Miami Gardens, FL — The Miami Hurricanes have looked quite different in the past few weeks.
At least offensively.
Under the leadership of second-year quarterback Tyler Van Dyke, Miami was able to pull off their third straight win. Van Dyke completed 22 of his 34 passes for 389 yards throwing for three touchdowns in a 33-30 homecoming win over Georgia Tech Saturday afternoon.
It was over when…
Georgia Tech (3-6, 2-3 ACC) failed to convert on a fourth down deep in their own territory. The Yellow Jackets were faced with a 4th and 14 when quarterback Jeff Sims’s pass to the right sailed out of bounds. Georgia Tech was given an opportunity to win the game when Miami failed to convert on three straight runs with Jaylan Knighton.
“The guys found a way to win,” said Head Coach Manny Diaz. “We made it hard by not being able to convert on short-yardage situations where we could have killed the game off. But the defense went out there and got the stops at the end and just made the plays necessary in winning time. It feels good to be back above .500 in the league and keep ourselves in the race.”
Game Story
Similar to the last two weeks, Miami (5-4, 3-2 ACC) started out firing offensively. Van Dyke engineered a 93-yard scoring drive on Miami’s opening possession. The (6-4, 220) freshman threw his first touchdown pass to senior receiver Mike Harley Jr. Van Dyke lofted the football to the corner of the end zone and the senior from St. Thomas Aquinas High School in Fort Lauderdale came down with the football to give the home team the lead.
Van Dyke would throw his second touchdown of the game to his most reliable receiver in 2021, Charleston Rambo. The senior transfer from Oklahoma ran under a Van Dyke throw for the end zone catching it in bounds to give Miami a two-score lead early. Rambo would finish the game with seven receptions for 210 yards and a touchdown. He is the fourth receiver in Hurricanes history to have over 200 yards receiving in a game.
“He is a problem,” said Coach Diaz of Rambo. “He’s a hard guy to leave in single coverage, but all of a sudden you want to put two on him, that affects your run fits, it affects how you play in RPO, he’s a problem and he’s proving that week in and week out that he’s one of the top wideouts in our league and our league is blessed with some big-time wideouts this year which means he’s one of the top wideouts in the country. We’re lucky we have him and excited to see what he does in the month of November.”
Rambo was added to the Biletnikoff watch list this week. The award goes to the nation’s most outstanding receiver.
Georgia Tech would cut the lead in half quickly with a big play on the ground. Jordan Mason broke free up the middle for a 71-yard touchdown run outrunning Miami defenders for the score. The Yellow Jackets would add another rushing score in the second quarter as Jahmyr Gibbs jogged over the goal line for a 29-yard touchdown.
Avantae Williams in his first action at safety this season, got his first feel of the turnover chain Saturday afternoon. Williams, regarded as the number one safety in the nation of the 2020 class, was able to locate a deep pass over the middle, and jumped up to secure an interception in the first quarter.
Williams was dismissed this season after facing three counts of aggravated battery of a pregnant woman. The second-year freshman was later reinstated by the team after the accuser recanted her story.
Turnovers plagued the Hurricanes in the first half as three fumbles were lost and none more costly than the last. Juanyeah Thomas forced second-year running back Knighton to fumble in the second quarter. The ball was dislodged and caught mid-air by Jaylon King and returned 40 yards for a touchdown.
“They came in bunches there,” said Diaz of the fumbles lost. “Obviously the one that gets returned back for a touchdown is vital. Offensively we’ve been on a hot streak. We’ve kind of been humming and hadn’t had a lot of adversity and today it showed up and how you’re going to respond when it’s kind of not happening or how you going to respond when you do make a mistake like that? What I was really proud of is when the guys like Knighton or Rambo, they came back and they made plays.”
The score would give Georgia Tech its first lead of the game and the Yellow Jackets would take the 21-17 lead into halftime. Freshman kicker Andy Borregales, went 2 for 3 on field goals and missed a 40-yard field goal with 3:52 left in the second quarter. Miami surrendered 140 yards rushing in the first half.
The second half started out just like the first half offensively for the Hurricanes. Van Dyke found Rambo for a 60 yard gain to get into the red zone and Knighton would finish the drive with a two-yard run. Tech would counter with a short pass to Gibbs that the freshman would take 50 yards down the sideline for a touchdown.
Knighton carried the ball 32 times for 162 yards and a touchdown.
“That’s a big number,” said Coach Diaz of Knighton’s carries. “Jaylan is an every-down back. That’s what he was at Deerfield and he can handle it. He does a good job of running inside and running in between the tackles. I think it was good to see Thad getting in there and Cody some but we are going to have to get more production out our depth because that’s a high workload.”
Borregales would add a 31-yard field goal in the fourth quarter and Van Dyke would pass for his third touchdown of the game. Keyshawn Smith caught a short pass and with a strong effort was able to get into the end zone for a 15-yard touchdown. In an attempt to go for two, Van Dyke was intercepted and the football was returned 101 yards for two points in Georgia Tech’s favor by Thomas.
Game winning score: Tyler Van Dyke connects with Keyshawn Smith for the touchdown. #Miami defeats #GeorgiaTech 33-30 pic.twitter.com/5Bdmawwz0H
— Marcus Benjamin (@_BenjaminReport) November 6, 2021
Miami outgained Georiga Tech 563 to 329 and according to Van Dyke the game should not have been as close as the score suggested.
“With those turnovers from the offense the game shouldn’t have been that close,” said Van Dyke. “Georgia Tech has a great defense but we just killed ourselves with those three turnovers, without those we could have had a lot more points. We have to go practice and fix that and get ready for next week.”
Next Game Up
Next week Miami will travel to Tallahassee to face rival Florida State. Georgia Tech will try to bounce back at home against Boston College.
Attendance – 48,161
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