Canes Eager to Wrap Up 2019 with a Win

By David Villavicencio
HurricaneSports.com
 
SHREVEPORT, La. – Bowl season is filled with opportunities and the Miami Hurricanes are eager to make the most of theirs.
 
The Canes will wrap up the 2019 season Thursday in the Walk-On’s Independence Bowl, facing a hungry Louisiana Tech team that is looking to secure its first 10-win season in 35 years and will have a large portion of the crowd supporting them.
 
“It’s going to be a highly competitive game,” head coach Manny Diaz said. “You have a team in Louisiana Tech that is gunning for its 10th win, which would be very special for them. They’re gunning for their sixth straight bowl win, which would be very special for them. We’re very hungry to get a bowl win, very hungry to put the best version of ourselves out there. I think that game is out there for us. I think we’ve got one more really good performance in us. I hope it’s out there Thursday.”
 
Miami carries a 4-0 all-time lead vs. Louisiana Tech, including a 1-0 lead in “road” games; Miami topped the Bulldogs in Shreveport, 48-9, on Aug. 28, 2003. The Hurricanes know that a victory on Thursday would do a lot more than just keep their record against the Bulldogs unblemished.
 
“It would be a chance to send our seniors off with a trophy,” Diaz said. “You know, getting on a podium, that hasn’t happened very much in Miami. Miami’s only won one bowl game, I think, since the mid 2000s. So send those guys off with a great feeling and then to also serve as a bridge for our returning players to the 2020 team to get a little that taste of success in their mouth, that can really get us going through our offseason program.”
 
For Shaquille Quarterman, Thursday’s game will mark the end of an era. The senior linebacker has started all 51 games of his career since arriving on campus in January 2016, which marks the second-longest active streak in FBS and stands alone as the longest in UM history. Quarterman’s start streak trails only Ethan Reed of Louisiana Tech, who has started 52 straight.
 
One of Miami’s top performers during a stellar four-year career, Quarterman was named to the All-ACC First Team for the second straight year earlier in December. For his career, Quarterman has totaled a whopping 345 tackles – the 10th-most in Miami history – 46.5 tackles for loss and 13 sacks. He has been playing at an All-America level this season, with career highs in tackles (96) and TFLs (15.5) and he hopes to have another stellar showing in his final game suiting up for the Canes.

“It means everything to me,” Quarterman said. “I think, for me, it’s going out the right way. I’ve prided myself on doing everything the right way since I got to Miami. Being able to finish this chapter of my career as a Miami Hurricane is very important to me. I’m looking forward to playing this game with my guys for the last time.”

Fellow senior K.J. Osborn is another player excited to make his mark for the final time in orange and green. A graduate transfer who joined Miami after an impressive four-year career at Buffalo, Osborn has started all 12 games at wide receiver this season and leads the Hurricanes in receptions (45) and touchdown receptions (five).
 
Osborn has 491 receiving yards – second-most on Miami – and has emerged as Miami’s top returner, and is averaging 16.0 yards on 13 punt returns with a long return of 52 yards. A key player for the Hurricanes in his lone season in Coral Gables, Osborn is hoping to help lead the Hurricanes to their first ever Independence Bowl victory.
 
“This is my last college game, so going out the right way with the U on my helmet is a tremendous amount of pride,” Osborn said. “Go out and have fun with my brothers. We’re playing for a ring at the end of the day. We want to be on the podium like coach Diaz said. We want to go out the right way.”
 
The Canes have played in the Independence Bowl just one previous time in history – a 24-21 loss to South Carolina in 2014. The 2019 edition of the Independence Bowl will feature plenty of familiarity for Miami’s coaching staff, as three of UM’s full-time coaches have coached at Louisiana Tech, including Diaz, who was defensive coordinator there in 2014. 
 
“That was a special year for me in coaching to work under Skip Holtz,” Diaz said. “He’s one of the greatest men that I’ve ever had the opportunity to work under. I learned a lot from him and we had great success that year. Not just Skip, but there are some other guys on the staff that I’ve maintained contact with that I consider friends. And then what’s crazy is they’re loaded with fifth-year seniors who really many of them were the recruits that were recruiting the year that I was there in 2014. So there’ll be a lot of familiar faces on that sideline.” 
 
Hurricanes defensive coordinator Blake Baker, who is in his first season at Miami, spent the previous four years as the Bulldogs’ defensive coordinator and special teams coordinator and strikers coach Jonathan Patke was a graduate assistant at Louisiana Tech in 2014. Their defense will be tasked with slowing a Bulldogs offense that is led by prolific quarterback J’Mar Smith (17 touchdown passes, 2814 yards) and running back Justin Henderson (967 yards, 15 touchdowns). 
 
“It always starts with the quarterback, J’Mar Smith,” Diaz said. “The guy has seen it all. The guy has started a lot of ball and he’s won a lot of ballgames. They were obviously fantastic with him in the starting lineup this year, so he’s not a guy that you can really show him something he hasn’t seen. With a quarterback with that much experience gives them a great advantage. And then they’ve got good skill guys around them that can make plays down the field.”
 
With Louisiana Tech averaging 34.0 points per game and 445.2 yards of total offense per game, there is potential for explosive plays that will get the crowd inside the Independence Bowl very excited. The Canes will look to limit the Bulldogs’ explosive plays and hope to temper any momentum Louisiana Tech and its fans may start to build.
 
“We’ve had to practice with crowd noise,” Diaz said. “I know first-hand, Louisiana Tech has a great fan base, and they’ll bring it Thursday, and it will be rowdy in there. We have to understand that bowl games are about momentum. They’ll be plays where they get momentum, and we have to fight all the way back to get the momentum.”
 
With a win on Thursday, Miami will clinch a winning season and Diaz will secure his first bowl win as head coach of his hometown Hurricanes. The Canes have been locked in all week in preparation for Thursday’s battle with the Bulldogs and wide receiver Mike Harley has a good feeling about the final game of the 2019 season.
 
“I know we are going to come out with a W for him and hold up a trophy for the seniors,” Harley said.