Ryan Clark dubs Miami ‘the most traditionally SEC football team’ in the country
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Ryan Clark went on ESPN’s First Take the morning after Miami‘s miraculous victory over Ole Miss in the College Football Playoff semifinals and effectively called the Hurricanes an SEC team.
Now, we all know that Miami hails from the ACC, but what the ESPN football analyst was trying to say is that the Canes play like a traditional, powerful SEC team. It was meant to be a huge compliment, considering the SEC won’t have a team in the championship game for the 3rd straight season and considering that Miami had just beaten an SEC team to get to the national title game.
Of course, the Hurricanes got to the finish line at the Fiesta Bowl thanks to a former SEC player in ex-Georgia quarterback Carson Beck, whose touchdown run in the final seconds lifted Miami to a thrilling 31-27 victory. So, there was that, but Clark’s point was how the Canes dominated in the trenches and with their supreme athletes.
“The Miami Hurricanes are the most traditionally SEC football team in all the country,” Clark said. “This team absolutely dominated from a physicality standpoint, from an athleticism standpoint.”
Miami rolled up 459 total yards against the Rebels, went a staggering 11 of 19 on 3rd down (and 2 for 2 on 4th down) and, maybe most impressive, held the ball for over 41 minutes, which speaks to what Clark was talking about with its physical domination.
The Canes also rushed for 191 yards and needed every last yard in overcoming Ole Miss’s furious rally with a furious rally of their own in the final, frantic seconds.
There may not be an official SEC team in the upcoming championship game on Jan. 19, but to Clark’s point, there will be a team playing in that game that operates like a traditional SEC team.
Cory Nightingale, a former sportswriter and sports editor at the Miami Herald and Palm Beach Post, is a South Florida-based freelance writer who covers Alabama for SaturdayDownSouth.com.
