A week after losing one of their starting linebackers for the season, the Hurricanes are breathing a sigh of relief that it seems another – former Miramar standout Jermaine Grace – will be available when Miami travels to Cincinnati for its Thursday night game against the Bearcats on Oct. 1.

Grace dealt with both a shoulder injury and a potential head injury during Miami’s 36-33 overtime win over Nebraska on Saturday. But Hurricanes coach Al Golden said Sunday that while Grace will go through the concussion protocols to determine whether he is ready to play, early indications are that the junior – second on the team with 16 tackles – should be okay.

“He’ll go through all the concussion protocols, but we don’t see any reason at this point just based on how he looked and felt today, that he will have to miss any games,” said Golden. “He should be ready to go by the time we get into game week next week.”

Linebacker is a spot where the Hurricanes can ill afford to lose any more playmakers. Starter Darrion Owens was lost for the season with a knee injury after Miami’s win at FAU and the group has been tested through the Hurricanes’ first three games.

Golden also said receiver Braxton Berrios, who hasn’t played since hurting his knee in Miami’s opener, should be available against Cincinnati and that corner Ryan Mayes (hamstring) could be cleared in time for the game as well.

*After giving up 184 passing yards in the fourth quarter while Nebraska rallied and scored 23 unanswered points, the Hurricanes will have to make adjustments as they prepare to take on Cincinnati and potentially face strong-armed quarterback Gunner Kiel.

Kiel left the Bearcats’ 37-33 win over Miami (OH) on Saturday with a head injury and whether he’ll play this week against Memphis remains uncertain.

But no matter who is at quarterback for Cincinnati when the Hurricanes travel there on Oct. 1, Miami will be without safeties Deon Bush and Jamal Carter for the first half after both were ejected from Saturday’s game after being penalized for targeting.

According to ACC Associate Commissioner Mike Finn, the league cannot review the plays to potentially overturn the suspensions. Finn told the Sun Sentinel on Sunday that after the NCAA implemented in-game reviews on targeting plays, ejections and their ensuing suspensions became final.

Without Bush and Carter, Golden said he expects Rayshawn Jenkins, Dallas Crawford and freshman Jaquan Johnson to fill the void in the secondary and possibly special teams.

“Rayshawn Jenkins and Dallas, for sure. Both of those guys are really. … I thought Dallas was really improved. I thought his tackling was so much better and Rayshawn, I feel like he’s getting better every week,” Golden said. “Quan Johnson will have to continue what he’s doing. Quan had a tremendous role for us on special teams with over 20 plays and he’s smart. We’ll start there and we’ll go from there and see what we need.”

*With the Hurricanes set to have their bye this week, Golden said the team will work on some of the issues that plagued them doing Saturday’s second half, but he added he also wants his players to focus on their academic work while coaches will do some recruiting throughout the week.

“I think there’s areas that we’ve outlined and we’ll continue to do that [Monday] that are improvements from a team standpoint, unit standpoint and then obviously, a position or individual standpoint,” Golden said of the bye week. “We want to get stronger this week and make sure we’re in good condition for the next eight weeks. We also want to get ahead on our academics and take care of that and we’ll catch up with some recruiting as well.”