Game Day Notes: Miami Hurricanes vs. Ball State … how to watch, start time, game notes & more

NO. 10 MIAMI (2-0, 0-0 ACC) VS. BALL STATE (0-1)

GAMEDAY INFORMATION

Date: Sat., Sept. 14, 2024
Time: 3:30 p.m. EDT
Location: Miami Gardens, Fla.
Stadium: Hard Rock Stadium
Television: ACC Network
Talent: Chris Cotter, Mark Herzlich, Coley Harvey
Radio: 560 WQAM
Talent: Joe Zagacki, Don Bailey, Jr., Josh Darrow
Series History: First meeting

GAME NOTES

QUICK HITS

• The Miami Hurricanes continue their third season under the direction of head coach Mario Cristobal on Sat., Sept. 14 against Ball State. Kickoff is set for 3:30 p.m. from Hard Rock Stadium.

• Saturday’s meeting between Miami and Ball State is the first in history. Both Cristobal and Ball State head coach Mike Neu are coaching at their alma maters.

• Miami continued the longest streak of home opener wins in program history at 18 straight years with a 56-9 win over Florida A&M on Sept. 7.

• Members of the 1989 national championship team will be honored at halftime of Saturday’s game for their 35-year reunion; Roland Smith, current Miami recruiting staffer, is honorary captain of the game.

STORYLINES

• Miami is looking for its second straight 3-0 start to the season when it hosts Ball State on Sept. 14 at Hard Rock Stadium. Kickoff for Miami’s final home nonconference tilt of the year is set for 3:30 PM on ACC Network.

• Bolstered by the addition of several impressive newcomers and anchored by a talented group of returning veterans, Miami was ranked No. 19 in both preseason polls – and moved up to No. 10 in the Associated Press poll and No. 12 in the LBM Coaches Poll on Sept. 8.

• Among Miami’s top newcomers is QB Cam Ward, who was named ACC Preseason Player of the Year in a poll of media at the conference’s annual media day in Charlotte, N.C. Selected to nearly every major award watch list, Ward was brilliant in the season opener against Florida, throwing for 385 yards on 26-for-35 passing with three touchdowns and one interception.

THE MATCHUP

• #10/#12 Miami continues the 2024 season – its third under head coach Mario Cristobal – on Saturday, Sept. 14 against Ball State. Kickoff is at 3:30 p.m. on ACC Network from Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens, Fla.

• The meeting between the two programs in the first in history. Both Cristobal and Ball State head coach Michael Neu are coaching at their alma maters; Cristobal is a 1993 UM alum, while Neu graduated from Ball State in 1994.

• Miami is looking to start the season 3-0 for the second straight year under Cristobal; Miami started 4-0 in 2023.

A LOOK BACK: HURRICANES TOP RATTLERS, 56-9

• Miami jumped out to an early lead and never looked back in its home opener at Hard Rock Stadium, toppling Florida A&M 56-9 on Sept. 7. Miami outgained the Rattlers, 549-190, and averaged 7.7 yards per play.

• QB Cam Ward threw for 304 yards on 20-for-26 passing with three touchdowns and no interceptions. He became the first Miami quarterback to ever throw for more than 300 yards in his first two starts as a Hurricane.

• WR Xavier Restrepo recorded the eighth 100-yard game of his career, hauling in four catches for 104 yards. He had a 50-yard touchdown catch in the first half which ranked as the second-longest catch of his career.

• TE Elijah Arroyo registered his first touchdown in 1,043 days with a 17-yard reception on the opening drive against Florida A&M. Arroyo’s last touchdown came against Pitt on Oct. 30, 2021.

• DE Tyler Baron had a three-sack performance against the Rattlers, finishing with five total tackles and 3.5 tackles for loss. He became the eighth Hurricane in the last 20 seasons to have at least three sacks in a game.

• LB Wesley Bissainthe and LB Adarius Hayes recorded the first interceptions of their careers, while RB Jordan Lyle recorded the first touchdown rush of his career.

MIAMI IN AP TOP 10 FOR FIRST TIME SINCE 2020

• Following a 56-9 win over Florida A&M on Sept. 7, the Hurricanes cracked the top-10 of the Associated Press poll on Sept. 8 at No. 10. It was the first time Miami has been ranked in the AP top 10 since Dec. 6, 2020 (No. 9).

• The Hurricanes, who moved up two spots in the AP poll, moved up three spots to No. 12 in the LBM Coaches Poll from No. 15 – its highest ranking since being No. 8 in the coaches poll on the same date (Dec. 6, 2020).

• Bolstered by the addition of several impressive newcomers and anchored by a talented group of returning veterans, the Hurricanes are ranked in the top 25 of both preseason polls – checking in at No. 19 in both the US LBM Coaches Poll and Associated Press rankings.

• After a resounding 41-17 win over Florida in Gainesville in their Week 1 opener, Miami jumped to No. 12 in the AP poll and No. 15 in the Coaches Poll.

• Cristobal’s highest-ranked team as a head coach came in the final 2019 polls, when the Ducks were No. 5/5.

• The Hurricanes were not ranked in the 2023 preseason polls, but were ranked in the 2022 preseason polls in Cristobal’s first year as head coach, checking in at No. 16 in that year’s coaches poll and No. 17 in the AP top 25.

• Miami spent four weeks in the top 25 of 2022 (preseason, Sept. 6, Sept. 11, Sept. 18 polls) and also cracked the top 25 rankings of both polls for four weeks in 2023 (Sept. 10, Sept. 17, Sept. 24, Oct. 1). It has been in the rankings of both polls for the first three weeks of 2024.

