On Second Thought

Their bark is worse than their bite. That is my take on the Miami Hurricanes as well as the game as a whole.  At the beginning of the season, I had Miami circled as a win with great confidence.  As the Hurricanes improved to 4-1, many people began to feel this was going to be a better team and a better game than originally thought.   In their first game, Miami won 41-32 against a bad Boston College team.  Sure, Morris passed for 566 yards while Miami scored 44 points last week, but that was against a mediocre North Carolina team.  The week before, Morris passed for 436 yards on the way to scoring 42 in an overtime win against a below average Georgia Tech team.   Although that is a total of 127 points in those three games, they also surrendered a total of 105 points in those same contests.  Yes, in their third game of the year the Hurricanes won 38-10, but that was against the Bethune-Cookman Wildcats of the MEAC.  Against their only ranked opponent, Kansas State, Miami was beaten like they stole something, 52-13.

It has been presented as an intriguing matchup with the Irish having a weak offense (at least on the scoreboard) going up against a suspect Miami defense.   On the other side, it’s been sold as Miami’s high flying, high scoring offense against Notre Dame’s stifling defense.  Something’s gotta give, right?  After flip flopping back and forth as to what kind of team Miami is and as to what kind of game it is going to be, I’ve decided the Irish will be victorious by two touchdowns (maybe more).  This is the opportunity for Golson and the offense to have their breakout game, for Kelly to open up the throttle a little and see what this offense can do.  Let’s get Eifert a 100-yard game with a couple of scores, and unleash our three-headed monster backfield while proving the O-line is as good as we were promised.

Official Talking Irish Prediction:   I’ll expect (wish for) three running backs with 100-yard games, Golson with 300 yards passing and 100 yards rushing with multiple touchdowns.  Brian Kelly and Chuck Martin will make some calls I don’t like or agree with and I’ll be disappointed and upset with penalties and missed opportunities.   But in the end the Irish will prevail.