Miami went into Memorial Stadium on Saturday and left with a 41-13 win over Clemson. The No. 4 Hurricanes moved to 5-0 overall and 3-0 in the ACC. Clemson dropped to 3-2 and 2-1 in conference play.
The Hurricanes had not won at Clemson since 2010. This was not a squeaker that broke the streak. It was a beating.
The Hurricanes ran the game
Miami piled up 419 total yards and 192 on the ground. Mark Fletcher led the way with 77 rushing yards and two touchdowns. Quarterback Darian Mensah, who came in leading the nation in completion percentage, threw for 227 yards and accounted for two touchdowns.
Those are not eye-popping passing numbers, and that is the point. Miami did not need Mensah to be a hero. It had a ground game that Clemson could not slow down, and it let that carry the afternoon.
Clemson was a double-digit underdog at home for the first time in the Dabo Swinney era, and that line proved too generous. The Tigers managed just 55 rushing yards on 31 carries.
Clemson beat itself in the second half
Credit the Tigers for one thing: it was not a one-sided yardage story early. Clemson held Miami to 17 first-half points, the Hurricanes’ lowest first-half total of the season. The Tigers also moved the ball past midfield repeatedly but turned five drives past the 50 into only six points.
Then the turnovers arrived. Freshman quarterback Tait Reynolds fumbled in the third quarter and later threw an interception that Miami returned for a touchdown. Clemson has now turned it over in four straight games. Reynolds still posted career highs with 29 completions on 44 attempts for 295 yards, and Bryant Wesco Jr. caught nine passes for 152 yards.
A Clemson defensive touchdown was also wiped out. Video review ruled a play that looked like a forced fumble returned 77 yards by Corey Myrick to be an incomplete pass. That would have changed the mood, but it did not change the result.
Mensah entered the day with 14 touchdown passes and an 88.7 percent completion rate, numbers that made him one of the most efficient passers in the country. Clemson did enough to keep him from running wild, but the Hurricanes did not need him to. A team that can win this way, with a quarterback in neutral, is a hard team to prepare for.
What it means for Miami
Winning big on the road against a program with Clemson’s history is the kind of résumé line that matters when the College Football Playoff committee starts sorting teams. Miami did it without its passing game at full tilt, and that should worry the rest of the ACC.
The Hurricanes look like the best team in the conference, and they proved it where it was hardest to prove. Clemson, with a young quarterback and a turnover problem, has a long way to go to catch them. The Tigers host Charleston Southern on October 17.
A longtime sports reporter, Carlos Garcia has written about some of the biggest and most notable athletic events of the last 5 years. He has been credentialed to cover MLS, NBA and MLB games all over the United States. His work has been published on Fox Sports, Bleacher Report, AOL and the Washington Post.