Let the good times roll: Canes, D’Eriq King ready for top-20 road game at Louisville

The good times were sparse last season.

But one particularly joyful day for the Miami Hurricanes sticks out like a D’Eriq King scramble-gone-viral — or in the case last November 9 against Louisville, six touchdown passes by former quarterback Jarren Williams to set a UM passing record that erased a six-way tie among greats that included Bernie Kosar, Steve Walsh and Ken Dorsey.

The Canes had their finest — and last — victory of the year.

Williams is now at a community college in Kansas, and King is the man who will lead Miami in a top-20 matchup at 7:30 p.m. on ABC, with the set of ESPN College GameDay on site in Louisville for the No. 17 Canes (1-0) vs. No. 18 Cardinals (1-0).

“It’s very exciting,’’ said King, whose athleticism and ability to break open games with his legs is a UM strength that Louisville will attempt to subdue (not to mention a ground game that produced 337 yards rushing last week). “It’s one of the reasons you come to Miami, to play in big games like this. Louisville is a great team. If you watched them play last week, their first game, you could see they have a lot of great players.”

The Cardinals, dressed in red and black, will be the first of 10 regular-season ACC opponents for the Hurricanes, “iced out’’ in all white uniforms.

Diaz reminded his audience during a WQAM interview this week that despite the Canes having “a great day against them a year ago, that means nothing and I’m sure they’ve been reminded of that every day this offseason — and with some revenge on their mind.

‘Better versions’

“They’re a different team than they were a year ago,’’ Diaz said during a Zoom session. “We’re a different team than we were a year ago. I would imagine we’d both argue that we’re better versions of ourselves than we were that day in 2019.”

Louisville, which defeated the Western Kentucky Hilltoppers 35-21 last Saturday, is a deep threat with junior quarterback Micale Cunningham, who accounted for four touchdowns and passed for a career-high 343 yards and three touchdowns.

The Cardinals also have star wideout Tutu Atwell, the speedy 5-9, 165-pound junior from Miami who played at Northwestern High and last season torched the Hurricanes with six catches for 142 yards and a touchdown.

In 2019, Atwell led the ACC while setting the Louisville record for receiving yards with 1,276. He also led the ACC and tied the UL mark for receiving touchdowns with 12.

“Louisville first and foremost is a stretch team,’’ UM defensive end Jaelan Phillips said. “That’s kind of their bread and butter. First and foremost we’re going to have to stop that run… Once we stop that, they have a lot of weapons on offense — a lot of weapons. No. 1, they got Tutu…’’

They’ve also got senior Dez Fitzpatrick and sophomore Braden Smith, who each had four catches for 110 yards in the opener, with Fitzpatrick adding a touchdown.

Cardinals running back Javian Hawkins is another big-play threat. Last year he ran for 1,525 yards and nine touchdowns as a freshman.

Stop run first

“Credit to them for being so skilled,’’ Canes linebacker Zach McCloud said. “Everything they do, they do well. But as a defense you gotta pride yourself on being able to stop the run first. If you don’t stop the run, they don’t have to do anything else.’’

The Hurricanes are the underdog in this game, which may be a good thing if you use last season as an indicator. The Canes rarely barely beat the teams they were favored against, although they did come through admirably last week with their 31-14 victory against the UAB Blazers. Louisville is favored Saturday by 2 1/2 points.

Diaz was asked if he sees a difference in this team’s attitude and how they handle adversity.

“It’s too early to tell,’’ he said. “I’m not going to sit here and put our flag in the ground and say, ‘Ah-ha, we sorted it out.’

“It’s important for the people inside this program to respect how difficult it is to win a football game, how difficult it is to win back-to-back football games, to win three in a row. This week we have to go win on the road against a conference opponent, and nothing we did a week ago matters.

“The hard things, they never get easier. In fact, they usually get harder. The more you win, the harder it gets to win. In terms of who is expected to win, I couldn’t tell you. I’d imagine Louisville things they are and I’d imagine Miami thinks we are.’’

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