Hurricanes Seek to Pick Up the Velocity Against Stanford
Just a few days ago, the Miami Hurricanes were the second-ranked team in the AP College Football rankings. However, that dramatically changed after the Hurricanes’ 24-21 Friday night loss to the Louisville Cardinals. This Miami team went from being the second-ranked team in the nation to moving seven spots down to the ninth-ranked. During their upcoming matchup against the Stanford Cardinal, the Hurricanes will try and seek that velocity they had during the first five weeks of the season, pick up steam, and continue to soar through the rankings like they did just weeks ago.
Stanford comes into this matchup winning two of their last three games and 3-4 on the year. They won last week 20-13 against the Florida State Seminoles and look to continue to tear through another Florida-based team. Last week, the Cardinal switched between two quarterbacks: Elijah Brown and Ben Gulbranson. Both combined for a total of 161 passing yards. However, the big story from Stanford’s win over Florida State was running back Cole Tabb, who finished with 28 carries for 107 rushing yards and a touchdown. Tabb will certainly look to continue this momentum against Miami’s defense, which relatively struggled during their game against Louisville. If Tabb stumbles in this upcoming matchup, either of Stanford’s quarterbacks must step up and show why they deserve that starting spot midway through the season.
For Miami, not only does their defense need to pick up the slack from last week’s loss, but quarterback Carson Beck must have one of the best games of his college career. During the loss to Louisville, Beck threw four interceptions, and in a close matchup like the Hurricanes had with the Cardinals last week, if Beck were smarter with his passes, perhaps the Canes would still be undefeated. However, these silly mistakes cost Miami big-time. This is someone who was praised by ESPN analyst Greg McElroy when Beck was “playing out of his mind” during the Canes’ win against the Seminoles two weeks ago.
Within the first few weeks of the season, Beck’s quarterback play was great; it wasn’t elite enough to make him this all-hyped around college quarterback, but his play has been sufficient enough to keep the team winning games. Yet, that four-interception game, which Miami lost, Beck needs to prove he’s better than what was shown last week. The Hurricanes will seek to pick up the velocity and soar back into being one of the top teams in the nation. That first step comes with beating Stanford this Saturday at 7 p.m. EST.
