Miami football Week 1 live updates: Latest news, preview of Bethune-Cookman game
Lucious Stanley joins the running back group as a walk-on
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Down to three healthy scholarship running backs for Saturday’s opener against Bethune-Cookman, Miami reportedly has added UAB grad transfer Lucious Stanley to its roster as a walk-on. The 6-foot, 215-pound back from Fort Myers had 38 carries for 213 yards and one touchdown in 13 games last season. On3’s CaneSport first reported the news. Coach Mario Cristobal will talk to reporters at noon Monday.
Ranking Miami’s 22 most valuable players/units
We ranked the 50 best Miami Hurricanes back in May after spring football.
Now, with school back in session, camp all but over, two scrimmages in the books, and the season set to start on Sept. 3 against Bethune-Cookman, here’s how I view the 22 most valuable players/units on the roster based on what I’ve seen and heard.
- Tyler Van Dyke, QB, 3rd-year sophomore. Previous ranking: 1.
Miami has quality depth behind Van Dyke, with Jake Garcia and Jacurri Brown more than capable of stepping in and doing a good job running the offense. But let’s get something straight — the Hurricanes are going to need Van Dyke to be Heisman worthy with his accuracy and decision-making on a weekly basis to overcome some deficiencies at receiver. Garcia and Brown have lots of upside, but without Van Dyke, I have a hard time seeing the Hurricanes being more than an eight-win team this season.
Can Mario Cristobal lead Miami to an ACC title in Year 1?
It’s eight days after the Miami Hurricanes’ spring game, on the kind of sunny and clear Sunday morning that gets most Miamians to head to the beach or a swimming pool.
Tyler Van Dyke is nowhere near any sun and fun. The ACC’s reigning rookie of the year is working up a sweat inside Miami’s indoor practice facility. He’s trying to perfect his footwork under the guidance of 26-year-old former Hurricanes quarterback Malik Rosier, who works privately with a variety of college and high school passers across the state.
Van Dyke — fifth in the preseason Heisman Trophy odds and a projected first-round pick a year from now, according to The Athletic and Pro Football Focus — wants to get better at making the kind of throws Super Bowl winners Aaron Rodgers and Tom Brady do as they evade pressure or get hit. This is Van Dyke’s offseason lab, and Rosier is swinging a 200-pound tackling dummy at him to create the effect of being hunted inside the pocket. As he gets hit, Van Dyke still manages to fire passes up the sideline, over the middle and in the flat with spectacular touch. Rarely do his throws miss the chest of his receivers.
Alonzo Highsmith eager to help create ‘sense of urgency’ at Miami
Alonzo Highsmith has spent the better part of the last 23 years of his life living out of suitcases, traveling from college towns to NFL cities doing the only thing he’s grown to love more than running over opponents on the football field or knocking large men out in the boxing ring.
At his very core, Highsmith considers himself a scout, an evaluator. So it’s only natural at age 57 that the legendary Miami Hurricane was finally ready to put his suitcases away, settle in and do the same job for the only team he’s loved more than the professional franchises he played and worked for.
“Probably three years ago,” Highsmith told The Athletic Friday of when the idea of returning to the University of Miami first entered his mind.
“I visited so many schools a year and had so many friends in the business who were coaches, and a couple of coaches asked me if I was interested in (a general manager-type role). At the time, I wasn’t sure about it, so it didn’t go any further. I had a couple coaches ask me to come coach, things like that. But I was so immersed in pro football … it just wasn’t the right time.”