There's no crime in a little bit of a petty watch as Wisconsin fans were rooting for Miami to get blasted by Notre Dame. That didn't happen, but one of the primary reasons Wisconsin fans wanted the downfall of the Hurricanes was due to Xavier Lucas and the whole tampering situation. The silver lining is that Xavier Lucas was terrible against Notre Dame last night—either a complete non-factor or actively struggling.
According to PFF, he was 61.5 overall, which is bottom-tier average at best, but a bad score for someone expected to be a star defensive back. It gets worse for Lucas as his low bar score was a 46.9 tackle score. That's not only bad, that's terrible.
He did have three solo tackles on the day (and five total), but he also took bad angles to others and missed some completely. Also, as a defensive back, making tackles means you are getting targeted, and they are making catches against you. Not the goal.
Xavier Lucas did not shine during his prime-time Miami Hurricanes debut against Notre Dame
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His debut was not what Miami had hoped for, as they are currently embroiled in a legal battle with Wisconsin over tampering charges. The Canes swooped in while Lucas was under contract with the Badgers and lured him away. If Miami is going to have to fight a legal battle over the athlete, they would probably expect more from him than a miserable tackling night with a below-average coverage performance.
By comparison, the player who stepped into the starting role vacated by Lucas, Omilio Agard, had an overall score of 68.3 with a fantastic tackle rating of 74.2. The only Badger that struggled worse, according to PFF, than Lucas did in his Miami debut was D'Yoni Hill, who was only a rotational player coming in at times.
Wisconsin has moved on from Lucas, and while the tampering thing was frustrating, there's hope that Wisconsin wins the legal battle with Miami to set a new precedent. Badger fans can enjoy the fact that Lucas was a below-average player for the Canes on prime-time television.