Miami Hurricanes learn bowl fate: It's Pinstripe Bowl in New York City Dec. 28 against Rutgers
Miami Hurricanes coach Mario Cristobal said after the regular season ended that he wants this program to start taking all its bowl games – whether playoffs or otherwise – as “a serious thing for Miami.”
“There has been an arrogant approach to the postseason and late season games unless you are playing for it all,” he said. “That can’t happen here. We have moved in the right direction the latter part of the season approaching that, now have to have the same attitude for the postseason.”
Now Miami knows its postseason date, location and opponent.
Off an up-and-down 7-5 season that saw the team drop three of its final four games, the Canes will look to go out on a positive in New York’s Yankee Stadium in the Pinstripe Bowl vs. 6-6 Rutgers on Dec. 28 at 2:15 p.m.
The Canes played in the Pinstripe Bowl before – in 2018 the team lost to Wisconsin, 35-3. Miami owns a 20-24 overall record in 44 previous bowl games. Miami’s matchup with Rutgers is the first meeting between the two programs since 2003 – a 34-10 win for the Hurricanes. Miami leads the all-time series, 11-0.
“We are excited to accept a bid to the Bad Boy Mowers Pinstripe Bowl in venerable Yankee Stadium,” Vice President/Director of Athletics Dan Radakovich said. “Visiting New York to play in a bowl game at such an historic venue is a great reward and a memorable opportunity for both our student-athletes and our fans.”
This time around Miami also will be without several key players. Starting QB Tyler Van Dyke is in the transfer portal, and his backup Emory Williams suffered a broken arm vs. Florida State. So Jacurri Brown, the only healthy scholarship quarterback on the roster, will get the start in the bowl game.
The team is expected to be without several players that have declared their intention to go pro or to transfer. Expected to go pro and likely sit out the bowl game are S Kam Kinchens, S James Williams,
OL Javion Cohen and DT Leonard Taylor. Going in the portal: the aforementioned Van Dyke, DE Jahfari Harvey, RB Don Chaney, WR Frank Ladson and LB Corey Flagg.
Other players are likely to go in the portal before it closes – the portal opens tomorrow and closes 30 days later.
Miami, of course, wasn’t eligible for a bowl game last year with a 5-7 record, and the prior year Washington State backed out due to COVID-19 protocols.
In Miami’s last bowl game in 2021 the team lost to Oklahoma State in the Cheez-It Bowl, 37-34. And the Canes have dropped four bowl games in a row and have dropped 10 of the last 11 (with the lone win in 2016 against West Virginia in the Russell Athletic Bowl, 31-14).
So yes, Cristobal’s words certainly are accurate.
This team needs to start taking bowl games seriously and winning them.
And that will start in his first bowl game as Miami’s head coach later this month.
