With star tackle Zion Nelson back at practice, Miami faces good problem on offensive line
With less than a week until the start of the college football season, the Miami Hurricanes’ offensive line is finally whole — or at least something close to it.
Zion Nelson is back at practice after sitting out most of training camp following July knee surgery, and Miami has shifted from tinkering with lineup combinations to settling on a starting five. Saturday, South Florida will get the first look at what a Mario Cristobal-led offensive line looks like for the Hurricanes and internal confidence is high.
“We’ve been building that chemistry with different types of people in each group,” offensive lineman Jalen Rivers said. “With any combination, I feel like we’ll be all in sync.”
Although he worked some at left tackle during fall camp, Rivers settled in at left guard, which is where he’ll almost certainly where he’ll be playing when Miami kicks off its season against the FCS Bethune-Cookman Wildcats this weekend at Hard Rock Stadium. The question of who will be to his left, however, remains open: Nelson is practicing once again — and took part in stretching Tuesday during the lone, brief window of practice open to reporters — and could play Saturday, although Cristobal on Monday was noncommittal about a snap count for his star tackle.
It leaves the Hurricanes with a slew of possible permutations on their line, even if Rivers is locked in at left guard and fellow offensive lineman Jakai Clark is solidified at center.
As an example: Offensive lineman John Campbell Jr. drew rave reviews for his play at left tackle throughout camp and Nelson’s return could either send him to the bench or perhaps over to right tackle. If Campbell goes to right tackle, then Miami might wind up kicking DJ Scaife Jr., probably the Hurricanes’ second-best lineman, inside to right guard and sending fellow offensive lineman Justice Oluwaseun to the bench.
After years of Miami struggling to find five starting-quality linemen, Cristobal believes he has more than he has eight capable of playing “winning football.” Of course, this was part of the promise when the Hurricanes hired Cristobal, who was one of the best offensive line coaches in the country before the Oregon Ducks made him their coach back in 2017.
It’s impossible to judge progress off little snippets of practice and it’ll still be hard during the first two weeks of the season when Miami faces a pair of on-paper cupcakes, but the Hurricanes have good reason to believe everything Cristobal and offensive line coach Alex Mirabal are preaching.
“We’ve got to listen and take heed of what is being said by guys that know what a winning program is,” Rivers said.
This and that
▪ Jaylan Knighton also was with the team for stretching at the start of practice Tuesday. The Hurricanes held their top running back out of practice for part of last week for “precautionary” reasons, two sources told the Miami Herald last Tuesday. Cristobal said Knighton is “good to go” for Week 1.
▪ Lucious Stanley practiced with the Hurricanes on Tuesday, wearing No. 24 and going through stretches with the rest of the tailbacks. The new running back got to Miami on Monday and joined the team as a walk-on after transferring from the UAB Blazers. The redshirt senior provides much-needed depth in the backfield for the Hurricanes, who lost fellow running backs TreVonte’ Citizen and Donald Chaney Jr. to injury in the preseason. Citizen is out for the season with a knee injury, while Chaney will miss “several weeks,” Cristobal said.
▪ Wide receiver Jacolby George and defensive lineman Jabari Ishmael were among those wearing scout-team jerseys Tuesday. The second-year players, both of whom were four-star recruits in the 247Sports composite rankings, spent fall camp battling for playing time in crowded position groups. While Ishmael redshirted last year, George contributed on offense and special teams, and had 183 receiving yards and 142 punt-return yards.
▪ Miami seems to have a fun new wrinkle for its practice-squad jerseys this year: Scout-team players donned burgundy and gold jerseys, mimicking Bethune-Cookman’s colors.
▪ The Hurricanes abruptly closed practice to the media Tuesday after stretching completed. It was a change of plans for Miami, which typically keeps the first handful of periods — somewhere between 30-60 minutes — open to the press.
This story was originally published August 30, 2022 at 2:07 PM.
