November 18, 2017 Week 12 · Regular Season Belt defended

Miami defends the belt, 44–28, at home over Virginia.

Home · Defending Holder

MiamiAP No. 2 44

Away · Challenger

Virginia 28

AP poll, week 12: Virginia unranked at Miami No. 2 · No. 1 that week: Georgia. The belt vs. the polls →

Belt context

Where this game sits in the lineage

Miami came in 28 days into reign #300, which began with a win over Syracuse, with 3 defenses already behind it; this was its 4th defense. It was the last defense: Pittsburgh took the belt in the very next belt game, on November 24, 2017.

For Virginia this was its 12th shot at the belt; it had held the belt once before.

This is the only time Miami and Virginia have met with the belt on the line.

AI-Written

Recap

Miami's defense delivered when it mattered most to preserve the belt with a 44-28 victory over Virginia in a shootout that saw both offenses light up the scoreboard. The Hurricanes weathered an early Virginia onslaught capped by Joe Reed's 75-yard touchdown reception, answering with three touchdowns of their own in the first half to take control. Malik Rosier orchestrated an efficient passing attack that produced six touchdowns through the air, including a crucial pick-six by Jaquan Johnson in the third quarter that essentially sealed the game despite Virginia's continued offensive fireworks. Though the Cavaliers' Kurt Benkert matched Rosier's productivity with five passing touchdowns of his own, Miami's ground game and late-game touchdown runs by Travis Homer provided the decisive cushion that allowed the Hurricanes to hold off Virginia's fourth-quarter push.

Jaquan Johnson's pick-six return touchdown in Q3 (9:57) - gave Miami critical separation and shifted momentum decisively in the Hurricanes' favor
Malik Rosier's early passing touchdowns to Ahmmon Richards and Dayall Harris - established Miami's offensive rhythm and pace that Virginia couldn't match
Travis Homer's two late-game rushing touchdowns in Q4 - iced the game and prevented Virginia's high-powered passing attack from engineering a comeback
Virginia's three turnovers versus Miami's two - the turnover margin proved pivotal despite the Cavaliers' superior total yardage

Written by Claude from the box score and play-by-play on this page — a plain-English recap of the numbers below, not a substitute for them.

Full Box Score

Team stats

CFBD box score

MiamiVirginia

Total yards358439

Rushing yards14855

Passing yards210384

First downs1518

3rd down conv.6/134/13

Turnovers23

Penalties–yards4–406–40

Time of possession27:3332:27

Full team box score from CFBD’s /games/teams data. This section only appears for belt games from 2003 onward — CFBD doesn’t have team-level stats that far back.

