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Miami, FL — The last time the Miami Hurricanes played college football on the soil of Little Havana was 12 years ago in the Orange Bowl and it was perhaps the darkest day in the history of the program in a 48-0 loss to Virginia.
Today’s game was perhaps darker.
Miami fell to Florida International University 30-24 at Marlins Park in one of the lowest moments in Miami football history.
On the flip side, this is a game the FIU faithful will remember for years to come as this was their first ever win over a Power 5 school. For the first time in school history, FIU defeated the mighty Hurricanes and did it in a convincing fashion never trailing the entire time. Former Hurricanes and current Head Coach Butch Davis described the win as special.
“It’s special,” said Coach Davis. “This is an unbelievable moment for these kids. They’ll remember this moment for the rest of their lives. Believing in each other, working, and doing everything that you can when everyone says you can’t.”
The late great Miami Orange Bowl hosted super bowls, national championships, classic orange bowl games, and Olympic events and was torn down over a decade ago to build Marlins Park, a stadium for the South Florida Major League Baseball franchise. On Saturday night, FIU officially hosted a home game at the old Orange Bowl site and at the beginning of the game, the home crowd was clearly in favor of the Hurricanes. At the end of the game, FIU fans shouted the letters F-I-U and Coach Davis was doused with the Gatorade bath.
“We are just happy that they allowed us to have this here. I thought it was a great venue. It’s really good for everybody to be there tonight.”
Marlins Park holds just under 37,000 fans well under the 65,000 that Hard Rock Stadium can hold. The Panthers normally play at Ricardo Silva Stadium which holds about 24,000 so converting the baseball diamond to a football field seemed like a no brainer and a win-win for nostalgia. The Miami Hurricanes hold the longest home winning streak in college football with 58 straight home wins in the Orange Bowl, but the game was not anything like the majority of those 58 wins.
Head Coach Manny Diaz said “everything is under investigation” when it comes to @CanesFootball @FootballHotbed pic.twitter.com/kAglRCwIxz
— Marcus Benjamin (@_BenjaminReport) November 24, 2019
“It’s as poor of a performance that we had all year,” said Diaz. “I take responsibility for all of that. We just did not do anything to give ourselves a chance to win this game. We have to take a hard look at where we are at.”
Miami forced a three and out on FIU’s first offensive drive and starting quarterback Jarren Williams completed his first pass to KJ Osborn. His second pass was complete to number 21 of FIU Stantley Thomas Oliver III (Charlotte, FL). Williams finished the game going 19 for 36 for 249 yards scoring two touchdowns but threw three interceptions and failed to convert two fourth downs in the first half. Miami averaged a yard more per play over FIU but could not convert possessions to touchdowns when they were in Panther territory for the majority of the night. Williams was also sacked twice.
Oliver with the interception would return the football to the 18-yard line of Miami and local kicker and 2018 Lou Groza semifinalist Jose Borregales would connect on a 29-yard field goal to put the Panthers up 3-0 with 7:24 left in the first quarter.
After a Miami Hurricanes punt, the Panthers started on their own 20-yard line and took eleven plays to score their first touchdown of the game. Junior wide receiver Shemar Thornton took a screen pass on the right side fo the field and weaved through the Miami defense for a 29-yard touchdown catch and run to make it a 10-0 game.
The Canes would fail to get on the board at the beginning of the second quarter after an illegal substitution penalty on fourth down on a field goal attempt would place the ball on the one-yard line and the Canes elected to go for the touchdown. Williams would attempt to get the corner on the ground but was denied by NFL draft prospect Sage Lewis out of Monsignor Pace High School in Miami Gardens. Canes were denied on 4th down for a second time in FIU territory as Williams short-hopped the football to Micheal Irvin Jr. in the second quarter. The Panthers would add another field goal just before halftime as the former Miami Booker T. Washington specialist Borregales connected from 50 yards.
“Miami used to be our dream school,” said Jose Borregales. “Beating them today was like yea, we here.”
The two teams met last year at Hard Rock Stadium with the Hurricanes coming out victorious with a 31-17 victory. The game tonight was unlike the game a year ago. Lewis opened up the second half with an interception of a Williams pass to halt yet another Hurricanes drive. Also stalling Hurricane drives were injured FIU players that were booed almost every time they dropped to the ground. Coach Davis wants everyone to check the medical records.
“Our medical people have tracked every kid on our football team that has missed a practice, we’re up to 700,” said Coach Davis. “We had a bunch of kids that had hamstring injuries and stuff like that. It’s a shame that somebody boos when a kid gets injured. We didn’t boo when their kid broke his elbow.”
Coach Davis was referring to starting running back DeeJay Dallas who would leave the game to what looked like a severe arm injury. The junior would walk off the field early third quarter and would not return. Dallas had 50 yards rushing on 9 carries up to that point.
Following a school record-setting, six-touchdown pass performance by Williams against Louisville, the Canes starting quarterback struggled to get in a rhythm all night. Williams threw another pick in the third quarter as Jamal Gates, formerly of Palm Beach Gardens got his paws on the football and FIU was able to convert a 53-yard field goal by Borregales to take a 16-0 lead in the third quarter.
Jamal Gates, LB, FIU, with a turnover celebration belt
Canes would finally get on the board in third with a 22-yard Camden Price field goal, but FIU would put together a 6-play 89-yard scoring drive that was aided by two unsportsmanlike penalties. Quarterback James Morgan would find a wide-open Tony Gaiter in the corner for a 13-yard touchdown.
Miami got across the goal line for the first time at the 8:07 mark in the fourth quarter when former Miami Carol City running back Cam’ron Harris busted through the middle for a 14-yard touchdown run.
Later in the fourth quarter, Williams converted a 19-yard connection on 4th down to Jeff Thomas and followed that completion with a 35-yard touchdown throw to Mark Pope. The touchdown would make it a one-score game with 3:10 remaining. Canes failed on recovering an onside kick and FIU would eventually seal the game when NFL running back Dalvin Cook‘s uncle Anthony Jones broke free and streaked down the sideline for a 37-yard touchdown. The Miami Central alum Jones survived gunshot wounds in 2018 and Coach Davis gets emotional every time he sees Jones carry the football.
Coach @FIUCoachDavis says @FIUFootball was able to keep Miami’s defense off balance and describes how proud he was of former @Roc__Nation running back Anthony Jones. @FootballHotbed pic.twitter.com/YIIDUzXKaG
— Marcus Benjamin (@_BenjaminReport) November 24, 2019
“I almost cry every time I see the kid at practice. For what he’s gone through to see him score that touchdown tonight, it was unbelievable and I’m so happy for him.”
Jones (featured image) had 16 carries for 112 yards.
Canes would another touchdown late as Williams would find Dee Wiggins for a three-yard touchdown, but another failed onside kick would ultimately end the game with 31 seconds left.
The rivalry is now officially a rivalry as Miami (6-5) leads the all-time series 3-1. The Hurricanes will travel to Durham to take on Duke in the season finale while FIU (6-5) becomes bowl eligible for a school-record third year in a row and will look to finish strong next week at Marshall.
