With coaches’ futures uncertain, Miami is ‘extremely confident’ in offense’s future
Tyler Van Dyke can’t know exactly what the future holds. He doesn’t for sure who he will be throwing to next season or who will be blocking for him. He might have a different coach in 2022, as questions swirl about Manny Diaz’s job security, and he could have a different offensive coordinator with Rhett Lashlee’s name linked to an impending opening with the SMU Mustangs.
The quarterback does feel like he knows one thing, though: The Miami Hurricanes’ offense will still be great next season.
“I’m extremely confident,” the second-year freshman said. “You see all the young guys on the field making plays.”
The personnel situation is enviable. Van Dyke looks like a program quarterback, and three starting offensive linemen plus seven of his top 10 receiving targets this year will almost certainly be back. Among contributing skill players, Mike Harley is the only player out of eligibility, although fellow wide receiver Charleston Rambo and running back Cam’Ron Harris were both honored as part of Senior Day on Saturday Neither, however, has made any sort of formal announcement, with Rambo simply saying, “We’ll see,” when asked about his future plans Wednesday.
The coaching situation is a cloud, though, and Diaz’s pitch to stay has largely been based upon the continuity his staff can provide with a rapidly improving offense. Still, Miami’s decision to fire athletic director Blake James on Nov. 15 makes Diaz’s status — and the whole staff’s — tenuous. With all the uncertainty around the program, Lashlee’s future is also naturally in question, and Yahoo! Sports reported the coordinator is the leading candidate to take over at SMU if Mustangs coach Sonny Dykes leaves for the TCU Horned Frogs, as 247Sports.com reports is likely.
Van Dyke and the Hurricanes’ offensive foundation will make Miami (6-5, 4-3 Atlantic Coast) an appealing job for offensive coordinators, but losing Lashlee would also mean a hiccup for an offense which has made major progress from 2019 until now.
“I feel like this offense is great for this program, just knowing that top guys we recruit here are fast guys,” Harley said. “It’s probably the best playbook I’ve been in.”
If this is indeed Diaz’s last season, one of his positive legacies will be ushering in an offensive revolution in Coral Gables. Diaz’s decision to hire Lashlee before last season brought a modern spread attack to South Florida after the Hurricanes were stuck mostly running an uninspiring pro-style offense for the previous three years. The result has been back-to-back seasons with a top-30 offense, in terms of yards per game, after never finishing higher than 60th in the previous three years.
Despite a slow start this year, Miami is currently on pace to finish with more yards per game and yards per play than it did last year when quarterback D’Eriq King had one of the great seasons in program history. Van Dyke is somehow besting his predecessor and needs 570 yards in the final two games to finish in the top 10 in program history for passing yards in a season. If he keeps up his pace from his first seven ACC games, Van Dyke would finish with the eighth-most passing yards in a single season in school history.
This is despite throwing just one pass in the first three games as King’s backup.
“It’s been a crazy, up-and-down year,” Van Dyke said
There was no guarantee it would go this smoothly for Van Dyke and, for a lot of the season, the Hurricanes’ offense seemed to have regressed from last year. Throw out a September blowout win against the FCS Central Connecticut State Blue Devils and Miami was averaging 374.8 yards per game through the first half of the season — down from 440.3 last year. The Hurricanes have won four of five since and are averaging 451.2 yards per game.
Van Dyke has been a huge part of the transformation with his willingness to chuck the ball down the field. He’s the first ACC quarterback in 15 years to have five consecutive games with at least 325 passing yards and three touchdowns, and he threw multiple 50-yard touchdowns in Miami’s 38-26 win against the Virginia Tech Hokies on Saturday.
Van Dyke wasn’t even necessarily what Lashlee was looking for in a quarterback. Van Dyke committed to former offensive coordinator Dan Enos, who’s now with the Maryland Terrapins, and stayed committed even after the Hurricanes fired Enos at the end of the 2019 season. Van Dyke got a year and some change to learn Lashlee’s system and made the most of the opportunity he got when King sustained a season-ending shoulder injury in September.
In high school, Van Dyke played in a pro-style system as a freshman and sophomore, and a spread as a junior and senior. No matter what the offense looks like next year, he’s confident.
“I feel like I can do any type of offense,” Van Dyke said.
His teammates are confident in him, too.
Rambo is noncommittal so far about his future — although he could declare for the 2022 NFL Draft — but he has an easy answer for why he’s confident the offense can keep building on this season into next year.
“Tyler, man,” Rambo said. “We’ve got a quarterback.”
