Jacurri Brown reacts to winning first career start with Miami

With Tyler Van Dyke still banged up and Jake Garcia struggling, Miami coach Mario Cristobal turned to true freshman Jacurri Brown at quarterback for his first career start. He lived up to the moment, leading the Hurricanes to a resounding 35-14 win over Georgia Tech Saturday night.

The Georgia native — with “a whole bunch” of family and friends on hand — knew how poetic the moment was.

“It’s like homecoming,” Brown told ESPN+’s Wiley Ballard after the game. “It’s great how God works. My first start comes back in my home state. It just feels great. It’s great for this team, these fans.”

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Brown put together an impressive showing, completing 14 of 19 passes for 136 yards and three touchdowns to lead Miami to victory. It was a good bounce-back game for the Hurricanes after last week’s loss to Florida State — and for Brown, it was another big step in his journey as a football player.

“It feels great,” Brown said. “It feels like everything that I went through from elementary school, middle school up to this point. Working hard, living with my grandma, just taking care of everything. It just feels great. It feels like I did everything I needed to do.

“Just next man up. Coming out with this team, man. This team, we’ve battled a lot this year, we’ve been through a lot this year.

The game marked Brown’s seventh appearance of the season, but that doesn’t mean he didn’t feel some nerves going in. They disappeared quick, though, once he completed his first pass to Xavier Restrepo.

That’s when he really settled in.

“Once I got that first throw to X and that first hit, it [was] just like playing football in high school,” Brown said. “You can’t really get outside of football, man. It felt like playing just like in high school.”

Now, Miami is one win away from bowl eligibility with two games left on the schedule. Brown said Cristobal had a message for his team after last week’s loss.

“We came back in after that Florida State game and said we have a three-game season to get back to bowl eligible,” Brown said. “That’s our goal right now.”