Darian Mensah and Malachi Toney Lead No. 1 Miami Into North Carolina Tonight
Top-ranked Miami (7-0) plays at North Carolina (4-3) tonight at 7:30 p.m. Eastern on ABC, behind a quarterback who has thrown 22 touchdown passes against one interception and a receiver with 66 catches for 952 yards.
The numbers explain why No. 1 Miami is a two-touchdown favorite on the road tonight. The Hurricanes (7-0, 5-0 in the ACC) visit North Carolina (4-3, 2-2) at Kenan Stadium in Chapel Hill, with kickoff at 7:30 p.m. Eastern on ABC. Sports Illustrated's Week 9 preview lists Miami favored by 14.5 points, and Tar Heel Wire's preview puts the Hurricanes' biggest regular-season test - next week's trip to Notre Dame - still one week away, which makes tonight the classic look-ahead spot Miami has to avoid.
Quarterback Darian Mensah has been the engine. Mensah has completed 81.4 percent of his passes for 2,151 yards with 22 touchdown passes and just one interception, plus two rushing scores, according to the Sports Illustrated and StatsAlt previews read by this desk. His top target, Malachi Toney, has 66 catches for 952 yards and 11 touchdowns, and the ground game behind him - Javian Mallory and Mark Fletcher Jr. - has combined for 858 rushing yards and 14 touchdowns. Miami has scored at least 41 points in four straight games, including last weekend's 52-23 win over Pittsburgh.
North Carolina arrives off a 31-30 overtime loss to Syracuse, after one-score wins over Pittsburgh (21-17) and Duke (24-20) - a team that has lived in close games for a month. Tar Heel Wire notes North Carolina leads the all-time series 16-11, and a home crowd on Halloween night gets its chance to spoil the unbeaten run Miami is protecting ahead of Notre Dame.
Miami's injury list for tonight, per StatsAlt: J. Moore, CharMar Brown and L. Gilbert are out, and O. Ruskavich is questionable. The game-night file follows on this desk within 45 minutes of the final, per the Sports Desk duty sheet.
