Injuries derailed their 2024 season. Can they help the Miami Hurricanes in 2025?
Damari Brown and Ryan Rodriguez were poised for big roles with the Miami Hurricanes last season. Both impressed during spring practices and fall camp to the point that they cracked the starting lineup for Miami’s season opener against the Florida Gators, Brown at cornerback and Rodriguez at left guard.
Isaiah Taylor, meanwhile, was hoping to carve out a role in the secondary behind starters Mishael Powell and Jaden Harris after transferring in from Arizona.
But before they knew it, their seasons were derailed. Brown injured his foot covering a deep ball in the Gators game. Rodriguez broke his leg against UF. And Taylor ultimately needed a pair of shoulder surgeries for injuries sustained before the season began.
It’s a year later now, and all three are fully healthy and once again fully in control of their path to helping a Hurricanes team trying to improve on a 2024 season in which they went 10-3 but missed out on both the Atlantic Coast Conference Championship Game and the 12-team College Football Playoff.
They know roles aren’t guaranteed and there’s competition for playing time as Miami increased its talent and depth across the roster through the transfer portal and recruiting, but Brown, Rodriguez and Taylor are doing what they can to remain in the grand scheme of Miami’s plans.
“I’m excited,” Rodriguez said, “to get the chance to prove myself again.”
Rodriguez, a redshirt senior entering his final year of college football, that this is his final chance to make a statement. He has only played in eight games during his Hurricanes career, missing all of 2022 due to injury and only getting on the field for the Florida game last season before the leg injury derailed his opportunity to show he can be a full-time starter.
“Last year, I finally made a little name for myself, and I’m not satisfied with that,” Rodriguez said. “Obviously there was an obstacle that I had to overcome. I got injured; fixed it, recovered, rehabbed, and now I feel like I’m better than I was last year. I got smarter over that time. That’s something that I really feel like I needed to focus on.”
With Rodriguez sidelined last season, Matt McCoy entrenched himself as the team’s starting left guard and played steady all season despite dealing with a torn labrum in his right shoulder all season.
Rodriguez has been taking reps at both guard spots and center during practices to give the Hurricanes an option off the bench.
“I know what to do at all three spots,” Rodriguez said. “Whatever [offensive line] coach [Alex Mirabal] tells me to do, I just go out there and do it. That’s that’s really it. I don’t ask too much.”
Brown, like Rodriguez, was poised for a big role last season. He started opposite Daryl Porter Jr. at outside corner in the season opener against the Gators before sustaining a foot injury early in that game covering a deep ball. Brown missed the next 10 games before making a brief appearance in Miami’s regular-season finale against Syracuse.
“It was a big, unexpected injury,” Brown said.
While he was sidelined, Brown took onus upon himself to become a “another voice to the guys out there.” He used his time rehabbing to see the game “through a different lens” and act essentially as a player coach during practices.
Now that he’s back, his goal is to make an impact in a revamped secondary that was one of the Hurricanes’ biggest weaknesses a year ago. Depth was thin by the end of the season, and the group’s performance handicapped what could have been a stellar season.
Miami added six new defensive backs via the transfer portal, including four cornerbacks in Xavier Lucas, Keionte Scott, Ethan O’Connor and Charles Brantley. That quartet plus Brown and freshman All-American OJ Frederique Jr. gives the Hurricanes a much-improved two-deep depth chart at cornerback.
“Things happened for the better,” Brown said. “... Just don’t look back.”
As for Taylor, he’s still waiting to get on the field for the first time with Miami. He transferred to UM last season from Arizona with the hopes of being part of the Hurricanes’ safety rotation and make an impact on special teams.
That opportunity never came because of shoulder injuries that ultimately required a pair of surgeries.
“It got me missing the game a lot more than I really thought I was going to be,” Taylor, entering his redshirt senior season and the son of defensive line coach Jason Taylor, said of the injuries.
What his role will be for Miami is still to be determined. Transfers Zechariah Poyser and Jakobe Thomas are projected to be Miami’s starting safeties. From there, Taylor will compete with returnees Markeith Williams and Dylan Day plus true freshmen Amari Wallace and Bryce Fitzgerald for playing time.
“We do have a real talented group and a lot of experience as well,” Taylor said. “For me, wherever coach wants me to play, I’ll play. I’m very versatile where I need to be, and I’ll take advantage of any opportunity I get.”
This story was originally published August 8, 2025 at 12:27 PM.
.JPG)