Miami Hurricanes Football: Mid-Season Grades: Offense

Leaders

Passing: Brad Kaaya – 61.9% (109/176) completion percentage, 1520 passing yards, 13 touchdowns and 9 interceptions.

Rushing: Duke Johnson – 100 carries for 625 yards (6.3 avg) and 5 touchdowns.

Receiving: Phillip Dorsett – 13 receptions for 407 yards (31.3 avg) and 4 touchdowns.

Quarterback Play

Coming into the season, we all knew that it was going to be a process with starting freshman quarterback, Brad Kaaya. What we didn’t know was how accelerated that process was going to be due to Kaaya’s talent and poise. The true freshman has impressed pretty much everyone around the college football world and Miami seems to have a good one in their hands. The season didn’t start off great with that loss against Louisville in where the playbook was pretty limited, but Kaaya has bounced back nicely after that. He [Kaaya] is tied with NC State’s Jacoby Brissett in touchdown passes thrown by an ACC quarterback with 13. Kaaya has struggled with some interceptions, especially against Georgia Tech. The freshman threw two costly interceptions against the Yellow Jackets in the Miami 28-17 loss last Saturday. Those mistakes are expected out of a kid who was graduating high school around the time Miami was wrapping up its spring game schedule. All the signs point in the direction of Kaaya becoming a star at the University of Miami.

Grade: B

Running Attack

This is a position that we all labeled as the strength of the offense before the season began, and that has been the case. It helps a lot when you have a guy like Duke Johnson averaging over six yards a carry on your team, but he’s not the only one who has impressed. Freshman Joseph Yearby flew under the recruiting radar a little bit due to a broken ankle that he suffered towards the end of the high school season, but he’s no longer flying under the radar. Yearby has 35 carries this season for 204 yards and has been the primary backup to Duke Johnson, beating out Gus Edwards for that job. Edwards has a couple of touchdown this season, but he’s pretty locked in to that third running back position now, and he has not impressed on short-yardage downs. Duke Johnson is moving up the Miami all-time rushing ranks and he’s well on his way to surpassing the 1000 yard mark with 625 yards through six games. Only knock on Johnson would be that costly fumble against Nebraska.

Grade: A-

Guys Who Catch Kaaya’s Passes

Sep 20, 2014; Lincoln, NE, USA; Miami Hurricanes receiver Phillip Dorsett (4) catches the pass in front of Nebraska Cornhuskers defender Daniel Davie (23) in the second half at Memorial Stadium. Nebraska won 41-31. Mandatory Credit: Bruce Thorson-USA TODAY Sports

Much like the running game, most people thought this would be one of the strengths of this team, and while those people wouldn’t be completely wrong, but the disappearance of Stacy Coley has hurt this year’s squad. I totally get the sophomore slump and all that, but that doesn’t excuse what a bad season Coley is having. He only has nine receptions this season for 40 yards. He was responsible for that fumble against Louisville (although you could blame Kaaya for the low throw, too) and he dropped a bomb down the field against Duke that should’ve been caught. He’s not the same guy that Canes fans fell in love with last season and it has affected Miami’s receiving corp. Despite Coley’s struggles, Kaaya has thrown the ball to 11 different receivers this season, and that includes his favorite target and fellow freshman, Braxton Berrios.

Berrios is tied for the team lead in receptions with 17. He’s also tied for second in touchdowns with three. Berrios became a fan favorite even before he arrived on campus, and that favoritism has only grown since. We knew Berrios would be a good player, but we had no idea that it would come this quickly. The Kaaya-to-Berrios combination has gotten a life of its own this season.

Phillip Dorsett leads the team in yards and touchdowns and he can thank Arkansas State (mostly) for that. Dorsett torched Arkansas State for 201 yards and a pair of touchdowns on only four catches. The speedster is Miami’s most explosive playmaker and he’s on his way to a big senior season.

Clive Walford leads the team in receptions out of the tight end position, and frankly, he should be doing even better if he didn’t take some plays off. Walford has a lot of tools, but he’s seemed lazy on a couple of plays that have ultimately cost his quarterback a couple of interceptions. Despite that, Walford is the team’s most reliable receiver, especially with a freshman quarterback always looking for his safe target.

Grade: B+

The Big Guys Who Block

In terms of numbers, Miami is really thin at the offensive line position, and recent injuries to Kc McDermott and Taylor Gadbois don’t help, either. The offensive line started the season of the wrong foot with really subpar performances against Louisville and even FAMU on a short week. The line played much better against Arkansas State and played Nebraska really tough for most of the game. With the injuries to McDermott and Gadbois, Al Golden was forced to shift Jon Feliciano over to right tackle and slotted freshman Nick Linder at left guard, where Feliciano was starting before. The younger Linder brother played a really nice game against Georgia Tech and is on track to start again against Cincinnati. Ereck Flowers has been good and so has Shane McDermott at the center position. Danny Isidora had a rough first couple of games, but it seems like he’s righting the ship. The offensive line has only allowed 10 sacks this year, which is pretty good. Despite a really rough start, the offensive line seems to be getting on track.

Grade: B-

Overall

This obviously depends on what your expectation of this offense was going to be when Kaaya was named the starter. My expectation was a good offense that was going to go through some freshman mistakes by its quarterback. With that being said, Kaaya has impressed me so far this season and I’m not as down as some other people are on the offensive line. The Stacy Coley disappearance doesn’t help this offense, but the emergence of Berrios has been a nice surprise. Even though the Canes are 3-3, the offense hasn’t been completely terrible.