Lineup changes revitalized Miami’s offensive line. Now it will really get tested vs. FSU
Garin Justice has no problem being blunt about his offensive line. After quarterback D’Eriq King got pummeled for two consecutive games at the start of the season, the offensive line coach publicly put virtually ever member of his unit on blast. Half of his linemen were “not playing good ball,” he said in September. He shuffled players in and out of the starting lineup without hesitation. When the Miami Hurricanes were failing to meet expectations, the offensive line fairly shouldered a lot of the blame.
It meant something, then, when Justice stood in front of cameras and tape recorders again Tuesday — for the first time in almost two months — and actually offered up praise.
“We were able to get some consistency, kind of figure out who our guys were,” the assistant coach said. “There’s something to guys just getting a feeling of playing next to each other.”
There’s no one simple answer to what’s changed, but the offensive line has clearly played better since Atlantic Coast Conference play began and the result has been an offensive explosion in the last month. While the sack numbers haven’t necessarily dropped, King’s mobility was already eliminating potential negative plays and Tyler Van Dyke has been under far less pressure than his fellow quarterback.
On Saturday, the Hurricanes’ line put together its best game of the year so far, holding the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets to one sack and paving the way for 563 total yards and 4.1 yards per carry in a 33-30 win at Hard Rock Stadium. Now Miami (5-4, 3-2) turns around to face its toughest test since the non-conference season when it travels up to Tallahassee on Saturday to face the Florida State Seminoles and their dangerous defensive line at 3:30 p.m.
“It may be as good as we’ve faced,” offensive coordinator Rhett Lashlee said. “It’s definitely as good as we’ve faced since Michigan State and Alabama.”
Florida State (3-6, 2-4) is tied for 26th in the nation in sacks and 43rd in tackles for loss, and star defensive end Jermaine Johnson, a potential first-round pick in the upcoming 2022 NFL Draft, is tied for 11th in the country with eight sacks. The Hurricanes’ line hasn’t been embarrassed since the non-conference season, but they haven’t faced a test like this one, even when they played a pair of top-25 teams last month.
After it averaged just 360.3 yards per game in three nonconference games against FBS opponents, Miami has put up 453.2 yards per game — and never had less than 372 yards — in five ACC games. The turnaround actually began in their final non-conference game when the Hurricanes got a September tune-up against the FCS Central Connecticut State Blue Devils and piled up 739 yards while averaging more than 10 yards per play.
It was what Miami was supposed to do against a lower-level opponent, but it was also the game when the Hurricanes finally settled on their five starting offensive lineman.
Zion Nelson is at left tackle, as he has been since the start of the year. Navaughn Donaldson is at left guard, moving from right guard to replace fellow offensive lineman Jalen Rivers after the freshman went down with a season-ending injury. Jakai Clark is at center, replacing injured offensive lineman Corey Gaynor. DJ Scaife Jr., who began the season at right tackle and got benched during the blowout loss to Alabama Crimson Tide, has settled in at right guard. Jarrid Williams, who somewhat inexplicably began the season has a backup, has taken over at right tackle and been “lights out” since returning to the lineup, Justice said.
“In August camp, he was just struggling off the edge some in pass protection,” Justice said, offering up an explanation for why Williams, who started every game last season and played well, began the season as a reserve. He also added a preseason injury to Nelson, which had Williams playing left tackle for part of training camp, “kind of threw us out of sync and out of rhythm, and unfortunately I didn’t do a good job of sorting that out quicker.”
Williams finally rejoined the starting lineup before the loss to the Michigan State Spartans, and Miami’s tackle play has been solid since. Once Clark joined the starting lineup a week later, the Hurricanes run blocking started to improve, too.
Of course, Van Dyke has played a role, too. While King could erase some of the offensive line’s mistakes with his mobility, Miami was also running a more complex offense with the redshirt senior at the helm with more standard drop back passes to let the veteran try to pick apart defenses. With Van Dyke, Lashlee has added even more run-pass options to the offense and mostly asked the freshman to make quick decisions, rather than try to analyze the defense on every play.
The result is everyone looks better, especially the offensive line.
“He’s been making quick, bang-bang decisions, even on the run game,” Justice said. “We’re not sitting and doing drop back pass protection 50 times a game. It’s only eliminated about 10 or 12, so that really minimizes our chances to make a mistake.”