Play By Play

Key plays

CFBD play-by-play

When	Team	Yards	Play
Q1 9:49	Virginia	+33 yd	Kurt Benkert pass complete to Olamide Zaccheaus for 33 yds for a TD, (A.J. Mejia KICK)
Q1 7:22	Miami	+0 yd	Malik Rosier pass intercepted Quin Blanding return for no gain to the Virg 37
Q1 6:01	Virginia	+11 yd	Kurt Benkert pass complete to Olamide Zaccheaus for 11 yds Olamide Zaccheaus fumbled, forced by Zach McCloud, recovered by MiaFl Michael Jackson
Q1 5:52	Miami	+25 yd	Malik Rosier pass complete to Ahmmon Richards for 25 yds to the Virg 30 for a 1ST down
Q1 2:12	Virginia	+75 yd	Kurt Benkert pass complete to Joe Reed for 75 yds for a TD, (A.J. Mejia KICK)
Q1 1:22	Miami	+33 yd	Malik Rosier pass complete to Jeff Thomas for 33 yds to the Virg 12 for a 1ST down
Q1 0:14	Miami	+10 yd	Malik Rosier pass complete to Ahmmon Richards for 10 yds for a TD, (Michael Badgley KICK)
Q2 9:14	Miami	+36 yd	Malik Rosier pass complete to Dayall Harris for 36 yds for a TD, (Michael Badgley KICK)
Q2 9:05	Virginia	+22 yd	Kurt Benkert pass complete to Jordan Ellis for 7 yds to the Virg 32 for a 1ST down MIAMI FL Penalty, Roughing Passer (Joe Jackson) to the Virg 47 for a 1ST down
Q2 0:30	Virginia	+33 yd	Kurt Benkert pass complete to Andre Levrone for 33 yds for a TD, (A.J. Mejia KICK)
Q2 0:50	Virginia	+21 yd	Kurt Benkert pass complete to Doni Dowling for 21 yds to the MiaFl 33 for a 1ST down
Q3 12:21	Virginia	+26 yd	Kurt Benkert pass complete to Daniel Hamm for 26 yds for a TD, (A.J. Mejia KICK)
Q3 10:20	Miami	+24 yd	Malik Rosier pass complete to Braxton Berrios for 24 yds to the Virg 9 for a 1ST down
Q3 10:04	Miami	+9 yd	Malik Rosier pass complete to Lawrence Cager for 9 yds for a TD, (Michael Badgley KICK)
Q3 12:21	Virginia	+33 yd	Brian Delaney kickoff for 61 yds , Jeff Thomas return for 33 yds to the MiaFl 37
Q3 11:24	Miami	+24 yd	Malik Rosier run for 24 yds to the Virg 34 for a 1ST down
Q3 9:57	Virginia	-30 yd	Kurt Benkert pass intercepted for a TD Jaquan Johnson return for 30 yds for a TD, (Michael Badgley KICK)
Q3 7:27	Virginia	+26 yd	Kurt Benkert pass complete to Jordan Ellis for 26 yds to the MiaFl 38 for a 1ST down
Q3 4:34	Miami	+0 yd	Malik Rosier pass intercepted Juan Thornhill return for no gain to the Virg 11
Q3 0:21	Miami	+44 yd	Michael Badgley 44 yd FG GOOD
Q4 4:03	Miami	+8 yd	Malik Rosier run for 8 yds for a TD, (Michael Badgley PAT MISSED)
Q4 6:07	Miami	+36 yd	Travis Homer run for 36 yds to the Virg 3 for a 1ST down
Q4 1:16	Miami	+19 yd	Travis Homer run for 19 yds for a TD, (Michael Badgley KICK)
Q4 1:16	Miami	+20 yd	Michael Badgley kickoff for 65 yds , Joe Reed return for 20 yds to the Virg 20
Q4 0:00	Virginia	+23 yd	Jordan Ellis run for 23 yds to the Virg 43 for a 1ST down

Scoring plays, turnovers, and gains of 20+ yards, pulled from CFBD’s play-by-play. This section only appears for belt games with play-by-play on file (2003 onward).

Box Score

Player stats

CFBD player stats

Passing

Miami

Player	C/ATT	YDS	AVG	TD	INT	QBR
Malik Rosier	15/28	210	7.5	3	2	81.4

Virginia

Player	C/ATT	YDS	AVG	TD	INT	QBR
Kurt Benkert	28/37	384	10.4	4	1	60.3

Rushing

Miami

Player	CAR	YDS	AVG	TD	LONG
Travis Homer	17	96	5.6	1	36
Malik Rosier	9	38	4.2	1	24
DeeJay Dallas	5	15	3.0	0	9
Team	1	-1	-1.0	0	0

Virginia

Player	CAR	YDS	AVG	LONG
Olamide Zaccheaus	5	29	5.8	9
Joe Reed	5	27	5.4	16
Jordan Ellis	11	24	2.2	23
Kurt Benkert	7	-25	-3.6	6

Receiving

Miami

Player	REC	YDS	AVG	TD	LONG
Ahmmon Richards	4	51	12.8	1	25
Dayall Harris	2	43	21.5	1	36
Braxton Berrios	3	38	12.7	0	24
Jeff Thomas	1	33	33.0	0	33
Christopher Herndon IV	1	14	14.0	0	14
Michael Irvin II	1	10	10.0	0	10
Mike Harley	1	10	10.0	0	10
Lawrence Cager	1	9	9.0	1	9
Darrell Langham	1	2	2.0	0	2

