Miami Hurricanes 2015 Opponent Preview
Week 10
Virginia (November 7th at Sun Life Stadium)
The 2015 Miami Hurricanes Opponent Preview continues
with the preview of the Virginia Cavaliers, who come to Sun Life Stadium on
November 7th.
In Charlottesville, the talk
each year is about Mike London’s job status. He did enough to keep his job, but
not enough to quiet the critics (see Al with CANES fans). This year, London needs to have his team go
bowling or likely be out. With a trip to Pasadena in the season opener, and
Notre Dame the following week, and Boise coming in two weeks later on a Friday
night, it could get very ugly in Charlottesville very quickly.
Let’s talk about Virginia’s Offense.
Now that Greyson Lambert is now in Athens,
GA, this is now Matt Johns’ job as the Quarterback. A big reason for that was
because Johns had a huge Spring. While Johns was ok in relief of Lambert in
2014, because Lambert was hurt, in 2015, this is his job from Game 1. He’s
going to have to be the one to step up and be the leader of that offense. They will have experience back in the receiving corps. Canaan Severin and Andre Levrone both return at the WR positions. The former was their top receiver stat wise last year with 578 yards receiving, and the latter was their big play threat catching 15 passes for 248 yards. There is an area were Levrone needs to hone in on. He caught just 35% of his targets in 2014. To be fair, its not completely his fault here, but still that number needs to get better in 2015. They will get a lift from UNC graduate transfer T.J. Thorpe. While Thorpe was a top notch played in high school, the same could not be said about his college career, which has been very much injury prone.
As for the Running backs, they have a legit threat there in Taquan “Smoke” Mizzell, who can be a play maker as a receiver. In 2014, he had 39 passes caught for 271 yards, and in addition, he had 280 yards rushing as their 3rd back in their rotation. His career has been sub-par in college so far. However, now as the go to guy in the backfield, maybe we’ll see the talent that fans up there haven’t seen yet.
Their O-Line is ok in protecting the passer, but terrible vs the run. They do have three starters and four other players with starting experience back for them in 2015. Eric Smith is going to have to step up and be their leader here on this unit, even though he was listed 2nd on their depth chart behind RS freshman Jake Fieler, Smith is going to be starting on their line, especially when you consider he’s had twenty career starts, Also back for them at RG is RS Senior Ross Burbank, who has fifteen career starts.
Let’s talk about Virginia’s Defense
Their secondary has some promise here with Quin Blanding back. As a freshman last year, he had 91.5 tackles and three interceptions. He’s one that they hope will be a very good one, if not a great one back there. To help Blanding back here, Cornerbacks Maurice Canady and Tim Harris return. Harris, who played in ten games, had a pick, and broke-up four passes. As for Canady, he had three picks and twelve pass break ups. The secondary is going to be very good again in 2015.The same cannot be said for the Linebackers. They will have to fill three spots there. Their three backups from last season return and they added a LB in their 2015 class that they hope will make an immediate impact there. The freshman they’re referring to is C.J. Stalker, who’s a true freshman, and expected to be the man right away. The other three, that were backups last year, returning are Micah Kiser, Mark Hall and Zach Bradshaw. Each of these players saw action in ten or more games last year. Kiser, as a true freshman in 2014 had 12 tackles in 12 games.
While Eli Harold, (drafted in the 3rd round by San Francisco), is the only major loss on their D-Line, it’s a big one though. Consider that Harold had 14.5 tackles for loss and seven sacks in 2014. That’s going to be tough to replace. It’s going to be up to David Dean and Mike Moore, to each step up and have the production that Harold leaves behind. While they each had eight tackles for loss last season, they only have four combined sacks in their careers. The one that has to fill Harold’s big shoes is Kwontie Moore. He only had two sacks, in spot duty last season.
What to expect
from Virginia
This is a team that has beaten
The U on Al Golden’s watch 3 of the 4 times they’ve played. This team doesn’t
blow you away. This is a young team, and with a tough early schedule and add to
the fact Mike London is on the hot seat this year, there should be no reason at
all why The U doesn’t beat them this year.
Their 2015 Pump-Up Video
Their 2015 Spring Game (after this game, Lambert would announce he's leaving for Athens)
This is the game from last year up there in Charlottesville
In this game, it’ll be at home at Sun Life. After last year vs UVa after
the heartbreaking loss to FSU the week before, the U quit and tanked up in
Charlottesville. You know there’s payback on the CANES minds here. This needs to be a statement game for the U
and a CANES comfortable victory over UVa.
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