The No. 10-seed Miami football is just a win away from becoming the last team standing in the College Football Playoff.
Showing posts with label miami hurricanes. Show all posts
Showing posts with label miami hurricanes. Show all posts
Miami: 2025 Cotton Bowl Champions
More than 20 years after it was on the other end of one of the biggest upsets in BCS history, Miami pulled off the biggest upset of the College Football Playoff era on New Year’s Eve.
Miami: 2016 Russell Athletic Bowl Champions
ORLANDO, Fla. -- Miami fans asked Brad Kaaya to end the school's 10-year bowl-victory drought, and he delivered.
Now they have another request.
"One more year! One more year!" they chanted at Kaaya on Wednesday night, after he threw four touchdown passes to help Miami top No. 14 West Virginia 31-14 in the Russell Athletic Bowl.
And it's easy to see why they're clamoring for the school's most prolific quarterback to return.
Kaaya completed 24 of 34 passes for 282 yards for Miami (9-4) -- and went 18 for 19 in one dazzling stretch, the lone incompletion in that span being a drop. The four TDs tied both a Miami bowl record and Kaaya's collegiate best.
"I've got some soul-searching to do," said Kaaya, who already was Miami's career leader in passing yards and took over the No. 1 spots in attempts and completions on Wednesday.
"Regardless of if I'm here or not next season, I think this team is headed to greatness," Kaaya added. "I think there's a lot of good things going on and a lot of progress has been made, so I think this team will be good regardless of what happens over the next few days."
Skyler Howard passed for 134 yards and ran for a touchdown for West Virginia (10-3), which fell to 3-17 against Miami. Kennedy McKoy also had a touchdown run for the Mountaineers, who committed 11 penalties and allowed four sacks.
West Virginia came in averaging more than 500 yards per game. Miami held the Mountaineers to 229.
"That's the best defense we faced all year," West Virginia coach Dana Holgorsen said.
Miami's offense wasn't bad, either.
The Hurricanes had lost six straight bowl games, and punted on their first six possessions Wednesday. But Kaaya finally got rolling, and Miami soon had total control.
Kaaya connected with Ahmmon Richards, Malcolm Lewis and Braxton Berrios for touchdowns in the final 6:30 of the first half to get Miami rolling, and found David Njoku for another touchdown on the first possession of the second half.
"They were ready to play," Holgorsen said. "This meant a lot to them. ... Outcoached us, outplayed us on all three sides."
THE TAKEAWAY
West Virginia: The Mountaineers fell short of tying a school record for wins in a season. There have been five teams in West Virginia's 125 years of football to win 11 games. ... West Virginia fell to 2-10 in bowl games played in Florida. ... It was the first time the Mountaineers and Hurricanes played since 2003, when both were in the Big East.
Miami: Freshman linebacker Michael Pinckney was ejected for targeting with 10:55 left in the third quarter, and per NCAA rule will have to sit out the first half of next season's opener. ... Not only did Miami punt on its first six possessions, but it went three-and-out on the first five of those.
NJOKU GONE
Njoku announced after the game that he's skipping his final two seasons of eligibility and entering the NFL Draft, after being told that he is potentially a first-round pick.
"It's kind of bittersweet, leaving my team a couple years early," Njoku said.
The redshirt sophomore caught eight touchdown passes this season.
BOWL STREAK
Among the 109 teams that won bowl games since Miami's last postseason victory in 2006: The other Miami (Ohio), Old Dominion (which didn't even have football in 2006), and all six of the other FBS teams from the state of Florida -- Florida, Florida State, Central Florida, South Florida, Florida Atlantic and Florida International.
ORLOSKY REFLECTS
West Virginia center Tyler Orlosky, one of the best at his position in the country this season, said he will look back on this season with pride.
"To be able to go out with 10 wins says a lot. ... We may not have won today, but we won the season in my opinion," Orlosky said.
LEWIS' CAREER
Lewis wrapped up his Miami career in a most memorable way. His TD catch in the second quarter was his first in a 35-game span for Miami, and was the third scoring grab of his career. The bowl game was Lewis' 50th and final game as a Hurricane, making him the 11th to play so many at Miami. His freshman season in 2012 ended after four games when he endured a badly broken ankle at Georgia Tech, so he was able to get a fifth year of eligibility.