RESTREPO CRACKS TOP 10 OF UM RECORD BOOK

• With a four-catch, 104-yard performance last time out vs. Florida A&M, WR Xavier Restrepo jumped into the top 10 of Miami’s all-time record book in receiving yards.

• The performance – the eighth 100-yard game of his career – moved him past Andre Jonson (1,831) and Allen Hurns (1,891) into 10th place in program history. For his career, Restrepo now has totaled 1,933 yards.

• Restrepo needs 200 yards to pass No. 9 Phillip Dorsett (2,132), 214 to pass No. 8 Travis Benjamin (2,146), 226 to pass No. 7 Mike Harley (2,158) and 228 to pass No. 6 Leonard Hankerson (2,160). With 286 more yards, he’d move past Stacy Coley (2,218) into the top 5 in program history.

• With his eighth career 100-yard performance, Restrepo tied Andre Johnson for the most games with 100 receiving yards by a Miami player since 2000. He was previously tied with Santana Moss and Phillip Dorsett (7 each).

NEW HURRICANES SIGNALCALLER: QB CAM WARD

• Miami added one of the top quarterbacks in the country in the January transfer window, signing QB Cam Ward after two dominant years at Washington State. Ward, who began his career at FCS program Incarnate Word in 2020, started all 25 games of his Washington State career across 2022 and 2023. He finished his time at Wazzu with 6,963 passing yards and 48 passing touchdowns compared to 16 interceptions, and also added 13 rushing touchdowns in his two years with the Cougars.

• In his first start as a Hurricane, Ward threw for 385 yards, three touchdowns and one interception on 26-for-35 passing in a road win over Florida. The 385 yards were the most by a Hurricane quarterback in the first start of his Miami career in the modern era of Hurricanes Football (since 1979). He added 33 rushing yards on three carries.

• Ward became the first Hurricane player in program history to throw for 300 yards in his first two starts when he tossed for 304 yards and three touchdowns with no interceptions against Florida A&M. He also rushed for a touchdown in the victory to help propel Miami to a 2-0 start.

• He was the first Miami quarterback to throw for 300 yards and three touchdowns in a season opener since Ken Dorsey did so at Penn State in 2001. Ward was named ACC Quarterback of the Week and Maxwell Award National Player of the Week for his performance against the Gators. He was also named Davey O’Brien Quarterback of the Week, a member of the Davey O’Brien Award “Great Eight” and a Manning Award Star of the Week.

• He passed for 2,260 yards and an FCS-leading 24 touchdowns against four interceptions with two rushing touchdowns in six games during the shortened 2020–21 FCS season, which was played in spring 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. He won the Jerry Rice Award as the most outstanding freshman in Division I FCS.

• Ward was named the ACC Preseason Player of the Year in a poll of conference media at the league’s annual “ACC Kickoff” event in Charlotte. Before transferring to Washington State, Ward was named Southland Conference Offensive Player of the Year in his final year at UIW (2021), totaling 4,648 passing yards and 47 touchdowns.

• A native of West Columbia, Texas – with a population of 3,700 – Ward was a “zero star” recruit out of high school. Though he starred in high school, he threw for only 1,070 yards as a junior and had 12 passing attempts per game as a senior due to the program’s focus on running the football.

• Among active players entering the 2024 season, Cam Ward’s career total yardage of 14,140 at the FBS / FCS level far surpassed No. 2 Will Rogers (11,999), No. 3 Seth Henigan (11,483), No. 4 Grayson McCall (11,118) and No. 5 Shedeur Sanders (10,293). Since 2020, Ward and former Auburn / Oregon QB Bo Nix (14,110) were the only players to have surpassed 14,000 yards of total offense (pass and rush). He added 413 yards Week 1 vs. UF.

TIGHT ENDS EMERGING THROUGH TWO WEEKS

• The Hurricanes impressive tight end room showed out in UM’s opener against Florida, serving as pivotal points of the offensive attack. A season after the entire group finished with 154 receiving yards and one touchdown in 2023, Elijah Arroyo had a career-best 89 yards on four catches, Cam McCormick opened the game’s scoring with his first touchdown as a Hurricane, and freshman Elija Lofton had two catches for 38 yards vs. the host Gators.

• Through two weeks, Miami’s tight ends have totaled 183 yards on 11 catches with two touchdown receptions.

BARON JOINS ELITE COMPANY WITH 3-SACK GAME

• One of Miami’s most important offseason additions came on the defensive line, when DE Tyler Baron arrived to Coral Gables after an impressive career at Tennessee. Baron enrolled at Louisville for the spring but elected to transfer to the Hurricanes, where he has shined through the first two weeks of the 2024 season.

• The Knoxville, Tenn., native started once again and put together only the 10th three-sack game over the last 20 years by a UM player vs. Florida A&M. He was named ACC Defensive Lineman of the Week for his performance.

MIAMI STARTS 2-0 FOR THIRD STRAIGHT YEAR

• Miami head coach Mario Cristobal has led the Hurricanes to a 2-0 start for the third straight season, encompassing his entire tenure as head coach. Cristobal is now tied with Howard Buck (1926-1928) for the second longest streak of 2-0 starts to open a Miami coaching career at three.

• Larry Coker is the only coach in Miami Hurricanes history to start four straight seasons 2-0 (2001-2004).