While most of the college football world kicks off its season Saturday, Miami and Notre Dame will provide a much anticipated follow up on Sunday. The Hurricanes and Fighting Irish will meet at Hard Rock Stadium in Miami in a clash of two preseason top 10 teams. Much of the talk entering that matchup is […]
While most of the college football world kicks off its season Saturday, Miami and Notre Dame will provide a much anticipated follow up on Sunday. The Hurricanes and Fighting Irish will meet at Hard Rock Stadium in Miami in a clash of two preseason top 10 teams.
Much of the talk entering that matchup is on the quarterbacks, especially Carson Beck for Miami. Beck transfers in after starting the past two seasons at Georgia. He now looks to get the Hurricanes to the College Football Playoff but there are a lot of questions about how the fit will work.
Carr is a redshirt freshman who played in only one game during the 2024 season. He obviously is the bigger unknown of the two, and college football analyst Josh Pate broke down the storylines for both.
“You got a bunch of talk about quarterback here,” he said on Josh Pate’s College Football Show. “Carson Beck has transferred in to Miami. CJ Carr has been named the starting quarterback at Notre Dame. The difference in those quarterback questions is astounding. CJ Carr, the question is, what’s he gonna be? Because we haven’t seen him start.
“Carson Beck, this time last year the talk was, ‘enjoy him at Georgia one more year. Headed off to the NFL after this year.’ Instead, he headed off to Coral Gables, Florida. Again, there are no stupid predictions in college football. Because if anyone would have predicted that last year — Carson Beck’s gonna come back but he’s not gonna be playing for Georgia and Georgia people are going to convince you it’s a good thing he moved on — no one predicts that.”
But while a lot of the focus will be on the quarterback play, Pate believes it’s the rushing attack that could ultimately make the difference in the game for Miami. He called for the Hurricanes’ offensive line to step up and create some holes for tailback Mark Fletcher, who takes over the lead role in the backfield with Damien Martinez on to the NFL.
He sees that as being far more influential on the outcome of the game that the quarterback play. If Miami can get it going on the ground, it could be over for Notre Dame.
“The real story, the one that will go the furthest in determining Miami’s fate here, is Mark Fletcher and Jordan Lyle and that Miami offensive line specifically against the interior of Notre Dame’s defensive front,” Pate said. “Because if they do business Sunday night, that’s where it’ll be. You’ll see them getting pushed inside and over the span of fourth quarter, you’ll start to say, ‘Wow, Notre Dame, they don’t have much of an answer here.’ That is a real potential vulnerability.
“If you’re looking for matchup edges, that is the potential matchup edge here for Miami. Mark Fletcher, if that’s the case, that’s the name at the end of the night when they put up the fancy graphics they have that could be the one that really, really showed out for Miami.”
When it came time to make a prediction, that’s exactly what Pate banked on taking place. He also forecasted that Miami’s could create some issues for Carr as a first-time starter, doing just enough to make him uncomfortable and secure the win.
“I think Miami’s gonna be able to run the ball and I think it’s gonna be a very, very mixed result type of game for CJ Carr and the Notre Dame passing offense,” Pate said. “I’m gonna buy into the intel that we’ve gotten out of Miami about their secondary. Plenty good enough, plenty overhauled enough that I think they give themselves a shot to win here. I think that they are able to take over enough.
“They’re not gonna dominate Notre Dame. I’m saying they’re gonna be able to take over enough and that ground game is able to be effective enough to where Miami covers here and I think Miami’s gonna win the game outright.”
Category: General Sports
