Source: Miami to name former ASU coordinator its new receivers coach to complete staff
The University of Miami’s football staff will soon be complete.
The Miami Herald has learned that barring something unforeseen, the Hurricanes will announce former Arizona State offensive coordinator Rob Likens as UM’s new wide receivers coach to complete Manny Diaz’s revamped staff, a source familiar with the situation said Saturday.
Likens, who also served as Arizona State’s quarterbacks coach the past two seasons and before that in 2017 as its receivers coach, will help new offensive coordinator Rhett Lashlee in transitioning UM’s offense to a fast-paced, no-huddle spread attack. He replaces former UM receivers coach Taylor Stubblefield, who left the Hurricanes in late January to join the Penn State staff.
The Herald also confirmed an @BruceFeldmanCFB report Saturday that former Florida State tight ends coach Telly Lockette will be hired by Miami as an offensive analyst. Lockette was a former Miami Central head coach and a former offensive coordinator at his alma mater Miami Northwestern. Lockett was also a former running backs coach at Oregona State and USF.
Likens was fired by ASU coach Herm Edwards on Dec. 1. “We’re just headed in a different direction offensively and philosophy-wise and what we need to do as far as going forward,” Edwards said that day, according to 247Sports.
According to Likens’ former ASU bio, under Likens, “the Sun Devils had five different receivers with 100+ yard-games in 2017, a total it had never before reached in an entire season.”
Likens, 52, has worked at seven other college programs in various assistant coaching capacities. He started his coaching career as the running backs coach at North Alabama in 1992.
ASU receiver Brandon Aiyuk was ranked 15th nationally this past season in receiving yards, with 1,192. He was 13th nationally in receiving yards per game, with a 99.3-yard average.
Teammate Frank Darby was tied with Aiyuk with eight receiving touchdowns, 40th best in the FBS.
Arizona State finished 8-5 overall and 4-5 in the Pac-12 last season.
UM’s receiving corps, projected to be a strength at the start of 2019, underwhelmed this past season. The Canes, who finished 6-7, had no receivers ranked among the FBS’s top 200 in receiving yards. Soon-to-be junior tight end Brevin Jordan’s 45 yards-a-game average ranked 197th in receiving yards per game. The Canes were led in receiving by graduate transfer K.J. Osborn, who caught a team-high 50 passes for 547 yards and five touchdowns — and is now off to the NFL Draft.
UM’s top returning receiver is senior Mike Harley, who finished 2019 with 485 yards and three touchdowns on 38 catches. Jordan was next (495 yards and two touchdowns), followed by Jeff Thomas (379 yards and three touchdowns), who declared early for the draft.
Miami already signed three receivers in December during the NCAA’s early signing period: consensus four-star prospect Michael Redding III of IMG Academy; three-star/four-star prospect Xavier Restrepo of Deerfield Beach High; and four-star/three-star prospect Dazalin Worsham of Birmingham, Alabama’s Hewitt-Trussville. Three-star/four-star wideout Keyshawn Smith of San Diego also recently enrolled and will participate in spring practice with the other three.
Former Miami great receiver Lamar Thomas, a UM Sports Hall of Fame member whose last season with the Canes was 1992, told the Herald he interviewed by phone for the job with Lashlee and Diaz. But he said he was informed by Diaz on Thursday night, Jan. 30, that UM had gone in another direction.
This story was originally published February 1, 2020 at 6:25 PM.