The Hurricanes will play in the coldest environment they’ve faced in years when they travel up to Pittsburgh this weekend.
When No. 12 UM (9-2, 5-2 ACC) lines up against No. 22 Pitt (8-3, 6-1) at Acrisure Stadium at noon on Saturday, temperatures will be hovering just above freezing (33 degrees). But the Hurricanes — made up of dozens of players from Florida and other warm-weather states — will have to withstand the elements to have any hope of winning the program’s first ACC title or making the College Football Playoff for the first time.
“This is football at its best, man. Right?” Miami coach Mario Cristobal said. “Since the day you started watching football, you wish you could play games like this up north. … We’re going to be on the same field playing a team that’s dealing with the same conditions and even though we’re (from) a different climate, it cannot and will not be a factor, between the gear that you use, between mentality and preparation. … Our guys are really excited for it, and that should override everything else.”
Miami players and coaches seem unfazed by the idea of playing in cold temperatures.
“I’m not looking forward to it,” said defensive lineman Akheem Mesidor, an Ottawa, Canada, native. “But I’ve done it before, and it’s nothing to be worried about.”
Defensive coordinator Corey Hetherman — a Massachusetts native who never coached a team south of Virginia before coming to Miami — said he does not think the cold will be an issue.
“For me, it’s never been this way. It’s been the other way. You come down to the heat,” Hetherman said. “But I don’t think it’ll be a factor. I think our guys, it’s a mentality, it’s a mindset. Our guys will be ready to go, they’ll be prepared for it. They know what it’s supposed to be. If we go out and we just focus on what we can control, control the controllables there, I think our guys will play fast and it won’t be a factor.”
Quarterback Carson Beck, a Jacksonville native who has spent his college career at UM and in the SEC, seemed excited to get the chance to play in chilly weather.
“That’s real football weather,” Beck said. “I feel like we haven’t played in any cold weather this year, really. I was expecting Virginia to be a little bit colder, and when it wasn’t, I was kind of disappointed, to be honest. I think sometimes that cold weather and that chill gives you like an extra little grip on the football. It’s November, right? It’s November. It’s getting to playoff time. These games mean the most. They remember what you do in November. Everyone knows that saying. But again, it’s football weather. We’re excited, we’re looking forward to it. We’re just ready to go compete.”
The weather will be one part of the game, but the Hurricanes will have to keep their composure regardless of what happens on the field aganst a solid Panthers squad.
If Miami loses to Pittsburgh, it will be eliminated from ACC title contention and fall out of consideration for the playoffs. But if the Hurricanes pull out a win, all of those possibilities remain. They will need other teams to lose in order to play for the conference title, and Miami’s at-large hopes will rest with the College Football Playoff selection committee.
Beck, who went through conference title and playoff runs at Georgia, is no stranger to big games. His approach is to treat it like any other game.
“Honestly, it all starts with preparation,” Beck said. “And I know I say this every week, and it sounds like I’m beating a dead horse, but you just got to do Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday. Just take every single day as its own day. And then once you get to the game, just go play by play and execute each play and try to have more positive plays than negative plays and stay consistent and be explosive.
“Ultimately, at that point, you’re not even thinking about the magnitude of the game. It would be stupid to not at least recognize the magnitude of the game and what it means and the implications behind it. But you just got to go play football and again, just go out there, have fun and do what we’ve been doing and go out there and execute. And that’s all you really can focus on.”
