I am not going to bury the lead here and get right to it. It’s time to bench Tyler Van Dyke. Coach Cristobal never talks about injuries, but all of a sudden he has been making injury excuses for TVD left and right in public interviews. This leads me to believe that he knows Tyler Van Dyke is not playing winning football for this program and is trying to use injuries as the culpable excuse. Granted, it may be true that TVD is indeed banged up, but if you’re healthy enough to play then the injury excuse is null and void or greatly diminished. If the coaches claim that they select players that give the team the best chance to win then don’t tell me after you have lost the game that the guy you selected to be the QB1 in a game was too injured to play well. You can’t have it both ways and the program is suffering.
Mario could have a minor mutiny on his hands from the other players in that locker room. These guys came to Miami to represent their hometown and bring their beloved school back to prominence. TVD’s poor play is killing their dreams and wasting their efforts. As a coach if you preach accountability that should apply to everyone including the quarterback. I am not sure if Coach Cristobal is beholden to TVD for promises made in the offseason to keep him from transferring to Alabama, but I would say whatever the promise was, Coach Cristobal has more than exceeded it. TVD’s play since the bye has been so poor that even if a coach promised to not bench you, after this extended stretch of performances, the player should be willing to bench themselves.
This sport is all about competition and TVD is not living up to his end of the bargain. He has not earned the right to be the starter in perpetuity by missing receivers that are running wide open and continually giving the ball to the other team. Ten interceptions in 4 games is a lot. It’s an amount that is beyond what could be statistically expected even for a below average triggerman. This tells me that TVD is having issues reading the field well when teams drop into zone and when he has receivers running open, he misses them completely and throws too far underneath and too far inside. The opposing defensive backs now know this after watching several weeks of video of TVD making the same mistakes over and over again. They are positioning themselves in these locations and feasting on easy interceptions now.
This Miami defense deserves better. The opposite of complimentary football is what the University of Miami is now. The defense is always on the field making plays to give their offense an opportunity to capitalize on stops and turnovers forced. However, the Miami offense after getting the ball on a short field just turns the ball right back over and puts the defense right back on the field. It’s got to be frustrating for the defense and if Mario continues to put those guys in that position because he refuses to pull Tyler Van Dyke, he could lose this team. We are wasting a season with a great defense and a great offensive line because we don’t have a good enough QB room. Emory Williams is a raw true freshman and Jacurri Brown, while a dynamic athlete, still has not shown enough accuracy to prove that he is the long term solution at quarterback for this team. Nevertheless, we have to try something else.
Up until the past week I was in that camp that was greatly disappointed by TVD’s play but still supported Coach Cristobal’s decision to start TVD because he gave this team the best chance to win. After yet another terrible performance this past week at NC State, I am no longer in that camp. I don’t care who it is at this point. Give me anyone but TVD. Last season, TVD was benched for Jake Garcia in a couple of games and it did not pan out well because Jake Garcia was a turnover machine. However, that should not deter Cristobal from making a change in this situation. TVD has become a turnover machine himself and you cannot win football games by turning over the ball 3 or 4 times a game. You cannot win games in college football by your quarterback handing the ball off on 4th & 1 on a run pass option when everyone knows the defense is selling out to stop the run and Colbie Young is wide open in the end zone for the touchdown. Stevie Wonder could have seen that ball should have been pulled out and thrown.
I have no idea what happened to Van Dyke but I do know that he is Van Done. Why he has fallen off a cliff since the 6 games in 2021 with Rambo and Lashlee is a mystery to me, but he simply is not that guy anymore. No one person is bigger than the program and before we allow this guy to bring the program lower than it already is now by costing us more games and recruits, it’s time to give someone else a shot. Cristobal is quick to pull the trigger with the running backs. Parrish seems to still be in the doghouse after that fumble at the goal line. Since the Keontra Smith unsportsmanlike conduct penalty against North Carolina, we have barely seen the guy get any snaps. That was one mistake. Yet TVD gets to keep his spot after making the most egregious errors game after game? The answer to that question should be a resounding “no” and Coach Cristobal has a chance to do something to address this issue in the upcoming game against hated rivals Florida State. Go Canes!
