Canes Excited for Coastal Battle at Pitt
By David Villavicencio
HurricaneSports.com
CORAL GABLES, Fla. – It’s been an unpredictable season in the ACC Coastal Division.
Every team has at least one loss in a year filled with wild games and big upsets. But that only adds to the intrigue in Saturday’s noon matchup between the Miami Hurricanes and the Pitt Panthers, as the Hurricanes will hit the road for the first time since Sept. 7.
“We’d always rather play at home, but I always love the idea of when you get to the hotel on the road and it’s kind of you against the world,” Miami head coach Manny Diaz said. And the same thing about playing in a hostile environment, which we will do these next two weeks. There is nothing like winning a road game in conference, so it’s a great challenge for us. I think our guys will be excited to play. We understand that we all wake up in a different world every week in the ACC Coastal and I think our guys are ready for the challenge.”
After the longest single-season homestand in more than 30 years, the Hurricanes will play their first road game in 50 days when they travel to Pittsburgh to battle host Pitt. UM is 0-2 away from home this year, falling short by a combined seven points in hard-fought battles against Florida in Orlando and at North Carolina. But some Canes feel this road trip against a 5-2 Pitt team could provide just the spark the 3-4 Hurricanes need.
“I think it’s good for us to get a little changeup,” receiver K.J Osborn said. “Go on the road, just us in the locker room, just the guys, go out there and rebound and get a W.”
“We’re traveling up north to a different environment, but everything is about opportunity,” safety Amari Carter said. “We’re just thankful for the opportunity to get to play another down. At the end of the day, that’s what it comes to and just having fun while we’re doing it.”
The Hurricanes have a commanding 26-11-1 all-time series lead over the Panthers, including a 12-6 mark in road games. As ACC counterparts, the two teams have met six times and Miami leads, 4-2. The two teams have traded similar results in the last two years; as ACC Coastal champions in 2017, the #2 Hurricanes were upset by the Panthers to snap the nation’s longest winning streak. Last year, UM upended the Coastal champion Panthers, 24-3, at Hard Rock Stadium in the regular season finale.
“Every challenge we have is on us,” Carter said. “I wouldn’t say anything is too much of a challenge because we challenge ourselves. Most of the time whether we are doing good or not so good, it’s because of us. It’s all about how we approach the game. Everyone is excited to play Pitt and we’re excited to go out there again.”
In last year’s matchup in Miami Gardens, the Hurricanes upset No. 25 Pittsburgh, 24-3, in the regular season finale. Miami ran for 297 yards in the win and the Hurricanes will look to have success on the ground again this week against the Panthers.
“It all comes down to running the ball,” Diaz said. “The battle in this game for both teams really will be staying out of third down-and-longs. They have been able to wreck games on third down-and-long, so managing first down and second down to stay out of those situations and even managing third down-and-longs when you get them will be paramount.”
Running back Cam’Ron Harris should play a pivotal role in Miami’s offense, especially after he spelled an injured DeeJay Dallas last time out in a loss to Georgia Tech at Hard Rock Stadium and had the best performance of his young career. Harris rushed for a career-high 136 yards on a career-high 18 carries and added his first receiving touchdown of the season in a three-catch game. Harris’ previous career high for rush yards was 77. Harris’ 136 yards were the most by a Hurricane running back since Travis Homer rushed for 168 yards on eight carries in a win over Pittsburgh in November 2017. Harris averaged 7.56 yards per carry vs. GT, but he will need to excel in more than just the running game on Saturday afternoon.
“Pitt has a good D-line,” Harris said. “We’ve been watching film on those guys and they bring a lot of blitzes, but we’ve been out here at practice picking up blitzes.”
Pittsburgh is under the direction of fifth-year head coach Pat Narduzzi, who has led the Panthers to a 33-26 mark during his tenure at the helm. Defensively, the Panthers are led by defensive back Paris Ford, who has a team-high 51 tackles, and defensive lineman Jaylen Twyman (eight tackles for loss, seven sacks).
