The 2024 season has come and gone, so now we’re taking a closer look at each positional group for the Miami Hurricanes and how the fared during the year.
Special teams is one area where the Canes had some success, particularly booting the ball through the uprights with one of the school’s all-time greats.
As such, let’s get started right there.
K Andy Borregales
Man, what can you say about Andy Borregales? The second leg of the prolific kicking Borregales brothers after brother Jose won the Groza Award in 2020, Andy turned in one of the greatest careers at the position in program history. The greatest in points totals, as it turns out.
With five field goals and two extra points in the Canes’ 42-41 loss to Iowa State in the Pop Tarts Bowl, Borregales became the all-time leading scorer in program history.
It was a terrific 2024 season that carried Borregales to that mark. He had the best season in his four years in Coral Gables, converting a career best 18 of 19 field goal attempts (94.7%) with a career long of 56 yards, which he made in the Canes’ narrow win against Virginia Tech. He also made all 62 extra point attempts.
For his career, he made 74 of 86 field goals (86%) and a staggering 183 of 184 extra point attempts.
Big, big shoes to fill for Abram Murray – who made 1 field goal and 4 extra points in 2024 – or whoever ends up succeeding the all-time great.
P Dylan Joyce
A truly underused man – something Miami fans loved this year – the Aussie punter saw a couple of reductions in 2024 from 2023. First, the number of punts, which is a great thing. Joyce punted 43 times in 2023. He booted the ball 25 times in 2024. Progress, and a sign of just how powerful the Cam-Ward-led Miami offense was last fall.
Unfortunately, his average yards per punt also dropped a touch – from 43.8 to 42.5. He did manage to increase his percentage of kicks inside the 20 from 34.9% to 44.0%, so progress there.
And hey, at least we didn’t have a disaster like this in 2024…
BLOCKED PUNT ➡️ TD RUTGERS! pic.twitter.com/R13yXpgTEG
— ESPN College Football (@ESPNCFB) December 28, 2023
Kickoff coverage team
I’m pointing this out because this is an area where Miami needs to improve in 2025. The unit allowed two return touchdowns during the season, which is simply unacceptable. Louisville’s Caullin Lacy returned a kick 100 yards in the third quarter to turn Miami’s breathing room lead into a tight contest again.
Wake Forest’s Demond Claiborne also returned a kickoff 100 yards to the house, also taking a two-score game back to a one-score game and causing Miami fans to have to sweat it out for a while longer.
That kind of stuff has to be cleaned up this offseason. Can’t happen, much less twice.
Kickoff and punt return teams
Nothing special here, really.
Chris Johnson, Jr. led Miami with 19 kickoff returns at a 24.4 average with no touchdowns. Ray Ray Joseph led Miami on punt returns with 17 for 128 yards (7.5 yards per return).
With Miami’s elite speed and athleticism, this should be an area where they’re really able to exploit teams and create an edge. That really hasn’t happened and should be an area they really work to improve this offseason.