The Best Miami Hurricane Moments of 2022

Miami had its fair share of great moments in 2022. As the year comes to a close, let’s look back at the best moments from the University of Miami athletics.

Mario Cristobal’s mantra is that “The U” is not back, “The U” is back to work, and back to work Miami went immediately. Miami was ranked near the 40s in the Rivals recruiting rankings and was on track for its worst class in school history. Cristobal changed that very quickly.

Miami was able to flip four-star tight end Jaleel Skinner from Alabama and four-star running back Tre’Vonte Citizen from LSU.

Cristobal was also able to land four-star pass rushers Cyrus Moss and Nyjalik Kelly. Miami additionally signed blue-chip prospects Ahmad Moten, Anez Cooper, and Matthew McCoy in the last month of the recruiting process. It was a significant win for the Hurricanes and immediately the Cristobal era was felt.

Miami rose to the 15th-ranked class in the nation.

Destiny Harden the forward from Chicago has never had five minutes on the court as she did against Louisville during this year’s ACC Tournament.

With the Hurricanes facing a 15-point deficit with a little more than four minutes left of a quarterfinal game against then No. 4 Louisville on March 4, Harden scored 15 straight points – including a game-winning buzzer-beater – that lifted Miami to a 61-59 win over the Cardinals.

Harden finished with 27 points that night, tying a career-high and the Hurricanes went on to advance to the ACC Tournament Championship Game for the first time in program history.

Their performance at the tournament helped them secure a spot in the NCAA Tournament, where they opened play with a 78-66 first-round win over South Florida before falling to eventual national champion South Carolina in the second round.

It was a historic postseason run for the Hurricanes – one that was undoubtedly keyed by a big performance from one of their biggest leaders.

“That performance by Destiny Harden is one for the ages. It’s one for the ages,” Hurricanes coach Katie Meier said after the Louisville win.

Said Harden, “Sharing those moments with my teammates meant the world to me…Even though we won games, it was more so being able to have those moments with the coaches and players at the same time.”

After a history-making run through the ACC Tournament, Miami’s women’s basketball team advanced to the NCAA Tournament and opened play there with a 78-66 win over South Florida.

Five Hurricanes scored in double figures and 10 Hurricanes scored at least once in what was a team-effort win over the Bulls.

The win was also memorable for head coach Katie Meier, who notched the 400th victory of her career that day in South Carolina.

“I want to give a ton of credit to South Florida because they are very had to score against and I always have so much respect for them,” Meier said after the win. “I had my two steady eddies that keep me sane [in Karla Erjavec and Kelsey Marshall], but it was the other players, too. I think we had 29 points off the bench and that is the game.”

The Hurricanes were considered a bubble team for most of the season, a team on the fringe of making the NCAA tournament. The Hurricanes were eventually selected to make the tournament as a 10 seed. Miami knocked off seventh-seeded USC, second-seeded Auburn, and 11th-seeded Iowa State to advance to the first Elite Eight in program history.

The ACC had a down year and Miami finished several games off Duke’s ACC-winning pace, so the Hurricanes dropping to a 10 seed for the tourney wasn’t a huge surprise. Jim Larranaga‘s bunch was an experienced group, that caused nightmare matchups in the tournament. Iowa State learned firsthand in falling 70-56 to Miami, punching the Canes ticket to its first-ever elite eight.

Isaiah Wong was one of the stars for Miami last postseason but in a game in which he scored seven points, senior Kam McGusty stepped up with 27 points and Jordan Miller added 16.

For the first time since 2016 Miami Baseball hosted a regional at Mark Light Stadium. Miami finished its regular season with a 39-18 overall record (20-10 in ACC).

It was the first time Miami hosted a regional since 2016.

Safety Kam Kinchens put together a performance for the ages in Miami’s 35-14 win over Georgia Tech.

Kinchens, a sophomore, tied a Miami school record with his three interceptions against the Yellow Jackets, one of which he returned for a 99-yard touchdown.

Kinchens became the 12th Hurricane to snag three picks in a single game and the first to do it since Kenny Phillips, one of his mentors, did the same in 2006.

Kinchens also notched a team-high eight tackles in the win.

After the game, Kinchens – who at season’s end was named a first-team All-American by multiple media outlets, including the Associated Press – could only smile when asked if he ever envisioned tying a school record also shared by Miami legend Sean Taylor.

“I’m not going to lie to you, I probably did,” Kinchens said. “That’s the goal. You chase the greats. That’s the goal going into every game, chase the greats.”