UP NEXT
West Virginia: The Mountaineers ended this season against an ACC opponent, and start next season with one. West Virginia plays Virginia Tech at FedExField on Sept. 2.
Miami: The Hurricanes' Week 1 opponent for next season hasn't been announced, one of many things to be sorted out in the coming weeks.
Miami: 2012-13 ACC Champions
GREENSBORO, N.C. -- The plucky University of Miami basketball team had just advanced to the first conference championship in school history, just quieted nearly 22,000 opposing fans with an 81-71 semifinal win against North Carolina State, and surely made a case for a No.1 NCAA Tournament seed, hard as that might be for the nation’s college basketball bluebloods to stomach.
UM, ever the outsider in this basketball-crazed state, earned the right to play North Carolina for the ACC championship at 1p.m. on Sunday, further validating its regular-season first-place finish and No. 9 national ranking.
“We’re getting ready to play somebody who has beaten us twice by about eight million points,” Tar Heels coach Roy Williams said of UM, which actually won by margins of nine and 26.
“Miami deserves everything, all the special things that have been said about them. They have scorers at every position. [Kenny] Kadji is a tremendously difficult matchup. Julian Gamble and Big Reggie Johnson are loads inside. Shane Larkin has had as good a year as any point guard in college basketball. Durand Scott today was off the charts. Trey McKinney Jones and Rion Brown give them other shooters. They’re a big-time team and have shown it all year long.”
And where did the Canes (26-6) celebrate their momentous ACC tournament victory on Saturday? In a tiny makeshift game room in the bowels of the Greensboro Coliseum — a room big-time players often walk right past without notice.
Not these Canes. They’re having too much fun, soaking in every moment of this wild ride. Gamble played foosball with walk-on Steve Sorenson. Kadji, Johnson and Brown yukked it up on a sofa. Other players hit the video games.
The one player missing from the postgame party was Scott, who was still being interviewed by the media after scoring a career-high 32 points — the most by a UM player at an ACC tournament.
Scott doesn’t usually get the media attention Larkin or Kadji get, but ask any of his teammates or coaches, and they will tell you that the hard-nosed senior from the Bronx is the heart and soul of this Hurricanes team.
He was voted ACC Defender of the Year, and Saturday he proved to be a lethal scorer as well. Scott scored 11 of Miami’s first 14 points, had 19 by halftime, and he wasn’t done.
Dashing around the court in his florescent highlighter sneakers, he gave the Wolfpack fits. He drove through traffic to the basket like the daring South Florida drivers on I-95. When he wasn’t beating them inside, he was launching rockets from the perimeter.
A day earlier, his no-holds-barred second-half pep talk fired up the Canes for their comeback against Boston College. He called his teammates together in a huddle and scolded them for being too passive. He told them he was the only one talking on the court, that he could hear himself. He implored them to start communicating and lift their game. They listened to their leader, and obeyed.
Said Larkin: “Durand’s one of the best guards in the country, not just the ACC. He’s proven that with the amount of points he has, the steals, rebounds. He’s the leader, heart and soul of the team, definitely.”
“Tonight, Durand was on fire offensively,” said UM coach Jim Larranaga, “but he plays great defense every night. He shares the ball. He leads us on and off the court. In my estimation, this game just symbolizes the kind of player he’s been for four years.”
Scott credited his teammates for getting him open. Scott was 5 of 8 from beyond the arc on Saturday.
“Once I got a couple of baskets, I got confident in myself, especially from the three-point line, I think I missed my first two, but after that I told myself, ‘When I’m open, shoot it.’ That’s what Shane tells me every time, and when I don’t shoot it, he gets upset at me,” he said.
“He’s not the only one!” chimed in Larranaga.
When Scott fouled out of the game with 1:53 to go, he got a standing ovation from the UM family and friends behind the bench and a few hundred UM fans sprinkled throughout the crowd of 22,169. The crowd booed during Hurricane player introductions, and booed even louder as the game clock ran out.
Larkin, who scored 23, said the Canes are not satisfied.
“We’re a hungry team, and we want more and more,” he said. “We’re not satisfied with winning the regular season. We want the ACC title and eventually we want to make it to the national championship game. We’re not going to settle for less and hopefully we can get out there and get it done.”
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)