With Van Dyke back at UM, why didn’t Garcia transfer? ‘You’ve got to embrace competition’
Tyler Van Dyke didn’t know Mario Cristobal was going to call him one of the best quarterbacks in the country when he was formally introduced as coach of the Miami Hurricanes last year. Needless to say, he was flattered.
It’s not like this was exactly a bold proclamation — the quarterback finished last season by throwing for 300-plus yards and three-plus touchdowns in six straight games — but it was also an outlier in Cristobal’s introductory news conference: Van Dyke was the only player mentioned by name.
“It obviously makes you feel like one of the best,” Van Dyke said, “but at the same time, you’ve have to keep going to work. You can’t let that get to your head and get big-headed. You’ve got to keep working because the bottom lifts. If you just stay at the top and think you’re going to be at the top, it’s not going to work. You’ve got to keep working hard.”
Jake Garcia certainly heard those words, too, and he plans to provide the push. It’s why the quarterback is back at Miami, even after Van Dyke blew up in the second half of the year while Garcia had to watch from the sideline with an injury.
For the first month of the season, the two quarterbacks were neck-and-neck in the competition to back up former quarterback D’Eriq King, then King got hurt and Garcia did, too. Van Dyke was suddenly thrust into the starting job without much competition and he blossomed into one of the best quarterbacks in the country.
As the Hurricanes began spring practice Monday, the once-fierce competition between Van Dyke and Garcia isn’t exactly neck-and-neck anymore — at least, not right now.
Garcia could have easily entered the transfer portal and given himself a much better chance to start in the fall had he decided to go elsewhere. Instead, he’s back at Miami with the intention to push Van Dyke.
“You’ve got to embrace competition. You definitely have to embrace competition,” Garcia said. “I feel like that makes you better. I feel like that makes the team better. That’s something that we’ve been preaching is just a competitive mindset. You welcome competition.”
While Cristobal lamented his lack of depth at certain positions, the coach is in good shape at the most important position on the field because of those two.
Van Dyke, about to be a third-year sophomore, is getting major hype as a prospect for the 2022 NFL Draft after throwing for 2,931 yards and 25 touchdowns in 10 games last season. Garcia, still a freshman, was the No. 48 overall prospect in the 247Sports.com composite rankings for the Class of 2021, and was about even with Van Dyke in the quarterback competition before he fractured his ankle in first month of the season.
Van Dyke was still the clear-cut No. 1 quarterback Monday, leading the position group in every drill. Still, he won’t just be able to build on what he did last year, either. With former offensive coordinator Rhett Lashlee now gone, Van Dyke has to carry over his results in new offensive coordinator Josh Gattis’ scheme.
Although Lashlee’s offense was pass-happy and Gattis ran a run-heavy scheme with the Michigan Wolverines, Van Dyke said there are similarities, and he has been collaborative with the new coordinator. He also called Gattis, who won the Broyles Award in 2021, “the top OC in the country last year.”
“I talked to Coach Gattis about stuff that we did well last year and he’s going to try to implement that, but he’ll bring in his stuff,” Van Dyke said. “Most of the stuff — it’s pretty similar. There’s a little bit of different things, but other than that we have similar things.”
Garcia, participating in his first practice in more than five months, was next in line in drills, and Miami even let both he and Van Dyke to speak to reporters Monday — a clear indication of how highly the Hurricanes regard their presumed backup.
Had he not hurt his ankle against the FCS Central Connecticut Blue Devils, Garcia might have been the quarterback to emerge in the second half of last season. Instead, he was in the facilities at 6 a.m. every day throughout the season, getting treatment for his injury with “The Breakfast Club,” as the rehabbing players called themselves.
In the first practice of the spring, Garcia looked fully healthy, pulling the ball on read options and running comfortably in the non-contact setting.
He knows it’ll be hard to unseat Van Dyke. He also wants to give it a shot.
It’ll only help Miami.
“I definitely enjoy the competition part of it and I feel like we both push each other,” Garcia said. “It’s a friendly competition.”
This story was originally published March 7, 2022 at 4:21 PM.
