Miami Hurricanes Spring Football 2023 Recap: Three Things We Learned
The Miami Hurricanes are building foundations for a better future. It wasn't perfect, but the spring game showed important progress for Mario Cristobal's team.
Here are my top takeaways.
1- The future is bright for these newcomers.
Early enrollee edge rusher Rueben Bain recorded three sacks. He created serious problems for Miami's offensive line and has been doing so all spring. "Hurricane" Bain is weighing around 270 lbs heading into his freshman season and continues to show that a redshirt year is not in the cards for him. You can't keep this man off the field! One of Bain's sacks came against first team left tackle Jalen Rivers.
Freshman receiver Nathaniel "Ray Ray" Joseph flashed speed and shiftiness. He caught a long touchdown from early enrollee quarterback Emory Williams (who also looks fantastic) right at the end of the game.
Freshman tight end Riley Williams caught a deep ball from Tyler Van Dyke late in the contest and looks like he, like Bain and Joseph, is ready for serious playing time in season one.
Early enrollee Francis Mauigoa has been holding down the starting right tackle position since the first week of spring football and has earned it every step of the way.
Contributions from the players above give us a glimpse of hope for the future. If Cristobal can keep stacking his recruiting classes with players like these, Miami can claw their way back among college football's elite.
2- Miami's offense will be easy on the eyes in 2023
Miami's offense wasn't just bad in 2022, they were bad and boring. You never want to be both.
The playbook wasn't on full display in the spring game, but starting quarterback Tyler Van Dyke generated eight plays on Friday night that went at least 20 yards, per David Lake of 247 Sports. TVD has promised that fans should expect a more explosive passing attack.
New offensive coordinator Shannon Dawson plans to go vertical more often than the Canes did in 2022. All three quarterbacks pushed the ball downfield, and the receiving corps saw big contributions from Xavier Restrepo, Jacolby George, and Colbie Young. That's a good sign for those three, who currently project as starters.
You can be sure that Miami will not abandon the run as long as Mario Cristobal is still in charge. Finding a marriage between an air-raid style passing offense and a power running game will be the Canes' biggest schematic challenge. Miami will lean heavily on returning tailbacks Henry Parrish Jr and Don Chaney Jr. They both looked solid but not spectacular in the spring game.
3- Certain position groups might not be as deep as I thought...
Miami's offensive line depth was tested right before the spring game kicked off. Starting guards Javion Cohen (left) and Anez Cooper (right) both apparently suffered minor tweaks in warmups and were held out in an abundance of caution.
Without them in the lineup, things didn't look so great. Miami's D-Line pretty consistently won their battles and put heavy pressure on the quarterbacks. Due to the nature of spring football, that might just be a good sign for the D-line (I like to see the glass half full.)
Swiss army knife Jalen Rivers has been Miami's starting left tackle throughout spring and didn't look great in the game. I have seen better from Rivers, so I'll try not to overreact to one performance.
Even so, seeing Miami's promising O-Line look stretched with a couple starters out makes me wonder if the Canes might seek more depth in the transfer portal.
Another player who was not at his best on Friday night was backup quarterback Jacurri Brown. He under-threw his deep attempts and color analyst EJ Manuel noted on the ACC Network broadcast that his footwork looked erratic. Brown has made a ton of progress in these areas, so hopefully the spring game was just a speed bump for him. Having a reliable backup is so important, as we learned last season, and I doubt early enrollee Emory Williams is quite ready to carry that load, as promising as he might be.
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