Ten Takeaways from Miami's 19-14 Win over Virginia

MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. – It was a game that brought with it a unique set of challenges.

The Cavaliers arrived at Hard Rock Stadium a desperate team looking to snap a three-game losing streak. Virginia had held Miami to fewer than 20 points in each of their last two meetings, games decided by a combined 14 points. And though the Hurricanes were a ranked team sitting just outside the top 10, on Saturday night, the national spotlight shone elsewhere.

Add in some ugly weather conditions, a smaller-than-usual socially distanced crowd and the potential was there for a rough night at Hard Rock Stadium.

Instead, the Hurricanes found a way to power through.

Miami needed just two plays from scrimmage to take a quick lead over the Cavaliers and though the points would not come as easily later, the Hurricanes hung on for a 19-14 win over Virginia on Saturday, notching their second straight victory over the Cavaliers.

It wasn’t necessarily the prettiest of wins, but it improved Miami’s record to 5-1 as the Hurricanes head into their second off week of the season and that is something head coach Manny Diaz and his players aren’t going to take for granted.

“I guess three years in a row it’s seemed like it’s really, really hard to score 20 points in this game. I was proud of the way that we played in the second half,” Diaz said. “Obviously, we need to finish red-zone drives better. Probably left a lot of points out there on the field but we … were on the other end of that last week playing great red-zone defense [against Pittsburgh]. It’s all part of it. You’ve got to give Virginia credit. We know they’ve got a prideful defensive football team.”

As the now 12^th-ranked Hurricanes prepare to take a breather before a tough second-half stretch to close out the regular season, here are some things Miami can take from its win over the Cavaliers.

1. Through challenges, Miami found a way to power through and hang on

After both the Hurricanes and Cavaliers scored on their opening possessions, Saturday’s game looked early on as if it had all the makings of an offensive back-and-forth slugfest.

Instead, it turned out to be a defensive matchup, particularly in the red zone.

Still, the Hurricanes found a way to grind out the win, putting together three long scoring drives of at least 65 yards and a late fourth-quarter drive that may not have resulted in any points, but took more than five minutes off the clock and put Virginia in the unenviable position of having to drive 80 yards in 23 seconds to get the win.

Ultimately, Miami’s defense prevented the Cavaliers from scoring, recovering a fumble on the game’s final play and the Hurricanes escaped.

“This is what we have to prove that we can do, right? We have to be able to grind out wins when it’s just hard to win. And Virginia was making it tough,” Diaz said. “We were moving the ball; they were having a hard time stopping us at times, but we weren’t getting the points in the red zone. We were settling for three. The one time we had the field goal tipped. And so the score was always tight; it kept that pressure on you. And I felt like it bothered us in the first half and I thought at halftime we had to kind of readjust our mentality and say, ‘Did you not expect it to be this way?’ In that we want to be okay with it being difficult to win and then seeing it out. Because certainly, Virginia had a chance, obviously, to steal it at the end and we had to make some key plays there to not allow that to happen.”

2. Mike Harley answers the call

Ahead of Saturday’s game, Miami’s coaches – including wide receivers coach Rob Likens – challenged the Hurricanes’ receivers to make the kind of plays they hadn’t made in recent weeks.

When the team announced its latest depth chart, none of Miami’s receivers were listed as starters and competition, once again, played out on the Greentree Practice Field.

Mike Harley took the challenge personally – and wound up not just hanging on to his starting job, but delivering his best game as a Hurricane.

Harley finished with a career-high 10 catches for a career-high 170 yards and a touchdown.

The receiver’s 170-yard performance were the most for a Hurricane against an ACC opponent since Allen Hurns had 173 yards against Pittsburgh in 2013. They were also the most yards for any Hurricane receiver against any opponent since Phillip Dorsett had 201 yards against Arkansas State in 2014.

“I think I showed how tough I am when our backs were against the wall. I was just trying to make every play, gain trust with [quarterback D’Eriq] King,” Harley said. “The receivers have had kind of an up-and-down season and I know how my performance has been. I wasn’t pleased. I know we dropped balls, we couldn’t get open … I took that in and I wanted to be that mentor to the young guys. If I go, they’re going to follow. So I had to be that leader. I had to take that extra step.”

3. The rest of Miami’s receivers stepped up, too

Harley wasn’t the only receiver to deliver big plays for the Hurricanes against Virginia.

Mark Pope and Dee Wiggins made some important grabs, too. Pope finished with three catches for 48 yards, while Wiggins had three catches for 36 yards.

In all, Miami’s receivers combined to catch 18 of King’s 30 pass attempts, the group combining for 265 yards. King threw for 322 yards in the win.

“[Harley] had a great week and so did Mark and so did Dee. But you got to go do it in a game, right? You got to make those plays in a game to get that confidence. And it just felt like after we got our first couple, then we really started believing we could make those plays down the field,” Diaz said. “And we’ve been kind of saying that might be the way it goes—and how big [tonight]. Even to the point where [offensive coordinator] Rhett [Lashlee] had the confidence to throw the deep ball to Dee on the third-down-and-long right there and we get the PI, which helped us basically take most of the time off the clock there at the end. So, it helps when you believe you’ve got some guys that can win on the outside.”

4. The defense kept Virginia in check

All season long, the Miami defense has prided itself on its ability to make big plays behind the line of scrimmage. Tackles for loss and sacks are a hallmark of the Hurricanes’ aggressive scheme, but they were hard to come by Saturday against Virginia.

Ultimately, though, Miami still did enough to keep the Cavaliers at bay.

Virginia finished with a season-low 366 yards on Saturday and had a season-low 14 points, two factors that, no doubt, helped the Hurricanes secure their fifth win of the season.

