Miami, FL
Miami has a star at QB in Cam Ward and a confident team capable of special things
GAINESVILLE, Fla. — Cam Ward was in a giving mood after the Miami Hurricanes opened their season Saturday by stomping the rival Florida Gators in The Swamp.
He offered some advice for the 90,000 fans who were screaming at the top of their lungs at him and his teammates.
“If you’re gonna be loud, be loud when we’re huddling,” Miami’s star quarterback said. “You can’t just be loud when we break the huddle. There’s no point. We heard the play and communicated already.”
The Gators didn’t lose, though, because their home crowd let them down. The 19th-ranked Hurricanes did it the old-fashioned way — by obliterating Florida on both sides of the line of scrimmage.
Done broke that gator jaw 😂😂 pic.twitter.com/v4pQXB3nTO
— Hurricane t2y (@T2yHurricane) September 1, 2024
Ward looked bored at times standing behind a wall of offensive linemen with enough time to sign NIL deals, sip tea and pick apart Florida’s secondary. He made one mistake early — an errant throw behind his receiver — and finished with 385 passing yards and three touchdowns while completing 26-of-35 pass attempts. He sidestepped Florida’s secondary with ease the two times he took off for long runs and was sacked only once.
Ward’s 23-yard touchdown pass to Jacolby George in the back of the end zone to make it 38-10 with six minutes left in the third quarter was his masterpiece.
“Yeah, he’s not bad,” Cristobal said of the Washington State transfer. “He’s just scratching the surface.”
The Hurricanes might be, too.
GO DEEPER
Billy Napier beware: Florida has not historically been patient in rebuilds
They were nearly perfect in the much-anticipated opener. Sure, Ward’s pick wasn’t ideal. And two Miami defensive players took a bad angle on a 71-yard touchdown run by Florida’s Montrell Johnson. Oh, Andy Borregales missed a field goal. Other than that? Not much to complain about.
The Canes held Florida to 261 yards of offense and outgained the Gators by 268 yards. And that was with Rueben Bain, their best defensive player, going down with a soft-tissue injury on the first play of the game. Starting cornerback Damari Brown was also sidelined early with a similar injury.
Don’t worry, Canes fans, Cristobal said he expects both players back in a week or two. The way the Hurricanes looked on Saturday, Bain and Brown could take the next month off. Florida A&M, Ball State and South Florida are up next on the schedule.
Miami should be 4-0 when it opens ACC play at home on Sept. 27 against Virginia Tech — a team that lost to Vanderbilt on Saturday. You probably have to glance ahead to the trip to Louisville on Oct. 19 to find a game the Hurricanes might not be favored to win.
“We’re playing Miami football now. We’re starting to look like Miami in a lot of different respects,” Cristobal said. “No one ever really likes to talk about the starting point. These guys have been through a lot and made the decision that they’d had enough. They proved it by the way they played the game.”
At ACC media days in July, Miami was picked to finish third in the league behind defending conference champion Florida State and the Clemson Tigers. Earlier on Saturday, Dabo Swinney’s team got run off the field in the second half by Georgia in a humbling 34-3 loss in Atlanta. Florida State needs to beat Boston College on Monday to avoid an 0-2 start.
With Ward at the helm, the Hurricanes are oozing confidence.
“He’s ridiculous. He’s amazing,” said Xavier Restrepo, who led Miami with seven catches for 112 yards and one touchdown. “He has the same love that we all have for the game. So it’s easy, you know, to do something for someone that loves football as much as you do.”
Ward, meanwhile, has no issue giving Gators and SEC fans a parting gift to chew on.
“I played at USC. USC wasn’t packed, but it was louder than this,” Ward said. “I played at Oregon. It was louder than this. Washington was one of the loudest environments I’ve played in. The Pac-12 is misspoken for. The Pac-12 is where I feel real football is played.”
(Photo of Cam Ward: James Gilbert / Getty Images)
An investigation is underway at a northwest Miami-Dade apartment complex after the sheriff’s office said a man was shot by his girlfriend after a “heated dispute” early Wednesday morning.
Few details have been released, but the Miami-Dade Sheriff’s Office said the incident took place at an apartment complex located off Northwest 7th Avenue.
The sheriff’s office said that a man became involved in a “heated dispute” with his girlfriend, and she shot him in the right arm.
He was rushed to a hospital by Miami-Dade Fire Rescue in critical condition.
The woman is in custody.
The identities of those who were involved have not yet been released.
No other information was available.
