A look at some revealing playing time decisions and what it says about Hurricanes coaches
A six-pack of Miami Hurricanes notes on a Wednesday:
▪ One encouraging thing we’re seeing is Canes coaches aren’t giving underperforming older players the benefit of the doubt with playing time decisions.
Not only did second-year standout Jared Harrison-Hunte justifiably start ahead of senior Jon Ford at defensive tackle against North Carolina State — and play more snaps than the senior Ford (43 to 22) — but there were subtle playing time changes at two other positions.
At linebacker, sophomore Sam Brooks played more snaps than senior Zach McCloud (34 to 30), with Bradley Jennings logging 55.
Even though Canes coaches have great appreciation for McCloud’s leadership, maturity and preparation, that doesn’t earn him a pass. And Brooks has been better than McCould this season.
Freshman Corey Flagg figures to join the linebacker rotation when he returns to the lineup after a COVID-19 issue. Avery Huff and Tirek Austin-Cave haven’t done enough to warrant defensive snaps.
At cornerback, it was notable that sophomore Te’Cory Couch (44 snaps) played more than junior DJ Ivey (35) on Friday, with Al Blades Jr. logging 57.
UM rode with Blades even though he was playing his worst game of the season because he has earned that benefit of the doubt based on strong play all season before Friday and because UM has such little depth at cornerback (five on scholarship, including two freshmen).
Ivey hasn’t earned that longer rope, and the decision to use Couch more on Friday reflected that. But Ivey closed the game strong with a game-sealing interception.
“Te’Cory’s playing at an extremely high level for us right now at nickel and at corner,” defensive coordinator Blake Baker said. “Really proud of the way that guy competes every single day. You can see the growth over the span of the last year and a half and how much better he’s gotten.”
Couch also had a key sack on a blitz.
“Te’Cory has got a great confidence about him,” Baker said. “He’s like a chihuahua, man. He thinks he’s a lot bigger than he is. You like that as a defensive coordinator. He’s really gotten slippery when he gets in there on the blitz, and a lot of that comes, in my opinion, from a feel for it and not having any fear once he goes in there.”
As for Harrison-Hunte, “Jared did well,” Manny Diaz said on WQAM’s Hurricane Hotline. “His athleticism and ability to stay on his feet, use his hands, slip blocks, is very difficult. He creates a lot of problems for those guards and centers. He’s an athletic mismatch, similar to what we had with RJ McIntosh and Gerald Willis where their quickness intimidates the offensive lineman that is going to block them.”
The decision to reduce the playing time of Ford and McCloud last Friday makes clear that UM is more concerned with playing the best player than appeasing players who returned for their senior seasons. That’s the right thing to do and it maintains credibility with players.
▪ Even with three freshmen receivers out, Jeremiah Payton played only 14 of Miami’s 85 offensive snaps last Friday and freshman Daz Worsham (who needs to get stronger in the weight room) didn’t play at all on offense.
The veterans continue to get most of the snaps at receiver: Dee Wiggins 83, Mike Harley 74, Mark Pope 70.
Payton remains something of a riddle: a player who has impressed teammates in practice but hasn’t done enough to earn substantial playing time.
He has four catches for 53 yards in 1 ½ seasons at UM, including three for 30 this season.
▪ UM knows it must get better in the running game.
Here are Cam’Ron Harris’ yards per carry averages in the past five games: 3.6, 0.4, 2.0, 1.0 and 3.3. Over those five games, he has 55 carries for 128 yards (2.3 average).
Harris is averaging 5.0 yards on 81 carries this season - a yardage average boosted by two long runs early in the season.
Conversely, freshmen Jaylon Knighton (43) and Don Chaney Jr. (41) have a combined 84 carries, with Knighton averaging 4.0 and Chaney 4.4.
“We need to get the ball rolling with explosive plays from our running backs,” Diaz said. “We would like to see our backs pop a few more out and get back to the explosion we had in the run game in the first half of the season.”
One thing that’s helping the offense in general, Diaz said, is “our tempo wears people down. We could have played a fifth quarter [Friday] and if we did, we would have won by 20. That’s a testament to coach [David] Feeley, the way we play with our offensive system, and the shape we’re in.”
Theoretically, that should help the run game close out games.
▪ Diaz wanted to make this clear on Hurricane Hotline this week:
“There’s another label that gets put on our guys a lot and that’s about being front-runners. ‘Oh Miami is good when things are good.’ If that had been true, that team would have let go of the rope on Friday night. They’re not front-runners. They fight and find a way to come back and win.”
Diaz said this season “has been an extraordinary amount of fun” despite COVID-19. “I hope everybody is having fun watching this team.”
▪ UM, down to 70 players at one point last week, believes it will have more available for Saturday’s Virginia Tech game, unless more players test positive for COVID-19 in the next three days.
Last week, “we had a quarterback starting in our dime defense [in practice], graduate assistants who had to be wide receivers, defensive backs and offensive linemen,” Diaz said. “It’s hard to get better that way. We told our guys you aren’t going to be holding a sign saying ‘I was blocked by a coach all week.’ Nobody cares. In 2020 you don’t get all you want.”
▪ Quick stuff: How to split up safety snaps remains something of a riddle for UM. Against NC State, Gurvan Hall got 51 snaps, Bubba Bolden 44 and Carter 41. Carter played a pseudo linebacker role at times in Friday’s game, which the Canes have done before…
Saturday’s UM game at Virginia Tech was moved from ESPN2 to ESPN, with Roy Philpott and Kelly Stouffer on the call...
Diaz said UM is administering “physical discipline” to players who commit penalties…
We heard some internal player disappointment about Notre Dame’s win against Clemson, which lessens UM’s chances of reaching the Atlantic Coast Conference title game. It will be interesting to see if that has any effect in their play…
Besides left tackle Zion Nelson’s excellent work the past two games, Diaz also credited guard Jakai Clark for his strong play last Friday. Both sophomore offensive linemen look much improved.
Here’s my Wednesday story with news on Preston Williams’ significant injury and lots of Dolphins nuggets.
Here’s my Wednesday story on the Heat working out one of the best shooters in the draft, and other notes.
This story was originally published November 11, 2020 at 4:58 PM.
