Miami Hurricanes make offensive line changes. And updates on King, Van Dyke
A six-pack of Miami Hurricanes notes on a Tuesday, after Day 5 of spring practice:
▪ It looks like a battle among four players for two spots on UM’s starting offensive line, at least at this point.
Zion Nelson (left tackle), Corey Gaynor (center) and Navaughn Donaldson (right guard) appear likely starters, though none are assured of anything.
But left guard has been an open competition between Jakai Clark (who allowed no sacks last season) and emerging second-year player Jalen Rivers. Those two have been splitting first-team snaps.
And DJ Scaife said Tuesday that he has moved from right guard to right tackle, where he’s competing with incumbent starter Jarrid Williams, who bypassed the NFL to return for a bonus senior season at UM, granted by the NCAA to players because of the pandemic.
Ultimately, UM wants to play the five best linemen (who doesn’t?), so this plan could still change before September.
But for now, the Canes want to put Donaldson back at the right guard spot where he received a lot of snaps in 2017 and 2018. (He was primarily a left guard in 2019 before sustaining a knee injury in the finale against Duke that sidelined him for all but two games in 2020.)
“Navaughn looks very good coming off the injury he faced,” Scaife said.
Scaife started 11 games at right guard last season and allowed three sacks and didn’t grade out particularly well in the run game, per Pro Football Focus.
Scaife said he feels most comfortable at tackle, where he started 11 games in 2019 and six in 2018.
“I’ve been playing tackle my whole life,” he said. He said he gained weight, to 310, and feels “bigger and stronger.”
He faces formidable competition with Williams, who played decently for Miami in his first season after transferring from Houston.
▪ Though Clark played well last season, Rivers is making a move at left guard. The 6-5, 325-pound Rivers was Rivals’ No. 16 tackle and No. 168 overall player in the 2020 class when he came out of Oakleaf High in Orange Park.
“That’s a big boy; he’s hard to move,” UM defensive lineman Jared Harrison-Hunte said of Rivers. “He has great feet for a big guy. Very smart, plays hard. Boy he can hit! He hits — he hits hard. I like going against him. It makes me better every day. He’s a great player.”
Scaife said even though Rivers has barely played at UM (30 offensive snaps last season), “I’ll be learning new things from him during practice. [Tuesday], I asked him about a technique and he taught me and told me, and it worked.”
In 2022, if the senior Gaynor moves on after this upcoming season, Clark could be UM’s center and Rivers the left guard.
▪ Defensive tackle Nesta Silvera is sitting out the contact parts of spring practice after a shoulder procedure, and it will be interesting to see what new defensive line coach Jess Simpson can do with him. Remember, it was Simpson who in 2018 transformed Gerald Willis from a pretty good player to an exceptional one.
“Nesta has done a good job,” Simpson said. “His desire to learn football right now is higher than it’s ever been. Nesta is a guy with great movement skills. At the end of practice we do a walk-through every day and you can see the light come on for him in some things he’s learning. He is a vertical, penetrating guys we want. The biggest thing going to the fall is his eyes” recognizing what’s needed before the snap.
Simpson said he and Silvera have watched tape of NFL defensive tackles, including Grady Jarrett and Tyeler Davison, two players that Simpson coached with the Atlanta Falcons the past two years.
▪ Commenting publicly for the first time since tearing an ACL in UM’s bowl game, quarterback D’Eriq King told UM’s website: “I cut and I tore it on the cut [against Oklahoma State]. I immediately felt something. I was down on the field for a little minute, thought `Maybe I’m good, maybe I’m fine.’
“So I get up, walk off the field, let the doctors look at me. I actually went to the back in the training room, riding the bike, started jogging, so in my head I thought I was fine” before an MRI revealed the tear.
Sustaining the injury “was horrible for me especially because last game of the season, already decided to come back another year.. I wanted to start off on the right foot in the offseason, wanted to be part of the team in the offseason, didn’t want to be rehabbing.
“I feel like that night I was mad, wasn’t talking to a lot of people, but that next morning it was `What’s the next step?’”
King didn’t offer a timetable for his return, but UM offensive coordinator Rhett Lashlee said King is expected to be ready for August camp and the Sept. 4 opener against Alabama in Atlanta.
▪ Joe Zagacki, the voice of the Hurricanes on WQAM-560, told Joe Rose that quarterback Tyler Van Dyke, as expected, is getting “a lot of reps. It’s an opportunity to have his voice heard with the players. Van Dyke is getting the bulk of work in terms of the amount of reps for first-team quarterback.
“He can really throw the football. He’s got a big arm. He’s a little more mobile than we think. I don’t believe running would be his forte, but if he needs to find an escape route, he can get himself out of trouble. He throws it with good velocity. It gets to the receivers in a hurry. This is going to be a great spring for him to get all these reps.”
A player relayed, through a family member, that the quarterbacks (Van Dyke, Jake Garcia, Payton Matocha) have looked good so far. Matocha, apparently, has made strides.
▪ Zagacki’s early impressions of the receivers, as shared with Rose:
“[Charleston] Rambo brings a lot of skill and speed and physicality. [Xavier] Restrepo is out there working hard. He’s kind of intriguing because he can be a first-down-maker. [Daz] Worsham has good size.
“Mike Harley has separated himself from everybody else with his consistency, attitude and hustle. Every play, Mike Harley runs into the end zone. Every play, he’s elevating his game. To me, this is what he’s saying: I made the leap, I want to drag everybody else with me and this is how you do it...
“If the season started right now,” Zagacki added, “I’m throwing the ball to Harley and then [tight end Will] Mallory and then throwing the ball to [running backs Don] Chaney and [Jaylon] Knighton until proven otherwise.”
This story was originally published March 23, 2021 at 2:11 PM.
