The Miami Hurricanes have one of the fiercest defenses in all of college football. Tonight, they aim to stifle and take down Ole Miss’ offense in the Fiesta Bowl and advance forward from the College Football Playoff semifinals.
While the Hurricanes will have superstar EDGE rusher Rueben Bain Jr. and his partner in crime, Akheem Mesidor, bull rushing Trinidad Chambliss the entire night in the desert, they will be missing one of their stars in the secondary.
Miami fans were hopeful they could possibly get back top cornerback Damari Brown into the lineup for their biggest game in a quarter-century, but he was officially ruled out hours prior to kickoff.
Brown had been listed as questionable leading into the Fiesta Bowl, giving some hope that he could make his first start in over a month after going down with an injury at the end of November.
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Without one of their best corners, the Hurricanes will have to rely on their stout front four to get to Chambliss and make it difficult for him to make any plays out of the pocket. They’ll also have to deal with a top-flight running back in Kewan Lacy, who rushed for two touchdowns against Georgia in the quarterfinal Sugar Bowl.
Brown’s last game was against a ranked Pittsburgh program, where he recorded three tackles and continued his top-graded form by Pro Football Focus. Since then, he’s been out with a leg injury that the Hurricanes hoped would be better by the time they played Ohio State, but Brown will remain sidelined against the Rebels.
There is a chance that he may return for the national title game at home in Miami if they get there, but the Hurricanes must first deal with Pete Golding’s squad, which has been almost impossible to stop offensively through the first two rounds.
The winner of the Fiesta Bowl will move on to the College Football Playoff final and await the winner of Friday’s Peach Bowl between top-seeded Indiana and Big Ten rival Oregon.
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