Hurricanes notebook: Florida A&M quarterback Martin Ukpai does best to handle UM pass rush
Thursday night's season opener at Miami was an emotional tidal wave for Florida A&M quarterback Martin Ukpai.
The redshirt sophomore started his first game as the Rattlers' quarterback after Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference Player of the Year Curtis Pulley graduated.
What compounded the pressure was an atmosphere that Ukpai, a Fort Lauderdale High graduate, has only seen on television.
Yet in Thursday's 45-0 loss, Ukpai looked as poised as he could considering the circumstances. Miami's lightning-quick pass rush hurried the 6-foot-3, 170-pounder all game, rarely allowing him any time to look down field.
The Hurricanes sacked him eight times for 62 yards. He finished 5-of-11 for 58 yards and one interception that was returned for a touchdown.
Numbers like that usually mean disappointment, but not against Miami.
"Every chance he gets, that's more experience,"
Florida A&M coach Joe Taylor said. "That's a lot of speed (to deal with) ... He's better because of this ball game."
Ukpai completed his first pass - a 9-yarder to receiver Lashad Tookes. That was just moments after Ukpai's 12-yard scamper gave the Rattlers the only first down in their opening series.
On the following drive, Ukpai delivered a perfectly thrown 28-yard pass to Antonio Lawrence, whose deep-corner route opened a window in Miami's secondary.
But those were just a few spotlights in a difficult setting for the new starter.
The Hurricanes snuffed out Florida A&M's usually effective running game, forcing Ukpai into passing situations that he won't see as often once the Rattlers start playing MEAC opponents.
Philip Sylvester, a 5-9, 185-pound tailback who is as shifty as he is thick, saw little daylight Thursday. He rushed 15 times for 45 yards as Florida A&M as a team totaled just 52 rushing yards.
That put the onus on Okpai, who said he rushed his decisions and sped up his timing to cope with the quick rush.
He sounded disappointed about his performance against the team he grew up watching.
"It wasn't anything that I hadn't seen on film,"
Okpai said. "Those are some of the fastest guys I've ever played against."
Nonetheless it was a good experience for the young quarterback. Now he has nine days to prepare for Delaware State.
He'll have one start under his belt and there won't be a top 20 team lining up on the opposing sideline.
It will only help that the game is hundreds of miles from home and the lights won't be as bright.
"I needed a game like this,"
Ukpai said.
UM's Cooper back from knee injury: UM senior running back Graig Cooper got the chance he had been working toward for the past eight months.
Midway through the third quarter, Cooper - who underwent major knee surgery in January - entered the game.
His first carry was an 8-yard sweep to the right, and everything looked like old times again. Cooper led the Hurricanes in rushing each of the past three seasons.
He finished Thursday night with 11 yards on two carries and had two receptions for 13 yards.
"It was an opportunity for him to go out there and do some things,"
coach Randy Shannon said. "We'll see how he feels after that. It's a long season. Any other person would take about a year off (after suffering a significant knee injury) but he gave it a try. We'll see how he feels after tomorrow."
