Miami’s playing its young receivers. Coaches explain how they finally earned playing time
Rob Likens just sort of figured Xavier Restrepo would score a touchdown in the Miami Hurricanes’ season opener against the top-ranked Alabama Crimson Tide on Saturday. It was, after all, what Restrepo did in basically every scrimmage since he got to Miami last year. When D’Eriq King’s deep pass fluttered through the air in the third quarter at Mercedes-Benz Stadium, Likens assumed Restrepo would come down with the 29-yard touchdown catch.
“He’s a real football player. He shows up every time that we put the ball down and we play football. He always finds a way to score a touchdown, it seems like,” the wide receivers coach said Tuesday, “so I kind of wasn’t surprised that he kind of had a good game.”
It took until the first game of his second year for Restrepo to finally score, but touchdowns — and many of them — have felt inevitable for more than a year now. Restrepo starred in scrimmage after scrimmage last year before ultimately riding the bench throughout most of his freshman season.
The same was true for Key’Shawn Smith. The wide receiver, like Restrepo, drew rave reviews from coaches for his work behind the scenes, only to play sparingly as a freshman in 2020.
Now the wait is over: Smith started Saturday in Atlanta, and Restrepo scored the Hurricanes’ only touchdown in their 44-13 loss; they were Miami’s two leading receivers, combining for eight catches, 100 yards and a touchdown; they played the second- and third-most snaps of any wide receivers after Mike Harley got injured.
With its once-touted 2018 recruiting class mostly underwhelming, the Hurricanes’ Classes of 2020 and 2021 now seem to be the most talented classes on the roster, and the breakthrough from the two second-year wideouts provide some of the first real glimpses at the fruits of the two most recent recruiting hauls.
How Smith, Restrepo earned time
What did it take for them to finally get on the field? Smith, Likens and coach Manny Diaz all pointed to details, and habits, when discussing young players.
“Studying the playbook — that’s what stopped me from playing last year, and I’m only saying that because it’s the truth,” Smith said Wednesday. “Once I started to study the playbook, I started to get more reps in practice, and then it just went up from there.”
Smith, who came from Lincoln in San Diego, said it was a little bit of a shock coming to play football at a school like Miami. He said he and Restrepo took time pick up on “the details” necessary to play college football.
“Paying attention to detail — I wasn’t really big on it because coming from my high school, it wasn’t like how it is down here,” Smith said. “The coaching is different. Coming in here and being able to listen to the coaching, it was a lot for me — like a lot. I had to learn a lot and that took awhile.”
From the 2020 recruiting class, Smith and offensive lineman Jalen Rivers were the only starters, although Restrepo played 35 snaps, and running back Donald Chaney Jr. and defensive lineman Chantz Williams both contributed meaningfully off the bench. Of those five, only Chaney played significantly last season.
The 2020 class was the 17th best in the country, according to the 247Sports.com composite rankings. The 2021 recruiting class was, on paper, even better at No. 11. On Saturday, safeties James Williams and Kamren Kinchens both played more than 20 snaps, and kicker Andres Borregales started and went 2 for 2 on field goals.
To recap: Players from Miami’s two most recent recruiting classes scored all 13 points, accounted for 107 of 179 receiving yards and 40 of 87 rushing yards, and recorded its only sack, its only two forced fumbles and 1 of 10 tackles for loss in the Chick-Fil-A Kickoff Game.
When might Miami freshmen play?
Freshmen delivered some of the biggest singular moments in the game — Restrepo scored the touchdown, Smith made a 20-yard catch on fourth down, Kinchens and Chantz Williams both forced fumbles, James Williams blew up a play for a half a tackle for loss — but Diaz said more consistent playing time will come when they’re more consistent.
Restrepo and Smith have hit this point. True freshmen such as Kinchens, Williams, defensive lineman Leonard Taylor and wide receivers Romello Brinson, Brashard Smith and Jacolby George are still getting there. The singular excellent play isn’t surprising — they do this in practice, too — but they need to limit the crippling mistakes, Diaz said.
“There can be guys that flash on a highlight play, but then seven out of eight plays they don’t play well. That’s kind of the danger,” Diaz said Wednesday. “To me, usually the pyramid is guys stop busting in practice because they stop thinking about what to do — they just know what to do — but then the next part is knowing how to do it, where I’m not thinking about how to run a route or how to play this block, I just instinctively know how to do it. You’re forming habits and that’s what the young guys normally have the hardest time doing is forming habits.
“All of our guys are talented and a talented guy can make a play, but a player is really defined by how few mistakes they can make because mistakes get you beat in a game.”