Game date, time and location: Tuesday, Mar. 3, 7:30 p.m. EST, Kaseya Center, Miami, Florida
TV: FanDuel Sports Network Sun, YES Network (Brooklyn)
Radio: 104.3 FM (Miami/Ft. Lauderdale), ESPN 106.3 FM, (West Palm Beach), FOX Sports Radio 105.9 FM (Ft. Myers/Naples), 1450 AM (Suart), 97.7 FM (Florida Keys), WAQI 710 AM (Spanish-language broadcast, South Florida), WFAN 101.9 FM/660 AM (Brooklyn)
VITALS: The Miami Heat (32-29) and Brooklyn Nets (15-45) meet for the second of three regular season matchups. Earlier this season, Miami recorded a, 106-95, win in Brooklyn on December 18 and has now won four of the last five overall against the Nets.
It also marks the first of consecutive games against Brooklyn with the teams facing each other again on Thursday. The Heat are 83-61 all-time versus the Nets during the regular season, including 44-26 in home games and 39-35 in road games.
PROJECTED STARTERS
HEAT
G Davion Mitchell
G Tyler Herro
C Bam Adebayo
F Pelle Larsson
F Andrew Wiggins
NETS
G Nolan Traore
G Terance Mann
C Nic Claxton
F Michael Porter Jr.
F Noah Clowney
INJURY REPORT
HEAT
Davion Mitchell: Questionable – Shoulder
Norman Powell: Out – Groin
Nikola Jovic: Out – Back
Trevor Keels: Available – G League
Jahmir Young: Available – G League
Vlad Goldin: Available – G League
Terry Rozier: Out – Not with team
NETS
Nic Claxton: Probable – Thumb
Egor Demin: Out – Foot
QUOTABLE
Miami Heat coach Erik Spoelstra: “Regardless of the scheme is, I always go back to that, it’s just about committing to doing hard things. We were really moving in the zone, taking away airspace and scrambling to challenge shots at the rim. In a lot of these losses in the last month we’ve just been giving up shots at the rim and threes.”
For more Miami Heat information and conversation, check out Off The Floor.
Alexander Toledo is a contributor to Miami Heat On SI and producer/co-host of the Five on the Floor podcast, covering the Heat and NBA. He can be reached at Twitter: @tropicalblanket
ORLANDO, Fla. — Lionel Messi scored twice in a four-goal second half, defender Telasco Segovia added a goal and two assists and defending champion Inter Miami CF rallied to beat Orlando City SC 4-2 on Sunday night, winning for the first time at Inter&Co Stadium.
Messi took a pass from Segovia and scored in the 57th minute to tie it 2-2, and Segovia scored unassisted in the 85th for the lead. Messi put the finishing touch on the victory when he scored off a free kick in the 90th.
“The victory belongs exclusively to the players,” Miami coach Javier Mascherano said after the game. “In the second half, they were a championship team. There were no tactics, nothing like that. There was heart, courage, possession, resilience, commitment. I think the team came out because they were champions last year.
“In the end, the players showed it. This victory is theirs.”
Messi’s first two goals of the season give him 52 in his first 55 regular-season MLS matches — 51 of them in his past 49 appearances. It also brought the reigning MLS MVP to 898 career goals scored, including 672 for Barcelona and 115 for Argentina.
“He’s the best player to ever play this sport. He’s a leader, and as a leader, he inspires others, but he also often needs to be inspired himself,” Mascherano said of Messi. “When he was driving forward, he had more attacking options, and with so many opportunities, he clearly has the ability to create chances like no one else, and that’s what allowed us to turn the game around.”
Marco Pašalić took a pass from Iván Angulo and scored in the 18th minute to give Orlando City a 1-0 lead. Pašalić has scored in four straight matches against Inter Miami.
Defender Griffin Dorsey set up Martín Ojeda for a goal six minutes later for a 2-0 advantage that stood through halftime.
Inter Miami cut it to 2-1 four minutes into the second half on Mateo Silvetti’s first career goal. Defenders Segovia and Facundo Mura had assists as the 20-year-old forward found the net in his fifth career appearance.
Segovia had eight goals and six assists as a rookie last season, while Mura collected his first assist in his first season.
Dayne St. Clair, the reigning goalkeeper of the year, turned away three shots — all in the second half of his second start with Inter Miami, but let in a soft goal for Orlando’s first.
Maxime Crépeau had four saves in his second start for Orlando City.
Teenager Colin Guske, 19, will miss Orlando City’s next match after the rookie picked up two yellow cards in his first start — the second one led to his exit in the 88th minute.
Inter Miami, which had never won in its previous nine trips to Orlando, was coming off a 3-0 road loss to LAFC.
Orlando City swept Inter Miami during the regular season last year and leads the all-time series 8-7-4.
Inter Miami plays D.C. United on Saturday at Audi Field. Orlando City is also on the road with a match against New York City FC.
Information from The Associated Press was used in this recap.
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