How a weird Week 1 ended in a ground-and-pound victory for the Hurricanes -

D’Eriq King is right.

“Week 1 is always weird,” Miami’s quarterback said following the Hurricanes’ 31-14 season-opening win over UAB at Hard Rock Stadium on Thursday night.

A new offense. New coaches. New players. That always makes things a little different for teams at the start of the season.

But this Week 1 for Miami, played in front of a limited-sized home crowd of 8,153 fans sitting far apart from each other, wearing masks and drinking non-alcoholic beverages, was arguably the weirdest yet for any Hurricanes game ever.

There was no band, no students, no cheerleaders and no artificial crowd noise piped into the stadium to drown out strange moments of silence.

There were no benches for players to sit on, just chairs.

In the end, Miami and UAB played an entertaining game for four quarters. But it was still weird.

For King, what made his first game with his new team even tougher, was that this was also his first game since his father died in February.

“Honestly, I had a lot on my mind tonight,” said King, whose family flew in from Houston to watch him play. “I couldn’t stop thinking about (my Dad) the whole night, how proud he would be of me and just giving him a hug after the game, calling him after the game and him encouraging me to keep getting better, keep going every single day. But overall, it was good for me to get out there. I haven’t played a college football game in a while, so just going out there and just playing (and) getting a win, that was the biggest thing for me.”

By game’s end, King looked very comfortable running Miami’s new up-tempo “Power Spread” offense. He made plays in the pocket, made plays on the run, and led the Hurricanes, 14½-point favorites, to a convincing-enough 17-point win that made coach Manny Diaz happy.

Even though Miami’s passing game had trouble getting off the ground until 2019 Mackey Award finalist Brevin Jordan got involved in the second half, King still finished with solid passing numbers (15 of 23 for 141 yards, 1 TD) in his Hurricane debut. He didn’t turn the ball over, ran for 83 yards, and together with junior tailback Cam’ron Harris (17 carries, 134 yards, 2 TDs), anchored a Miami running game that blitzed the Blazers for an eye-opening 337 yards on 52 carries.

Lashlee ended up calling twice as many run plays (52) as he did pass plays (26). That, though, was not necessarily by design.

“They came out in a defense that we didn’t rep at all, all week in practice … so we had to adjust,” said King, who was sacked twice and only had 46 yards passing at halftime. “I think the way the O-line was getting the push and the way the running backs were running the ball, it was a great in-game adjustment by (offensive coordinator Rhett Lashlee) and I think we made it work.”

Can Miami play that kind of one-dimensional offense and remain in ACC title contention come December?

Probably not. But Diaz is not looking that far ahead yet. Instead, he took home the positives.

“It’s a season opener, there’s a ton of stuff to correct, but (I liked) just our demeanor, our temperament on the sideline, the way the guys supported each other and the way we just stayed after that UAB team,” Diaz said. “That’s a really good UAB team. No one does what (we did to them) in terms of rushing yards and total yards. Everyone in this profession knows Bill Clark is an outstanding defensive coach and to run for over 300 and have almost 500 yards of offense is really impressive.

“That UAB team went to Tennessee a year ago and held them to about 300 yards of offense, and so to put 337 rushing on them in an opener with a ton of mistakes is very encouraging to me.”

Diaz was also just happy the Hurricanes were able to go play a game. For the Hurricanes, so much of this season was going to be about King, Lashlee and turning the page on last year’s 6-7 season. But then the world changed quite a bit back in March.

COVID-19 reached America and shut the sports world down. Then George Floyd died in police custody in Minnesota, and the fight against social injustice and police brutality became as important an issue to Diaz and the Hurricanes as wearing masks and protecting themselves against the coronavirus.

None of that has changed for Miami. There’s just a football season to be played now, too.

Diaz made a TV appearance prior to Thursday’s game wearing a Black Lives Matter T-shirt. King, Harris and Quincy Roche each wore one to their postgame press conferences.

“This is our team’s way of trying to do our part and raise awareness to the social injustices that are going on in the world today,” Roche said.

Cam’Ron Harris ran for over 100 yards in a game for only the second time in his career in Thursday’s 31-14 season-opening win over UAB. (Tim Brogdon / Miami Athletics)

Ground and Pound

UAB took a 7-0 lead after Canes receiver Mark Pope fumbled a punt late in the first quarter. Two plays after the Blazers (1-1) recovered the ball at Miami’s 17, receiver Austin Watkins beat cornerback DJ Ivey for a 16-yard touchdown catch.

Miami, though, answered with a touchdown a minute and 36 seconds later. With no hesitation, Diaz went for it on fourth and 1 at UM’s 34-yard line.

Instead of tracking the ball, UAB’s defense stayed glued to King on a read option, Harris broke free for the longest touchdown run of his career — a 66-yard sprint to the end zone — and the longest run by a Hurricane in two years.

“I just had to be patient,” said Harris, who also had four catches for 10 yards. “I saw a crease, I hit it and I was gone.”

Harris was the first Canes player to put on the team’s new Touchdown Rings.

