Podcast: Jordan is gone, Bolden is staying and coaching changes are coming for Miami
The 2021 Miami Hurricanes will look different than the 2020 iteration. The only question now is how different.
It has been a little more than a week since Miami’s season ended with a 37-34 loss to the Oklahoma State Cowboys in the Cheez-It Bowl and since then:
▪ Quarterback D’Eriq King announced he will have surgery to repair his torn right anterior cruciate ligament.
▪ Running back Cam’Ron Harris and star safety Bubba Bolden announced they’ll return for their senior seasons in 2021.
▪ Star tight end Brevin Jordan declared for the 2021 NFL Draft.
▪ The Hurricanes landed linebacker Deandre Johnson as a graduate transfer from the Tennessee Volunteers.
▪ Quarterback N’Kosi Perry and linebacker Patrick Joyner both put their names into the transfer portal.
▪ The Utah State Aggies hired Ephraim Banda to be their defensive coordinator after he spent five seasons as Miami’s safeties coach, and he’s at least bringing Mike Zuckerman, who had been a quality control analyst for the Hurricanes, with him to be his inside linebackers.
▪ Mike Rumph is on his way out as cornerbacks coach, a source told the Miami Herald, and defensive line coach Todd Stroud is considering a move to an off-field role, according to FootballScoop.com.
It’s a lot to discuss for the first full week of the offseason, and David Wilson and Susan Miller Degnan, the Herald’s Hurricanes beat writer, are hear to analyze it all on a new episode of the Eye on the U podcast.
We start with the player movement, most of which hasn’t been unexpected so far. Losing Jordan and Perry will hurt, but the true extent of losses on offense won’t be clear until wide receiver Mike Harley decides whether he’ll return for an extra year. Bolden’s decision to return also should give the defense a much-needed leader in 2021 with star defensive ends Jaelan Phillips and Quincy Roche off to the NFL.
In the second half, we dive into the coaching turnover. Miami already has one vacancy it needs to fill with Banda headed to Utah State and it’s all but official the Hurricanes will also be moving on from Rumph. Could assistant recruiting director DeMarcus Van Dyke be an option as Miami tries to prevent him from leaving to become the Aggies’ cornerbacks coach or do the Hurricanes need to make a bigger splash for a more proven assistant coach to help repair a struggling defense?
