About the only miscue for the No. 10 Miami Hurricanes in their 62-0 beatdown of the Ball State Cardinals on Saturday came at the end of their first drive, after Miami waited out a more-than-two-hour rain delay at Hard Rock Stadium. On third down in the red zone, Cam Ward surveyed the defense and picked out Jacolby George by the goal line only to have the pass bounce off the wide receiver’s hands, then chest, and fall to the ground.
The Hurricanes settled for a field goal, George trudged back to the sideline and neither made another mistake for basically the rest of the game.
“You’ve just got to have a next-play mentality,” George said. “You’ve just got to do what you’ve got to do to make the next play.”
Miami (3-0) scored touchdowns on four of its next five drives after starting the game with a field goal, with Ward topping 300 passing yards in the first half alone and seven different players compiling at least 20 receiving yards.
George was the leader with six catches for 109 yards and a touchdown. After two quiet weeks to start the season, the senior finally got involved in the fun of the Hurricanes’ new-look, high-octane offense.
Even with the early drop, George still had two catches for 31 yards on the opening drive and then added two more catches for 47 yards on Miami’s next drive to help set up the Hurricanes’ first touchdown. On Miami’s first drive of the second half, George caught Ward’s final touchdown pass, turning a short throw into a 17-yard catch-and-run score as he weaved and bounced off Ball State defenders to skip into the end zone.
The Hurricanes started to empty their bench, up 38-0 with 12:32 left in the third quarter.
“We have a different group of wide receivers. We have speed all around,” Ward said. “I think the difference with each player is each has a different finesse to their game. … Everybody has a smoothness to their game and it just adds something together.”
A year ago, George was the Hurricanes’ No. 2 receiver, with his 864 receiving yards trailing only fellow wide receiver Xavier Restrepo. The first two weeks of this season, though, were slow for the 6-foot, 176-pound wideout, with only five catches for 53 yards and one touchdown.
In Week 3, George more than doubled his season total of receiving yards in less than a quarter, piling up four catches for 78 yards before the teams switched ends for the first time—and he even had a would-be 71-yard touchdown called back because he barely stepped out of bounds after juking out a defender on another short throw that he still turned into a 25-yard gain.
“I was pretty made,” George said, then smiled. “Next play.”
The attitude is essential for the talented receiver. Miami has had at least 10 players catch a pass in every game this season and had eight players with multiple receptions this weekend. The Hurricanes will have games where a starting receiver doesn’t catch many passes and games where a reserve might have half a dozen. George went two weeks with barely 50 total yards and then exploded for a 100-plus in the very next game.
With three lopsided wins to start the year, Miami still hasn’t quite gotten to show whatever its identity is going to be this season, but if the Hurricanes have one so far, then it might just be their depth around Ward.
“We all know you’ve got to share it with everybody, so we all just lean on the fact,” George said, “and knowing when the ball’s coming, you’ve got to make a play.”
Local News
Comments / 0