Virginia

Player	REC	YDS	AVG	TD	LONG
Joe Reed	2	81	40.5	1	75
Doni Dowling	7	70	10.0	0	21
Olamide Zaccheaus	6	67	11.2	1	33
Jordan Ellis	6	57	9.5	0	26
Andre Levrone	2	37	18.5	1	33
Daniel Hamm	1	26	26.0	1	26
Evan Butts	2	21	10.5	0	15
Hasise Dubois	1	14	14.0	0	14
Lamont Atkins	1	11	11.0	0	11

Show more stats (7 more categories)

Defense

Miami

Player	TOT	SOLO	SACKS	TFL	PD	QB HUR	TD
Jaquan Johnson	9	4	1	1	0	0	1
Michael Pinckney	6	1	0	1	1	0	0
Shaquille Quarterman	6	1	0	0	0	0	0
Dee Delaney	6	0	0	0.5	0	0	0
Zach McCloud	5	4	0	0	0	0	0
Michael Jackson	4	4	0	0	0	0	0
Malek Young	4	4	0	0	0	0	0
RJ McIntosh	4	2	0.5	3	0	0	0
Trajan Bandy	4	1	0	0	1	0	0
Amari Carter	4	1	0	0	0	0	0
Joe Jackson	4	0	1	1.5	0	1	0
Chad Thomas	4	0	0.5	1	0	1	0
Trent Harris	3	2	2	2.5	0	0	0
Sheldrick Redwine	2	1	0	0	0	0	0
Kendrick Norton	2	0	0	0.5	0	1	0
Pat Bethel	2	0	0	0	0	0	0
Scott Patchan	1	1	0	0	0	0	0
De'Andre Wilder	1	1	0	0	0	0	0
Mike Smith	1	0	0	0	0	0	0
Anthony Moten	1	0	0	0	0	0	0

Virginia

Player	TOT	SOLO	SACKS	TFL	PD	QB HUR
Micah Kiser	9	3	0	0	0	0
Quin Blanding	8	2	0	0	0	0
Eli Hanback	7	3	0	1	0	0
Joey Blount	5	2	0	0	0	0
Bryce Hall	4	3	1	1	1	0
Juan Thornhill	4	3	0	0	2	0
Jordan Mack	4	2	0	0	0	0
Mandy Alonso	3	2	0.5	0.5	0	0
Andrew Brown	3	0	0.5	0.5	0	0
Chris Peace	2	2	1	1	0	1
Malcolm Cook	1	1	0	0	0	0
Chris Moore	1	0	0	0	1	0
Juwan Moye	1	0	0	0	0	0
Brenton Nelson	1	0	0	0	1	0

Fumbles

Miami

Player	FUM	LOST	REC
Michael Jackson	0	0	1
Travis Homer	0	0	1

Virginia

Player	FUM	LOST	REC
Daniel Hamm	1	1	0
Olamide Zaccheaus	1	1	0

Interceptions

Miami

Player	INT	YDS	TD
Jaquan Johnson	1	30	1

Virginia

Player	INT	YDS	TD
Quin Blanding	1	0	0
Juan Thornhill	1	0	0

Kick Returns

Miami

Player	NO	YDS	AVG	LONG	TD
Jeff Thomas	1	33	33.0	33	0

Virginia

Player	NO	YDS	AVG	LONG	TD
Joe Reed	1	20	20.0	20	0

Kicking

Miami

Player	FG	PCT	LONG	XP	PTS
Michael Badgley	1/1	100.0	44	5/6	8

Virginia

Player	FG	PCT	LONG	XP	PTS
A.J. Mejia	0/0	0.0	0	4/4	4

Punt Returns

Miami

No recorded stats in this category.

Virginia

Player	NO	YDS	AVG	LONG	TD
Daniel Hamm	1	2	2.0	2	0

Punting

Miami

Player	NO	YDS	AVG	TB	In 20	LONG
Zach Feagles	4	149	37.3	0	0	45

Virginia

Player	NO	YDS	AVG	TB	In 20	LONG
Lester Coleman	4	148	37.0	0	0	45

Full player stats from CFBD’s /games/players data, split out by team. This section only appears for belt games from 2003 onward — CFBD doesn’t have player-level stats that far back. Linked player names go to that player’s stat line in every other belt game they’ve appeared in.

Sources Box score at ESPN · Game record: College Football Data (id 400937525) · This game in the downloadable dataset

← Notre Dame at Miami Miami at Pittsburgh →