The Hurricanes stayed ‘dialed in’ amid extended delays. Then they shut out Ball State

Before the historical performance on the field could take place, before the Miami Hurricanes could put up a 62-0 drubbing on the Ball State Cardinals on Saturday night that helped reshape parts of their program record book, the Hurricanes had to wait out Mother Nature.

Kickoff was delayed multiple times by a line of thunderstorms. Teams had to leave the field from pregame warmups twice because of lightning in the vicinity of the stadium.

“It’s the first I’ve ever had like that,” Hurricanes coach Mario Cristobal said of the delay.

But his team remained unfazed — unsurprising considering the veteran nature of the group and the poise they have shown so far this season.

As they waited for clarity on a start time and for an all clear to return to the field, the Hurricanes kept things upbeat in the locker room.

Quarterback Cam Ward watched other games, particularly the Apple Cup — with Washington State, his former school, upsetting Washington on the road — and some of LSU’s come-from-behind victory over South Carolina.

There was music bumping. Jimmy John’s sandwiches and an assortment of fruit kept the team nourished while they bided their time.

“Those skinny guys gained a couple pounds,” Cristobal said.

“We didn’t want to get our energy low,” defensive lineman Simeon Barrow added. “Everybody was still dialed in.”

That was evident when the game finally kicked off at 5:55 p.m. — after originally being scheduled to start at 3:30 p.m. — and stayed that way through the end of the rout.

The Hurricanes’ offense piled up 750 yards, a school record.

Miami (3-0) scored 62 points, a school record in a shutout against a Football Bowl Subdivision opponent.

The defense held Ball State (1-1) to just 115 total yards, including 6 rushing yards and 25 yards total in the second half even as Cristobal began rotating younger players into the game.

Start to finish, a full team effort on both sides of the ball.

“That’s the best part,” Cristobal said. “We rotated a lot of guys. We put up in 12-14 defensive linemen. We played, I believe, seven linebackers. We played everybody in the secondary that we could. On offense, we just about did the same thing. So it was good to see that as the game went on, that those guys upheld the high standard. And I don’t think the older guys are going to let him do anything else because a week ago [against Florida A&M] it kind of fell off a little bit when those guys did go in there. So it’s good to see them get valuable, meaningful snaps against a solid football team, against a tough football team, and to be able to be productive and prove themselves worthy of getting some more playing time in the future.”

Just about everything worked out right on Saturday for the Hurricanes, which moved up two spots to No. 8 in the latest AP top 25 poll after the win, in a season where just about everything so far has gone right.

The Hurricanes scored on 10 of 13 drives and only punted once. The other two drives that didn’t end in points were at the end of each half.

Ward was spectacular again, completing 19 of 28 passes for 346 yards and a career-high five touchdowns — one shy of tying the school record — while only playing one drive into the third quarter. Through three games, Ward has completed 73 percent of his passes (65 for 89) for 1,035 yards and 11 touchdowns against just one interception. His 1,035 passing yards are the second-most in UM history through three games, according to the Associated Press, trailing only Craig Erickson’s 1,126 passing yards through three games in 1990.

Ward completed passes to eight different receivers, seven of whom had at least one play that went for 20 yards.

Ward threw touchdown passes of 21 yards (Xavier Restrepo), 37 yards (Chris Johnson), 21 yards (Elijah Arroyo) and 21 yards (Restrepo) in the first half. His fifth touchdown was from 17 yards to Jacolby George to start the third quarter.

“We’re hitting on all cylinders in the passing game but, you know, you’ll ask Cam and he’ll tell you that he felt like he left some things out there that could have made it a better day,” Cristobal said. “And that’s the way we want to stay.”

Even after Ward and the starters exited, the offense continued humming. Emory Williams led Miami to 24 points on the first four drives Williams led — a 32-yard field goal from Andres Borregales (his second field goal of the game), a 56-yard rushing touchdown from Ajay Allen, a 40-yard touchdown pass from Williams to Elija Lofton and a 7-yard rushing touchdown from Jordan Lyle.

“It’s good for everybody,” Ward said. “Especially with how well we want to play this year, how deep of a room we’re trying to get, it’s good to know that we can rely on the backups. ... We all motivate each other.”

The defense followed suit as well, recording nine tackles for loss, six quarterback hurries, five pass breakups, four quarterback hurries and an interception. Ball State ran just seven plays in Miami territory, all in the first half.

Those plays: Two sacks (both on third down), one rush for no gain, three incomplete passes (including one on fourth down) and a completed pass for minus-3 yards.

“That’s just executing,” said defensive lineman Elijah Alston, who on Saturday became the first Hurricanes defensive lineman to have both a sack and an interception in the same game since Joe Jackson on Sept. 27, 2018, against North Carolina. “The best thing you can do is just do your job. Don’t try to overdo it. Don’t try to be Superman. Don’t underdo it. Just do your job.”

Through three games, the Hurricanes have done their job.

But as Cristobal continues to preach, results through three games means nothing if it’s not sustained.

That will once again be the focus moving forward.

“It’s progress,” Cristobal said. “There’s 12 chapters in a regular season, then you earn the rest from there. We’re proving that we’re getting better. We see a lot of areas where we can get better. We have done a good job of just kind of shutting out and closing out the noise.”