Miami Hurricanes players Mark Fletcher and Malachi Toney shared moment in first round of College Football Player against Texas A & M
High school teammates Mark Fletcher and Malachi Toney shared a special moment in the Miami Hurricanes' victory against the Texas A & M Aggies in the first round of the College Football Playoff.
After Toney fumbled in the game, Fletcher was the first person to console Toney. He explained why in a post-game interview with the ACC Network.
"I saw his head going down and I immediately had to go to him," Fletcher said. "In high school together, I remember we had a play just like that. He had a fumble and he dropped it and he was like, `Mark, man, this is my second doing this. I don't want to let you down. I said, `You'll never let me down."'
Fletcher and Toney were teammates at high school powerhouse American Heritage-Plantation. Now, they will help lead the Hurricanes against the Ohio State Buckeyes in the CFP.
"I said, `This season, you have been balling,"' Fletcher said. "Everything has been going your way. God is going to see how bad you want it and he's going to put you through a lot of adversity. I said, `Please don't do that to me. You're too blessed for that. Pick your head up and look what God has presented for him?"'
BAIN HOLDS NOTHING BACK
The Miami Hurricanes' defense held down the fort against the Texas A&M Aggies to secure the program's first-ever College Football Playoff victory, with a final score of 10-3. They had heroic plays that made a massive difference throughout the game, especially Rueben Bain Jr. The junior edge rusher finished with five total tackles, four solos and one assist, four tackles for loss, including three second-half sacks.
It was an outstanding performance in the program's biggest match in over two decades. However, the outside noise was what ignited the spark in the 21-year-old.
On the same day that the Selection Committee marked the final rankings for the 12-team bracket, Dec. 7th, Aggies' offensive lineman Trey Zuhn III made some interesting remarks towards the star defender.
"I don't think that he'll be a threat that we need to worry about too much," he said. "We'll be able to handle him."
To say such remarks about one of the most highly regarded players in the country and a project NFL first-rounder was a bit shocking. Before the game, Bain Jr. confirmed that he saw the comments and offered his "blessings."
After the victory, while on an Instagram live stream in the locker room, he had an extremely explicit response.
"They whole [offensive line] some [explicit]," Bain Jr. said. "[Explicit] you Mike Elko, [explicit Zuhn III], [explicit] everybody, [explicit] Texas A&M."
Shandel Richardson is the publisher of MiamiRoundtable. He can be reached at shandelrich@gmail.com