Details on another change in Miami’s quarterback room. And UM works to reschedule games
A six-pack of Miami Hurricanes notes on a Tuesday:
▪ Ballyhooed former four-star quarterback Tate Martell is returning to UM to take classes but apparently not to play football.
According to a source, a decision has been made that Martell will take classes at UM but not participate in spring ball, barring an unexpected change of plans.
It’s unclear whether Martell or UM initiated that decision.
It’s also uncertain if Martell will look to eventually continue his football career elsewhere. He would have at least three years of eligibility remaining, with the NCAA giving players an extra season to play because of COVID-19.
Martell transferred to UM from Ohio State in the spring of 2019, before Manny Diaz’s first season as head coach. But he ended up throwing just one pass in a game — a 7-yard completion — and ran seven times for 7 yards. He opted out of playing the 2020 season.
Martell appeared in six games for Ohio State as a freshman in 2018, finishing with 269 passing yards, one passing touchdown, 128 rushing yards and two rushing touchdowns.
But after transferring to Miami, he was beaten out by Jarren Williams for the starting quarterback job, moved to receiver for a couple months but received limited playing time, and then switched back to quarterback.
Martell had a storybook high school career at Bishop Gorman in Las Vegas; he went 43-0 as a starter and was named national Player of the Year by Gatorade, MaxPreps, and USA Today.
With D’Eriq King recovering from a torn ACL and N’Kosi Perry and Martell no longer playing football for UM, the Canes will have three scholarship quarterbacks for spring ball: Tyler Van Dyke, Peyton Matocha and incoming freshman Jake Garcia.
Perry is completing classes at UM this spring and then intends to transfer, according to a source.
UM has said that it expects King to be back by August, in time for the Sept. 4 opener against Alabama in Atlanta.
Martell was one of four UM players who opted out of playing last season. Among the others, Greg Rousseau is leaving for the NFL, and offensive linemen Kai-Leon Herbert and Zalon’tae Hillery have rejoined the team for the 2021 season.
▪ UM athletic director Blake James said he’s in communication with Michigan State about rescheduling their game in East Lansing — which was canceled this past September when the Big 10 initially delayed the start of its season and the Atlantic Coast Conference decided to play only one non-conference game.
As part of their home-and-home series, Miami and Michigan State will play at Hard Rock Stadium in September.
Miami’s canceled 2020 home game against Temple is being rescheduled for a future season, with an announcement on that pending. That was part of a two-game home-and-home series which will have UM playing in Philadelphia in 2023.
UM isn’t rescheduling its canceled Sept. 12 game against Wagner.
Miami ended up playing its only non-conference game at home against UAB, completing the contract obligations between those schools.
UM’s 2021 non-conference schedule includes Alabama in Atlanta and home games against Appalachian State, Michigan State and Central Connecticut. The ACC schedule will be announced Thursday.
New non-conference opponents that will surface on future UM football schedules include Southern Mississippi (home in 2022), Texas A&M (there in 2022, in Miami in 2023), Miami of Ohio (home in 2023), Ball State (home in 2024), Florida (in Gainesville in 2024 and in Miami in 2025), USF (home in 2025), Florida A&M (home in both 2024 and 2026) and South Carolina (there in 2026, home in 2027).
UM and Notre Dame will play seven times between 2024 and 2037.
▪ During a flurry of tweets about the Green Bay-Tampa Bay NFC Championship game, UM chief of staff Ed Reed questioned Green Bay’s defensive approach in allowing a Tampa Bay touchdown pass just before halftime and said:
“Dear #NFL and #College, I AM A Coach u know. Okay. Carry on.”
When former local talk show Brian “The Beast” London then asked Reed if he’s looking to leave UM, Reed responded: “Not leaving.”
▪ NFL Network’s Daniel Jeremiah has two Hurricanes going in the top half of the first round of the NFL Draft: Rousseau 14th to the Minnesota Vikings and Jaelan Phillips 16th to the Arizona Cardinals.
“I’m a big fan of Rousseau and his potential at the next level,” Jeremiah wrote on NFL.com. “He has elite length and surprising pass rush polish despite his limited experience at the position. The Vikings’ defense took a big step back last year due to an inability to pressure the quarterback.”
And Jeremiah said “Phillips is the most gifted pass rusher in this year’s draft. He has an excellent get-off, he can bend at the top of his rush and he is a finisher.”
▪ With seniors Rodney Miller and Sam Waardenburg missing all of the season due to injuries — and Chris Lykes missing much of the season — could any of those three accept the NCAA’s offer for an extra year of eligibility due to the COVID-19 pandemic?
“Rodney Miller I know was planning to earn his Master’s and move on,” UM basketball coach Jim Larranaga said. “With the injury I was not going to bring up and discuss with him anything long-term because we don’t know how that knee will respond to rehab.”
Waardenburg, 21, who broke his foot before the season, “will have an opportunity to go back home to Australia and play professionally,” Larranaga said. “He will probably consider the possibility of staying in school which is what I’ve encouraged him to do because he’s still very young.”
As for Lykes — who remains out indefinitely with an ankle injury that has sidelined him since early December — Larranaga said. “I have had that conversation with Chris Lykes while he’s been hurt. He hasn’t given any thought to his future yet.”
▪ Three other seniors also have the option to return next season: center Nysier Brooks (the Cincinnati transfer who sat out last season, per NCAA rules) and guards Kam McGusty and Elijah Olaniyi (the Stony Brook transfer who became immediately eligible to play because of an in-season NCAA rule change).
Brooks “should earn his degree by the end of this year and it will be up to him and his guardian to make a determination on whether it’s worth it to return to college, continue classes, or move on,” Larranaga said.
“One of the interesting things is Nas and I have been talking about him developing a business plan for his cooking, a website where he can teach cooking online to other students and student-athletes who live off-campus, do not have a lot of money, have a small budget. Whether Nas would seriously consider coming back or pursue the option, I’m sure there’ll be a ton of agents wanting to represent him as a pro athlete.”
Larranaga doesn’t expect McGusty to return.
“Kam is a fifth year senior, he will graduate and in all likelihood have the opportunity to play professional basketball,” Larranaga said. “I have not spoken to him about returning, plan to do that after the season, not during.”
As for Olaniyi, “We are hoping he will return because he will probably need -- as a transfer student --- at least another semester to earn his degree.”
Larranaga said redshirt junior center Deng Gak “will probably graduate and move on” after this season.
Here’s my Monday piece with Manny Diaz’s in-depth analysis of UM’s early football enrollees.
This story was originally published January 26, 2021 at 10:10 AM.
