Miami Hurricanes' overcome first-half struggles, facing a wounded Texas A&M team on Saturday | D'Angelo

MIAMI GARDENS — The Miami Hurricanes can be excused for starting slow in a noon game against an opponent that dropped its season opener to a school named after an insurance company, and with the first real test of the season — and Mario Cristobal era — just a week away.

Going through the motions for, say, one quarter would not have been ideal but understandable with Southern Miss coming to Hard Rock Stadium one week after losing to Liberty and a week before the Hurricanes travel to Texas A&M.

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But sleepwalking through nearly the entire first half before deciding to dominate an overmatched opponent could be a bit concerning. Still, the Hurricanes can point to this: At least they won their tune-up against an inferior opponent, something Texas A&M can not say.

"Sluggish first half," Cristobal said. "We want to play more polished, more precise football. We got to go get better."

Still, Miami will spin this 30-7 victory enough to feel pretty good about itself. After all, it overcame that lackadaisical start and took care of business by showing a pulse in the second half.

Texas A&M loss takes shine off Miami game

The Aggies, ranked No. 6 entering Saturday, would have taken a victory of any kind, but a 17-14 home loss  to Appalachian State takes some shine off this game and certainly will knock Texas A&M out of the top 10, perhaps out of the top 25.

The Hurricanes said all the right things about not looking ahead, concentrating only on the upcoming opponent, but Tyler Van Dyke did what every QB would do with all those extra hours from the end of spring practice until the start of camp.

He took a peek at the biggest opponent in the early part of the schedule.

"That's the team I probably studied the most, watching the spring game, watching film from last year ... Watching a good amount of film early in the summer," he said.

The Hurricanes (2-0) will be taking on an angry Texas A&M team at Kyle Field, which will pack in more fans than Miami had in its first two games combined. And they are facing a coach in Jimbo Fisher who dominated Miami during his eight years at Florida State,

Miami trailed 7-3 late in the first half Saturday before making sure it would not give a 27-point underdog any hope. Van Dyke shook off what should have been his second interception of the game and led Miami to its first touchdown scoring drive and a 10-7 halftime lead.

That got the offense on track, leading to 21 points in about seven minutes, but Cristobal still was not satisfied with what he saw.

The defense emerged from the first-half funk more engaged than the offense, shutting down the Golden Eagles in the second half while holding them to 81 yards. Tyrique Stevenson made sure of that with an interception in the end zone.

"We all looked at each other and we could see it in our eyes ... we're not doing this, we can turn this around in the second half," tackle Jacob Lichtenstein said.

Cristobal was not happy with the offense having to settle for two fourth-quarter field goals. He would have liked to see Miami end the game on a positive note, but with two minutes remaining Van Dyke was sacked for the fourth time on the first play of the series. Cristobal pulled his starting quarterback.

"We started slow, we can't do that," Van Dyke said. "We've got to start fast and play at that level the entire game."

Mario Cristobal must be concerned with UM offensive line

Cristobal's biggest concern should be an offensive line that could not keep a bunch of two and three stars out of the backfield, resulting in Van Dyke being sacked three times in the first half.

That offensive line was the reason for the first recorded boos in the Cristobal era occurring in the second quarter when Van Dyke was sacked for the second time in three snaps.

"A little bit of miscommunication up front," Van Dyke said. "We're going to fix it."

Van Dyke also was underwhelming despite finishing 20-of-29 for 241 yards and a touchdown. Several throws were off target and he made a bad decision on his lone interception with the safety jumping the route.

"I just missed throws I never usually miss," Van Dyke said. "I just got to hit them."

Especially next Saturday.

Tom D'Angelo is a journalist at The Palm Beach Post. You can reach him at tdangelo@pbpost.com. 

This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Miami Hurricanes with sloppy tune-up for Texas A&M