How will Miami Hurricanes replace Ahmmon Richards and Jaquan Johnson

Miami Hurricanes Head Coach Mark Richt announced on Thursday that his team would be without star wide receiver, Junior Ahmmon Richards and Senior All-American safety Jaquan Johnson for Saturday’s game against FIU.

Richards is missing his third game in a row for the Miami Hurricanes with what Richt has described as a bone bruise. Johnson is out with a pulled hamstring suffered in Miami’s game last week at Toledo.

The circumstances of their absences are very different. Richards will be missing his tenth game since the start of the 2017 Miami Hurricanes season. Johnson will miss the first game of his Miami career.

The Senior who was the team MVP in 2017, played in all 13 games in each of the previous three seasons. Johnson will have a 42 consecutive games streak come to an end. He had made 21 starts dating back to the 2016 season.

Richards who had a spectacular Freshman season has struggled with injuries since the beginning of 2017. He missed the first two and last two games last season. Richards also sat out against Georgia Tech. He had one reception for nine yards in this season’s opener against LSU but had not played since.

In Richards absence this season Sophomore Jeff Thomas has taken over the mantle of Malik Rosier’s go-to receiver. The East St. Louis Flyer alum in on pace to set the Miami team record for All-Purpose and receiving yards and is close to being on pace to set the return yardage record.

Senior Darrell Langham and Junior Lawrence Cager are the receivers most likely to help fill in the gap with Richards out. Sophomore Mike Harley and Freshmen Evidence Nkoju and Brian Hightower should form the second team wide receiving corps.

The changes in the Miami depth chart had not yet been made at the time that it was released this week. Langham is listed behind Richards. Johnson’s backup is Amari Carter who is expected to start. He will have big shoes to fill. Johnson led the team in tackles last season and is also leading them this season.

Carter missed last week’s game. He stayed behind to deliver the eulogy at a family funeral. The Sophomore has six tackles and two tackles for loss in two games this season. All of his stats came against Savannah State in the Miami Hurricanes 77-0 victory week two.

Miami Defensive Coordinator Manny Diaz spoke about Carter earlier this week.

"“Amari has a calm presence about him. He’s a very intelligent young man, certainly a very tough guy. Whenever you have a situation where it’s a ‘next man up’ deal, you don’t need to wear a cape.You don’t need to be Jaquan. You can just be Amari…We love the things he brings to the table. We really missed him in Toledo last week, for sure. He would have gotten a lot of run if he was there. But now is his time and, I think, he feels very confident that he’s ready to go.”"

Carter contributed 21 tackles, two tackles for loss and two sacks and a forced fumble last season as a Freshman. His hit against Bethune-Cookman that caused the fumble was a highlight that was shown nationally.

Other players that will likely to receive time at safety are Robert Knowles who took over when Johnson went out last week, Derrick Smith, Romeo Finley and Freshman Gurvan Hall. Smith and Finley are currently listed as strikers. They were safeties prior to this Spring.