Bethune Cookman (CANES opponent on Saturday Night)

Here's video of Bethune's final game of last season vs FAMU in Orlando at the Florida Classic.

A reminder that game time at Sun Life is 6 p.m. and can be seen on ESPN3.com

2015 Miami Hurricanes Opponent Preview - Week 1 (Bethune-Cookman 9/5 at Sun Life Stadium)

Miami Hurricanes 2015 Opponent Preview

Week 1

Bethune-Cookman (September 5th at Sun Life Stadium)

The 2015 Miami Hurricanes Opponent Preview begins with the preview of the Bethune-Cookman Wildcats, who come into Sun Life for the 2015 Season opener on September 5th at 6 p.m., on ESPNU. 

As for Bethune Cookman, who went 9-3 (6-2 in the MEAC) in 2014, has a new coach, but expect more of the same from the Wildcats in 2015. Yes, Brian Jenkins is gone, has he’s the new Head Coach over at Alabama State. Jenkins went 46-14 in his time in Daytona Beach, but now its Terry Sims’ job and he’s expected to build off the success Jenkins had there. Last year, Quentin Williams and Larry Brihm Jr. split time at quarterback and they’re expected to do the same this season. In 2014, Brihm was No. 1 in the league in passing efficiency and Williams was No.3.

An interesting note from a CANES perspective. Danny Dillard, a former back for the U, now in his second season at B-C, could be the Wildcats’ main rushing threat. In addition, Jawill Davis, who had nine receptions in the spring game, could key the passing game. Others to keep an eye out on here are WRs Michael Jones and Frank Brown, the latter we were looking at back in 2013.

Defensively, the Wildcats is going to basically be young, since they lost a lot of key personnel from 2014, which included former CANE DB Thomas Finnie, whom Al kicked off the team back in 2013. Another CANES side note here, DL David Perry is on their roster. 

What to expect from Bethune Cookman

Looking at them on tape (from last year's Florida Classic vs FAMU), they’ll run the spread on offense, but the thing they do best is find lanes to get yards in chunks.

They’ll give different looks on defense, but adapt to the situations of the game (time and score) like most teams do.

The video below is their Special Teams

In the end, too much CANES firepower here. Expect the starters to be out of the game by late in the 3rd quarter, and CANES cruise to an easy victory.

Up Next: at FAU (9/11 in Boca)

Report Card and Game Balls vs Bethune-Cookman

Thoughts on Yesterday's game. Offensively, big performance from Duke. We had 426 yards total offense. Nice performance from Morris going 20-35 211 yards, 1 TD, 1 INT. However, of our 9 penalties, 4 of them on the Offense and all of them were false starts. Those are drive killing penalties you can't have. I didn't like the fact that the game was a little too close for comfort going into the 4th only up 24-10, but we got the job done and move on to 2-1 on the season.

Defensively, good performance from Tyriq McCord with 5 tackles (2 sacks, 2 TFLs). Shayon Green with 8 tackles and 1 broken up pass. However, we did allow 233 yards rushing (127 in the 2nd half, 106 in the 1st half), but compared to 255 yards rushing allowed last week vs K-State, its a slight improvement, but we can still do better. The down side is that Denzel was hurt, might not play in the next game @Georgia Tech. We did have 3 sacks in this ballgame and had a pick. Didn't like the fact we were EVEN on the turnover margin, against a good team, that's asking for trouble. We allowed 355 yards total offense, which was a little better, compared to almost 500 yards allowed vs K-State. However, there is still room for improvement here. 

Special Teams, Duke with the 95 yarder on the kickoff for the TD gave us a jolt confidence wise. Nice performance from Dalton Botts with 3 of his 4 punts inside the 20 and no touchbacks. Phillip had 4 PRs for 21 yards, helps with the Field position game. We started drives from an average of our own 41, while Bethune started their drives from an average of their own 20, which is very good special teams defense by us. 

Now to the Report Card:

Offense: A- Gotta cut the false starts out, but other than that, running game was much improved yesterday, and no three and outs, however, we do need to improve our 3rd down conversion rate, we were 4-11 in that regard, compared to 5-12 vs K-State, slight regression there. The passing game was much better here.

