UM’s talented young backs address the biggest news of offseason. And Ed Reed leaves a mark
A six-pack of Miami Hurricanes notes on a Thursday, with just 10 days left of spring football:
▪ The most newsworthy comment of this Miami Hurricanes offseason?
Offensive coordinator Rhett Lashlee’s recent disclosure, on WQAM’s Hurricane Hotline, that he’s looking for a running back who can carry it “20-plus times a game,” instead of splitting the reps as he did last season.
In 2020, Cam’Ron Harris averaged 13 touches per game, Don Chaney Jr. 7.2 and Jaylon Knighton 7. Sharing the ball worked out fairly well; Harris averaged 5 yards per carry, Chaney 4.7 and Knighton 4.0, and Chaney and Knighton were terrific catching passes out of the backfield, with a knack for picking up yardage after receptions.
But the ball-sharing did not work well enough to Lashlee’s satisfaction; UM averaged 4.2 yards per carry, which was 73rd in the country, and averaged 162.5 rushing yards per game, which was 68th.
And so the pressure is now ratcheted on all three backs, each of whom could see their roles significantly increase or diminish.
Chaney indicated this week that he’s fine with this new approach of designating a bell-cow back, and Knighton said Thursday that this new approach is the right one and that snaps are being shared equally among the three backs this spring.
“Last year we had a rotation, but the more carries you have in a game, the more you get in your groove,” Knighton said. “You can’t get in a groove with six, seven carries. We need a featured back that can touch the ball 20 times a game. You get in a rhythm. It’s good we’re going to have a featured back this year. Let’s work every day and whoever wins the job you have to go all out with it.”
Chaney, speaking to Joe Zagacki on WQAM’s Hurricane Hotline, said this competition will show “what type of dog do you have in you. It has to be about the beast you have inside. We’re all going to do it the right way. We generally have the best backfield in the country. Nobody has ever had a competition like the three of us have. We all have respect for each other... We do all things together but we all know what’s at stake.
“I got three touchdowns and [465 yards from scrimmage as a freshman]. I think that’s a pretty good season for a freshman sharing carries with two other great running backs. Hopefully it gets better this season. It’s competition. You’ve got to do what you’ve got to do to survive.”
Freshmen running backs Thad Franklin and Cody Brown arrive this summer.
Lashlee expanded on his new philosophy during a Zoom session with local media on Thursday.
“If you look at most of the great offenses around the country, that’s what they do too,” he said of having one primary back. “Running backs need to get in a rhythm like anybody else. That doesn’t mean all three aren’t vital.
“Everybody can have an impactful role. A guy may be banged up for a game and doesn’t play. There may be a game next year where somebody doesn’t have 20 carries and that doesn’t mean something terrible happened. We’re a long way from deciding. That competition has been great. We have three guys who can earn that starting spot.”
Knighton said he has studied tape of every drill of every spring practice this fall.
“I focus on watching a lot of film, seeing my mistakes so the next day I correct it,” he said. ”I go through the play by play seeing what I did, what Don did, what Cam did. See all the mistakes and correct it the next day. Watching film increased my game incredibly.”
Knighton also studies tape of current Pro Bowl running backs Ezekiel Elliott and Adrian Peterson and former San Francisco 49ers great Roger Craig. He said “their body types are different, but I can relate [their skills to] my game.”
Knighton — who’s 195 pounds and wants to get up to 205 — said he has made it a priority to improve his presnap reads.
“My main focus [has been] reading defenses, knowing where the defender would be before the play happens,” he said. “Know where I want to be so I can make a move knowing where they want to be. That helps me make a big run in practice.”
.▪ Chaney, who had six rushes for 50 yards and three catches for 44 yards against Oklahoma State in the bowl game, relayed to Zagacki an interesting exchange he had with UM chief of staff Ed Reed before that game.
“I was kind of nervous, the spotlight was kind of on me, and it had never been on me in college yet. I was starting to freak out a little bit,” Chaney said. “Ed Reed came up to me and said, ‘I want you to know you got this. This is what you came here to do.’ It felt really nice to have him around. It helped so much.”
Chaney said Reed is “always giving me pointers, things to work on, mainly my pass protection.”
▪ Chaney and Knighton seem really conscientious. While Knighton referenced his relentless film studying, Chaney revealed that he caught passes from a jugs machine every day for weeks after dropping a pass against Louisville.
“At first, I wasn’t fond of catching,” he said. “I was good at it. There was one game I dropped a wide-open pass, Louisville game, and at the moment, it was very embarrassing. I stayed on the jugs machine every day the rest of the season. I haven’t dropped a pass since.”
▪ UM defensive tackle Jon Ford said he returned for a bonus season of eligibility — granted by the NCAA in the wake of the pandemic — because “I want to win a championship and improve my game to help my circumstances and become a better player and live up to the potential I have and get my degree.”
He said he received “some feedback from the NFL and I understand my position.”
Ford didn’t share what he was told, but a scout said he would have been a third-day pick, if that, if he had entered the draft.
Ford — who said he has lost over 10 pounds to improve his conditioning — said the return of defensive line coach Jess Simpson “was like a blessing for me.”
Simpson coached UM’s defensive linemen in 2018 before leaving for a job with the Atlanta Falcons the past two seasons.
Ford has been studying tape of NFL defensive tackles Chris Jones and Fletcher Cox; “they have heavy hands and are good [against] the run... I need to improve my pass rush.”
Ford could up end as UM’s No. 3 defensive tackle behind Nesta Silvera (sitting out spring after a shoulder procedure) and Jared Harrison-Hunte, but that battle is ongoing and Ford has a chance to regain the starting job that he lost during the 2020 season. Elite five-star defensive tackle Leonard Taylor joins that competition this summer.
Jordan Miller said he has been getting a lot of first-team work at defensive tackle this spring.
▪ UM booked home games against Florida A&M in 2024 and 2026.
The rest of UM’s 2024 nonconference schedule: home against Ball State and at Florida and at Notre Dame.
UM has only one other nonconference matchup booked in 2026, a game at South Carolina.
▪ Quick stuff: Center Corey Gaynor, on what has impressed him about second-year offensive linemen Jalen Rivers and Issiah Walker: “Jalen is a big guy with very long arms. His best intangible is he’s smart, applies what he learns to the field. Walker is a very athletic kid. Both of them have a chance to be really special.”...
Former UM player Earl Timberlake told ESPN he’s transferring to Memphis, where he’ll play for Penny Hardaway. So if you’re keeping score of where UM players have gone, it’s Matt Cross to Louisville; Chris Lykes to Arkansas; Nysier Brooks to Mississippi; and Elijah Olaniyi back to Stony Brook. The Canes are pursuing replacements.
UM guards Isaiah Wong and Kam McGusty have been awaiting NBA feedback before deciding whether to return to school.
This story was originally published April 8, 2021 at 12:08 PM.
