By David Villavicencio
HurricanesSports.com
 
CORAL GABLES, Fla. – The Hurricanes are back in Florida and ready for their home opener Saturday night.
 
The Canes will welcome the Savannah State Tigers to Hard Rock Stadium for a 6 p.m. kickoff that will be the second meeting between the two programs. Miami came away with a 77-7 victory in 2013. Miami’s 77 points scored against Savannah State were the most in a single game in program history; the Hurricanes piled up 637 yards in the win.
 
Miami (0-1) outgained the LSU, 342-296, but struggled with penalties and committed two turnovers in a season-opening loss. Malik Rosier threw for 259 yards and one touchdown and Jeff Thomas came up with a career-high 132 yards, while Brian Hightower caught his first career-touchdown. Gerald Willis III had a career-high eight tackles, including four for loss (4.0), and was named ACC defensive lineman of the week for his performance.
 
Savannah State (0-1) dropped its season opener at UAB, but the Tigers enter Saturday’s game ranked fourth in the MEAC in rushing offense after tallying 155 yards on the ground. Head coach Erik Raeburn’s team features five preseason all-conference selections.
 
Here are three matchups to watch in Saturday’s game.
 
Miami’s offensive line vs. Savannah State’s defensive line
 
Miami’s offensive line is going into its second game together and the five linemen are looking to improve their communication and become more cohesive. Rimington Trophy candidate Tyler Gauthier is the leader at center and he will be calling out protections. That slight adjustment is one that Gauthier believes will make a big difference for the Canes.
 
“It’s a little change in the cadence to keep my head up so I can make calls for blitzes,” Gauthier said. “We are doing it for the full game now, but especially for one-minute situations where they are going to be sending a lot of blitzes when they know we are going to pass. It went really well today; I was actually very impressed. I think it is going to help us a lot.”
 
The Tigers have a pair of preseason all-conference honoree on the defensive line, as senior Stefen Banks was a first team selection and fellow senior Brandon Carswell was named to the third team. Banks was named to the Black College Football Hall of Hame 2018 Black College Player of the Year Watch List ahead of the 2018 season. A 2017 BOXTOROW All-American, Banks finished last season with 71 tackles, 18 tackles for losses, 10 sacks, one interception, one fumble recovery, one forced fumble, one pass breakup and seven quarterback hurries. The Columbus, Ohio native led the MEAC in sacks and was second in tackles for losses. 
 
Miami’s defense vs. Savannah State’s running game
 
The Canes have one of the most talented and feared defenses in the country, but they would have liked a better showing a week ago against LSU. Defensive tackle Gerald Willis was outstanding in the opener and earned ACC defensive lineman of the week honors. Defensive coordinator Manny Diaz felt the defensive tackles did a good job individually against LSU, but wants to see his front four perform better collectively going forward.
 
“I thought Pat Bethel did a good job in his first test,” Diaz said. “Obviously everybody saw what Gee Willis did. I thought Tito [Odenigbo] did a nice job in there, Jon Ford did a nice job in there. Anytime you have a performance like that, which you’re disappointed in, there’s always going to be some bright spots. But not nearly enough, and not enough where anybody really would be satisfied with our performance.”
 
The Tigers had success on the ground a week ago, totaling 155 rushing yards against UAB. Rashad Sexton led the way with 46 yards, while Jaylen McCloud added 43 rushing yards. D’vonn Gibbons (40 yards) and D’Angelo Durham (37) also had success, as all four players averaged over 3.5 yards per carry.
 
Miami’s special teams vs. Savannah State’s special teams
 
The Canes would like to see better protection on both their field goal and punt formations, as freshman kicker Bubba Baxa’s second field goal attempt last weekend was tipped by an LSU player. Punter Zach Feagles also nearly had his first punt blocked after a breakdown in blocking by the Canes. Special teams coordinator Todd Hartley has had the Canes working to correct those errors ahead of this weekend’s home opener.
 
“With ‘Feags,’ it’s very disappointing the first punt of the year, we have an issue with protection,” Hartley said. “We have a guy come scotch free, right through the ‘A’ gap. If you watched the film, he actually did an unbelievable job of not getting the punt blocked. The guy is literally from me to that microphone, and he was able to punt it to where the guy didn’t block the punt. Because of that, he had pressure his first time, I thought he thought he was going to have pressure the rest of the game. What he did was, he tried to speed his process up. He tried to speed his steps up. With punters, it’s all about rhythm. With that rhythm, our goal is to get that ball punted in two seconds or less. With him, because of that protection issue, he’s trying to get it off as fast as he can and it took him off rhythm. He had a couple after that that weren’t where we wanted them, but towards the end of the game, he ended up having some punts that were a lot better.”
 
Savannah State has two all-conference players on special teams, as junior place kicker Giovanni Lugo was a second team honoree and sophomore return specialist JaMichael Baldwin was named to the third team.
 
Lugo made 26 of 27 extra point attempts last year and kicked eight field goals with a long of 43 yards. He also punted 29 times for an average of 40.1 yards per punt and had a long of 66 yards. 
 
Baldwin returned 30 kickoffs for 664 yards and a touchdown and averaged 22.1 yards per return, ranking second in the MEAC in kickoff returns. He also returned 15 punts for 202 yards and averaged 13.5 yards per return.