Miami Hosts Clemson In ACC Matchup

An interception by Kenny Phillips at the Miami 7-yard line sealed the Hurricanes triple-overtime victory over Clemson in 2005.

The thrilling 36-30 win at Memorial Stadium was the last time these Atlantic Coast Conference foes played against each other.  Their past two meetings have resulted in overtime games.  In 2004 Miami dropped a 24-17 decision at the Miami Orange Bowl.

“Clemson is a very good football team and we have gone into overtime the last two times we’ve played them,” Miami head coach Randy Shannon said at Tuesday’s news conference.  “They [Clemson] have some of the same types of athletes that we’ve had here at Miami and they even have some guys we recruited.”

No. 8 Miami returns to conference play this Saturday with a 5-1 record and 2-1 in the ACC after a three game non-conference slate.  The Hurricanes went 3-0 in that set, winning 21-20 against then-No. 8 Oklahoma and beating in-state opponents Florida A&M (48-16) and Central Florida (27-7).

Clemson (3-3, 2-2) is coming off a 38-3 win against Wake Forest. They visit Land Shark Stadium for a 3:30 p.m. kickoff against Miami. 

The Tigers’ losses this season have all been close.  The largest margin of defeat is four points and combined have lost by 10 points.

They lost on the road to No. 15 Georgia Tech 30-27 on a game-winning field goal with 57 seconds left in the game.  Clemson trailed 24-7 at the half before tying the game and taking the lead at 27-24. 

The Tigers then dropped a 14-10 decision to No.15 TCU at home and lost a 24-21 contest to Maryland in College Park.

The Miami defense will have to limit Clemson running back C.J. Spiller who averages 190.8 all-purpose yards per game.  On returns alone, he has amassed 334 yards.  This season Spiller has rushed for 466 yards, an average of 5 yards per carry.

“He’s good,” Shannon said.  “He’s one of the fastest and most athletic guys they have. He’s real good.  That’s all I can tell you.”

Under center quarterback Kyle Parker has passed for 1027 yards and six touchdowns.  He has completed just less than 50 percent of his passes and thrown five interceptions.

Miami’s secondary held UCF to 163 yards through the air last weekend.  Safety Randy Phillips said he would be ready to play this Saturday. 

Phillips has missed the last three games due to a shoulder injury he suffered against Virginia Tech, but he will be on the field providing senior leadership.  He will forego shoulder surgery until after the season ends. 

A bruised defensive line held UCF running back Brynn Harvey to 25 yards in last week’s game and the Knights to 53 yards on the ground, an average of 2.2 per carry.

For Miami, linebacker Darrell Sharpton led the team with 11 tackles at UCF.  Brandon Harris and Sean Spence each had seven tackles, with Spence adding two sacks.

First year defensive coordinator John Lovett will be on the opposite sideline come game time.  He spent the 2002-04 seasons at Clemson as assistant coach/defensive coordinator.

For the Mark Whipple offense, Jacory Harris had his second highest passing game of the season with 293 yards on 20-of-26 passing. 
  
Harris found nine different targets last Saturday.  It was a record day for LaRon Byrd in catches and yards gained as he caught five receptions for 85 yards. 

Harris will need to continue to distribute the ball for Miami’s offense to be effective.  The offense has relied on the pass game for 67 percent of the offense’s production. 

The running game with Damien Berry, has stepped up in the past two games.  Berry made his first appearance against Florida A&M two weeks ago rushing for 162 yards.  In his two appearances in the backfield he rushed for 222 yards. 

Running back Graig Cooper has been suffering from a hip pointer injury since the Oklahoma game.  He missed the past two games but expects to get playing time against Clemson.

The Miami offensive line allowed six sacks against the UCF defense.  Shannon said the offensive needs to improve and limit the amount of sacks they give up.

“We need to get better,” he said.  “Everyone needs to be on the same page, and Jacory needs to get rid of the ball when he is supposed to. 

Whenever you see sacks, it isn’t just the offensive line. It’s everybody.”

Harris said that there are many factors that went to the allowed sacks.

“The thing Coach Shannon said was, overall, it could be on everybody,” Harris said Tuesday at the press conference.”  It could be that I was holding the ball too long, missed assignments by the receivers, missed assignments by the offensive line. It’s just a team thing when it comes to sacks.”

Miami looks to win six of its first seven games when it battles Clemson. 

On another note Clemson cornerback Chris Chancellor will honor the death of UCONN player Jasper Howard, who was fatally stabbed following the team’s win, by wearing the number 6 instead of the usual 38 versus Miami.  Chancellor and Howard were high school teammates at Miami Edison.