MIAMI GARDENS — Carson Beck. I want to mention the University of Miami quarterback right here at the start, because he’s the leader of a 4-0 team and an early Heisman Trophy candidate, and because I’m not talking about him the rest of the column.
The big uglies on the lines were the story in Miami’s 26-7 win against Florida. They were big and beautiful. That became obvious somewhere between “Hut-One” and “Hut-Two,” of each offense’s opening play.
On Florida’s first play, Miami defensive tackle Ruben Bain Jr., made a tackle for a 3-yard loss.
“Flying around at 100 mph,’’ Bain called his style of play.
On Miami’s first play, running back Mark Fletcher ran over right tackle Francis Mauigoa for 13 yards. It went just how you draw it up.
There’s the quick version of Miami’s win against Florida and the identity of these Hurricanes. Bain and Mauigoa are the pillars of Cristobal’s building job. They explain why Miami is No. 4 in the country and still climbing.
Two years ago, Cristobal turned to some NFL scouts at a practice that a freshman Mauigoa was dominating and said, “You guys don’t get him for three years.” The same could have been said about Bain.
“The only question with those two is how high they go in the first round,’’ an NFL scout said at Saturday’s game.
This was a rare game where it wasn’t coach against coach, quarterback against quarterback, defense against defense, or one team’s big plays against the other’s big plays.
It was line against line, grunt against grunt, from the start. Each coach decided smashmouth was the best way to win and told their big beauties to take over.
Florida had no choice. Its passing game was out of a youth league. When coach Billy Napier tried to lean into quarterback D.J. Lagway, Miami’s defense dominated. It held Florida to fewest yards (5) in the first quarter since 2012. That was five coaches ago in the Will Muschamp Era – nearly six with Napier dangling.
Florida had 32 yards at half. Miami already had four drives that went longer.
So, starting the second half, Napier played the only card available to him. He put the night on his offensive line. Its first drive of the second half went 11 plays and 80 yards for its lone score. Ten of those 11 plays were runs.
‘We had to regroup,’’ Bain said.
Suddenly, a night Miami controlled was a 13-7 game. Just as suddenly on the next play from scrimmage, a Florida interception put it back in business at the Gator 48-yard line.
It had four runs to the Miami 31 where, on second down, Napier got tricky. He called for Lagway to pass, and resulted in a 9-yard loss from a sack. That left a long, third down attempt and to show how that went Florida was 0-for-13 on third downs.
“I’ve never been part of an organization that’s had that statistic,’’ Cristobal said.
Cristobal, too, told his line take over the night. They did, too. The Cane Push – their version of the Tush Push – kept moving the pile on fourth-and-1 early in the second half and running back Marty Brown eventually got loose for a 47-yard touchdown.
The night could’ve been over there with Miami up 20-0, but a bad officiating whistle that thought Brown’s momentum was stopped. The ref said he missed the call, Cristobal said afterward. But Miami’s drive stalled.
So, it wasn’t until the fourth quarter this offensive line was asked to be Mariano Rivera and close the night. Miami ran the ball 10 times and threw just three on an 80-yard fourth-quarter drive that made it 19-7 (the two-point conversion failed).
“I thought they took over the fourth quarter from a physicality standpoint,’’ Cristobal said of his line.
Beck was more clinical.
“We ran it down their throats,’’ he said.
They ran for 189 smashmouth yards on the night (Beck took a minus-5 yard kneel down on the final snap to make the official count 184 yards). They passed for 160 yards. That tells you how the line played.
When’s the last time a Miami team could overpower a strong defense like that? Maybe 2006? That’s probably the last time they had a defensive line capable of winning a big night, too.
Beck was requested for the post-game TV interview to the country because he’s the quarterback. But this was a night where the pillars of Cristobal’s vision, Bain and Mauigoa, were the stars on lines that won the night. They showed why they’re the pillars to what Cristobal has built.
The big uglies were simply big and beautiful.
