Any chance of a National Title this season for the Miami Hurricanes was washed away Saturday night by the Oklahoma offensive and defensive lines. Both teams entered the rain soaked field knowing that a loss would remove them from contention, but Oklahoma was too powerful beating the Canes 26-17 under the lights off the Orange Bowl.
Both teams moved the ball well in the first half as Miami took an early 2nd quarter lead at 10-7 on a 17 yard pass from Harris to 6'4" sophmore Byrd. Oklahoma's offense would answer scoring on a 9 yard pass from Heismann hopeful Sam Bradford to Demarco Murray. After holding on defense the OU offense moved the ball down the field using a big play from tight end Jermaine Grisham. Miami's defense held tough forcing a field goal to give OU a 13-10 lead at the half.
The Miami defense added some thunder to the rain in the second half as both teams started to ratchet up the hits. Miami's young line backers and veteran safties were all over the field making tackles as they tried to keep their team in it. The Sooner offensive line had other ideas though as the run game would pick away at Miami's defensive for 4 and 5 yard gains. Mix in some more Gresham and the Canes had few answers for the attack. The kid's were able to hold OU to field goals twice deep in their zone giving hope to the sellout crowd.
The Sooners defense would shutout the Canes in the final period though, as they pressured the quarterback and receivers of Miami giving OU a 26-17 win, jumping back into title talks. The Hurricanes will look to get their offense in games vs. Souther Miss and at UCF before facing Clemson in their next ACC game. The team has a lot to improve but showed some promise finishing their brutal early schedule 2-2.
KEY STATS
Turnovers OU-2 MIA-4
T.O.P. OU-17:21 MIA-10:39
Rushing OU-33-122 MIA-15-39
Players of the Game
OU Stevens 4/4fg, 2/2pat, long-51
MIA Sharpton 8tkl, 1tfl
Season Leaders
J Harris 44-85, 613yd, 5td, 7int
G Cooper 53att, 282yd, 5.3ypc, 4td
L Byrd 17cth, 238yd, 14.8ypc, 2td
