Miami O-line allowed 4 sacks at home Saturday. Will Van Dyke stay clean at Texas A&M?
The last place quarterback Tyler Van Dyke wants to be is on his behind on the Kyle Field turf when No. 13 Miami meets No. 24 Texas A&M at 9 p.m. Saturday (ABC) for the Hurricanes’ first road game of the season.
Last weekend against a blitz-heavy Southern Miss, a far less formidable opponent on Miami’s home field, Van Dyke was sacked four times.
“Obviously we don’t want the quarterback on the ground at all,’’ center Jakai Clark said during a Zoom video conference Wednesday. “There were just a few mental busts by some of the guys up front that we’ve got to get cleaned up, and I think we’ve done a good job of that throughout this week. It’s nothing that Southern Miss did anything special. We beat ourselves.
“We’re all the way focused now. We’re locked in. We have a great challenge with Texas A&M. Their defensive line is one of the tops in the country. It’s a great opportunity for us to show the progress we’ve made.’’
Star Hurricanes left tackle Zion Nelson, 6-5 and 320 pounds, was limited to a snap count of 20 in his first playing time this season after rehabilitating from arthroscopic knee surgery and is “full speed, 100 percent” for Saturday, UM coach Mario Cristobal said Wednesday.
Lineup scenario
Nelson split time between left tackle and right tackle, as 6-5, 315-pound fifth-year lineman John Campbell (68 snaps) started his second game at left tackle. The other starters were left guard Jalen Rivers, center Clark, right guard Justice Oluwaseun and right tackle DJ Scaife Jr. But coaches did not hint at the projected lineup in College Station, which will be intensely loud at a Kyle Field stadium that seats more than 102,000 fans.
“Playing at Kyle Field is a special place,’’ Clark said. “They’re going to be loud, they’re going to be rowdy. There are 22 guys on the field and all we can focus on is making sure the guys on our side of the field are doing what we need to do to win.’’
Last season, Scaife mostly played at right guard, which proved to be his strongest position. If he moves inside against Texas A&M, that would allow Nelson and Campbell to cement the outside, though it’s unclear which side for each.
As it might turn out, UM could end up running the ball a lot more than passing in an attempt to control the clock and limit the Aggies’ offense. Last week, Texas A&M ran 42 fewer plays than Appalachian State, which upset the then-No. 6 Aggies 17-14.
Run vs. pass
In two games, the Canes have run the ball 91 times for 479 yards and attempted 54 passes (completing 42) for 557. UM held the ball for 36 minutes, 54 seconds last week against Southern Miss (22:46) and 29:36 in the opener against Bethune-Cookman (30:13).
“We had a little bit of miscommunication up front,’’ Van Dyke said of last week’s four sacks, saying at least one of the sacks was his fault. “Those guys did a good job otherwise.’’
“Controlling the flow of the game through time of possession is very important, especially when you’re dealing with any type of explosive team,’’ UM offensive coordinator Josh Gattis said. “And obviously, Texas A&M is a team that’s very explosive. ...You’ve got to make sure that you’re holding on to a ball and not giving it away.”
When asked about the offensive line play earlier in the week, Cristobal said the Canes “had a couple of lapses mentally.’’
“It’s almost like you saw a ghost,’’ Cristobal said. “You thought that a stunt was going to carry its way out an extra gap over, and a guy came loose — and that happened a couple of times. There were some really good moments of physicality. Guys played hard. We had a couple miscommunications as well, but that’s a high-confidence group that has played really well. Saturday was obviously not our best performance.
“Guys really tried hard and worked at preparation and I thought the intent of focus was there, but we didn’t execute — and when I say execute I want to make clear that execution falls on the entire program. That means we didn’t teach it well enough, show them a good enough look on the scout team, we weren’t descriptive enough or detailed enough in that particular situation. Because what we practiced is what we saw.”
A&M D-line
Cristobal said the Texas A&M defensive line has “really big, powerful explosive guys with a lot of length and a lot of range.”
“They’re explosive and twitchy,” the coach said. “That’s a difficult combination when guys are big and powerful. On the edges typically you find guys anywhere from the 225 to 250 range; they’ve got guys who are 280, 290 who play outside as well — jump in there on third down in some of their third-down pressure packages.”
Saturday, the Aggies might get back 6-2, 325-pound junior tackle McKinnley Jackson, who was hurt (right arm) at the end of fall camp and missed the first two games. Texas A&M has four sacks in two games. The Hurricanes have allowed four total.
“Their defense has been impressive in everything we’ve seen on tape,’’ Cristobal said. “Our guys are looking forward to a great challenge.”
