The Canes Are Coming Home
By David Villavicencio
HurricaneSports.com
CORAL GABLES, Fla. – It’s been far too long, but the wait is almost over.
Get your favorite orange and green gear ready, pack your cars with all the tailgate essentials and be sure to be in your seats early because you don’t want to miss the first chance to see the Miami Hurricanes run through the smoke.
After playing two challenging games on the road, the Canes open their 12th season at world-class Hard Rock Stadium at 4 p.m. Saturday vs. Bethune-Cookman and the hometown Hurricanes are excited about the opportunity to play in front of their home crowd.
“We’ve got the best fans in the world,” tight end Brevin Jordan said. “I’m ready to finally go play at home and finally be at Hard Rock. The two atmospheres we were in, those are two tough atmospheres, so to finally go home and have the fans on our side is going to be great.”
After opening the season with two hard-fought losses, the Hurricanes will look to get back on track against Bethune-Cookman. Miami has a perfect 4-0 mark against the Wildcats all-time, with all four games coming at home and entire series history being played since 2011.
“Those games are over with,” Jordan said. “We are looking toward going out and beating Bethune-Cookman and just trying to perfect ourselves and perfect The New Miami.”
Miami holds an 11-0 all-time mark in home openers at Hard Rock Stadium, having outscored opponents 500-69 for an average margin of victory of 39.2 points in those 11 games. The Hurricanes have not lost a home opener since 2006, when they fell to Florida State 13-10 at the Orange Bowl on Sept. 4, 2006. Miami has won 12 straight home openers since – each one since 2007 – including a 77-0 victory vs. Savannah State in 2018.
“Home is our turf and we shouldn’t lose on our turf,” running back DeeJay Dallas said.
Dallas and fellow running back Cam’Ron Harris have combined to give Miami a formidable running back tandem that has the Canes averaging 133 rushing yards per game. One of just four running backs in the ACC averaging more than 100 yards per game (100.5), Dallas rushed for 107 yards on 14 carries, averaging 7.6 yards per rush vs. UNC. Harris has also stood out early in 2019, scoring a touchdown on an impressive run vs. the Tar Heels. Now the duo is eager to give their fans a chance to see what they can do in person.
“We’re coming out here to execute and win,” Harris said. “It’s home time and we have to win for our community, so I want all our fans to come out here and support us.”
Saturday’s home opener is the first of five consecutive home games over six weeks for Miami. Head coach Manny Diaz believes the extended stretch on their home field could help the Canes get on a roll and the first chance to do that is Saturday against the Wildcats.
“We’re very excited to come home,” Diaz said. “I think that’s just what this team needs at this team. We need to get back into familiar surroundings, get in our stadium and get around our fans and get ourselves going. I think the season, the way that our schedule breaks, that we have that exact opportunity do that.”
Each of UM’s last six full-time head coaches prior to Diaz won their first ever home game and Diaz will look to join that group. The last coach to fall in such a contest was Jimmy Johnson vs. Florida State in 1984.
“I think this team’s goals are all still ahead of it,” Diaz said. “To get around our fans, our people and to play…we have probably put, especially when you look at the youth we have on offense, if you look at the way our schedule breaks down, we have probably gone into the two most difficult environments we will play in all year. And the way those guys have performed and the improvement [from] our freshmen who played from Week 1 to Week 2 was really extraordinary. Now it will be nice to get back home, where we’re not the ones facing adversity all the time and to put out a performance that gets everybody excited about Hurricanes Football.”
Miami’s players feel a jolt of energy every time they play at home with their fans in the stands and are excited to experience that feeling again on Saturday when they face Bethune-Cookman.
“It’s exciting to see all the fans there,” defensive end Scott Patchan said. “Obviously they’re disappointed with our 0-2 start just like we are. We’ve got to be our hardest critiques. I feel like internally everyone is harder on themselves in this building and we have to be if we want to be great. I’m excited and I know a bunch of guys are. I hope we get a big turn out with fans to be excited that we come home. We want to make this a special five weeks.”
In the last meeting between the two teams, Miami emerged with a 41-13 victory in its 2017 season opener. Miami also won the previous matchups in 2011 (45-14), 2012 (38-10) and 2015 (45-0). The Hurricanes have played B-CU to open their home schedule three other times (2012, 2015, 2017).
“We are looking at Bethune,” Patchan said. “We are not looking ahead at all at any of the other teams. We are looking at Bethune, we want to get better and we want to play our best ball against Bethune this week.”
UM’s last game vs. Bethune-Cookman, on Sept. 2, 2017, marked the debut of the first Turnover Chain, worn by defensive back Malek Young after an interception. This Saturday will feature several other Hard Rock Stadium debuts, as punter Louis Hedley and the rest of the UM newcomers will get their first chance to play on Miami’s home field.
“I am super excited to play at Hard Rock,” Hedley said. “It is an amazing stadium and we have got amazing fans, so it will be good to run out there in front of them this week.”
Saturday’s game will also mark the first home start for starting quarterback Jarren Williams, who has been excellent in his first two games leading Miami’s offense. He ranks fourth in the ACC at 261.5 yards per game with three touchdowns and has thrown no interceptions.
In his first start as quarterback vs. Florida on Aug. 24, Williams finished 19-for-30 for 214 yards and the first passing touchdown of his career. He became UM’s seventh freshman QB to start a game since 2008. He was even better at North Carolina on Sept. 7, throwing for a career-best 309 yards on 30-for-39 passing with two touchdowns. The 30 completions were the most by a Miami quarterback since Brad Kaaya vs. Pittsburgh in 2016, while the 300-yard passing game was UM’s first since Malik Rosier at North Carolina in 2017.
“I’m really excited and I actually did dream about it, just being out there in front of our fans for the first time [as the starter],” Williams said. “We’ve got a great fan base. It fees good to finally be home and have that support. We want to go out there and win at Hard Rock.”
Winning at Hard Rock has been a frequent occurrence for Miami. The Hurricanes finished 5-1 at home in 2018 and are 16-3 in 19 regular season home games since Diaz joined the Miami staff as defensive coordinator in January 2016. A victory on Saturday would be Diaz’s first as head coach of the Canes and Patchan believes it could be just the boost the Hurricanes need.
“Winning cures everything.”
