Spreading the Wealth

TAMPA, Fla. – It was a group that knew, early on, it faced high expectations.

Even before the season started, Miami’s talented receiving corps made headlines when it became the only one in the nation to put three wide receivers on the preseason watch list for the Biletnikoff Award, which is presented annually to the nation’s top pass catcher.

Four games into the season, those receivers – Sam Brown Jr.., Jacolby George, and Xavier Restrepo – are helping to spark the Miami offense.

Seemingly, so is every other pass catcher in the room, given how many of them have already caught at least one pass from standout Miami quarterback Cam Ward.

That trend continued on Saturday night in Tampa when redshirt sophomore Isaiah Horton put together a career performance, snagging eight catches for a team-high 108 yards and a touchdown in the eighth-ranked Hurricanes’ dominant 50-15 win over instate foe USF at Raymond James Stadium.

It marked the third time this season a different receiver has led the way for the Hurricanes, with Restrepo pacing the Hurricanes against both Florida and Florida A&M and George doing the same last week against Ball State.

That a different receiver has stepped up every week, Restrepo says, is a testament to the way the group competes and pushes each other to be better, on Greentree and beyond.

“That just goes to show you how unselfish we’re playing right now,” said Restrepo, a fifth-year senior who had six catches for 99 yards against USF and on Saturday, passed the 2,000-yard mark for his Miami career. “And it shows you how dangerous our offense is.”

Ward, who on Saturday threw for 404 yards and notched his own personal milestone when he passed the 15,000-yard passing mark for his career, echoed Restrepo’s sentiments after the win.

Against USF, nine different Hurricanes caught passes from Ward. That came after 12 Hurricanes caught passes in Miami’s wins over Ball State and FAMU and after 11 Hurricanes caught passes in the victory over Florida in the season opener.

“That’s a key for us every week. You can’t be one dimensional in college football. Even high school football can’t be one dimensional,” Ward said on Saturday of the way he is getting ball to a variety of playmakers every week. “If you’re one dimensional, they can key on specific players. So, if you don’t spread the ball in the passing game and the running game … checking it down to [running back] Damien [Martinez] – he was posted in the passing game as well – it just makes our job easier. It makes my job easier, especially when we have a rushing attack to set up play-action shots. We weren’t able to take shots like that when we wanted to, but we moved the ball consistently. So, if you constantly get first downs … you eventually score some points.”

And on Saturday night – particularly in the second half – those points came often.

Horton was the first of Miami’s receivers to find the end zone, scoring on a 6-yard touchdown pass from Ward that gave the Hurricanes an early 14-9 lead late in the first quarter.

Later in the half, Brown got in the endzone after catching a 76-yard scoring pass from Ward that gave Miami a 22-15 lead going into the locker room.

It was a lead the Hurricanes wouldn’t relinquish.

Restrepo later caught a touchdown of his own, scoring on a 5-yard play midway through the fourth quarter that pushed the Hurricanes’ lead to 43-15 and sent more than a few USF fans to the exits.

The Hurricanes also scored four rushing touchdowns, with Martinez posting three of those.

It was an impressive performance all around from the Hurricanes offense, and Miami’s receivers.

But as they have after every win so far this season, the Hurricanes said they were confident they could continue to push each other to get even better.

“I just take it day-by-day, get 1-percent better every day, keep getting better,” Horton said. “I never want to be satisfied. I’m not even satisfied with tonight. I just want to keep getting better with my brothers. … I just want to push them to be as great as they can. I want them to push me to the best of my limit and I just want to push all my teammates to be the best they can be. I want to work with them. I want to be out there together, and I want us to all shine. I want them to shine before I can.”