It hasn’t been long since the RedHawks were in Detroit, but this season’s team is starkly different in many ways.
A year can be long or short, depending on one’s perspective.
The Miami RedHawks team which will take the field on Saturday night shares a lot of the same players who experienced the ups and downs 2023 season, and contributed to what was ultimately a title-winning team. That said, the feeling around the program is decidedly different in 2024, winning games in a very different way from the team which came before them.
This Miami squad, sitting at 8-4 after a 7-1 conference campaign which includes a current seven-game win streak, looks like the contender we all thought they would be despite a nightmare start to the 2024 campaign that saw the RedHawks start 1-4 with a loss to Toledo.
We’ll learn more about this year’s edition of Miami more this week, though, so let’s turn the dial back a year and reflect on the state of the team heading into last season’s title game.
The 2023 Miami RedHawks came out of the gate roaring, jumping out to a 3-1 non-conference record after an expected 38-3 loss to the Miami [FL] Hurricanes to start the season.
Their highlight performance in the early stretch was an upset special against new Big 12 member— and long-time regional rival— Cincinnati, riding a staunch defensive performance which included a circus-catch interception by Yahsyn McKee to take home the Victory Bell for the first time in 16 years with a 31-24 win on the road. In the win, the defense forced the Bearcats into settling for three short field goals by Carter Brown and gave up no passing scores while forcing two interceptions.
Miami’s hot streak would continue to start conference play, outscoring their first three opponents 84-24— with 21 of those points allowed in a shootout victory against Western Michigan— to start the 2023 campaign at 6-1.
Part of Miami’s reason to be able to post up points was due to the connection between Brett Gabbert and Gage Larvadain. In five games together on the field, the duo combined for 23 receptions, 454 yards and six touchdowns to stretch out opposing defenses.
However, tragedy would strike in a key conference clash against Toledo, as Brett Gabbert suffered a brutal leg injury— which ultimately cost him his season— on a second-and-goal scramble play in what would turn out to be the RedHawks’ first conference loss.
With Gabbert out for the season, Larvadain and his fellow receivers, including Cade McDonald (28 receptions, 355 yards, three touchdowns) and Javon Tracy (22 receptions, 328 yards, two touchdowns) suffered over the rest of the season, averaging 103 yards and eight completions per game over the final six contests. Aveon Smith was the quarterback for Miami over the stretch, tossing for 638 passing yards, two touchdowns and two interceptions on a 50 percent completion percentage.
Given the team’s offensive struggles post-injury, it would not be an exaggeration to say placekicker Graham Nicholson was the team’s most important player. Nicholson scored 116 points on his own, going 27-of-28 on placekicks and 35-of-37 on extra points in a season where he won the Lou Groza Award. His efforts attracted a lot of attention in the offseason, initially sticking to Miami before being enticed to transfer to Alabama— much to Chuck Martin’s consternation.
Luckily for the RedHawks, they were able to adapt quickly to accentuate the team’s strengths, shifting the offense into a run-heavy, clock-chewing unit. It was an opportunity afforded thanks to workhorse back Rashad Amos, who arrived in Oxford after transferring in from South Carolina. Amos’ performance ramped up over the final six games in a noticeable way, racking up three 100+ yard performances and scoring at least once in every game from Toledo onwards.
Amos would finish the year 210 carries for 1,075 yards and 13 touchdowns on the year, eventually earning a transfer spot with the Ole Miss Rebels in the offseason.
Miami’s run-forward approach was also possible in part due to a bone-crushing defensive effort. The defense as a unit was the second-best in the MAC and one of the best in the country in defensive scoring (15.4 points per game), the best at forcing fourth downs (29.7 percent) and a top-five unit in total defensive yards (330.4 per game), total sacks (35; third in MAC) and interceptions (11; third in MAC).
2023 MAC Defensive Player of the Year Matt Salopek sat in the heart of the unit, much like he does this season. Salopek’s performance in 2023 was especially notable as he replaced Ivan Pace Jr. (transfer) at the position and excelled, finishing with 144 tackles, nine tackles-for-loss, three sacks and an interception.
The rest of the defensive roster was pretty good as well, with five all-MAC selections dotting the starting rotation. Yahsyn McKee (58 tackles, 11 pass break-ups) and Caiden Woullard (41 tackles, 12 TFLs, 9.5 sacks) were all-MAC contributors who would depart in the offseason, with McKee graduating and Woullard transferring to Oklahoma, but several contributors are still rostered in 2024.
2023 All-MAC second-team linebacker Ty Wise (122 tackles, nine TFLs, eight sacks, one interception) and All-MAC second-team defensive lineman Brian Ugwu (62 tackles, 12 TFLs, eight sacks) returned in 2024 as starters after advancing up the depth charts. Current starting cornerback Raion Strader, who was McKee’s running partner in 2023 as a true freshman, finished that season with 57 tackles, a team-leading 12 pass break-ups and an interception on the year.
With Smith and the new offense at the helm, the RedHawks finished the campaign 4-0 to secure the MAC East division crown over Ohio, who they beat the week after losing Gabbert for the season, to put themselves in position to win the conference.
Their opponent from the MAC West would turn out to be the lone league team to beat the RedHawks in the regular season: the Toledo Rockets. A chance to avenge a bitter, multi-layered loss.
It was a wild-and-weird title-deciding game, as defense and special teams ultimately defined the action at Ford Field. Miami got the action started early, going up 10-0 on the Rockets in the first half thanks to a Graham Nicholson field goal and Rashad Amos touchdown— but Toledo would grind down clock (both on accident and on purpose) and hit paydirt in the waning moments of the second quarter, as Dequan Finn would find Anthony Torres for a touchdown and two-point conversion to put the score at 10-8 at halftime.
A Miami field goal to start the third quarter was answered in turn by a Dequan Finn rushing score to give the Rockets the 14-13 lead despite botching both a two-point conversion and a point-after attempt. The second half devolved into a defensive stalemate, which is exactly what Miami was hoping for, as they’d score 10 points unanswered to take home the victory. Rashad Amos’ 10-yard touchdown run with 2:41 remaining proved to be the decider.
Miami’s season would come to a wet, sloppy end in Boca Raton, Florida, as the RedHawks wrestled with the Appalachian State Mountaineers in a pouring rainstorm over 60 minutes before losing by a final score of 13-9 in the Boca Raton Bowl. Third-string quarterback Henry Hesson was forced into action after Aveon Smith announced his intent to transfer, while Rashad Amos carried the ball 33 times for 181 yards and no touchdowns.
The 2024 version of the RedHawks have looked like the 2023 team we were promised prior to Gabbert’s injury; an amalgamation of a vertical passing game and a versatile run attack on offense which plays complimentary football for a senior-laden defense which has multiple ways of beating what opponents have to offer.
They’ll have 60 minutes to achieve history against their bitter rival Ohio. If they can achieve victory this weekend, the RedHawks will be the first MAC team to repeat as champions since the NIU Huskies in 2011 and 2012. They can also wrap up the program’s third MAC title in six seasons, and the program’s first back-to-back titles since 1965-66 under head coach Bo Schembechler.
Kickoff is scheduled for Saturday, December 7th at noon Eastern time.