This week, The Chronicle’s Daniel Carp spoke to The Miami Hurricane's Sports Editor Spencer Dandes about this weekend’s contest between Duke and Miami.
The Chronicle: Miami has struggled mightily in its last two football games, losing to Florida State on the road and Virginia Tech at home. How has the team reacted heading into this week's game against Duke?
Spencer Dandes: The Florida State game, you're going up against a probable national champion contender, so they weren't too broken up after that loss. The big takeaway from that game was Duke Johnson getting injured and that translating into just 28 rushing yards against Virginia Tech. Even though they're nine games into the season, they have to regroup a little bit.
TC: Since Duke Johnson went down against Florida State, how different is this Miami team without him?
SD: Clearly, they're a different team because you lose your most explosive playmaker. The running game was forced to adapt on the fly with two guys who were never primary ball-handlers, Gus Edwards who is a freshman and Dallas Crawford who has responded pretty well, especially in the red zone.
TC: The run game is so important for Miami in terms of opening up the passing game. If they struggle on the ground and Stephen Morris is forced to carry the load throwing the ball, could that make this Miami team more mistake-prone?
SD: Probably not more mistake-prone, just because Morris has so much experience under his belt. If he remembers what has worked for him in the past, which is going over the middle and trying a few deep balls here and there, it's not going to lead to as many mistakes.
TC: Miami's been a strong team defensively this year. Regardless of who starts at quarterback for the Blue Devils this weekend, what should we expect to see from the Hurricanes on the defensive side of the ball?
SD: The leader all year has been Denzel Perryman. He's probably one of our best outside linebackers in years. He just needs to work on getting his teammates freed up on the defensive line, because when teams start burning us on the run, the defense sort of collapses in on itself and our secondary stops making plays too.
TC: Finally, what's your score prediction for Saturday's game?
SD: It's going to be a high-scoring game, because Miami's defense is reeling, but the Hurricanes take it 34-31.
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