UM’s defense never managed to bring out the Turnover Chain and had only one sack (by Quincy Roche). But the Canes forced back-to-back 3-and-outs after Harris’ touchdown run, opening the door for the offense to grab the lead 14-7 at the half.

The Blazers (1-1) ran for only 80 yards, with lead running back Spencer Brown finishing with 74.

King, meanwhile, had several highlight-reel runs in the game, including a 25-yard scramble on third and 9 on the opening scoring drive of the second half.

But his signature moment — the play that showed you how badly he wants to lead Miami to victory — came on the team’s touchdown drive before the half.

After handing the ball to Harris inside the UAB 30, King sprinted out in front of his running back, put his head down and served as a lead blocker on a play that sprung Harris for a 15-yard gain.

On the next play, King scored the go-ahead touchdown on a 12-yard run that included a leap into the end zone. It made his family, which flew in from Houston for the game (including his mother, who beat breast cancer), leap up from their seats in celebration.

Instead of thinking of himself, though, in that moment, King included his teammates in the celebration. He sought out his offensive linemen and handed them Miami’s Touchdown Rings.

“Those guys deserve it,” said King, who ran for 83 yards on 12 carries and was sacked twice. “I think they’re the reason our team is going to win a lot of games this year. They work extremely hard and they don’t get a lot of praise. So, every time we score, I think a skill guy should give the rings to the offensive line because they deserve it.”

Miami’s offense picked up steam in the third quarter once Jordan got involved. After being targeted just once in the first half, he caught three passes for 51 yards and a touchdown in the second half to provide some balance to Miami’s offense.

Still, the running game worked for Miami most of the night. And it came against a good Blazers defense with nine returning starters. UAB had won 28 games and Conference USA’s West Division two years running and ranked 20th against the run last season and 17th in 2018.

Between Harris, King and freshman running backs Jaylan Knighton and Don Chaney Jr., the Canes ripped off 11 runs of 10 or more yards on Thursday.

“Give them credit, they have a lot of great athletes on their side of the ball and they tempo’d us,” UAB coach Bill Clark said.

“The big thing for us was defending that quarterback. That’s all I’ve heard, I mean, it’s true; he’s electric. I thought we did a pretty good job on him all night, but what happens when you’ve got zone-read is that that guy can really run. He holds that outside linebacker, our defensive end, and that is where the zone cut back inside us a few times.

“They were playing with tempo, playing fast and, once again, I thought we did a good job. We were probably just worn down a bit as the game went on. We just had to tackle and that is what we said the whole time coming in. They had some really good running backs and him. Anytime you have a guy that can really throw the ball and run it, it is tough to defend.”

Miami’s new touchdown rings are made of orange and green sapphires and contain 829 stones. The Touchdown Rings weigh 100 grams combined — 50 grams each. Touchdown Rings 2.0 took roughly three months to complete. (Miami Athletics)

Will Miami continue to ground and pound like this moving forward?

“It’ll be what is needed to win that game, but we wanted to make a statement,” Diaz said. “We wanted to lean on this football team and we wanted to pound the rock. And even early on when some of those runs were 1 yard, 2 yards, 3 yards, we wanted to stay after it, stay relentless and just continue to pound the ball. UAB played a front this game that they did not play a week ago, so we had to make some adjustments to that, but I’m proud of our guys for just staying after it.”

In running for a touchdown and throwing for one, King extended his streak with at least one touchdown pass and one touchdown run to 16 consecutive weeks dating back to his time at Houston. Even though he had trouble connecting with his receivers downfield, former Miami coach ACC Network analyst Mark Richt said he expects King to improve as the season goes on.

But Miami’s fast-paced, ground-and-pound offense might end up being what the Hurricanes do best, said former Clemson guard Eric Mac Lain, an ACC Network analyst who was on the same postgame show with Richt.

There were times when Miami snapped the ball so quickly there were 28 to 31 seconds left on the play clock. It left UAB gasping for breath. The Hurricanes ran 78 plays — 17 more than the Blazers. King hardly looked tired at all.

“He got more impressive as the night went on,” Mac Lain said of Miami’s QB. “I loved the way he was patient with the offense, didn’t get upset because things didn’t go the way he wanted to early. I expect to see them be more dynamic in the passing game as the season goes on. But I think this is going to be Miami. They’re going to be a run-heavy team. That’s what Lashlee loves to do. You look at his history with (Auburn coach) Gus Malzahn. That’s kind of what they do, and the hyper-tempo helps when things are going.”

King, though, sees this as just the beginning of the journey. He knows it is going to be important for the Canes to get Jordan and the receivers more involved in the weeks ahead.

He expects Miami to take a leap forward. ACC play begins for Miami a week from Saturday.

“Every Week 1 I’ve been a part of has been a crazy week,” King said. “But yeah, new offense, new quarterback, new system totally, missing spring ball, missing a little bit of summer — I think we did pretty good for the occasion. We’ve got to keep getting better and have a great week of practice. Usually, the biggest jump is Week 1 to Week 2. So hopefully we can have a great week of practice and go out there and have a great game versus Louisville.”

(Photo of Hurricanes quarterback D’Eriq King celebrating with receiver Mike Harley Jr.: Tim Brogdon / Miami Athletics)

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