Happy Monday, everyone. Hope your weeks have gotten off to a good start. The world never stops turning when it comes to Miami Hurricanes news (or anything else for that matter, but still), so let’s get into it.
1) Miami continues to load up on ball carriers, and the future there got even brighter over the weekend.
Poplarville (MS) RB Ty Keys pulled the trigger and committed to Miami over Ole Miss and FSU (hee-hee).
Miami fans should be very excited about this guys. Keys is one of the best running backs to ever play in the Magnolia State. He set the Mississippi state high school single-game rushing record last year with 546 yards and a record-tying eight touchdowns in a 60-56 win. And all of that came on just 17 carries. He scored a touchdown almost as many times as they tackled him. That’s just insane. He finished his junior year with 301 carries for 3285 yards (10.9 ypc) and 45 touchdowns.
Behold.
Some guys just make plays, and this guy is one of him. The future is bright for Miami at RB with Girard Pringle, Jr., Javian Mallory, Chris Wheatley-Humphrey, but my goodness, this kid can play. A great problem to have for Mario Cristobal and company.
2) The odds are out over at DraftKings Sportsbook for NFL rookie of the year awards, and new Arizona Cardinals Carson Beck has better odds than you might think.
I had in mind something lower than 15/1, or +1500, but that’s where they have him listed today. That’s a bit of a vote of confidence from them, if you ask me.
Beck is in an interesting spot because the competition for QB2 isn’t strong between Gardner Minshew and Kedon Slovis. I think Jacoby Brissett, who is currently projected to be the starter for the Cardinals, is a decent low-end starting option. He won’t be easy to beat out for Beck or any of the rest of the QB room.
At some point, perhaps Beck gets the nod if the season goes off the rails for Arizona and the Cardinals want to see what they have. But even a limited sample size doesn’t portend well for a chance at winning NFL OROY honors, whereas Beck has the seventh-best odds among all NFL rookies.
So, what do the oddsmakers know here? We’ll see how things shake out in training camp and the preseason, but perhaps Beck has a chance to do something notable in his rookie season.
3) Miami baseball suffered their first weekend setback in quite a while, dropping two out of three to NC State on the road.
Miami took the first game of a double header on Friday but dropped the evening game. Then, they fell apart down the stretch after leading 7-5 in the seventh in the rubber match, with NC State scoring seven combined runs in the seventh and eighth to claim the series with a 12-7 win.
It was the Canes’ first series loss since mid-March at Duke, so that’s not so bad. It’s baseball, and you’re gonna drop a series every now and then.
The Canes also suffered a pair of tough injuries in recent days. Starter Rob Evans turned an ankle the weekend before last, but he was able to return and pitch the opener against the Wolfpack. Star third baseman Daniel Cuvet, on the other hand, is out indefinitely with a back injury, which is obviously a crippling blow to the team.
The next weekend series is the final one at home against Louisville. The Cardinals, who denied the Hurricanes a trip to Omaha last year, are 10-14 in ACC play. It could be a shot for Miami to deal a little bit of payback by muddying the Ville’s tournament chances even furth late in the season.
Go Canes!
