Commentary

The Miami Hurricanes found themselves at a crossroads in their 2019-20 campaign.

Miami did not make any progress this season. They regressed.

Not only did Williams lead Miami to a historic win, but he made history himself, throwing six passing touchdowns, breaking the record for number of passing touchdowns thrown in a single game by a Miami quarterback.

In their third consecutive win in the rivalry series, the Miami Hurricanes never trailed in a 27-10 win at Florida State’s Doak Campbell Stadium.

After suffering a close loss last week, Miami has had to deal with a lot of problems this week heading into Saturday’s game against Pittsburgh Panthers.

"It was a very hard-fought win, which is what we expected it to be," head coach Manny Diaz said. "We had talked all week about how strong our culture was, even on the backs of some of these losses to start the season. If we trusted in [the culture] and continued to nurture it, the results would start to come. This game was a testament to that because we knew that it was going to be a game where persistence and being relentless was going to be the key."

The decision to have Turner Davidson kick field goals and extra points instead of Bubba Baxa was a choice that head coach Manny Diaz made during warm-ups.

After a gut-wrenching 42-35 loss to Virginia Tech last week, the Miami Hurricanes (2-3, 0-2) had a short week to prepare to face No. 20 Virginia (4-1, 2-0) Friday night at Hard Rock Stadium.

The Hurricanes (2-3, 0-2) faced the Virginia Tech Hokies (3-2, 1-2) on Saturday in what turned out to be an exciting display of offense after a very poor first half showing.

"Obviously, it was our fourth game of the season, and tonight was our second win and probably our fourth-best performance of the four we’ve had so far," head coach Manny Diaz said. "With all that being said, the only thing that we could accomplish today was beating Central Michigan, which, after the course of 60 minutes, when everything was added up, that’s what we got done."

“There are a lot of happy faces in that locker room and a lot of guys that have worked very, very hard for this feeling and for this day," Diaz said. "The game went about as we thought it would."

What this team needs is a big performance on Saturday to build confidence in front of their own fans.