Why Cristobal turned to Jacurri Brown in loss to FSU after Van Dyke re-injured shoulder
Mario Cristobal had a decision to make after starting quarterback Tyler Van Dyke re-injured his throwing shoulder early in the second quarter of the Miami Hurricanes’ 45-3 blowout loss to the Florida State Seminoles on Saturday.
He could go with Jake Garcia, the redshirt freshman who made his first career college start a week earlier in Miami’s quadruple overtime win over Virginia. Or he could play Jaccuri Brown, the true freshman who up to that point had almost exclusively been used in wildcat-type situations for the Hurricanes.
With the Hurricanes’ offense failing to generate momentum early against the Seminoles, Cristobal opted to primarily use the more athletic Brown for the final two-plus quarters.
“We felt that he can throw the ball well,” Cristobal said. “We felt a combination of him making them respect the quarterback run and trying to get the running game going would give us a chance to work our way into the game.”
Brown made a few plays but nowhere near enough to revive a Miami offense that hasn’t scored a touchdown in two weeks. He completed 5 of 9 passes for 37 yards and a fourth-quarter interception and also ran for 54 yards on 14 carries — by far the biggest workload of his young collegiate career.
“You see how athletic and how talented he is,” tight end Will Mallory said. “He’s a young player and we’re going to keep building. He’s a guy that is extremely bought in and has an extremely bright future.”
But will that bright future need to become a bright present? That’s the situation Cristobal could have to consider depending on the severity of Van Dyke’s injury.
The redshirt sophomore quarterback initially sustained his throwing shoulder injury on Oct. 22 in Miami’s loss to Duke. He sat out the Hurricanes’ win over Virginia but traveled with the team. He practiced this week and did well enough to start.
His time on the field Saturday barely lasted more than a quarter.
Van Dyke initially appeared to re-injure his shoulder on a second-down throw from his own end zone that was intended for Brashard Smith with 14:01 left in the second quarter. Van Dyke grabbed his right shoulder as he made his way to the sideline before third down.
Van Dyke threw warm-up passes on the sideline to receiver Xavier Restrepo before returning to the field on Miami’s next possession.
“He’s got a warrior mentality,” Restrepo said, “so if he can go he’s going to go, whether it’s at 20 percent or 100 percent.”
Van Dyke was sacked on the first play of that next drive and then threw an incomplete pass intended for Restrepo while rolling to his right on second down before heading to the sideline for good with 11:53 left in the second quarter.
He didn’t return, finishing the game completing 4 of 8 passes for 24 yards.
Cristobal did not have an immediate update on Van Dyke postgame.
“I know he looked good this week in practice, the latter part of practice,” Cristobal said. “He looked good to start the game. And it went south.”
The offense overall averaged 3.6 yards per play, turned the ball over four times, only got into the red zone once (a drive that ended with a bad snap that resulted in a fumble that FSU recovered) and went 4 for 13 on third down.
Cristobal said the hope was that Brown’s skill set coupled with production in the run game “could put us in second-and-manageable and third-and-short.”
“Those are the things we thought we could generate with him in there,” Cristobal said. “We didn’t do it to the level we thought we could.”
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