Novig pricesMiami's Mensah and Toney sweep weekly honors after record night against Pitt
Darian Mensah and Malachi Toney collected ACC and national weekly awards after Miami's 52-23 win over Pitt, as the 7-0 Hurricanes head to North Carolina.
Miami's 52-23 win over Pittsburgh has earned its quarterback and its top receiver a stack of weekly awards. Darian Mensah was named ACC Quarterback of the Week and Malachi Toney took ACC Receiver of the Week on Monday, Miami Hurricanes On SI reported. Mensah also picked up national recognition as one of eight Manning Award Stars of the Week, and SI reported that Toney was named AP National Player of the Week.
The numbers behind the awards are big ones. Toney caught 16 passes, a school record, for 194 yards and three touchdowns, breaking the 13-catch program mark he set against the same Pitt team last season. According to the Miami athletics department, he scored on catches of 19, 53 and 11 yards and added 28 punt-return yards, which gave him 222 all-purpose yards. It was his fifth 100-yard receiving game in seven outings. SI noted it was his second AP weekly award of the season, after his 12-catch, 234-yard debut in the 45-6 win at Stanford.
Mensah went 31 of 37 for 387 yards and four touchdowns without an interception. Three of the scores went to Toney and one to tight end Gavin Mueller, and Miami led 31-7 at halftime. Through seven games he has completed 166 of 204 passes for 2,151 yards with 22 touchdowns and one interception, an 81.4 percent completion rate. The school's Manning Award release adds two rushing touchdowns, for 24 total. It also puts the Hurricanes at 49 points and 551.9 yards per game, with at least 40 points in six of their seven wins.
The honors back up what the stat sheet already showed. Toney has 66 catches for 952 yards and 11 touchdowns, and SI says he accounts for 44 percent of Miami's receiving touchdowns. With Mensah delivering that kind of efficiency, Miami has two players in the Heisman conversation from the same offense.
What it means for North Carolina
Miami is 7-0 overall and 5-0 in the ACC. The Hurricanes play at North Carolina on Saturday, October 31, on ABC. The schedule so far has given little resistance: Florida State's 43-35 loss is the only game within 10 points, and Miami has beaten Clemson, Wake Forest and Stanford on the road by an average of more than 26 points. North Carolina's lone common result is a 21-17 win over Pitt, the team Miami just beat by 29.
The board for Miami at North Carolina agrees with that picture. Miami is favored at -590 on Novig. North Carolina is +525 there, and the best price on the Tar Heels anywhere is +550 at Hard Rock Bet. On the spread, Novig has Miami favored by 14.5 at -108, while Hard Rock Bet offers North Carolina at +15.5. Totals across the 11 venues range from 51.5 at FanDuel to 53 at Pinnacle, with Novig at 52.5. Moneyline hold at the sportsbooks runs from 3.3 to 6.2 percent, so the gap between venues on the favorite is small.
The team Miami just beat goes the other way. Pittsburgh is 5-3 after three straight losses and hosts Georgia Tech on ESPN2. The Panthers are favored at -285 on Novig and by 7.5 points.