Miami Hurricanes: Jaden Davis, James Williams and Francisco Mauigoa Dominated vs Texas A&M
The Miami Hurricanes defense came up big versus the Texas A&M Aggies. Among several top performances, the following three players showed out.
Cornerback Jaden Davis has been named the ACC defensive player of the week. He deserved it after causing a fumble, making 8 tackles, 2 of which were tackles for loss, and having played well in coverage. He was one of four Canes to be named an All-ACC performer, in fact:
Davis has shown that knows not only where to be but also how to lay a lick. The hit that created that fumble, that was a big-time play.
The emotional energy that play created truly helped the Canes. Creating turnovers has long since been the difference for which teams win games. That might have been the Texas A&M game’s biggest moment, in fact.
Davis was not the only member of the Miami secondary to play well. The talented James Williams was all over the field. For anyone that watched Williams consistently during the contest, his anticipation was fantastic when attacking downhill to stop the run or get over the top to take away a pass.
Williams’ stat line ended with 9 tackles. Coming from the deep secondary, he still made hits near the line of scrimmage, too.
The passion and emotion that Williams has been playing with, he has taken his game to an elite level. That performance has allowed defensive coordinator Lance Guidry to be more aggressive with the front seven and create more problems near the line of scrimmage. Williams has been a beast. There’s been a tremendous performer in the middle as well.
Francisco Mauigoa has been an all-around defender that’s blitzed well, made one-on-one tackles time and time again, and been the physical presence in the middle of the field that the Canes needed.
A&M wanted to run the football and use play-action to create chunk-yardage passing plays. Mauigoa's effort and consistency helped to prevent Aggies quarterback Conner Weigman from having many true "shot" plays.
Against the Aggies, Mauigoa accounted for 6 tackles and was a primary reason that Texas A&M was held to only 97 yards rushing. That type of performance has also been a reason that Miami’s No. 20 rushing defense – through two games – has been so hard to penetrate.
The Hurricanes defense has continued to improve. Davis, Williams and Mauigoa have been three key cogs for the defensive uprising.
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