Miami Hurricanes preparing three QBs to play against Florida State
The season has not gone as expected for the Miami Hurricanes. The program entered the year as the No. 16 team in the country under first-year head coach Mario Cristobal. That has been the highpoint for Miami so far as the Hurricanes have dropped four of their last six games - including a 45-31 loss to Middle Tennessee State and a 45-21 loss to Duke at home.
READ MORE: Florida State Seminoles release Depth Chart for rivalry matchup with Miami
Cristobal rallied his team for a 14-12 victory in four overtimes against Virginia over the weekend where neither team scored a touchdown. In the low-scoring affair, the Hurricanes were forced to turn to backup quarterback Jake Garcia, who completed 15/29 passes for 125 yards.
Starting signal-caller Tyler Van Dyke was forced to the locker room in Miami's loss to Duke a few weeks ago. Van Dyke appeared to suffer an injury to his throwing arm and he was unable to suit up against the Cavaliers.
With the Hurricanes entering a crucial week against Florida State, it sounds like there's optimism that the redshirt sophomore will return on Saturday night.
“He’s looking better and better every single day,” Cristobal said on Monday. “We enter this week with preparing him to play, with preparing Jake [Garcia] to play and preparing Jacurri [Brown] to play.”
Van Dyke has had his fair share of ups and downs but he's still the top option for Miami when healthy. He's completed 64.1% of his passes for 1,737 yards with ten touchdowns to four interceptions. Prior to his injury, Van Dyke recorded back to back 350+ yard passing performances against North Carolina (496) and Virginia Tech (351).
Garcia and true freshman Jacurri Brown have only combined for 81 passing attempts this season compared to Van Dyke's 237. The Hurricanes will continue to evaluate him throughout the week.
“As TVD continues to improve, we’re very optimistic,” Cristobal said. “He looked great yesterday. He looked great today. So we’ll keep pushing that envelope, and we’ll see where we’re at come Friday and Saturday.”
On Tuesday, tight end Will Mallory noted that Van Dyke looked 'good' during practice. By all accounts, the Hurricanes have been happy about having him back in action, regardless if he's ready to play this weekend or not.
“It’s good to see him getting back out there, progressing and looking good,” Mallory said. “It’s always good to have him out there and doing well, which is good to see especially because that was a scary moment a couple weeks ago.”
“We’ve got a talented group,” Mallory continued. “That’s a good problem we have with a talented quarterback room. All three of them are working, it’s good to see. Whoever is out there on Saturday we’ve got nothing but the full confidence in them and we’re going to roll with it. But it’s good having Tyler out there, good to see him back out there feeling good.”
For the second straight week, Florida State will have to prepare for an opponent with uncertainty at quarterback. Georgia Tech played coy with Jeff Sims' status last week before eventually turning to backup Zach Gibson and true freshman Zach Pyron during the matchup.
One thing's for sure, the Seminoles will be prepared for all options after having already gone through this process once.
Stick with NoleGameday for more coverage of Florida State football throughout the season.