Defense: C  Now, I know its been much maligned, but they did come to play yesterday. compared to the almost 500 yards allowed vs K-State. Yes, we did allow 355 yards total offense, however, 233 yards were on the ground, and again, compared to the 288 yards rushing we allowed vs K-State, 233 allowed is a slight improvement, but there is much room to get better here and they will get better at stopping the run. The pass rush finally made an appearance yesterday, getting 3 sacks and a pick. I didn't like the fact that Bethune converted 7 out of 19 on 3rd downs, however, compared to the 8 of 11 K-State converted, its an improvement, but we can still be better in this area as well. 

Special Teams: A  Duke with the huge kick return for 6 gives us a big shot in the arm here. Pinning Bethune deep after Dalton's 3 of 4 punts inside the 20 was huge from a Field position standpoint. Malcolm Lewis had a 39 yard return on a kickoff. Dorsett had 21 yards on 4 PRs. Outstanding effort by the Special Teams unit yesterday. 

Game Balls: This week, I'm handing out four game balls. 

1. Duke Johnson: 14 carries, 94 yards, 2 TDs rushing. 3 receptions for 57 yards, and of course the 95 yard Kick return for a TD. 247 yards all-purpose yesterday. 
2. Stephen Morris: 20-35 211 yards, 1 TD, 1 INT
3. Tyriq McCord: 5 tackles, 2 sacks 2 TFLs
4. Dalton Botts: 3 of 4 punts inside the 20, 0 touchbacks, 0 punt return yardage allowed

Yes, there is room for improvement and we'll need to get better stopping the run in the next game because the opponent is Georgia Tech on the road with the Triple Option. The key in the next game is assignment football. 

Bethune-Cookman Preview

This is the home opener for the CANES. The opponent is a familiar one in Bethune-Cookman. When they last met, the CANES had to work hard for a 45-14 victory over the Wildcats last year at Sun Life Stadium. 

Looking at Bethune-Cookman, this is a team that doesn't give up. They have a pretty good QB in Jackie Wilson from Fort Lauderdale. However, the Wildcats have had slow starts to their first two games, so hopefully, that trend will continue and the CANES start out much faster than they have the first two games, both times falling behind 14-0. 

When you look at last year's game, we started slowly in the 1st half, leading just 14-7, but pulled away in the 2nd half with 42 unanswered points to win comfortably. We know tomorrow, we can't have that happen again. The Defense must come out fast and make a statement for 4 quarters and get the taste of the loss in Manhattan, KS out of their mouths. The D cannot allow 422 yards like it did last year against the Wildcats, because that's going to be really asking for trouble. They held the ball for just about 39 minutes (38:59 to be exact). We have got to win the time of possession battle and we must win the turnover battle. 

We need a big game out of Duke, but I need to see a bigger game from the Defense tomorrow. I think we'll see that. This unit has to come out and make a statement in this game. 

In the end, I think we'll get big games from Duke, the D and on Special Teams. 

Prediction: CANES 42 Bethune-Cookman 14

Part 3 of 12 part CANE 2012 opponent series

In Part 3 of the 12 part series on our 2012 opponents, we're going to talk about the opponent in our home opener, the Bethune-Cookman Wildcats.

They are led by 3rd year head coach Brian Jenkins. In his two years in Daytona Beach, his teams are 18-5. They finished 2nd in their conference (MEAC) behind Norfolk State, who won the league title. They got four spots on the first team and three on the second of their preseason conference teams. Key players that return for them in 2012 are RS Junior RB Isidore Jackson (5'10" 195), who rushed for 866 yards on 146 carries in 2011, Junior OT Terrance Hackney (6'6" 310), RS Juniors LB Jarkevis Fields (6' 230), who led the team in tackles last year and Safety D.J. Howard (6' 185), who makes it two from both offense and defense on their conference first team.

Also, they have three on the conference preseason second team. Leading that group is RS Senior WR  Eddie Poole (6'3" 195, from Belle Glade Glades Central), who was with their Coach at the conference's pressers up in Norfolk,VA. The other two that are back in 2012 that are on the conference's 2nd team are Junior OL Marquell Rozier (6'7" 325) and Senior DT Harold Love III (6'3" 325).

This team, according to Lindy's, is ranked #14 in the FCS preseason poll. When you look at their schedule, we are the only FBS team that they play and we blew them out 45-14 last year at Sun Life, I think this team can make the FCS playoffs this year and make a deep run once there, and win their league, also, they get their biggest test in conference at home (Norfolk State). I predict for BCC a 10-1 season (only loss obviously to us), and run the table in their conference. 

In Part 4 of the series, we'll talk about the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets.