It is the JR Sportbree Show here with you coast to coast on the Infinity Sports Network. Man, we're really going coast to coast. We've talked about the Dodgers, the Sixers, the Cowboys, the Lions, the Packers, the Bears, Omaha.
We've talked about it all. But now it's time to go to South Florida. It's time to talk about the Hurricanes. It's time to talk about the U. It's time to talk about Miami.
There's so many other programs that get a lot of attention right now. People always want to look at the Georgias. We got a big matchup between Penn State and the Ohio State, but Miami is ranked high again. They're undefeated 8-0.
They're fifth right now on the AP's top 25 to talk about the U, what they can do the rest of this year, what they can do tomorrow, tomorrow afternoon, early at noon against Duke. Joining us right now is Manny Navarro, who covers all things the U from the athletic. Manny, how are you? Doing good, JR. How are you? I'm excellent.
Thank you for taking the time to join us. When you look at this Miami team and you see 8-0 and you see the enthusiasm, forget just down in South Florida, but the entire state, did you expect this at this point of the year? You know, I had a good feeling about this team coming out of spring practice because of Cam Ward and some of the new additions that they had to the roster. Mario Crystal Ball's been building towards this since he took the job in December 2021. So I had a feeling that they could be a pretty good team.
I thought maybe they'd be one loss at this point. But the way the season has turned out, the way you've seen some other programs in state struggle and the way Miami has performed, I think it all leads to why the program is 8-0 right now. Well, you talk about Cam Ward. He's definitely in the conversation for Heisman. As more people find out about what he does and what he's capable of doing on that football field, how have you seen him grow? Well, I think, you know, at Washington State, he was already sort of become a leader, somebody that everybody on that team looked up to. I think he's elevated that to a different level where both on offense and defense, he is a complete and total influence on the whole roster. I think, you know, from the moment he walked in the door, the first practice where he was trash talking the defense and getting those guys fired up and excited, he's just come in and completely, you know, lifted this program to levels that I haven't seen anyone at the university do it in over 20 years. You think about some of the other players that have come to the University of Miami while they've struggled here in the Atlantic Coast Conference as they joined the conference in 2004. There's been some good ones, but I don't know anybody as good as Cam Ward.
When you think about the attention, a lot of it's on him. Who are some of the other players that the country needs to pay attention to that currently play for Miami? Well, I'll tell you what, Reuben Bain was a guy who made a tremendous impact as a true freshman last year on the defensive side of the ball. You know, he missed the better part of the first half of the season with an injury. He came back in Miami's win over Cal. He's played the last couple games and he's really starting, I think, to make an impact on that defensive front. Simeon Barrow transferred from Michigan State.
He's another defensive lineman. Both of those guys together, I think, are going to be really, really impactful for Miami. Their defense, you know, obviously not as good as the offense, but up front, I think you look at those two guys and they're difference makers.
And ultimately, if you can get after the other team's quarterback, create chaos, that can really help lift you places. And then the last one I would say is Xavier Restrepo, who's been a part of this program now going on five years. He was recruited by Manny Diaz, the former coach, and he's turned into one of the best slot receivers in the country, if not the best slot receiver. One of the all-time leaders in receptions and yards at the University of Miami and just a guy that I think, you know, he came in as a three-star recruit, not very heralded coming out of high school, and he's really blossomed and developed and turned into one of Miami's best players for sure.
Manny Navarro is joining us here on the JR Sport pre-show, knows everything about the U, covers them for the athletic. When you look at the matchup tomorrow against Duke, what do you expect in that one? We know you think about the top of the ACC standings, it's Clemson that's right there, SMU's right behind them, but Duke is not too shabby at all.
No, Manny Diaz is a great defensive coach. You saw that the last couple of years at Penn State, you know, his time at Miami, his defenses were known for being able to create turnovers, and Duke I think is third right now in the country in turnovers games for the season, so they've been really, really opportunistic. Unfortunately for them last week, they got six turnovers in the loss to SMU. It wasn't enough to get them past SMU in overtime, but those guys on the defensive side know what they're doing. They know how to pressure the quarterback, and I think offensively, you know, he's got some guys that can make plays. Star Thomas is a really dynamic running back in the backfield, makes guys miss. His quarterback, Malik Murphy, 17 touchdowns, five interceptions, so when he can hit his receivers, he can make plays for you. So I think, you know, it's going to be a pretty interesting game tomorrow.
