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Rex Brown

Clemson’s Jacoby Ford leaps across the goal line on a 17-yard touchdown run against Maryland earlier this month in College Park, Md. Ford and the Tigers will travel to face No. 8 Miami on Saturday.

CLEMSON — Hailing from Royal Palm Beach, Fla., about an hour north of Miami, it was only natural that Jacoby Ford dreamed of one day playing football for “The U.”

Even brother Davy taking the field for rival Florida State from 1997-2001 wasn’t enough to alter his allegiance to the Hurricanes.

“On the inside, I couldn’t say it, but I was always rooting for Miami,” the Clemson wide receiver said this week.

“Probably my biggest memory would have to be, every time my brother played them when he was at Florida State, just watching Santana Moss and Andre Johnson and Willis McGahee and all those other guys that they had down there,” he added. “Every time they went down there and played them in the Orange Bowl, that atmosphere, I was just like, ‘I really want to come here and play.’”

When the time came to go to college, however, a scholarship offer from Miami never did.

And now, with his Tigers set to face the No. 8 Hurricanes (5-1, 2-1 ACC) on Saturday at Land Shark Stadium, Ford has a different approach: if you can’t join ’em, beat ’em.

“If you can’t play for them, you’ve got to beat them. … It’s going to be a real fun game. I can’t wait to go play these guys,” he said.

All told, Ford is one of 16 Clemson players from the state of Florida and won’t be the only Tiger from the Miami area on the field this Saturday — and actually, not even the only one wearing No. 6.

Graduate cornerback Chris Chancellor, who hails from Miami proper, approached Ford with the idea of also donning the No. 6 jersey for the game to honor former Miami Edison High teammate Jasper Howard, a Connecticut football player who was tragically killed during an incident on the UConn campus early Sunday.

Ford said he didn’t give a second thought to allowing Chancellor to wear his fallen former teammate’s number.

“If that was a friend of mine that I played ball with, I’d probably want to do the same exact thing. … So, I definitely don’t have a problem with him wearing number six,” the senior speedster said.

As for the game itself, while playing the team he used to root for gives Ford a bit of added incentive, he pointed out that beating a top-10 team and perhaps making the Tigers the frontrunners in the ACC Atlantic Division were more than enough motivation on their own merits.

And with Clemson (3-3, 2-2) coming off its best performance of the season, a 38-3 rout of Wake Forest, Ford believes the team has the confidence needed to put together a special second half to the season, which starts Saturday in Miami.

“I definitely feel that is the real Clemson Tigers, when we do play football the way it’s supposed to be played,” he said. “When we actually play as a team and not pull the rope against each other, I definitely think that’s the team that we can be, that we are capable of being.”

But while the Tiger offense exploded for 382 yards of offense against Wake, Ford himself had just one reception — albeit a 51-yarder — and hasn’t caught a touchdown pass in the last four games.

“I’d probably say that’s just how it’s going right now,” he said. “The only thing I can do is just make the best of my opportunities when they’re given. If I don’t get the ball, then I’ve just got to play better without the ball. It’s nothing to get frustrated over or upset about. … As long as we’re winning, that’s pretty much the main thing to me.”

He admitted, however, that beating the ’Canes would be especially sweet.

“You always want to play Miami, just because of their tradition and history,” Ford said. “But to actually go down there and play them, it means a lot to me growing up a Miami fan. I always wanted to play for them, but now I’m actually going to play against them. So, it’ll be a little weird at first, but I think I’ll get used to it.”