A Tale of Two Halves: Canes Beat Southern Miss 30-7

MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. – The Miami Hurricanes returned to Hard Rock Stadium to host the Southern Mississippi Golden Eagles. The Canes got off to a rough start, going 3-and-out on their opening drive. The Southern Miss defense gave the Canes some trouble in the first half, coming up with several crucial redzone stops. Lou Groza Award candidate Andres Borregales put Miami up 3-0 late in the 1st quarter, but the Golden Eagles quickly answered back with a beautiful 33-yard TD pass from true freshman Zach Wilcke to Jason Brownlee to make it 7-3 Southern Miss.

After an early 2nd quarter Van Dyke interception, Southern Miss’ Demarcus Jones came up with a HUGE 36-yard sideline grab over Miami’s DJ Ivey. Miami’s DBs gave up several big plays throughout the first half, but the defense prevented Southern Miss from reaching the endzone for the remainder of the game.

THIS CATCH BY DEMARCUS JONES 😱 @SouthernMissFB pic.twitter.com/EjMUAyfA28

— ESPN College Football (@ESPNCFB) September 10, 2022

Miami closed out the 1st half on a high note with Henry Parrish Jr. punching it in with 0:20 left in the 2nd quarter to put the Canes up 10-7.

The Canes were a completely different team after returning from the locker room. To start the 2nd half, Miami forced a 3-and-out and managed to punch in another score, this time by Thaddeus Franklin Jr., to make the score 17-3.

Miami HC Mario Cristobal commented on the adjustments at halftime:

I thought we’d be a little bit more polished in the first half, but we weren’t. And so, what do you do? You go in there and you fix it and you come out and I think we did a decent job in the second half. We did a great job on defense in the second half.”

The Miami defense then caused a second consecutive 3-and-out, finished off by a shifty 30-yard punt return by Tyrique Stevenson. Armed with newfound momentum, Miami immediately capitalized by executing OC Josh Gattis’ perfectly-timed flea flicker play call, resulting in a touchdown strike from Van Dyke to Key’shawn Smith to make it 24-7.

But the Golden Eagles were not going down without a fight. Late in the 3rd quarter, USM’s Jason Brownlee absolutely MOSSED two Miami defenders to set his team up in the redzone. Fortunately for the Miami defense, Tyrique Stevenson took advantage of an ill-advised throw by true freshman QB Wilcke, intercepting his pass in the endzone.

Jason Brownlee is on 🔥 pic.twitter.com/VkHiiZryjn

— Cam Mellor (@CamMellor) September 10, 2022

The Canes defense held firm for the remainder of the game, and Borregales added an additional pair of field goals to get us to the final score, Miami 30, Southern Miss 7.

Final Takeaways

• Frank who? – In what was anticipated to be an electric RB matchup between Frank Gore, Jr. and Henry Parrish, Jr., Miami limited Gore to an abysmal 10 yards on 7 carries. Parrish came out on top, getting the start for the second week in a row and finishing with 115 yards and a touchdown on 24 carries.
  
• “Super back” Kryptonite – Given USM’s injuries and poor backup QB play last week, it was expected that Frank Gore, Jr. would handle much of the offensive load. However, true freshman QB Zach Wilcke was solid in his collegiate debut. Southern Miss HC Will Hall praised the three-star recruit’s performance and acknowledged his faith in his young QB to get the job done.

“I thought Zach was playing pretty good and that’s just what we wanted to do. We wanted to build on [that]. . . . We’re young at quarterback, we’re building. This team, as we get towards the Sun Belt Conference [games]–with the way Zach was playing, we wanted to keep getting him reps and keep growing him.”

• “We’ve got to go get better,” Miami HC Mario Cristobal said. The Canes have much on film to correct before heading over to College Station to face #6 Texas A&M. The offensive line should be a focal point, as Miami allowed four sacks of Van Dyke and numerous QB pressures. Regardless of their opponent, the Canes need to play cleaner football, especially when preparing to play a top-ten-ranked SEC team on the road.
  
  The last three matchups, where both teams enter ranked, haven’t gone Miami’s way; Texas A&M is 3-0 in those matchups, outscoring the Canes 148-56.
  
  However, the Aggies were just upset by the historically feisty Appalachian State Mountaineers 17-14 on Saturday, so Canes fans should expect a dogfight next weekend at Kyle Field.