Miami Offense, Surprisingly, Led By Ground Game, Not Air Attack
It was fourth and 1 with 4:01 left in the first quarter of the University of Miami’s opener against Alabama-Birmingham on Thursday. The Hurricanes, who were at UAB’s 34-yard line, were faced with a big decision -- what play do they want to run.
UM, which put on an impressive display of offensive physicality with 337 yards rushing, was never going to punt. That wasn’t even a consideration.
The Hurricanes, whose up-tempo offense is under the direction of first-year coordinator Rhett Lashlee, handed the ball to running back Cam’Ron Harris. He crashed into the right side of the line and broke free for a 66-yard touchdown run that tied the game at 7 and gave Miami’s offense the shot in the arm it needed in its 31-14 victory.
“I thought that was pretty straightforward,” coach Manny Diaz said. “It was one (yard) to go and when you have the element of the quarterback’s legs, it just adds another gap and just gets somebody’s eyes off. And they were really in a sell-out, everybody-up-there defense, so once Cam broke the front line, there was no one left to get him.”
Many thought UM's new offense would be an air attack. But Miami’s offensive line of center Corey Gaynor, left guard Ousman Traore, left tackle John Campbell Jr., right guard D.J. Scaife and right tackle Jarrid Williams was good enough to lead a surprisingly effective ground game.
The offensive line was a question mark throughout the offseason. It had its shaky moments, especially in pass protection even though it only surrendered one sack.
But the line did well enough to fuel Harris’ 134-yard performance (on 17 carries) and quarterback D’Eriq King rushing for 83 yards on 12 carries. UM even got its freshmen running backs Jaylan Knighton (nine carries, 59 yards) and Donald Chaney Jr. (eight carries, 52 yards) some good work.
The Canes rushed for three touchdowns, two by Harris and one by King.
The Hurricanes’ offense had 52 rushes and 26 passing attempts, a 2-to-1 mix few anticipated. That’s also something that could serve UM well beginning with next week’s game at Louisville because the Hurricanes were able to keep a large part of their passing game unknown, and the Cardinals will know Miami can run the ball effectively.
“We wanted to lean on this football team and we wanted to pound the rock,” Diaz said. “And even early on when some of those runs were one yard, two yards, three 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.”
