Will Miami’s Tyler Van Dyke play against FSU? Cristobal said all three top UM QBs preparing
No way Miami Hurricanes coach Mario Cristobal was going to say which quarterback the Canes are planning to start against Florida State.
Instead, he said the top three are preparing to play in the prime-time, nationally televised game at 7:30 p.m. Saturday at Hard Rock Stadium.
Cristobal, in his Monday afternoon news conference, said Van Dyke, who was knocked out of the Oct. 22 Duke game with a shoulder injury, is “Improving.”
“He’s looking better and better every single day,’’ Cristobal said. “We enter this week with preparing him to play, with preparing Jake [Garcia] to play and preparing Jacurri [Brown] to play.”
Van Dyke, a third-year sophomore and last season’s Atlantic Coast Conference Rookie of the Year, was ruled out of UM’s four-overtime, 14-12 win Saturday at Virginia, but traveled to the game to help redshirt freshman Garcia get through his first college start. CaneSport reported last week that Van Dyke was not expected to play against FSU (5-3, 3-3 Atlantic Coast Conference), and that he would be reevaluated after that game.
“As TVD continues to improve, we’re very optimistic,’’ Cristobal said. “He looked great yesterday. He looked great today. So we’ll keep pushing that envelope and we’ll see where we’re at come Friday and Saturday.”
Garcia struggled Saturday, but in the end, won the game for UM (4-4, 2-2) by running for a two-point conversion in the fourth overtime. He finished 15-of-29 for 125 yards and was sacked twice. This season, he’s 47-of-78 for 595 yards and two touchdowns, with three interceptions.
Van Dyke is 152-of-237 for 1,728 yards and 10 touchdowns this season in seven games, with four interceptions. He has been sacked 12 times.
“He played with a lot of guts and he played hard and his effort, his want-to were there,’’ Cristobal said of Garcia. “He had some good moments and he had some not-so-good moments. First real start as a quarterback here. Collectively as an offense we could have performed better and executed better to make his job a little bit easier. So, we were out of sync in the passing game.
“The running game started to show some real positive signs and some loaded boxes. Henry Parrish ran really hard, the offensive line blocked well — Anez Cooper played a really good game as a true freshman [right guard]. Thought the tight ends did a really good job blocking. But there were opportunities to be had in the passing game. We missed our deep shots and we missed them early. We had connected on those in recent games. I think Jake will improve upon that tremendously. He’s a competitor — he works at it.”
Cristobal has used true freshman Brown frequently as a wildcat quarterback with plenty of speed. On Saturday, Brown ran five times for 28 yards. He was 0-for-3 in passing. This season he has 10 carries for 54 yards.
.JPG "MiamiVirginiaFootball (12).JPG")
“I know for sure Jacurri is going to play some,’’ Cristobal said. “He gives us some things on offenses and he keeps getting better and better. It’s a shame the one ball he threw wasn’t a good one because you’re going to see how talented he is and how well he can throw the ball.”
Said offensive coordinator Josh Gattis: “I think it’s evident right now if you watch our team, Jacurri’s probably one of our top playmakers. Just positive plays continue to happen with him. He’s probably one of the most dynamic runners we have. He’s maybe our fastest player on offense right now, so you’ve got to find as many creative ways to use someone like that, that has the ability to keep the chains moving [and] bring positive plays.’’
When asked how coaches find a balance between preparing Van Dyke and not overdoing it because of his shoulder, Gattis referred to the “medical staff.’’
“We’ve got a tremendous medical staff that does a great job rehabbing our guys, getting them back to full speed,’’ Gattis said. “One thing that you see with our medical staff, we’re not going to take any shortcuts. We’re going to make sure that everyone’s healthy and prepared. And even [with] guys like [receiver] Xavier Restrepo, he was clawing at it to come back out there on the field two to three weeks ago and it just wasn’t the right time. ...We’ve experienced a lot of different injuries on offense and so the next-man-up approach is real. We’ve got to prepare everyone for their opportunity to try to help make an impact on the team.”
Gattis on field
For the first time this season, Gattis was on the field for the Virginia game instead of up in the press box. He said quarterbacks coach Frank Ponce went to the press box in his place.
“I felt like it would give me an opportunity to bring some poise to the sideline for the players, obviously to be able to see in their eyes, get a feel for them throughout the game,’’ Gattis said. “We had faced some tough adversity the week before with some turnovers and really it was kind of a rallying moment of just being able to instill some confidence, be able to talk and get communication going on the sideline.
“When you’re up in the box and you see adversity happen, you really feel like there’s nothing you can do to help ease that moment, and so I thought it was important for me — they’re constantly hearing my voice, they’re constantly seeing my face in practice — to give them that reminder if things don’t go well we’ve got to respond. It was good to get back down to the field and obviously as we move forward we’ll continue to make the best decisions there.”
This story was originally published October 31, 2022 at 2:35 PM.
