Canes Head West to Face Cal in ACC Showdown

CORAL GABLES, Fla. – The conversations after their ACC opener were brutally honest.

The eighth-ranked Hurricanes, who stormed through their first four games of the season, know they didn’t exactly play their best football against old foe Virginia Tech last Friday night. Still, a solid second-half effort helped them earn a 38-34 win to remain unbeaten.

But once Miami’s players and coaches were back on campus to begin preparing for the Hurricanes’ conference road opener – one set to be played more than 3,000 miles away in Berkeley, California – there was a lot of work in the film room and a lot of brutal honesty.

That – along with his team’s willingness to put in that work – was something head coach Mario Cristobal didn’t take for granted.

“I want to appreciate the resiliency of our players,” Cristobal said this week. “Finding a way to get it done and get a ‘W’ and [I] also really appreciate the humility of our organization to come in [Sunday] and getting to work and addressing all the things that we can do better and must do better to keep progressing throughout the season.”

Added Hurricanes quarterback Cam Ward of that process, “You’ve got to be able to take criticism. It was about time we had one of those games where stuff wasn’t going perfect for us all the time because you finally get to see who’s mature enough to respond to certain situations. And we all are. I feel like the biggest thing for us, especially offensively, we’ve just got to get back to making routine plays like we were doing the first couple weeks. We’re going to face a good defense in Cal, the same way we get some good defense every day [in practice]. So, you know, we just have to make this five-hour flight and try to win a game.”

That maturity, and the business-like mentality Miami has embraced all season, will come in handy as the Hurricanes (5-0, 1-0 ACC) travel to the West Coast for the first time since they faced the Bears in the Emerald Bowl in San Francisco in 2008.

Cal, which joined the ACC earlier this year, will be hosting its first conference game Saturday when Miami comes calling.

The Bears (3-1, 0-1) will also be hosting ESPN’s College GameDay, are expecting a frenzied nighttime crowd and will come into Saturday’s matchup rested and looking to bounce back from a loss to Florida State in their conference opener on Sept. 21.

All of those things, the Hurricanes know, will pose a challenge.

Cal’s stout defense, which leads the nation with 10 interceptions and is 12th in the nation in scoring defense with 12.8 points per game, will be another test.

“They definitely have their own scheme. They’re not the same as any other team, but what they do well is they play really, really hard,” said wide receiver Xavier Restrepo, who leads the Hurricanes with 25 catches, 422 yards and five touchdown receptions. “They don’t do anything exotic, but they do their job at a high, high level and they execute at a very, very high level. They play with each other and again, when the ball’s on the field, and in between whistles, they’re hustling 100 percent. We’re going to have to execute very, very [highly] to beat them.”

While their last game may have required a fourth-quarter comeback, the Hurricanes have proven themselves to be one of the nation’s most effective offenses, thanks in large part to Ward and Restrepo.

Ward, who was named the ACC Quarterback of the Week after throwing for 342 yards and four touchdowns and rushing for another touchdown and 57 yards against the Hokies, is the nation’s leader with 18 touchdown passes on the year.

And earlier this year Restrepo became just the 10th receiver in program history to eclipse the career 2,000-yard mark. Altogether, the Hurricanes are averaging 585.6 yards per game, a number that leads the ACC and is second nationally among FBS programs.

Cal, meanwhile, will counter with an offense led by a quarterback with deep Miami ties.

Fernando Mendoza, a redshirt sophomore, hails from Miami and played high school football at Christopher Columbus High School, where Cristobal once starred – and lined up alongside Mendoza’s father, Fernando Sr.

“We’re very familiar with the quarterback,” Cristobal said of Mendoza, who has completed 67.5 percent of his passes and thrown for 892 yards and five touchdowns. “Obviously, there’s a backstory there. The Mendoza family, I played with [his] dad, high school teammates and whatnot. [He’s] an exceptional player, exceptional family and he’s complemented by some really good skill players, and a running back that was once committed to us at Oregon when I was out there as [head coach].”

That running back, Jaydn Ott, has rushed for 133 yards and two touchdowns this season while being limited by an ankle injury. After missing the Bears’ game against San Diego State on Sept. 14, Ott returned for Cal’s game against Florida State, where he rushed for 73 of Cal’s 107 yards on the ground.

Containing him, and limiting Mendoza, the Hurricanes say will be key if they’d like to come back from California with another win.

“Their offense is really explosive. They have a really good quarterback, No. 15. Really good guy. He can throw it anywhere. He’s really accurate, especially over the middle. … He’s on cue with his receivers and his offensive receivers are really good. They know where the ball’s going to be placed which puts them at a great advantage and puts DBs at a disadvantage, especially when a quarterback and a receiver are on time,” said Miami defensive back Mishael Powell, who has a team-high three interceptions. “Their o-line is a really strong o-line, and they have two running backs that are really good and can run anywhere. They can run in gaps, they can run outside, so when you have a team that’s really balanced, including their tight ends, I think when you have all that combination of really good guys in each spot you can make a lot of plays.”

For the Hurricanes, this weekend’s trip to the West Coast is a chance to continue building toward their ultimate goal – and to show that they’ve taken the lessons from last week’s game against Virginia Tech to heart.

Walking away from that game with a win was, Cristobal noted, a sign of progress.

Now, growing from that game and handling the challenges that come with traveling cross-country to face yet another upset-minded conference opponent will be another.

“There were some high-level moments and some high-level performances on Friday night as well. And some of the lapses are sometimes focus, sometimes concentration, sometimes discipline, sometimes being overly eager to make a play as opposed to doing your job. You do your job, you do it well, the plays come to you,” Cristobal said.

“We take that all as a whole, we don’t point fingers. We say that a million times, ad nauseum, we have to coach it better, we have to play better, we have to practice it better. The intensity, the detail of preparation has to just be really turned up, focused and make sure that the slips, the missed tackles, the missed blocks, the missed assignments can be made right, and we can get better as a program.”