Jake Garcia ‘preparing to be the guy’ for Miami with Tyler Van Dyke’s status in doubt
Jake Garcia saw the most extended action of his still-young career Saturday, playing more than a half in the Miami Hurricanes’ 45-21 loss to the Duke Blue Devils after Tyler Van Dyke’s second-quarter injury, and he could be on the verge of making his first start later this week.
Garcia is “preparing to be the guy” as Miami gets ready to face the Virginia Cavaliers on Saturday, offensive coordinator Josh Gattis said, Van Dyke’s status appears to be in serious doubt.
Coach Mario Cristobal said he doesn’t “know yet” whether Van Dyke will be able to play in Charlottesville, Virginia, and the Hurricanes are “doing everything we can to get him ready,” but Van Dyke was wearing a sling on his right arm Monday as he left the football facilities in Coral Gables, The Athletic reported.
“We have a lot of faith in both Jake and Jacurri [Brown] to play winning football for us,” Cristobal said.
If Van Dyke can’t play, Garcia will get the starting nod at Scott Stadium, Cristobal said. Garcia finished out Miami’s loss over the weekend and went 13 of 21 for 198 yards, two touchdowns and three interceptions, and also lost two fumbles. He also made three appearances in September — twice in lopsided wins against the FCS Bethune-Cookman Wildcats and Southern Miss Golden Eagles, and again after the Hurricanes benched Van Dyke in their stunning loss to the Middle Tennessee Blue Raiders. He is now 32 of 49 for 470 yards, two touchdowns and three interceptions this year.
Brown, who has been the third-stringer and played occasionally as a short-yardage quarterback, will be Garcia’s backup if Van Dyke is unavailable. The freshman has not yet thrown a pass.
Although Garcia was responsible for five of Miami’s eight turnovers last week, Gattis and Cristobal remain confident in the redshirt freshman because of the highs he has already displayed. Garcia threw touchdowns on two of his first three series against Duke and led the Hurricanes to touchdowns on two of his four drives against Middle Tennessee last month.
“I am very confident in Jake,” Gattis said. “Jake has displayed his ability. Obviously, that was Jake’s real first time of actually seeing adversity, right? He’s been in other games and had success. He led us in success in that game in a short period of time and so we’ll clean up the mistakes.
“Jake did a great job coming in at first. ... One of the things you’ve got to do whenever you’ve lost a quarterback in a game, I think the next most important thing is to make sure your second quarterback stays protected. And things started obviously to unravel a little bit once Jake got a little bit of pressure and that’s going to come with game experience. This was really his first time facing pressure in those type situations.”
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Bad news on Zion Nelson
After Zion Nelson missed his third straight game, Cristobal isn’t ruling out the possibility the star tackle might not return this season.
Nelson, who earned preseason All-America recognition from several outlets, has played in only one game this year and not started any after having surgery on left knee in July. Miami (3-4, 1-2 Atlantic Coast) initially hoped the 6-foot-5, 316-pound junior would ready for the start of the season, but he wasn’t quite ready to go and then had “a setback” a few weeks into the year, Cristobal said.
“I’d like to say yes, but I don’t know,” Cristobal said when asked if he anticipated Nelson returning this season. “We’ve gone back and forth, thinking he’s going to be ready, thinking he’s not. Obviously, he’s a great player. Obviously, he’s missed tremendously, but we’re still going to put health at the forefront and right now he’s just not ready. He’s just not. I’ll have a better, more tangible answer for you in the next couple of days, but right now we’ll just put it on ice and let him get well.”
Nelson is one of several injured offensive linemen. Jonathan Denis exited with an apparent left leg injury Saturday and Justice Oluwaseun has missed two straight games with an injury, and Cristobal, when asked by WQAM whether he expects to have some linemen back this weekend, said he does not.
The coach does, however, expect wide receiver Brashard Smith to play this weekend after he missed the loss to the Blue Devils. Safety James Williams also “seems to be OK” after getting banged up Saturday, Cristobal said.
This and that
▪ After a second straight 100-yard game, wide receiver Colbie Young is the ACC Receiver of the Week. The sophomore led the Hurricanes with six receptions for 127 yards and two touchdowns Saturday, and now ranks second on the team with 271 receiving yards despite not making a single catch in the first four games of the season.
▪ Miami’s annual rivalry clash against the Florida State Seminoles next month will be a prime-time showdown on ABC. The Hurricanes will face Florida State at 7:30 p.m. on Nov. 5 at Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens, the ACC announced.
