Key Hurricanes player mulls future, and one departing player discusses what must change
A six-pack of Miami Hurricanes notes on a Wednesday:
▪ The Hurricanes are awaiting word on whether two of their most important players will return next season, including their best cornerback.
Tyrique Stevenson, in his regular blog for Canesport.com, said Wednesday that it’s 50-50 whether he will return to Miami next season.
“I’m thinking about what’s the right decision as far as the football thing goes, either declare for the draft or make sure I return back here and finish out with my degree,” Stevenson wrote. “...It’s no problem if I have to come back here and be a leader again, or take a new step and head to the league.”
Stevenson, a transfer from Georgia, had 39 tackles (including 2.5 for loss), an interception and four passes defended in his first season at UM.
Meanwhile, left tackle Zion Nelson is awaiting word from the NFL’s draft advisory board before deciding whether to return to UM or turn pro, according to UM’s departing offensive line coach, Garin Justice.
Neither Stevenson nor Nelson is considered a top two- or three-round prospect.
If Stevenson leaves, UM likely would intensify its search for a veteran cornerback in the transfer portal. The Canes tried to lure Alabama cornerback Marcus Banks, but he transferred to Mississippi State last week.
Other cornerbacks on scholarship at Miami include DJ Ivey, Te’Cory Couch, Al Blades Jr., Marcus Clarke and Malik Curtis. Isaiah Dunson can play cornerback but switched to safety in late October.
And UM also is adding several defensive backs in this 2022 class, including four-star cornerbacks Khamauri Rogers and Chris Graves, who signed earlier this month.
Stevenson said a late-season injury required “cleanup” surgery but “I’ll be good by spring.”
▪ Receiver Mike Harley Jr. made an interesting point in a conversation this week with WQAM’s Joe Zagacki, noting one problem with the 2021 team:
“Coming into season, [some players were] looking ahead to the NFL, and we weren’t grateful for what we had at the moment. You need to take advantage of today and not look to the future.”
That’s not the first time I’ve heard that expressed by a player, and the irony is that UM very likely won’t have a player selected in the first three rounds of April’s NFL Draft.
It’s a mind-set that new UM coach Mario Cristobal must work to fix here.
Harley said he’s “a little heartbroken,... kind of emotional” about UM withdrawing from the Sun Bowl because of a COVID outbreak.
Harley, who will play in the Jan. 15 Hula Bowl, would love to play for his hometown team.
“We’ve been hearing the Dolphins ever since everyone heard the game got canceled,” Harley said. “’Yeah Mike Harley, you’re going to the Dolphins or what about the Dolphins?’ If God leads me that way, I’m going to be grateful for that and I’m going to take advantage of that opportunity.”
FYI: Harley predicts Michigan will win the national championship, upsetting Alabama, which beat UM in the opener.
▪ Safety Bubba Bolden — who’s turning pro — told Zagacki that he’s “ahead of schedule” in recovery from his shoulder injury, expects to be cleared by mid-January, will go to the NFL Combine for interviews and “possibly drills” but will wait until UM’s Pro Day to work out for NFL officials.
Bolden made a reasonable point about how the targeting rule is hindering the ability to play defense.
“You’ve always got to play kind of cautious; you should never play cautious,” he said. “You should be able to play free. It’s never intentional with people hitting with the head. I understand maybe a defenseless receiver…. Hopefully the NCAA can get that fixed.”
▪ The Canes, continuing to search for defensive line help in the transfer portal, offered a scholarship to Hawaii’s Jonah Laulu, a 6-6, 280-pounder who had 19 tackles for loss and eight sacks in three seasons there. He had 33 tackles and four sacks last season.
The Canes already have added Southern California’s Jacob Lichtenstein from the portal but want more experience to supplement a defensive line that also includes tackles Leonard Taylor, Jared Harrison-Hunte and Jordan Miller and defensive ends Jahfari Harvey, Chantz Williams, Elijah Roberts and four-star freshman Nyjalik Kelly, among others.
▪ Cristobal has met with every UM player, according to WSVN-Channel 7.
He recently told WQAM’s Zagacki and Don Bailey that he is looking “forward to taking a deeper dive” into quarterback Tyler Van Dyke “as a person” and getting to know him, as well as the other players.
“He’s a first-class individual, a relentless competitor, plays the game the way it’s supposed to be played,” Cristobal said of Van Dyke. “You want to keep that guy upright. It looks like the supporting cast is strong and enthused. I want to make sure we recruit relentlessly. When you have a piece like that you want to surround him with other pieces.”
Incidentally, Dolphins defensive tackle Christian Wilkins — who, like Van Dyke, attended Suffield Academy in Connecticut — said he reached out to Van Dyke when he enrolled at UM, has been impressed watching him and hopes to have lunch with him this offseason.
▪ Former UM star running back Melvin Bratton — who arranged a roundtable discussion of former Canes greats in November — said six of them hope to meet with athletic director Dan Radakovich in the weeks ahead. Radakovich begins his UM tenure early next month.
Brett Romberg and Bennie Blades will be two of the six; the others are yet to be determined. Bratton said he won’t be one of them; he wants to give others a chance to meet with the administration.
More than 30 players from different eras of Canes football — as well as longtime former assistant coach Don Soldinger — gathered in a ballroom at Shula’s Hotel in Miami Lakes the week before Thanksgiving for what was billed as a solution-oriented session on the state of the football program and ways to fix it.
In the weeks after that meeting, UM hired Cristobal and Radakovich — two targets that top UM administrators already had in mind at that time.
Bratton said he’s “very happy” how everything turned out, with Cristobal becoming UM’s coach.
“It’s like winning the lotto, the Powerball,” Bratton said Wednesday. “Mario and I texted back and forth, and his energy via texting was so strong that I want to get out there and play.”
Former players likely will be around the program more than recent years, though it’s important to note that Manny Diaz always invited them back for Paradise Camp and never told them to stay away.
“Mario said the brotherhood is real,” Bratton said. “He wants to get that back.”
This story was originally published December 29, 2021 at 1:56 PM.
