After getting thrashed 45-17 at home by in-state rival Florida State last Saturday night, Miami saw its No. 13 ranking take a precipitous fall, as it is unranked in the latest edition of the AP poll.
But the underachieving bunch still poses a potent threat as it comes to Wallace Wade Stadium this weekend.
“Miami is as gifted as any team in the country,” head coach David Cutcliffe said. “They have everything you need from a skill standpoint on both sides of the ball. [Going forward], we don’t have a bigger challenge from a physical standpoint than Miami this season.”
For the Hurricanes, it all starts with junior quarterback Jacory Harris, who entered the season in the thick of the Heisman discussion even though he was second in the NCAA in interceptions thrown last year with 17. The talented but inconsistent signal caller is having his fair share of struggles again this year, already having been picked off nine times.
Harris, who is barely completing 50 percent of his passes, also battles two separate injuries and even had to miss a series in the loss to the Seminoles. However, his coach asserted that he will be ready to go despite being plagued by both a sore shoulder and a pulled groin.
“Jacory is fine,” head coach Randy Shannon said Wednesday. “You can play with a groin [pull] when it warms up.”
Regardless of how he has been performing lately, Duke’s defense has first-hand experience with Harris’s explosiveness after he shredded it for 348 yards and two scores in Miami last year. His performance helped the Hurricanes mount a second-half comeback against the Blue Devils.
“Miami did a better job of executing and finishing than we did,” redshirt-senior Chris Rwabukamba said. “They have a lot of athletes, and we have a lot of athletes, and at the end of the day, their athletes just made plays.”
Surrounding Harris on offense is a host of playmakers including running back Damien Berry and wideouts Leonard Hankerson, Travis Benjamin and LaRon Byrd. Berry is coming off back-to-back performances in which he topped the century mark, benefiting from the Hurricanes’ greater emphasis on establishing the running game and controlling the clock.
At the wide receiver position, Hankerson is the target that Harris turns to when he needs a big play. At 6-foot-3 and 205 pounds, Hankerson is a physical specimen who has used his height to make plays downfield and has 460 receiving yards and six touchdowns to show for it. Byrd, at 6-foot-4, is another deep threat, while Benjamin is a speedster who makes most of his plays from the slot. He doubles as an electric punt returner.
On the other side of the football, Miami has a similar level of talent, though it has also underperformed. In front of a national TV audience, the Hurricanes were dominant in holding Pittsburgh to just three points Sept. 23. But against Ohio State, Clemson and Florida State, it was a completely different story as they yielded 36, 21 and 45 points respectively.
Linebacker Sean Spence is the unquestioned heart of the defensive unit and leads the team with 48 tackles. Although Miami has struggled to consistently put pressure on opposing quarterbacks, recording just 17 sacks to this point, defensive end Olivier Vernon has recorded four sacks. In the secondary, safety RayRay Armstrong is an NFL prospect and is tied for the team lead in interceptions and ranks near the top in tackles.
After taking leads into halftime against the Hurricanes in both the last two seasons, only to get blown out in the second half, Duke has seen a perfect picture of how beatable, yet explosive, this Miami squad is.
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