The Miami Hurricanes played a fellow Florida university, Bethune-Cookman in what seemed to be a one-sided battle. Having played their best brand of football so far this season, the Canes got their first win of hopefully many. Those holes that have had me worried, seemed to be taken care of… at least for the moment. One hole that remains is struggling kicker Bubba Baxa. The sophomore is still having trouble, missing the only field goal of the game (30 yarder). The team played well together, with energy throughout the game on both sides of the ball. Manny did a great coaching job in this one, giving a speech that would help the team in the second half. I would like to go over some players I thought had great games.
Superman - Deejay Dallas
Although Deejay didn’t have the greatest year last year, but also not a completely terrible year. Being a back-up, and also struggling a bit with fumbles were reasons why it wasn’t the best. He has seemed to have made huge improvements. Deejay started the season with two straight 100 yard performances (rushing, and receiving combined). In this game, he continued that trend. His stats totaled up to 108 yards, on 12 total carries. He also finished the game with 3 rushing TDs. He seemed to be one of the strongest players out on the field, willing to fight for extra yardage.
Green Arrow - Jarren Williams
As I’ve repeated time, and time again, this guy never ceases to impress me. Although he made some questionable throws on a couple of the incompletions, he has still yet to throw an interception. These things are expected from a redshirt freshman, who just had his first three starts. On his completions, he always seemed to find the open man, utilizing every player on the field. He was also able to complete the majority of his passes. Jarren’s numbers came out to 19/24, 254 yards, and 3 TDs. I hope to see this guy continue to improve week-by-week.
The Flash - Mark Pope
This is the first great game hopefully of many in his career. I looked forward to watching him play going into his freshman year. He really impressed me in this game, despite not having a touchdown. His first big play of his career was a deep ball for 54 yards from QB Jarren Williams. He continued this with 2 more catches for a combined 38 yards. His last play was a jet sweep that went for 21 yards. Unfortunately for him, this would be his last play of the game due to a leg injury. His speed, and catching ability were the factors in this game, and also secured him a spot on this list.
The Rest of the Justice League - The Defense
These guys have taken a lot of slack (from myself included), but Manny is holding them to a higher standard. They had trouble the last two times out, but really went to work this time around; allowing the opposing offense to reach the 50 yard line once. There was not one player on the defense that stood out, but a big play was Robert Knowles getting the turnover chain on a fumble recovery. I’m sure he himself would admit it wasn’t a one man job. These guys battled really hard to continue to help the offense put points on the board. You could tell that the defense is held to a higher standard, because Manny was yelling at them before halftime, and at that point Bethune-Cookman had not crossed the 50 yard line yet.
These are of course not the only players that impressed me, but their play stood out the most. Especially since it was Mark Pope’s first great game. I’m glad to see one in the win column, and hopefully we can continue this trend. Great team play, and intensity are factors in winning teams, and I hope we can include that in our day-to-day activity, not only in games, but also in practice.
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