Undefeated Miami faces an undefeated Duke team on Friday night for a pivotal ACC Coastal clash that will give one of the two the inside track for the division title and a berth in the conference championship game. If the Hurricanes end up winning the game in a convincing fashion, you can probably expect to hear all about how ‘The U’ is back on the national stage.
If you don’t want to wait until after the fourth quarter to hear about the team being “back” however, one only has to take a look at ‘Canes cornerback Malek Young harkening back to a different era for the program and saying the goal for the defense this week is to knock Blue Devils quarterback Daniel Jones out of the game.
“He loves to throw the ball,” Young told 247Sports on Wednesday. “He takes hits. He don’t like to slide and what we’re going to do is—the goal is to get him out the game. Get him out the game and it’s going to be a good game.”
That’s about as close as you’ll come in today’s age to hear a player say the defense is going head-hunting in a game.
While it’s possible that Young was just being a little overeager with his comments and failed to find the proper words to note that the defense will make sure to tackle the quarterback when he escapes the pocket, it’s also possible that he slipped up when it comes to handing out some bulletin board material too.
Given the program’s history on the subject, something says officials and both coaching staffs will be paying a little more attention to the defense -- and Young in particular -- when Jones takes off to run no matter what.