MIAMI GARDENS — When wide receiver Charleston Rambo transferred to the Miami Hurricanes from Oklahoma, UM was hoping he’d be the consistent threat on the outside that starting quarterback D’Eriq King could consistently rely on — and he certainly was that against Michigan State.
Unfortunately for Miami, Rambo’s career outing came in a losing effort, with the Hurricanes falling to the Spartans 38-17 at Hard Rock Stadium when they couldn’t overcome their own mistakes or stop Michigan State’s defense in the second half.
“Turnovers and [the] red zone told the story of the day,” coach Manny Diaz said. “Missing opportunities and not creating any turnovers — they won basically all of the critical moments of the game.”
Miami (1-2) finished Saturday with four turnovers and allowed Michigan State (3-0) to score four second-half touchdowns, for the Hurricanes’ fourth loss in five games dating back to last season.
The Spartans did their offensive damage in air and on the ground, with quarterback Payton Thorne going 18 of 31 for 261 passing yards and four touchdowns. Led by running back Kenneth Walker III (172 rushing yards on 27 attempts), Michigan State also had 193 rushing yards on 41 attempts.
“As defensive ends we could’ve set the edges better,” second-year defensive end Chantz Williams said. “We just got to do better, simple as that.”
Rambo finished Saturday with career-highs of 12 receptions for 156 receiving yards to go along with two touchdowns. His 12 receptions tied Willie Smith (1984) and Phillip Dorsett (2012) for the most catches in a single game by a Miami receiver.
“It’s there, but it’s nothing right now,” Rambo said about his performance. “We took an L, so that doesn’t matter.”
Quarterback D’Eriq King completed a career-high 38 of his 59 pass attempts for 388 yards, but was responsible for all of Miami’s turnover — two interceptions and two fumbles.
“It’s my job to not turnover the ball,” King said. “I have the ball in my hands every single play. I got to be better for everybody.”
Miami’s running game produced very little behind King, finishing with 52 rushing yards on 24 attempts.
The Hurricanes were plagued by the same errors they’ve experienced throughout the season: dropped balls and missed tackles.
“This was by far our worst performance [tackling],” Diaz said. “From a defensive standpoint, it cost us [Saturday].
“You have to continue to address the fundamentals, so you don’t make those mistakes. The more curious part is when [it’s] guys who haven’t had a history of dropping passing or missing tackles. At some point, you got to honor what the film says and play guys who can make those type of plays.”
The Hurricanes offense moved the ball well throughout the first half (6.4 yards per play) but paid for their mistakes early on.
On Miami’s first drive, King completed all five passes for 39 yards before Michigan State defensive end Jeff Pietrowski forced King to fumble on a 10-yard rush at the Spartans’ 29. Michigan State linebacker Quavaris Crouch came up with the recovery to end UM’s first drive with a turnover.
After a scoreless first quarter, Michigan State scored the game’s first points with a Matt Coghlin 23-yard field goal to cap off a 12-play, 73-yard drive that lasted nearly five minutes.
King’s connection with Rambo was on full display during UM’s fourth drive. King completed five passes to Rambo for 70 yards on the drive, including a 3-yard touchdown pass on fourth-and-2 for the Hurricanes’ first score of the game to finish a 10-play, 75-yard drive and give UM a 7-3 lead early in the second quarter.
The Hurricanes started their next drive with three consecutive King completions for 50 yards, helping set up a first-and-10 from Michigan State’s 11 after the Spartans were called for a defensive pass interference on a pass from King to Key’Shawn Smith into the end zone.
The self-inflicted errors followed. Will Mallory dropped a potential touchdown reception on second-and-10 before Justice Oluwaseun was called for a 10-yard holding penalty on the next play. That forced Miami to face a third-and-20 from Michigan State’s 21. After a 10-yard Cam’Ron Harris reception to get Miami to the 10, kicker Andy Borregales missed a 27-yard field-goal attempt, ending the Hurricanes’ promising drive with zero points to show for the 68 yards they gained on the drive.
Michigan State regained the lead on the following possession when Thorne capped off the Spartans’ best drive of the first half — nine plays for 80 yards — with a 7-yard touchdown pass to Walker, giving the Spartans a 10-7 advantage with 2:56 left in the second quarter.
King threw an interception to Michigan State safety Angelo Grose four plays into Miami’s next drive, with the Spartans taking their 10-7 lead into halftime.
Michigan State struck first in the second half, with Throne completing an 11-yard touchdown pass to Jalen Nailor on the Spartans’ second drive of the third quarter to give Michigan State a 17-7 lead midway through the quarter.
After momentarily going to the locker room to get his right shoulder looked at after being tackled hard on Miami’s first drive of the quarter, King led a 10-play, 75-yard drive that ended with 14-yard Rambo touchdown reception for his second score of the game to reduce Michigan State’s advantage to 17-14 late in the third quarter. King completed 6 of 9 pass attempts for 74 yards on the scoring drive.
King wore a black splint that also covered up his right wrist and part of his hand after the game, but said he was “all right” and that he’ll get his shoulder looked at Sunday.
The Hurricanes forced the Spartans to punt on their next drive, but King was sacked and fumbled three plays into Miami’s next drive, with Michigan State recovering the ball to start its next drive at Miami’s 13. After two plays, Throne completed a 10-yard touchdown pass to Jayden Reed to give the Spartans a 24-14 lead with 13:10 left in the game.
“It wasn’t just turning the ball over, but when the turnovers came and where they were on the field,” Diaz said. “They were all critical. When you add that and a couple empty possession in the red zone, it’s hard to overcome.”
Borregales made a 55-yard field goal midway through the fourth quarter to keep Miami in the game, 24-17, but Thorne completed a 39-yard touchdown pass to Nailor on the ensuing drive to give Michigan State a 31-17 fourth-quarter lead.
Spartans cornerback Ronald Williams picked off King on the first play of the following drive with 4:05 left in the game. Four plays later, Reed scored an 8-yard rushing touchdown to seal Michigan State’s 21-point victory.
The Hurricanes will play Central Connecticut State, an FCS program, next Saturday at home to cap off their non-conference schedule before starting ACC play versus Virginia on Sept. 30 at Hard Rock Stadium.
“Everyone has the right to be disappointed the first three games have started,” Diaz said. “There’s no defending that. We haven’t performed the way we should perform.”