HURRICANES OVERCOME EARLY MISCUES to DEFEAT #25 Texas A&M

Photo Credit - Jenni Konrad via Flickr

Tyler Van Dyke threw for 374 yards and five touchdowns as the Miami Hurricanes overcome early miscues to defeat #25 Texas A&M 48-33 Saturday afternoon at the Hard Rock Stadium. Jacolby George was on the receiving end of three of those scores.

The victory was a little less sweet for the Hurricanes, as they had their All-American safety Kamren Kinchens air lifted to Jackson Memorial Hospital Trauma Center with less than two minutes to go after being involved in a three-player collision. He was laying on the field for close to 15 minutes as trainers and medical staff were tending to him and stabilizing his head and neck before they could get him on a stretcher.

Kinchens had multiple tests performed Saturday night and everything came back negative. Kinchens even posted a photo of himself sitting up in his hospital bed and smiling for the camera.

"How about then Hurricanes," Miami head coach Mario Cristobal said at the opening of his post-game press conference. "So far the reports that we have on him [Kinchens] are that everything seems to be relatively normal."

Miami spotted TAMU a 10-0 lead as Hurricanes punter Dylan Joyce suffered a blocked punt on Miami's first possession. It was recovered by the Aggies deep in Miami territory. Aggies signal-caller Conner Weigman rushed for the final yard as A&M struck first. The Aggies would add a field goal on their next drive.

The Aggies led 17-7 in the second quarter and then Miami turned on the jets and ran away with the game.

"Congratulations to Miami," Aggies Head Coach Jimbo Fisher said to as he opened his post-game press conference. "Miami did the things they had to do and took advantage of some opportunities in the game."

One of those opportunities was following a TAMU field goal of 28 yards, the Aggies kicked off to Brashard Smith who raced 98 yards through the middle of the field to score a touchdown on a kickoff return.

Fisher was fighting for his job in this game and simply got out coached by Miami's new offensive and defensive coordinators (Shannon Dawson and Lance Guidry) who called a brilliant game.

"Our guys fought their tails off," Fisher said. "We kept coming back."

That is a misnomer as Cristobal and the Hurricanes would not let them back in the game. For the first time in many years, Miami's offense hit the gas pedal from whistle to whistle and kept driving down the field. They also, more importantly, kept scoring.

"I think it's a credit to the players because that's always been the goal. When you change regimens and change culture, you always have a choice to make and you can stick with what you believe in and sometimes it’s ugly, cause last year was," Cristobal said of last year's 5-7 season that saw the Canes lose to the Aggies 17-9 at College Station.

Van Dyke said after the game, "I think last year we would have quit. We're a totally different team."

Cristobal added the following comments about his new coaching staff and team.

"If you believe in it and make sure that the right people continue to grow and stay and you bring in people that are like-minded and hard-working and that’s a nice combination and that leads to better culture, better atmosphere, better environment, better programs, better businesses, better organizations. That’s what we feel we are headed toward and today was a big step in the that direction.”

The Canes had over 100 recruits attend the game and put on an air show to leave a lasting impression. They also showed that their defense was for real, as they sacked Weigman four times without two of their best lineman, Ahkeem Mesidor and Branson Deen, who left the game with injuries. Both players are expected to be back for Thursday night's game with Bethune-Cookman.

As for Fisher, who at press time still has his job and his 10-year $95 million contract that he signed in 2021, he seemed to put the blame on his defense.

"We didn't tackle well. We had we guys we could have tackled and we tackled poor in space," Fisher said. "That is one thing we did last weekend. They had yards after catch and we had some guys with arms around them but we just didn’t make the plays and get them on the ground. They did a really good job of running with the football and we didn’t tackle well in space afterwards.”