If you saw the first 90 seconds of the No. 12 Miami Hurricanes’ home opener against the Florida A&M Rattlers on Saturday, you had a pretty good idea how things were going to play out. Three plays into the game, Hurricanes linebacker Wesley Bissainthe intercepted a pass from FAMU quarterback Daniel Richardson and set the Hurricanes up with a short field. Two plays after that, Miami quarterback Cam Ward found tight end Elijah Arroyo wide open in the middle of the field for a 17-yard touchdown. That was just the beginning. The Hurricanes had no problem with an overmatched Florida A&M team in a 56-9 blowout win at Hard Rock Stadium in Miami’s home opener. Miami is 2-0. FAMU, which plays in the FCS, falls to 2-1.
The Hurricanes jumped out to a 25-6 halftime lead and had most of its starters out of the game by the third quarter. Quarterback Cam Ward completed 20 of 26 passes for 304 yards and three first-half touchdowns without an interception before turning the game over to Albany transfer Reese Poffenbarger and the second-team offense late in the third quarter. In addition to the touchdown to Arroyo, Ward found senior wide receiver Xavier Restrepo for 50 yards and redshirt freshman Chris Johnson Jr. Miami added rushing touchdowns from Mark Fletcher (4 yards) and Damien Martinez (33 yards) and Ward (8 yards) on their first three drives of the second half before sitting the starters for the rest of the game. And for good measure, the backups held their own as well.
Freshman running back Jordan Lyle, who turned 19 on Saturday, capped their first drive with a 1-yard touchdown. Among the other highlights on offense: ▪ Restrepo had four catches for 104 yards, his eighth 100-yard receiving game at UM. He now has 1,933 receiving yards in his Miami career, which is the 10th most in school history. He surpassed Andre Johnson and Allen Hurns on that list Saturday. ▪ Arroyo’s touchdown catch was the second of his UM career and first since Oct. 30, 2021. ▪ Martinez’s touchdown was his first at Miami since transferring from Oregon State this offseason. Defensively, Miami held FAMU to just three field goals while logging five sacks and 10 tackles for loss. Tyler Baron had three of those sacks. A pair of true freshmen also hit notable first milestones on Saturday, with defensive lineman Justin Scott recording his first sack and linebacker Cam Pruitt logging his first interception.
