Dominant second half helps No. 8 Miami Hurricanes rout USF Bulls to start season 4-0

The Miami Hurricanes and USF Bulls played a hectic, lengthy, back-and-forth first half on Saturday.

But once the teams returned from their locker rooms, the Hurricanes took over and played like the team that has dominated through the first three weeks of the season.

Fueled by three total rushing touchdowns by Damien Martinez, including two in the second half, and another stellar performance from quarterback Cam Ward, No. 8 Miami pulled away from USF and left Tampa’s Raymond James Stadium with a 50-15 road win.

Miami is 4-0, after winning its first three games of the season 41-17 against the Florida Gators, 56-9 against the Florida A&M Rattlers and 62-0 against the Ball State Cardinals. USF is 2-2.

Put another way: Miami has scored at least 40 points in every game this season and put up 50-plus in each of the past three.

The Hurricanes played a nearly perfect second half to outscore the Bulls 28-0 over the final 30 minutes.

Miami marched 80 yards down the field on both of its third-quarter possessions, with Martinez scoring from 1 yard out to cap each drive. Martinez also had a 2-yard rushing touchdown on the opening drive of the game.

He entered the game Saturday without a touchdown through three games with the Hurricanes.

And Martinez got those three rushing touchdowns despite having just 31 total rushing yards on 11 carries.

(He did have 50 receiving yards on two catches, for what it’s worth.)

Quarterback Cam Ward then sealed the game with a 5-yard touchdown pass to Xavier Restrepo with 7:44 left in regulation. It capped a night in which Ward completed 24 of 34 passes for a season-high 404 yards and three touchdowns with one interception that wasn’t really his fault (more on that in a minute). Restrepo caught six passes for 99 yards and the touchdown, his fifth of the season. Restrepo’s second catch of the game put him over 2,000 career receiving yards, making him the 10th player in UM history to accomplish the feat.

And for good measure, freshman running back Jordan Lyle rattled off a 91-yard touchdown run with 3:09 left in regulation after Miami put the second-string offense into the game.

The defense, meanwhile, kept the Bulls off the board in the second half and limited them to just 143 yards.

Miami held USF to just 62 rushing yards total on Saturday. The Bulls entered the game averaging 268.67 rushing yards per game, the eighth-most in the nation. Miami entered the game allowing an average of just 65.67 rushing yards per game, the 12th-best mark in the country.

Miami’s defense recorded four sacks and seven tackles for loss. Safety Mishael “Meesh” Powell recorded his second interception of the season early in the fourth quarter and Myles Mooyoung intercepted a pass with less than two minutes away to end it.

The dominant Miami finish followed a chaotic first half that ultimately saw UM take a 22-15 lead.

The summary of the opening half, which was about two hours long: 458 combined yards of offense, an interception after a Ward pass bounced out of Jacolby George’s hands and into the arms of a USF defender that set up the Bulls with a short field that led to their only touchdown of the half, three made field goals of at least 45 yards by USF kickers (including two from 58 and 51 yards) but a miss from 31 yards and a blocked point-after-touchdown attempt, wild scrambles from both Ward and USF’s Byrum Brown to extend plays, and 16 combined penalties for 131 yards.

Get all that?

The more nuanced breakdown of those first two quarters:

UM capped drives of 75, 90 and 80 yards with touchdowns. Miami went up 7-0 on a 2-yard touchdown run from Martinez to begin the game and then regained the lead on a 6-yard pass from Ward to Isaiah Horton with 1:47 left in the first quarter to go up 14-9 and a 76-yard catch-and run from Sam Brown to go up 22-15 with 1:56 left in the second quarter.

Horton finished the game with a career-high eight catches for 108 yards.

Outside of when USF was given a short field following the interception, the Hurricanes defense bent but didn’t break. The Bulls had to settle for four field goal tries on their drives that began in their territory. Nico Gramatica had makes of 58 and 51 yards, while John Cannon hit one from 45 yards after a 19-play, 66-yard drive that stalled after the Miami defense recorded back-to-back sacks. The fourth attempt? A 31-yarder from Cannon that went wide right.