“They’re averaging 5.1 sacks per game this year to lead the country,” Diaz said. “When we led the country in 2017 in sacks, we averaged 3.4. So they’re not just leading the country in sacks, they’re lapping the field in sacks. This is definitely the best defense, I think, that Pat Narduzzi has had since he’s been at Pittsburgh. They’re very fast and very aggressive. Pat and his staff have always loved to bring a lot of pressure.”
Miami offensive coordinator Dan Enos has worked all week to devise a plan of attack against the very aggressive Pitt defense. The veteran coach previous worked with Narduzzi when both were assistants at Cincinnati and Michigan State and he credits the Panthers’ head coach for what he has established at Pittsburgh, but Enos is excited for the challenge of battling against Pitt’s defense.
“I think every week you have to adjust to the schematics, the blitz patterns you’re going to see, the fronts you’re going to see, who their players are and if they have a player mismatch against one of your players,” Enos said. “That’s the great thing about coaching is that it goes into every game plan and certainly we’ll have to do that this week.”
Diaz is confident Miami’s offensive line will be up to the task against the attacking Panthers. A week ago, Miami’s head coach saw the Canes post one of the best performances of the season and he believes they will build off that and rise to the occasion on Saturday.
“It is a great challenge for our guys up front, who in my mind, I thought played their best game protecting our passer a week ago,” Diaz said. “I do think that our offensive line is improving, but this is a big challenge. I am sure we will have a great plan to counteract their pressure and understand where it’s coming from and making sure we’ve got a guy on the right guy.”
Offensively, Pitt quarterback Kenny Pickett has thrown for 1,602 yards with eight touchdowns and four interceptions in six games, while wide receiver Maurice Ffrench leads the way with 56 catches for 488 yards. Running back A.J. Davis leads the Pitt rushing attack with 4.9 yards per carry and three touchdowns. While Pitts defense gets the majority of the accolades, Miami defensive coordinator Blake Baker knows the Panthers can make some noise on offense.
“I think they present a lot of problems,” Baker said. “They’re diverse formationally. They’re diverse from a personnel standpoint. I think their quarterback has a really strong arm and can make any throw on the field. They have a bigger back, so we’re going to face a bigger back once again. I think all of their receivers are really good players and probably one of the strongest, if not the strongest, offensive lines we’re going to face up to this point. I think they’re very good structurally. They don’t beat themselves a lot. They’re not a team that you see a lot of missed assignments, You can see that they’re well coached, so we’ll have our hands full.”
Pickett is a familiar foe, as he was responsible for all three touchdowns in a 24-14 upset win over No. 2 Miami that ended the Canes’ perfect season in 2017. But the Canes got some revenge against the quarterback a year ago, sacking him six times and limiting him to just 130 yards on 14 completions in a 24-3 Miami victory.
Miami could be without linebacker Michael Pinckey in its third meeting against Pickett, as the senior left the Georgia Tech game with an injury and Diaz said his availability was doubtful for Saturday. But don’t expect the Canes to slip up if Pinckney is out of the lineup.
“We’re going to play with the same intensity that we’ve been playing with,” defensive tackle Jordan Miller said. “Even missing Pinckney, we have Zach McCloud in there. We’re going to play with the same intensity and being on the road for our first road game in a while is going to be different we’re taking it as a challenge. We’re going to take it like every other game and play our heart out.”
Despite the 3-4 start and a crushing loss last week against Georgia Tech, the Hurricanes remain united and strong. There is no quit in their locker room because it is simply unacceptable.
“We make sure we weed that out,” Miller said. “We don’t want any weaknesses. If you have any doubt, you shouldn’t be here. We all don’t have doubt.”
Miami will continue to fight for four quarters every time it takes the field, no matter what the circumstances may be. Senior leaders like defensive lineman Pat Bethel have made sure to keep everyone focused and motivated and they can sense the hunger for a victory in the locker room.
“Expect to a see a team that knows this game is important,” Bethel said. “Expect to see a team that is ready to play, ready to redeem itself. We’ve got to get going.”