Cristobal and his staff signed 29 new Hurricanes in a recruiting class that is being widely hailed as one of the top five in the nation.

And the coach made it abundantly clear Miami’s work is far from finished.

“We’re not done yet. We can’t be done yet. Recruiting is an ever, always-moving process that requires every ounce of what you have while you’re developing your football team,” Cristobal said. “We have some holes to fill. We filled some, we’re excited about it. Fifteen players in the top 300. I can keep going on and on about stars and rankings, but I’m more concerned about how they play and conduct themselves when they get here. Sound familiar? Jimmy Johnson, right? Back in 1986, 87.

“But we’re blessed to have these young men join us, to earn the trust and confidence of their families. Their trust and their confidence was earned through a process involving transparency, honesty, persistence, and passion about the University of Miami, which we all know and feel is the greatest place in the country.”

Miami’s signing class, Cristobal noted, features 25 high school prospects and four transfers. The group includes six offensive linemen, six linebackers, five defensive linemen, three cornerbacks, two tight ends, two running backs, two wide receivers, a safety, a quarterback, and a punter.

The newest Hurricanes come from far and wide, with nine hailing from Miami-Dade and Broward counties, three calling Georgia home, one – punter Dylan Joyce – joining the Hurricanes from Australia, while brothers Francis and Francisco Mauigoa are from American Samoa.

There are multiple high school All-Americans, a pair of five-star offensive line prospects in 6-foot-5.5, 330-pound Francis Mauigoa and 6.5, 305-pound Samson Okunlola, 14 four-star prospects, and three sets of brothers.

But one of the reasons Cristobal was especially pleased with the class? The size Miami added across the board, particularly on the offensive line and at linebacker.

“We had to get a lot bigger. We had to get a lot bigger,” Cristobal said. “Growth, size, power…I mean, power in the trenches. The line of scrimmage, being able to control the line of scrimmage, knock people back, sustain blocks, being able to be effective and block destruction, shed blockers, being able to be a knock-back tackle, right? [There’s a] big difference in being able to strike somebody and knock ‘em back or prevent them from gaining an extra yard as opposed to maybe drag-down tackling, wrap and roll in some of that stuff…Those things are important. We got significantly larger at those positions, but we also think we brought in some really high-level athletes, some high-level football IQs, and a lot of length at those positions as well…

“All these guys play all the positions [on the offensive line]. They all do. You’re able to have guys that can cover a lot of ground and recover, so if they do take a poor set, they miss with a punch hand, they can recover, redirect, get good hat placement, hand position, and still be able to have a successful rep. We feel very, very confident in what we have acquired in this year’s class on both those positions and we expect some epic battles in the spring and the fall.”

The Hurricanes also gained some invaluable experience with the addition of four transfers: cornerback Davonte Brown from UCF, offensive lineman Javion Cohen from Alabama, defensive lineman Thomas Gore from Georgia State, and linebacker Francisco Mauigoa from Washington State.

“We’re working our way towards a roster that is physically getting to where it needs to be,” Cristobal said.

While Miami’s signees have plenty of size, speed, power, physicality, and talent, Cristobal noted there are also more than a few players in the class that have the ability to step up and be the kind of leaders in the locker room the Hurricanes will need moving forward.

Several showed their ability to lead as their teams competed for state championships, while others held firm, even as the Hurricanes endured some struggles last season.

“These are guys that are used to being the top dog at their respective place. They’re used to being the guy,” Cristobal said. “And that’s what we recruit. That’s what we’re going to recruit. And they all come from different parts. They come in different shapes and sizes. And now the goal is to make sure we bring ‘em all together to be part of one common culture and brotherhood and make sure we’re all working in the same direction, right?”

For several of those “top dogs” who will be enrolling early, the work of integrating into the Miami program will begin soon enough.

In the meantime, though, Cristobal reiterated his commitment to continue surrounding them – and the current Hurricanes – with even more talent in the days, weeks, and months ahead.

“We want to go after the best of the best and not slow down and [get] guys that are willing to compete. That’s almost like a lost art nowadays, right?” Cristobal said. “We don’t want whiners [or] complainers. We don’t want tweet monsters. We want real-deal people that understand the value of an education at the University of Miami, a private school, elite education in the best city in the world. And [we’re] building, rebuilding what has always been and what is going to be, one day, the premier program in the country once again. So, the targets were laid out, and credit to the staff and everybody else who did a great job.”

Christy Chirinos of Miami Athletics Contributed To This Report