The Miami Hurricanes are set to conclude their regular season with a key matchup against the Pittsburgh Panthers at Acrisure Stadium on Saturday. Both teams are vying for positions in the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) championship and postseason play.
Miami, currently ranked No. 12 in the College Football Playoff rankings, enters the game with a 9-2 overall record and a 5-2 mark in conference play. The Hurricanes have won three consecutive ACC games, defeating Syracuse, NC State, and Virginia Tech by a combined score of 113-34.
Head coach Mario Cristobal commented on the significance of the upcoming contest: “Just really excited for this opportunity, unbelievable opportunity coming up this Saturday against a really, really good football team in Pittsburgh,” Cristobal said. “Explosive players across the roster and they’re top five, top 10, top 15 in just about every offensive and defensive category. Extremely disruptive on defense; upfront, at the second level, they’re really good at just creating chaos upfront, negative plays, tackles for losses, interceptions and [they] actually have a good amount of pick-sixes as well.
“On offense, certainly their quarterback heads up an unbelievable offensive surge for them … it starts with the offensive line. They’re big, they’re physical, they get downhill in the run game as they showed this past week, and they do have some dynamic players across the board as well. A lot of energy. Going to be an awesome atmosphere and again, just really fired up to continue getting to work for this coming Saturday.”
Quarterback Carson Beck has been efficient during Miami’s recent winning streak. Over those three games he completed 66 of 83 passes for 858 yards with eight touchdowns. Freshman running back Girard Pringle Jr., stepping in after Mark Fletcher Jr.’s injury, contributed 220 rushing yards during that span. Another freshman standout is Malachi Toney who has made an impact both catching and running with the ball.
Beck highlighted Miami’s recent offensive performance: “I think we’ve just played really good complementary football, right? The run game has been very explosive. The pass game has been very explosive … We’ve converted on third down in a very high percentage [and] once we’ve gotten into the red zone, we’ve been able to obviously punch it in and finish drives with points,” Beck said. “Again, I don’t think it’s a me thing. I just think it’s just collectively as an offense we’ve been executing and we’ve eliminated negative plays penalties… So I mean offensively we’ve been playing really really well and just looking to do that as we head into this game.”
Defensively Miami has limited its last three opponents to fewer than 20 points per game while forcing six turnovers over those contests.
Pittsburgh comes into Saturday’s matchup with an 8-3 record (6-1 ACC). Since making freshman Mason Heintschel their starting quarterback in October Pitt has gone 6-1; Heintschel ranks second among ACC quarterbacks in passing yards since becoming starter while Ja’Kyrian Turner leads Pitt’s rushing attack.
“They have a pretty complete offense,” said Miami defensive end Akheem Mesidor who leads his team with seven sacks this season. “They can run the ball. The quarterback can throw the ball really well so the goal is to make them one dimensional and just beat them.”
Safety Zechariah Poyser added: “They have a lot of explosive guys. That quarterback’s [gotten] better… He’s young but he’s very mature… He gets things going and they have a lot of explosive guys.”
Receiver Keelan Marion described Miami’s approach: “We’re just taking it a week at a time focusing on Pittsburgh just controlling and playing loose… We’re just doing the things we’ve been doing the past few weeks.”
Beck also acknowledged what is at stake: “It would be stupid to not at least recognize the magnitude of the game and what it means and the implications behind it. But you’ve just got to go play football and again go out there and have fun and do what we’ve been doing… That’s all you really can focus on.”
The outcome will determine both teams’ prospects for reaching postseason goals within their conference.
