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TAMPA — When Miami kicker Jake Wieclaw lined up for the winning field goal with two seconds left in Saturday's game against USF, his mind was on his Thursday practice routine.
"We kind of go over pressure situations every week in practice, so it's something I'm fairly used to," Wieclaw said. "(The kick was) exactly that. We have our pressure situations usually on Thursday, so, yeah, it's nothing new."
Wieclaw said he knew the 36-yard kick was good as it left his foot, sending the Hurricanes to a 6-3 win over the Bulls in a defensive struggle. This came after he had a 41-yard attempt blocked by USF's Ryne Giddins late in the third quarter.
Coach Al Golden said he tried to recreate the feeling of those Thursday pressure kicks to relieve Wieclaw's nerves as USF called back-to-back timeouts to try to ice him.
"We were just trying to keep him loose," Golden said. "Every Thursday … we try to do what we call pressure kicks, and we're constantly making noise and jumping around, and I knew they were going to start calling timeouts, so I said, 'Hey, pressure kicks.' And the whole team knew what I was talking about, so we just had some fun, and he relaxed and went up there and made a great swing at it."
Miami arrived at that moment with a key late drive to get into scoring position in a game where points were at a premium. Senior quarterback Jacory Harris led the Hurricanes on a 15-play, 61-yard drive in which they converted on three third downs and ran the final 5:43 off the clock.
It was Miami's third drive of at least 12 plays in the game, helping it win time of possession by controlling the ball for 38:10, more than 16 minutes longer than USF.
Harris managed the game well, going 27-of-35 for 259 yards without any turnovers, though he was sacked six times.
Golden said Harris showed poise to get the Hurricanes in position for the win, which made them bowl eligible.
"The great thing about that drive there was that a lot of guys touched the ball and it was a real team effort," Golden said. "Excellent drive under pressure, and I thought Jacory was pressing a little bit tonight, and I thought he let it come to him that last drive, which was great."
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