Who’s impressing on offense for UM football. And hoops team adds four, eyes elite recruit
A six-pack of Miami Hurricanes notes on a Sunday, a day when the Hurricanes’ glorious run to the Elite Eight ended with a 76-50 loss to Kansas in the Midwest Regional Final in Chicago:
▪ Quarterback Tyler Van Dyke has liked what he has seen from second-year receiver Jacolby George, who has been getting a lot of work with the first group, along with Key’Shawn Smith and Xavier Restrepo.
“Jacolby, we’re seeing real good consistency from him,” Van Dyke said. “Making every catch thrown his way, a lot of big catches. X [Restrepo] is making those big plays in the slot.”
And Van Dyke added that the offensive line “is doing a great job.”
“I don’t think I’d have taken a sack today [Saturday],” he said. “Six practices, they’ve done a great job of keeping me clean. And the run blocking is a lot better than it was last year already. I’m proud of those guys. Have to keep getting better.”
We’ve heard running back Henry Parrish Jr. has looked good this spring.
▪ Mario Cristobal and offensive line coach Alex Mirabal want to help players prepare for the NFL (which can only help in recruiting), and that thought is behind their strategy in cross-training offensive linemen at different positions.
“We do a lot of cross training from January through the start of spring ball; we cross train everybody,” Mirabal said.
“Every drill that we do, we do from a right-handed and left-handed stance. Once spring ball comes, I try not to mess with them too much.
“So Zion Nelson was cross training at right tackle and left tackle during the winter conditioning. Now that it’s spring ball, he’s strictly playing on the left side. We’ll go back to cross-training once spring ball is over through the summer until fall camp.
“I owe that to Zion. I owe that to John Campbell. I owe that to DJ Scaife. Why? Because when you get drafted, you have no idea who’s drafting you. ...
“That’s how you sell it to [players]. And they buy into it completely because they know it’s going to help them. If you don’t have position versatility, [NFL teams] will cut you and keep somebody who might be a lesser player and has that position versatility.”
Mirabal mentioned one of his former Oregon players, top 10 draft pick Penei Sewell.
“I told him, ‘Listen Penei, you’re not going to get beaten out at left tackle. It’s not going to happen.’ He’s gifted. But you don’t know who’s going to draft him. He gets drafted by the Detroit Lions and they got an established left tackle they’re paying millions of dollars to [Taylor Decker], and guess what, Penei, you’re going to play right tackle. We owe it to them for their future but we also owe it to ourselves.”
Mirabal said that his Oregon team used 22 different offensive line combinations last season because of injuries.
Mirabal does some things differently than predecessor Garin Justice.
One example: Mirabal has his offensive linemen go for the ribs of defensive linemen. “They tear my ribs up a little bit,” Leonard Taylor said.
▪ Cristobal, on how spring practice has gone: “We’ve improved some in physicality. We have to be a much more physical football team. We’ve got to work, that’s the bottom line.”
▪ Taylor told me previously that there is more discipline under this coaching staff than the past one.
Here’s another change he noticed: “It’s different this year. We fly around a lot more, the coaches are harder on us, push us a lot harder than last year. They stay on us about the plays, that we dress a certain way, things like that.”
Taylor, who has lost some weight and added muscle, said: “I feel a lot stronger. I don’t feel as heavy as last year … I feel faster. My goal for this year is play a lot more, make a lot more plays, get my name out there more than it is now.”
▪ The Canes basketball team, fresh off their Elite 8 run, is in position to add seven players this offseason.
Four already are determined. Here are the incoming freshmen being added:
1) Favour Aire, a 6-foot-11 forward/center from Forestville, Maryland.
2) AJ Casey, a 6-8 Chicago-based power forward who’s rated by 247 as the 67th best player in this class.
3) Christian Watson, a 6-6 small forward from the DC area who is rated the 89th best player in this class by ESPN.
4) Danilo Jovanovich, a 6-7 small forward from Milwaukee.
“Favour is an outstanding talent,” Jim Larranaga said, praising the entire class. “He’s a big guy with tremendous ball skills; he can shoot the three, put the ball on the ground and post up. He has an excellent jump-hook. Defensively, he’s an exceptional rebounder and shot-blocker.”
▪ UM can add three more players and is eyeballing the transfer portal for a veteran point guard to replace Charlie Moore and a veteran center to replace Sam Waardenburg.
Meanwhile, keep an eye on Class of 2022 prospect Malik Reneau, who recently de-committed from Florida. UM essentially finished second behind UF for ESPN’s No. 21 overall prospect, who played at Miami Monteverde Academy.
Rivals rates him the third-best prospect in the country.
Rob Cassidy, Rivals’ national basketball recruiting director, said last week: “Miami was deep in with Reneau, who is originally from South Florida, at the time of his commitment, so the Hurricanes are a team to watch here based on that. Gators assistant coach Erik Pastrana recruited the five-star to UF and has a solid relationship with both Reneau and his father, so it might be worth monitoring whichever schools scoops Pastrana up in the coming weeks.”
Pastrana subsequently joined Georgia in the past three days, reuniting with former Gators coach Mike White.
“Memphis, Indiana and Arkansas are also thought to be possible landing places for the 6-foot-9 forward,” Cassidy said. “It’s hard to tell which way he might be leaning at this juncture, but the Hurricanes and Hoosiers are definitely in heavy pursuit.”
This story was originally published March 27, 2022 at 5:48 PM.
