Miami football will travel to Blacksburg on a three-game winning streak to take down an unranked Virginia Tech in hopes to stay in ACC Championship contention today in an afternoon matchup. I’m excited to see how this team will do on the road against a hungry Hokies team looking for their fifth win against a top-10 opponent. While I predict this will be a win for the Hurricanes, but it shouldn’t be taken lightly. Miami has won four of the last six meetings despite a 42-35 loss last season.
Coming into the game, we will see a few changes in the defense that appeared from last week’s game against NC State. Defense was a big factor to this team’s success coming into the season after the team lost a lot of veterans in positions that made the unit strong. Over the years the Hurricanes have been really impressive to watch. The hype and the swag of the team has been something to see.
Escalated from the defense, Miami football decided to change the game with the turnover chain. It’s clear former defensive coordinator, now head coach Manny Diaz is a player’s coach and loves a bit of fun. But what he loves more than fun, or should I say the best fun, is winning football games. Diaz and his staff want to put their team in the best position to win games rather it be with an All-American senior on the field or a true freshman.
Defensive backs
We saw a slight shift in the lineup at cornerback last week against NC State. According to Barry Jackson of the Miami Herald, Te’Cory Couch took the second most snaps at cornerback over the original No. 2 cornerback D.J Ivey with No. 1 corner Al Blades leading the way with 57 snaps against the Wolfpack.
Could we see a new cornerback step into the starting lineup? Both Blades and Ivey have had some ups and downs this season, so it’ll be exciting seeing the snaps shift between the trio. Ivey has 19 tackles, the interception and two pass breakups this season. Couch has 15 tackles, one tackle for loss, the one sack, three pass breakups and one forced fumble.
Defensive coordinator Blake Baker spoke highly of the efforts from Couch this season saying, ‘’Te’Cory’s playing at an extremely high level for us right now at nickel and at corner. Really proud of the way that guy competes every single day. You can see the growth over the span of the last year and a half and how much better he’s gotten. Te’Cory has got a great confidence about him.”
Baker complimented Couch’s character as a player highlighting how he plays bigger than his size.
Virginia Tech is 14th in the ACC in passing averaging 187.6 yards per game, and it will take some shots at this group of cornerbacks to see how they respond. If this group of talented guys can come together and really stick it to the Hokies, it’ll help this team tremendously with leaving Blacksburg with a win.
