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Cam Ward keeps bailing No. 5 Miami out. Only this time he didn’t wait until the end to do it.
The Hurricanes’ star led his team to 5 second half touchdowns to rally it from a 10-point deficit and a 53-31 victory against Duke that keeps it undefeated. In the process, Ward re-ignited his own Heisman Trophy hopes by throwing for 400 yards and 5 scores against a defense that came into the game allowing the second-fewest points in the ACC.
Miami outscored the Blue Devils 36-10 in the second half to reach the 50-point mark for the fifth time in 9 games this season. The Hurricanes came into the game leading the nation in scoring offense at 46.8 points per game.
Here are 3 takeaways from the win that spoiled Duke coach Manny Diaz’s return to Miami – where he coached from 2019-21 – and should keep the Hurricanes in the top 5 when the first College Football Playoff rankings are announced on Tuesday:
Getting Cam going early
Maybe it was a product of the defensive look Duke was giving Miami to start the game. Or maybe Mario Cristobal was trying to get his quarterback’s name back up to the top of the list of Heisman hopefuls.
Or maybe it was a combination of the 2.
Whatever the reason, the Hurricanes unleashed Ward early on Saturday. Of the first 7 plays on their opening drive, 6 were passes. Five of them were completions for 72 yards, including a Heisman-quality 34-yard touchdown strike to Xavier Restrepo in which Ward scrambled out of trouble, bought time and finally hit his man in with a dart in the corner of the end zone.
Ward hit tight end Cam McCormick for a more conventional touchdown pass later in the first quarter on his way to a 5-touchdown performance. It was the sixth time this season in which he has thrown for 3 or more scores. And it comes a week after a pedestrian performance in which he was held without a touchdown pass in a win against Florida State.
Record-breaking Restrepo
Xavier Restrepo’s 66-yard touchdown catch and run with 7:36 remaining didn’t just break the game open for the Hurricanes. It also broke a record while tying another career mark.
XAVIER RESTREPO WITH A RECORD-BREAKING PLAY ‼️ pic.twitter.com/eIVGm1GtAK
— ESPN (@espn) November 2, 2024
The senior receiver took a short pass across the middle, split 2 potential Blue Devils tacklers and took off on a sprint to the end zone to give Miami a 46-31 lead. In doing so, he passed Santana Moss for first place on Miami’s all-time receiving yardage list. Moss amassed 2,547 yards from 1997-2000 before going on to a successful NFL career. With his 8146-yard performance against Duke on Saturday, Restrepo now has 2,573.
The long touchdown pass was Restrepo’s eighth in the game. That increased his career total to 182, tying Mike Harley (2017-2021) for the most in Hurricanes’ history.
The catch that kick-started Duke’s offense
Sometimes the smallest things can make the biggest difference in a football game. For Duke in general and quarterback Maalik Murphy in particular on Saturday it was a well-placed toe tap on the sideline by Jordan Moore.
The graduate receiver managed to get a foot down inbounds as he caught a 27-yard pass from Murphy that set up a rushing touchdown by Payton Jones and ignited what to that point had been a dormant Blue Devils offense.
Murphy completed only 1 of his first 6 passes with an interception and Miami outgained Duke 156-5 over the first 11 minutes as the Hurricanes jumped out to an early 14-0 lead. But Moore’s catch, along with completion on a slant to Eli Pancol 2 players earlier changed everything.
Murphy completed 10 of his next 12 passes for 159 yards and touchdowns to Sahmir Hagans and Jones in leading the Blue Devils to a 21-17 halftime lead. Murphy started strong in the second half by putting together another touchdown drive to increase his team’s lead before throwing a pair of interceptions that helped the Hurricanes battled back.
The Texas transfer finished the game 25-of-41 for 325 yards and 3 touchdowns. Moore also showed that he’s as good with his hands as he is with feet by making an incredible, leaping 1-handed catch that led to a fourth-quarter field goal.
Award-winning columnist Brett Friedlander has covered the ACC and college basketball since the 1980s.
