The Seminoles ran man-to-man coverage on the Hurricanes’ wide receivers and blitzed Harris frequently, but sacked him just once. Harris made them pay, too: 386 yards passing and two touchdowns in a 38-34 win.

Georgia Tech’s coaches say they will have their hands full trying to contain Harris when the two teams play Thursday night at Land Shark Stadium.

“Well, he [Harris] was excellent in the game against Florida State,” coach Paul Johnson said. “I think he has matured a lot. He played very composed and made some big throws and big plays when he needed to. There’s no question he’s a gifted athlete.”

Creating that pressure will likely be up to the defensive line, which has recorded all of the team’s six sacks this season.

Defensive line coach Giff Smith said they hope to create some different looks for Harris and come after him with pressure from different points.

Johnson said earlier this week that Tech has to get pressure from someone other than defensive end Derrick Morgan, who has five sacks. Smith said that Robert Hall and Anthony Egbuniwe, who rotate opposite Morgan, are healthy after dealing with several nagging injuries.

“I think the d-line is ready for the challenge but we can’t let him sit back in the pocket,” Smith said.

Middle linebacker Brad Jefferson, the quarterback of Tech’s defense, said he’s confident that Morgan, Hall and the line will get into the backfield.

“We’ve put in some new defenses that’s going to get it stirred up,” Jefferson said. “I think we’ll get some pressure on him and see what he can do with it.”

In Miami, Harris said he doesn’t want to be the quarterback of the team that sends the UM seniors out without a win over Georgia Tech.

“Georgia Tech has beaten us for the past four years,” Harris said. “Everybody on this team has been beaten by Georgia Tech. Nobody has won against them. That’ll be a sour taste if we don’t come out with a victory.”

No reminders needed

Miami coach Randy Shannon said he doesn’t need to be reminded what happened to his team in last year’s game with Tech.

But here goes: the Yellow Jackets had 472 yards rushing and 518 yards in total offense in a 41-23 win.

The Hurricanes have spent a lot of time watching film of that game, though safety Randy Phillips said they didn’t spend any extra time in the spring or in summer camp working on defending the option. Shannon said it wouldn’t have mattered if they had.

“In all my years facing the option and even as a player, it takes about a quarter to really get caught up because of the speed of the linemen coming off the football and the quarterback coming with the football,” Shannon said. “You can’t simulate the speed but you get the idea.”

The Hurricanes have made some other adjustments to try and keep Tech from running over them. As noted by the Miami Herald, in last year’s game the Hurricanes’ defensive linemen said they were lining up too far away from the ball, which gave Tech’s offensive linemen chances to either cut-block them or go by them and engage the linebackers.

New defensive coordinator John Lovett has simplified the team’s defensive schemes this season, which also helped, defensive line coach Clint Hurtt told the Herald.

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