“When our backs are against the wall, we try not to panic, just play the next play, no matter what happened on the previous play. Just to fight, it’s another four downs,” striker Gilbert Frierson said. “When a long play happens, as long as we get them on the ground, we get another [chance to get a] stop on defense and that’s all we focus on, that next play.”

5. Frierson comes through with safeties in a bind

The Hurricanes found themselves in a tough position Saturday when, already without reserve safety Brian Balom, veteran Amari Carter was ejected early in the game for targeting.

At halftime, Frierson – a former cornerback at Coral Gables High – approached Miami’s coaches to volunteer to play safety if needed to help give the Hurricanes some depth at the position.

He finished as Miami’s second-leading tackler with six stops and broke up a pass, too.

“I really just went up to Coach Diaz and let him know, whatever he needs me [to play], I can play. I can do that for you, just give me the basics and we can get it done,” Frierson said. “We only had one goal: it was to win by any means. And no matter what happens during the game, throughout the game, we would leave with a win.”

6. Chaney gives the running game a second-half boost

Running the ball has been a tough task for the Hurricanes in recent weeks, given their matchups against Clemson and Pittsburgh’s stalwart defenses.

Things were tough again Saturday against Virginia, but freshman Donald Chaney Jr. gave the Hurricanes’ ground attack a much-needed boost.

Thirty-three of Chaney’s 43 rushing yards came in the second half, and the running back scored on a tough 1-yard run early in the fourth that put the Hurricanes up two scores.

On the season, Chaney has 38 carries for 166 yards with three touchdowns and has continued to show improvement with each passing game.

“Things are more calm as I get more into the season. The more I go over the plays with D’Eriq and Coach Lashlee and Coach Hickson, things start slowing down for me,” Chaney said. “I’m a young’un, so the first game was much faster than I was used to in high school. The more I work with those guys, the more it slows down for me.”

7. King makes connections on deep passes

One area the Hurricanes have wanted to improve in recent weeks is their deep-ball connections between King and his receivers.

Against Virginia on Saturday, there was progress on that front.

King, who was 21-of-30 for 322 yards with a touchdown, completed seven passes that went at least 25 yards. Three of those went for more than 30 yards.

“I thought the big point of the game was the plays of our wide receivers and D’Eriq [King] throwing the ball down the field. Obviously, they were challenged during the week inside the building and they really responded,” Diaz said. “First two plays of the game, right down the field. And it just felt like Harley, Pope, Wiggins, all those guys made—not just even good plays down the field, but they made great plays down the field, which really spurred us on.”

8. Borregales bounces back

Kicker Jose Borregales entered Saturday’s game as one of just nine kickers nationally still perfect on the year in field goal attempts. He was only one of three kickers to remain perfect after making at least eight attempts.

His streak of perfection ended Saturday against Virginia when the Cavaliers blocked his first attempt of the night – a kick from 42 yards out.

But the redshirt senior – often praised by teammates and coaches alike for his professionalism and poise – bounced back quickly, converting on his next two attempts, one from 32 yards, the other from 20.

Given how tight Saturday’s game turned out to be, Borregales’ ability to rebound after the blocked field goal was key.

9.  The Canes extended drives when they needed to

Against Virginia, Miami wasted little time showing its ability to strike quickly.

The Hurricanes needed just two plays to get on the board, with King connecting on deep passes to tight end Will Mallory and Harley to get Miami in the end zone.

But the Hurricanes showed they could extend drives later, converting on 8-of-17 third-down conversion attempts and converting on their lone fourth-down attempt.

Miami had three drives on Saturday that took more than five minutes off the clock, including one late in the fourth quarter that all but eliminated Virginia’s hopes for a last-second drive of its own.

The Hurricanes held the ball for more than nine minutes in both the third and fourth quarters, limiting Virginia’s opportunities in a close game.

10. A tough second-half is here

As the Hurricanes head into their second off week of the season, they remain a top-15 team and are third in the ACC standings behind Clemson and Notre Dame.

But to get themselves a berth in the conference championship game, they know they’re going to have to put together a strong second half and overcome a series of challenges.

One of the biggest? They’ll play three of their remaining five games on the road. Even with limited crowds because of the coronavirus pandemic, home teams have posted a 27-11 mark in league games according to the Richmond Times-Dispatch.

That second-half push will start with back-to-back road games at North Carolina State and Virginia Tech, before the Hurricanes come home to face Georgia Tech. They’ll close the season out with a road game at Wake Forest and then a home game against North Carolina, which is currently ranked No. 15 in the AP Top 25.

It won’t be easy – nothing seems to be in this unusual season – but Diaz is encouraged his team can continue improving and make a push late in the year.

“We’re very pleased with where we’re at. We’re 5-1. We have one loss at the number one team in the country where, admittedly, we didn’t play very well. These guys have met challenges. And I will say this—[I was] talking to [Virginia head coach] Bronco [Mendenhall] before the game—the games still look like it’s normal 2020,” Diaz said. “There’s nothing normal about this. Can’t even begin to tell you about some of the things that went on this week and he’s got the same stories. So, just the fact to be able to be, at the end of the night, to be in that winning locker room and to see the kids’ faces and see how proud they are with their effort and really accomplishing being 5-1, [that was nice]. It’s been a minute since we’ve been here, so I’m really proud of our guys. And now we get a chance to regroup, hopefully get some guys back healed up for a difficult stretch run.”

Added King, “As far as the first half of the season, we’re 5-1. Obviously, we want to be 6-0. We lost one game to Clemson, we’ve got a bye week this week. I think we’ll start getting guys back, so we’ve just got to keep stacking [wins]. I think the second half of the season, that’s where the great teams are going to step up. You’ve got to stay one week at a time. You can’t overlook anybody. You’ve got to try to just go 1-0 every week and the rest will take care of itself.”