In the spirit of the holidays, it was only right that the Miami Hurricanes would send their seniors off at senior night with some big initial portions; second helpings, and to go bags full of smoked Hokie! If you’re a traditional oven roasted Hokie eater or if you like them deep fried, there was a lot of that on the menu Saturday night as well.
The Hurricanes jumped on them from the beginning as Tyler Van Dyke hit Rambo for a huge chunk play and then hit Mallory wide open in the endzone for the first touchdown of the game. With TVD at quarterback, Mallory has started to look like the very productive tight end that we all thought Miami was getting when he signed his letter of intent along with Brevin Jordan. Mallory’s best play of the night was a touchdown from an amazing run after catch play that was unfortunately called back due to a penalty.
TVD is the best young quarterback in the country. Next season he could be the best quarterback in the country and in the Heisman race, but he has to keep sharpening his craft. Van Dyke is the first ACC trigger man in the last 15 seasons to have five consecutive games of over 300 yards passing and at least 3 touchdowns. He has thrown for 1,813 yards and 17 touchdowns in that stretch. That’s amazing when you think about the number of high quality quarterbacks that have played in the ACC in the past 15 seasons. TVD is doing things that not even Deshaun Watson, Trevor Lawrence, Sam Howell, Kenny Pickett, Mitch Trubisky, Danny Dimes, Jameis Winston, and Russell Wilson could do (just to name a few).
This year, Manny Diaz’s biggest mistake was not playing the younger guys earlier and being too loyal to the underwhelming and underperforming upperclassmen. Once Manny had no choice and started playing the hungry freshman and sophomores, this team underwent a dramatic reformation. This Hurricane team is loaded with freshman talent. The coach who takes over will have a very talented team of sophomores and juniors to go make some noise with. Tyrique Stevenson spent most of his collegiate career as the starting CB for the Georgia Bulldogs until he transferred to Miami this season to come back home. Stevenson said this Miami team has a lot of crazy young talent. He said they don’t even know how good they are, but he wouldn’t be surprised if they are in the mix for a national title in two years. This is similar to how Georgia is dominating now with their talent. That’s a big prediction on their potential from someone who had been around that type of talent. We need a coach who will develop this talent properly and help them maximize their abilities.
To me the best coaches for the job are: Mario Cristobal, Lane Kiffin, and Mark Stoops. In that order. Home is where the heart is and that should not be underestimated when considering if Mario would actually leave Oregon for his alma mater. Yes, it is true that Oregon’s facilities are like stepping onto the Google campus but Miami’s facilities aren’t too shabby. There’s only so much impact that nap pods and iPad chargers in every seat of the team meeting auditorium could have on a coach. The U is a small private school with 5 national championships. Oregon is a big state school with no titles. Instead of taking 2,000 mile round trip flights to California to get recruits, Cristobal could fall out of his bed in Miami and come across multiple 5 stars and future NFL pro bowlers. There is no doubt that if Miami should come calling, Cristobal will answer the phone to listen to our offer. So, here’s to new coaches and Thanksgiving Hokies. Enjoy your holiday Canes family.
