The lights shined bright on a hot and humid night at Hard Rock Stadium on Friday night. However, Miami couldn’t fully handle that light. Yes, the Hurricanes ended up winning the game but underperformed on both sides of the ball.
As linebacker Fransisco Mauigoa said in his postgame presser, the Hurricanes “will have to go back to the drawing board” and show why they deserve to be at the top of the ACC.
Miami’s defense fell apart
After stellar defensive play through the first four games of the season, allowing a total of only 41 points, defensive lineman Tyler Baron and the rest of his defensive crew couldn’t find much success. The Hurricanes’ run defense allowed a staggering 206 rushing yards, 141 of those yards coming from Virginia Tech’s starting running back, Bhayshul Tuten.
Miami’s pass defense was also poor. Virginia Tech quarterback Kyron Drones threw for 189 yards and converted key plays with his arm throughout the game.
UM defensive back Mishael Powell did have an interception, but his coverage was not nearly as effective as it usually is. Virginia Tech wide receiver Ayden Greene caught a fourth-quarter touchdown pass over Powell, hauling in three receptions for 33 yards, including a touchdown.
Cam Ward didn’t have his best outing
Even though Cam Ward threw for 343 yards, he did not play the same way as he did in the season opener against Florida or even last week’s game against the University of South Florida.
From the start of the game, he played more rattled than he had previously. Ward gave the ball away three times over the course of the game, one of which was an attempted pass to wide receiver Xavier Restrepo in Virginia Tech’s territory that ended up in the hands of former Hurricane defender Kaleb Spencer. Spencer ended up running it 77 yards deep onto Miami’s side of the field.
However, Ward did show some signs of greatness. Late in the game, he evaded two would-have-been sacks and flipped a chest pass to tight end Riley Williams, which resulted in a big gain. In the first quarter, Ward pinpointed a pass in the end zone to Jacolby George, just barely splitting two Virginia Tech defenders. Later in the first half, Ward executed a beautiful ball fake and hit tight end Elijah Arroyo down the middle of the field for a 43-yard touchdown.
After the game, Ward owned up to his mistakes.
“Everything (Virginia Tech) did on defense, they showed on film. And you know I just got to be better next week,” Ward said.
This game gave Miami a reality check
The first four games for Miami was quite the cakewalk, as it defeated each opponent by a large margin. The start of ACC competition did not go the way the players or fans would like, just barely scratching out a victory against Virginia Tech.
As previously mentioned, Miami’s defense struggled against both the run and the pass. Ward’s stats on paper looked great, but he missed several passes that he was making during the first four games of the season.
The competition for head coach Mario Cristobal and his players will likely increase as the Hurricanes face a gauntlet of ACC teams.
Miami will travel across the country for next Saturday’s bout with California. Kick-off is scheduled for 10:30 p.m.