This game will tell us a lot about both teams and while I don't believe a true Frosh QB has ever won in Lincoln at night I think Miami getting 7 here is pretty generous for a couple of reasons.
Offense. A lot of ppl saw the UL game. It was quiet possibly the worst called game I've ever seen. Miami played not to lose, kept the shackles on Kaaya and ran into an 8-9 man front all game. The kid was set up to fail from the get go imo. This is mind blowing given the fact that Miami's biggest asset as a team is their Wrs to go along with an NFL TE. If NU stacks the box and can't get to Kaaya they are likely to get burned by any one of a handful of speedy athletic Miami WRs (Coley is expected back near 100%). Kaaya displayed his ability to hit the deep ball this past weekend and I'm not sure any team in the country has CBs that run with Dorsett or Coley. The key here is the right side of Miami's line. Its inexperienced and it was suspect vs UL. With a few more games under their belt I think they'll holdup better here especially having experienced a hostile environment. If they can protect Brad, Miami will score points and a lot of them. If NU wants to go coverage they have another game changer in Duke Johnson to deal with. Its really pick your poison. Miami made UL look significantly better than they are b/c they refused to throw it. That simply wont happen again. Miami even pulled out some trick plays vs Arky State and I bet you'll see one or 2 here as well to keep the NU defense honest,
Defense. This would have been a game I'd have nighmares about last year. Anyone that watched Miami play last year saw a dreadul DL. It was horrible. The DL got pushed back 3-5 yards every snap and teams ran all over them. This was the biggest ? mark of the team heading into the season. Abdullah would be looking at 200 easy against last years team. But to my surprise this unit is improved. While it is still not what you'd expect from a Miami team its good enough to get into the backfield and hold blocks to few up guys like Denzel Perryman (MLB). DP has been an absolute beast thus far and might be the best MLB in the country. I expect him to play a huge part in slowing down NU's run game. The ? for Miami becomes the other LBers. Petrino really exploited Kirby in pass coverage. This plus some solid play has increased the reps for Jermaine Grace who is one the more athletic players on the team. He's as fast as a RB and much better in coverage. How he holds in against the run will be a major factor here. I think his progress is another huge step in the right direction for Miami since the UL game. That leaves us with the secondary. This is the spot on defense that has old school Miami talent outside of DP. This should enable Miami to be aggressive in stopping the run. Winning in Lincoln is a tall order and I'm not sure an unranked team has won there at night in ages or ever, but not many unranked teams sport the talent that miami has especially at the skill positions. I think the Canes score over 30 in this one and that should be worth a cover. BOL