused on Finishing Strong at UNC
By David Villavicencio
HurricaneSports.com
CORAL GABLES, Fla. – North Carolina has been on the mind of every single member of the Miami Hurricanes this year.
The Canes (6-0, 4-0 ACC) made it clear before the 2017 season began that they wanted to end up in Charlotte, N.C., to play in the ACC Championship Game on Dec. 2.
But No. 8/8 Miami, who is one of eight undefeated teams in FBS and the only one from the ACC, knows it cannot look past anyone if it hopes to reach its goals. So the Hurricanes have all eyes on the North Carolina Tar Heels (1-7, 0-5 ACC) this week, as they look to take one more step towards Charlotte.
“We owe them from last year,” defensive lineman Demetrius Jackson said. “They beat us on our home field last year. That game was a difference for us going to the ACC Championship and going to the Orange Bowl. We’re just preparing and knowing that we owe them.”
The Tar Heels’ struggles this season have not changed how the Hurricanes will prepare for them.
“Just because they’re 1-7, you can’t underestimate anybody,” Jackson said. “It’s still a good team. Two or three years ago they were in the ACC Championship representing us. You can’t underestimate them. They have an up-tempo offense. I believe Syracuse is a little faster, but you’ve got to go out there and play.”
Miami head coach Mark Richt believes his team is as focused this week as it has for every other opponent this season. The Hurricanes have won three straight games late in the fourth quarter, with two coming on the final drive of the game, so Richt is confident his players are not taking anyone lightly entering this week’s game.
“If we were rolling everybody, we’re whipping everybody by three touchdowns, no drama, getting your second- and third-stringers in – well we get our second- and third-stringers in anyway – but if we were having that kind of a roll, maybe,” Richt said of talking to the team about not being complacent. “We’re just finding ways to win at the end of games. We’re not foolish enough to think that we’ve arrived yet. I don’t think they believe that. They know we have to earn it.”
“It’s a business trip,” wide receiver Ahmmon Richards said. “They have a lot of effort, they’re fighting during each game. Their defense is doing pretty good despite the points they’re giving up. They’re actually really good defense. It’s not a cakewalk.”
The Tar Heels have a pair of gifted quarterbacks in freshman Chazz Surratt and senior Brandon Harris and they have plenty of playmakers around them to challenge the Canes.
“Surratt coming out of high school was a Parade All-American,” Richt said. “He had 336 total yards against Duke, had a big day. Dual-threat, runner and a passer. He’s a very talented guy. He has shared some time with Harris, who transferred from LSU. He’s a guy who has had 18 starts in his career when you add the starts he had at LSU, so two guys that have played a good bit of ball now that we’re midseason. At the running back position, [Michael] Carter is leading the way with 400 rushing and seven touchdowns. He was a ‘6-A Mr. Football’ coming out of high school, he had 45 high school touchdowns. Pretty impressive there. [Jordan Brown] the running back is actually their leading wide receiver with 20 catches, [Jordan] Cunningham is second – he is a wide receiver, a transfer from Vanderbilt, and has 19 catches. [Anthony] Ratliff has 18 catches.”
North Carolina has a veteran defense with lots of experience, especially in the secondary. Senior offensive lineman Kc McDermott knows the Canes will get the Tar Heels’ best effort when they face off at noon on Saturday.
“They’re a good team,” McDermott said. “You know, they are a good team. You can’t ever look at a team’s record and be like “oh they’re a bad team.” No, they’re a good team. A lot of people want to make a big flair about Virginia Tech beating them by so much. You know, Virginia Tech’s offense only scored 17 points. That’s a good defense. That’s nothing against Virginia Tech’s offense, they have a really good team, they’re a good offense, but that is how good North Carolina’s defense is. They did a great job against Notre Dame, you know, they’ve kept their team in the game. And you know, that’s the heart and soul of their team. And you know, if we do our job this week studying film, do our job on the field, you know we’ll take care of business but they are a good team and we have to do our jobs to win.”
A lot of the Tar Heels’ struggles this year can be attributed to depth issues. North Carolina entered last week’s game at Virginia Tech with 16 players out for the season due to injury. But the Hurricanes are focused more on what the Tar Heels do as a team than how they use individual players.
“You have to just watch what they do schematically,” Richt said. “There’s not a major change that I see, when one guy gets hurt and they put another guy in, which is typical. On defense especially, which I do study more of that than the offense. But offensively, when you do have two different quarterbacks, even if they’re similar in style, they’re still different in how they’re used a lot of times. I think they’ve both played enough where Manny [Diaz] will have a pretty good feel of what each kid can do and how they’ve been at least used in the past. The quarterback position, probably of all positions, changes dramatically how you might play a team if two guys are just really different in their skillsets.”
McDermott knows what it is like to be on a team ravaged by injuries, but he believes the Tar Heels will enter Saturday’s game with a ‘next man up’ mentality and give everything they have to try and defend their home field.
“My freshman year we had a lot of injuries,” McDermott said. “So you know, its football. We play football. This is a tough game, it’s a hard sport, people get hurt all the time, and you know, God bless those kids that work hard to get back from their injury. And I know that’s what they’re doing, and we can’t be like, ‘oh they have 16 guys hurt, they’re going to fall over.’ No, they’re a tough team. They’re going to come attack us, like they always have. And that’s what we have to do, is keep our minds right, go out there and do our job and attack the game.”
