How Miami Hurricanes senior offensive lineman Navaughn Donaldson ‘got his mojo back’
On the first day of spring practices for the Miami Hurricanes, Corey Gaynor made a bold claim about one of his most talented fellow offensive linemen.
Navaughn Donaldson only played in two games last year after a knee injury, but Gaynor felt good enough about what he saw.
“Vaughn’s got his mojo back,” the redshirt junior said March 15.
It wasn’t such an outlandish claim. Donaldson was once a top-100 recruit in the nation and a Freshman All-American — only his freshman season, so far, has been his best. Injuries and fitness issues often hampered the senior throughout his first four seasons in Coral Gables. Donaldson knew he had to make a change.
The 6-foot-6, 350-pound lineman is finally getting in shape.
“It’s something that I really needed to work on myself,” Donaldson said.
He cut rice out of his diet and now subsists on mostly chicken, fish and salad. The results, by all accounts, have been transformative.
Donaldson feels better about his conditioning. His teammates rave about the rejuvenated lineman. He’s working as Miami’s primary right guard, fellow offensive lineman DJ Scaife said Tuesday, even after he missed most of last season with a torn anterior cruciate ligament and medial collateral ligament in his right knee.
He will really put his new body to the test Saturday, when the Hurricanes have their first scrimmage of spring practices at an undisclosed location in South Florida. It will present another important benchmark for Donaldson, who started 34 games in his first three seasons at Miami, then played in only two games off the bench last year.
“I think I’m pretty good, conditioning-wise,” Donaldson said. “You can’t say how good you are conditioned until you actually play in a game, so I will see how good I am this Saturday, but I feel like I’m hanging with the guys pretty well.”
Donaldson has fascinated the Hurricanes ever since he arrived as a freshman from Miami Central in 2017. He lined up as the Hurricanes’ first-team right tackle in his first ever practice in Coral Gables in the spring of 2017 and started 10 games at right guard as a freshman, while Miami ran to the 2017 Orange Bowl.
A former four-star prospect in the 247Sports.com composite rankings, Donaldson lived up to the hype in Year 1 and earned Freshman All-American honors from ESPN and the Football Writers Association of America. He was also an All-Atlantic Coast Conference honorable mention.
The rest of his career was never quite as smooth.
He started 2018 at right tackle and struggled, eventually getting benched and moving back to guard. In 2019, he started all 12 games he played before tearing two ligaments in his knee in the regular-season finale.
Ultimately, he never quite fulfilled the potential he flashed his freshman year. His physical fitness often held him back, and he never again earned any sort of all-conference honor.
“All I remember my freshman year is he just went off and I was like, OK, Wow. Dang, Vaughn’s playing as a freshman, man. He’s going crazy. He’s big,” said wide receiver Mike Harley, who arrived at Miami with Donaldson in the Class of 2017. “Now coming in, Navaughn is actually running. Like, I’ve never seen Vaughn run before.
“His freshman year, he would like pull and knock somebody off their feet, and now Navaughn is like running.”
If the transformation is real, Donaldson could be poised to finally have the breakout senior season the Hurricanes have waited on.
In those two appearances late last year, Donaldson flashed his potential once again, particularly with a massive lead block on a long touchdown run in a blowout of the Duke Blue Devils. In a crowded competition, he had to find a way to stand out and a physical transformation was the logical path.
Now Donaldson is emerging as a potential front-runner at right guard. Scaife, the incumbent starter there, said he’s now competing with fellow offensive lineman Jarrid Williams at right tackle, even after Williams started every game last season.
“My main concern was flexibility and getting my weight down,” Donaldson said, “so I was just coming in every day, doing some extra work with the strength staff or training staff.”