I'm very interested to see the way Manny decides to bring the pressure to Cam Ward. Well, Manny, when you think about what's in store the rest of the way past tomorrow for the Hurricanes, and even if you look back in the past, people look at the 8-0 record and they say, well, who have y'all really beaten at the top of the heap? What do you think about the validity of this team as they're likely going to have to compete with a big boy when we get to the playoff? Yeah, I mean, you could say that pretty much for everybody in the ACC right now. The four unbeaten teams at the top of the conference, none of them have a win over a ranked opponent right now. Pittsburgh has a couple of nice regular season wins over a couple big 12 teams. You know, Clemson has steamrolled everybody they face, and so they lost to Georgia, and SMU, you know, has a couple nice wins, but their most notable performance was a loft at home to unbeaten BYU by a field goal. So it's going to be tough for the ACC to sort of earn that respect nationally, but I think the one thing you have to respect when you look at the Hurricanes is Cam Ward and just how good this offense is. They're converting on third down at close to 60 percent clip, which is number one in the country. Ward obviously is the Heisman candidate himself, and the last couple games they've really been able to start running the football effectively with Damian Martinez and Mark Fletcher.
They're two big physical backs, so I think whoever faces Miami in the playoffs is going to have to contend with a legitimate high-scoring offense that can put points on the board and keep you on the field for a long time with how good they are on third down. Well, Manny, there's so much enthusiasm about this squad right now. You can't turn on a U game and not see Michael Irvin losing his mind. We got Ray Lewis is back out there now, too. What does this mean for the program overall, not just for this year, but into the future? Well, this is why Mario Cristobal was here.
You think about the greats, you mentioned some of them who have come out of this program for many, many years. You know, Miami wasn't spending money on football the way that it needed to to compete in the modern era in terms of even hiring coaches, coaching staff. To win in college football today, you got to have a big NIL budget.
You got to pay your coach as well. You got to bring in good staff. It all takes money, and the University of Miami a couple years ago realized, hey, we've got to impress on our football program so that we can get it back to being one of the best in the country, and so the change has already occurred in terms of the leadership, the president, all of those things that needed to be a factor for them to turn things around and to just see it finally come to fruition this year with an 8-0 record, to see Miami in the top 10. I mean, everybody's just so really excited about the future because they know that the leadership at the school wants to see Mario Cristobal succeed, and they're going to try to give him as much support financially as he needs to get the job done.
Manny, what does this mean? I alluded to it a little bit earlier on for the state of Florida. We know the Gators sooner than later. Maybe they'll be looking for a new coach. FSU has just completely hit the skids up in Tallahassee, and we heard Mario, he had no issue saying, hey, we are the team. We're the school in Florida.
Do you foresee that moving that way into the future? Yeah, you know, it's really been surprising to see Florida State fall off the way that they have. I think Mike Norvell did a terrific job the last two seasons finding guys in the transfer portal and turning that program into one of the best in the country. But this falloff, to be one and seven at this point, nobody saw that coming.
So that's been a drastic drop off. You mentioned the Gators. There could be a potential coaching change by the end of the season.
UCF, USF, they're all struggling right now, all under 500. So to have Miami kind of be the flag bearer right now, I do. I think this is perfectly set up for Miami to be the most dominant team in the state for the next several years until Florida and Florida State can get their act together and start giving them some competition. Wow, Manny, we jumped into Tallahassee, we back in the 90s now, huh? Back in the 90s? I don't know if we're there yet. We'll be back in the 90s when Miami's winning national championships.
But we're on a path back to those glory days, no doubt. Hey, Manny, I appreciate the time. Where can people follow you and all of your work with The Athletic? Yeah, you can follow me on X at Manny Underscore Navarro. You can check out my podcast, The Wide Ride Podcast, wherever you download your podcast, as well as YouTube.
And you can read all my work at TheAthletic.com. Hey, Manny, thank you so much. Enjoy the game tomorrow. Have a wonderful weekend. Okay, we'll catch you on down the line. All right, man. Good talking to you. No doubt about it. That Manny Navarro covers all things Miami, University of Miami, all things hurricanes for The Athletic. It just sucks. We got to wait until the playoffs to see them go up against the highest competition.
You know, tomorrow, and we'll talk about this later in the show, we talked about it all week. We got Ohio State, we have Penn State. These are two teams above them. They're punching each other in the mouth, big tent here, punch you in the face. We have to see what the canes do.
And we just got to wait until late December and maybe even early January to see what they do. And thank you again to Manny Navarro for joining us from The Athletic. It's the JR Sport Reshow here with you coast to coast on the Infinity Sports Network, 855-212-4227.
That's 855-212-4227. We'll take a break. When we come back on the other side, you know what, let's stick to Miami on the professional side. Because yeah, on one end in college, you got Cam Ward and the pros, you got Tua Tongaveloa. And he's back. And he has some funny words this week about some of his critics wanted to take a look at his performance and say, hey, you should have done this, should have done that. And we'll talk about Tua. Derek Carr is going to be back. We got so much more to do. But right now it's time for a News Flash. Here he is, Chris LaPresti.
