New Hurricanes running backs coach’s main task: Keeping ‘stacked’ room ready
Mark Fletcher Jr. could only smile after the Miami Hurricanes’ first spring football practice last week.
Every member of his position room returned. Fletcher came back for his senior year. CharMar “Marty” Brown returned after a successful first season at UM after transferring in from North Dakota State. Jordan Lyle, despite limited playing time, chose not to enter the transfer portal. Girard Pringle Jr., after briefly entering the portal, opted to stay after showing promise in spurts as a true freshman.
“That shows you what type of guys are in the room and the type of thing that we’re building here,” Fletcher said. “The fact that every single running back came back, and there’s only one or two guys who can be on the field at a time, that just shows how special our bond is and what we’re focused on building.”
Add in true freshman Javian Mallory and redshirt sophomore Chris Wheatley-Humphrey, and the Hurricanes have legitimately a half dozen options to handle duties in the backfield in 2026 as they try to build on a 2025 season that saw them reach the College Football Playoff National Championship Game.
“We’re stacked in that room,” Miami offensive coordinator Shannon Dawson said.
In fact, the only real change in the room is at the coaching level. Favian Upshaw is Miami’s new running backs coach. He replaces Matt Merritt, who left to be the running backs coach for the NFL’s Arizona Cardinals.
Upshaw, who spent three seasons as an offensive quality control coach for the Broncos after previously having college stints at Tulane, Georgia Southern, Benedict College and Savannah State, knows the balancing act of the talent he has is going to be one of his biggest tasks this season.
But if that’s the challenge ahead, it’s a good one to have.
“The first thing I told those guys was look around the room,” Upshaw said Thursday in his first news conference since being hired. “There’s a lot of good players in this room. And the thing I learned in the NFL is that you never know when your time is going to come. I told them the first day, ‘Game 1 might not be the Mark Fletcher game, and I don’t know whose game is going to be, but you have to be ready when your number’s called.’ At some point in time, somebody’s going to have a game where they’re going to go off and somebody’s not gonna have a good day.”
That said, Fletcher is poised to once again be Miami’s featured back regardless of the overall talent level in the room.
The senior rushed for 1,192 yards and 12 touchdowns last season, with 507 of those yards (42.5%) coming during Miami’s four College Football Playoff games. Fletcher’s 2,313 career rushing yards at Miami rank seventh in school history. His 26 rushing touchdowns are tied for fifth.
“He’s always been on that steady growth incline,” Hurricanes coach Mario Cristobal said. “He came in with some leadership qualities already in the freshman class, and ... he’s never stopped. We all know that during the postseason last year, he took it to a different level, and it just hasn’t stopped.
“He’s exactly what you want. There’s no one out there that you would ever, ever trade for. Mark Fletcher.”
Added Upshaw: “He’s one of the best humans I’ve ever met, and I truly mean that.”
But as Miami has done in the past three years under Dawson, the workload will be split among the room. Brown had 122 carries for 474 yards and seven touchdowns last season while serving as a bruising back up the middle. Pringle had 62 carries for 375 yards and four touchdowns, showcasing advance vision for a freshman. Lyle, limited first by injury and then by getting passed on the depth chart, had 35 carries for 108 yards but has breakaway speed that can be lethal.
“We’re going to be comfortable with the fourth or fifth guy probably playing in that room, which is a great thing,” Dawson said, adding that the running back position “takes the most abuse on offense ... so it’s good to have that position to be deep.”
Added Upshaw: “It’s just a good problem to have. I mean, you know, they’ve done a great job of recruiting up to the point that I got here. But those guys aren’t done. They’re not finished products. And my thing is trying to make these guys better.”
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