Mirabal, Cristobal address UM’s revamped offensive line, which loses four starters
A well-coached offensive line anchored by people-movers and physical grinders has been a hallmark of the Hurricanes under Mario Cristobal and Alex Mirabal, the respected position coach who texts his players at 4 a.m. and never strays far from Cristobal’s side.
But that line faces more uncertainty than a year ago, when Miami had a likely top-15 pick at right tackle (Francis Mauigoa) and NFL prospects at left tackle (Markel Bell), center (James Brockermeyer) and right guard (Anez Cooper).
All four are gone, leaving Mirabal to reconstruct a unit that added only one Power 4 transfer, Jamal Meriweather, who logged just 59 offensive snaps in three years at Georgia.
Not that he’s especially sweating it.
“I feel invigorated, I feel renewed, I feel refreshed — it’s awesome to start with a new group of young men,” Mirabal said Tuesday. “Obviously you have Matthew McCoy, Samson Okunlola, Ryan Rodriguez to help me along with the other guys on the offensive line staff, to help me establish the foundation, the culture, the principles of how we want to play football… It’s a challenge for me, a rebirth for me. I love it.”
The projected 2026 line features a guard (McCoy) potentially playing right tackle; a ballyhooed five-star freshman (left tackle Jackson Cantwell) who was a top-five overall prospect in the 2026 class; a center (Rodriguez) who has battled injuries and played just 261 offensive snaps in five seasons at UM; a guard (Okunlola) who waited patiently for two years before blossoming as a part-time starter last year; and an open competition for another guard spot.
Okunlola is missing spring practice with an undisclosed injury, Mirabal confirmed.
All of these starting projections come with caveats: McCoy must prove he can handle right tackle after sharing one guard spot with Okunlola last season; Mirabal said he’s not sure McCoy will end up at tackle and him playing there this spring is partly a function of Okunlola’s injury.
“When you are at tackle, you have time and space,” Mirabal said of McCoy’s transition to right tackle this spring. “Inside at guard everything happens so quickly, so fast.”
Rodriguez, for his part, must justify UM’s faith in him after the Canes bypassed adding a starting center in the transfer portal for the first time in four years. UM loves his grit and leadership, but he must stay healthy.
The decision not to add another portal center — after successful one-year marriages with Matt Lee, Zach Carpenter and Brockermeyer — reflects “confidence in Ryan,” Mirabal said. “I thought last year Ryan Rodriguez could have started at center for any other program in the ACC.
“We had a heck of a center [in] Brockermeyer, and another heck of a center [in] Ryan. To Ryan’s credit, he loves the University of Miami, and he didn’t transfer. He’s a guy that should be praised for choosing to stay at Miami. He waited his time. This is Ryan’s turn. We felt confident that was the path we wanted to take. Ryan is a guy we can trust with the ball in his hands, to lead that room.”
Meanwhile, Cantwell, the towering 6-8 early enrollee, must prove worthy of being a Day 1 starter, which has been the expectation since he became Cristobal’s highest-rated recruit at UM.
“He’s got to work on everything,” Mirabal said, “because the guys that he’s going against in practice, those guys are better than any players he played ever in his high school career. So it’s implementing your technique, your footwork... against tremendous speed and power. He’s catching up to that.”
Cristobal said Cantwell already has NFL Combine type measurables and “has responded well” to his first college practices, during UM’s playoff run and through a week-plus of spring ball.
“He’s the type of guy that he’s all about getting coached hard and getting pushed,” Cristobal said. “That’s elite DNA and mentality and his upbringing with his parents and the way that they have raised him to be competitive, to be tough, to be respectful, to understand being coached hard.”
More on the offensive line:
▪ SJ Alofaituli, one of the top centers in the 2025 recruiting class, has been filling in at left guard with Okonlula sidelined. JJ Sparks replaced him Tuesday after Alofaituli cramped up.
▪ Though Mirabal didn’t touch on the open guard spot, Max Buchanan has been getting a lot of work there and UM is bullish on his future. But there’s competition there from Juan Minaya, Meriweather and others. And Alofaituli will compete for that job after Okonlola returns.
▪ Freshman Rhys Woodrow has been working at backup center. That’s a job Alofaituli potentially would be in position to handle if he weren’t filling in for Okunlola.
▪ Besides Okunlola, offensive linemen Canon Pickett, Joel Ervin and Johnathan Cline are also sidelined this spring. Cline, an interior lineman from East Tennessee State, was UM’s other offensive line portal addition, besides Meriweather.
This story was originally published April 1, 2026 at 12:17 PM.
