Miami Hurricanes Stock Report Following Week 4
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The Miami Hurricanes would love to forget last weekend's 45-31 loss to Middle Tennessee State, but with a bye week coming up, that's not likely to happen. It's a disappointment that many Canes fans have dubbed worthy of Miami's "Mount Rushmore of Losses."
Still, some Hurricanes players saw their stock rise despite the abysmal showing from the team as a whole. Here's a look at who saw their stock rise and who took a tumble in Week 4.
Stock up
WR Key'Shawn Smith
Smith looks like the Hurricanes most explosive weapon when he has the ball in his hands. He racked up a monstrous 217 yards on kick returns along with a touchdown and also led Miami in receiving with 81 yards on four catches. Admittedly, Smith had a lot of opportunities to return kickoffs, seven to be exact, largely due to the fact that MTSU was scoring so much. Not exactly a recipe for success.
Still, both his 91-yard return score and 39-yard reception, which landed the Canes on the doorstep of the goal line, displayed exactly how dangerous Smith can be when used appropriately. Miami needs to find a go-to receiver ASAP and Smith might be its best bet right now.
QB Jake Garcia
Garcia may not be named the starter for the North Carolina game, but he's definitely done enough to be considered for it. He looked sharp when he took over for Tyler Van Dyke on Saturday, going 10-for-19 with 169 yards and most importantly no interceptions. However, one half does not a starter make and Garcia will likely have to do some more work at practice to take hold of the first-string job.
It looks like he's more suited to offensive coordinator Josh Gattis' offensive scheme than Van Dyke is, which could play a big factor in whether or not we see him in Week 6. There's a chance though, that with so much time between now and the next contest, that head coach Mario Cristobal makes the move to Garcia sooner rather than later.
Stock down
QB Tyler Van Dyke
Don't say you didn't see it coming. After a lackluster performance against Texas A&M, Van Dyke's outing against MTSU was just plain bad. He started the game going 0-for-2, both picks, one of which was returned for a touchdown. That's an almost impossible start to recover from for anyone, but we still expected to see some fight from the rocket-armed sophomore.
Instead, we saw a lot of hesitation and a lot of balls end up in the dirt. Gattis said at the beginning of the season that Van Dyke and his receivers barely kept in touch until his arrival. That lack of chemistry was painfully evident on Saturday and it really looked like Garcia, the backup, was more familiar with his route runners.
When Van Dyke found himself in the "Stock Down" section before, it was mostly referring to his NFL Draft or Heisman stock, but now his days as starting quarterback for the Hurricanes could even be numbered.
OC Josh Gattis
If Gattis is truly one of the great offensive minds in college football, he's sure doing a great job hiding it. The Hurricanes' offense has looked sluggish, to say the least, and dysfunctional at its worst. Van Dyke has gone from a 3,000 yard, 25-TD thrower to a glorified scarecrow in the backfield. Some of that's on Van Dyke himself, but a lot of it is on Gattis setting him up to fail.
Miami refuses to abandon its condensed set schemes, despite how poorly Van Dyke's performed in them. His strength is clearly a spread offense like the one he ran under Rhett Lashlee last season, but that skill set just doesn't translate to Gattis and Cristobal's tight, power-running system.
At this point, the verdict is in and this combo just isn't working. Whether it's on-field personnel or the scheme as a whole, something's gotta give.
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