PITTSBURGH
The temperature at Hard Rock Stadium is supposed to be in the upper-70s around noon on Saturday when the No. 12 Miami Hurricanes kick off their regular-season finale against the No. 22 Pittsburgh Panthers.
But about 1,200 miles north, at Acrisure Stadium in Pittsburgh where UM will actually be playing, the conditions will be much, much colder for the Hurricanes as they hope to keep their College Football Playoff hopes alive.
Expected temperature at kickoff from the Steel City: 34 degrees, just above freezing. It will be the coldest game the Hurricanes have played so far this season. Miami’s other three road games this year had kickoff temperatures of 83 degrees at FSU in Tallahassee on Oct. 4, 59 degrees at SMU in Dallas on Nov. 1 and 63 degrees at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg on Nov. 22.
Count Hurricanes quarterback Carson Beck among those embracing the chilly weather.
“That’s real football weather,” said Hurricanes quarterback Carson Beck, a Jacksonville native. “I feel like we haven’t played in any cold weather this year, really. I was expecting Virginia to be a little bit colder, and when it wasn’t, I was kind of disappointed, to be honest. I think sometimes that cold weather and that chill gives you like an extra little grip on the football. It’s November, right? It’s November. It’s getting to playoff time. These games mean the most. They remember what you do in November. Everyone knows that saying. But again, it’s football weather. We’re excited, we’re looking forward to it. We’re just ready to go compete.”
That’s all the Hurricanes can focus on. Miami enters Saturday needing to win at minimum in order to keep their slight hopes of receiving an at-large bid to the 12-team playoff field alive. There is still a path for the Hurricanes to reach the ACC Championship Game, with a win there giving them an automatic bid into the field, but that will also require help — namely losses by at least two of SMU, Virginia and Duke and potentially a couple other results from around the conference.
And they’ll do so while trying to stave off the frosty conditions and keep riding the momentum of their three-game win streak — a stretch against Syracuse, NC State and Virginia Tech in which Miami has outscored its opponents 113-34.
“Since the day you started watching football, you wish you could play games like this up north,” Hurricanes coach Mario Cristobal said. “We’re going to be on the same field playing a team that’s dealing with the same conditions and even though we’re [from] a different climate, it cannot and will not be a factor, between the gear that you use, between mentality and preparation. … Our guys are really excited for it, and that should override everything else.”
Excited for the opportunity, yes. Excited to play in the cold? Not everyone.
“I’m not looking forward to it,” said defensive lineman Akheem Mesidor, an Ottawa, Canada, native. “But I’ve done it before, and it’s nothing to be worried about.”
Jordan McPherson
Miami Herald
Jordan McPherson covers the Miami Hurricanes and Florida Panthers for the Miami Herald. He attended the University of Florida and covered the Gators athletic program for five years before joining the Herald staff in December 2017.
