Maturation of young Miami football team key to rest of 2019

Entering the 2019 season anyone that followed the Miami football team knew that many young players would have to contribute at a high level for the Hurricanes to be successful.

Led by redshirt freshman quarterback Jarren Williams, the Miami football team is relying on several players that entered the 2019 season with little to no experience. Williams completed one pass in three attempts during his redshirt true freshman season in 2019. Many new faces are contributing to the Hurricanes in 2019.

Williams is being protected on the Miami offensive line by true freshmen Zion Nelson at left tackle and Jakai Clark at left guard. Teams that rely on freshmen, especially true freshmen and on the offensive line are going to have growing pains. Miami head coach Manny Diaz realized his team was going to have growing pains in 2019.

Clark signed with Miami as a center in the 2019 recruiting class. The poor play of redshirt right tackle John Campbell inserted Clark into the starting lineup at left guard and moved sophomore Delone Scaife from right guard to right tackle.

Junior Navaughn Donaldson in his third season as a starter on the Miami offensive line is the only Hurricanes lineman who is a junior in eligibility. Center Corey Gaynor is a redshirt sophomore and started one game at guard as a true freshman in 2017. Gaynor took his redshirt season in 2018.

Miami head coach Manny Diaz discussed the difficulty of relying on younger players after Saturday’s tougher than anticipated 17-12 victory over Central Michigan. He spoke about the need for young players to sit back and observe the game. Diaz also acknowledged the need for his young players to perform.

"“Part of it is sometimes you just have to bring a young player to the sideline and say, ‘Watch what’s going on out there.’ Sometimes it just gets a little quick…This all goes back to our preparation.The players know that our Wednesday (preceeding Central Michigan) practice this week was probably as poor of a Wednesday practice as we’ve had throughout the course of the year. They wonder ‘Does that matter?’ Then you watch us play tonight and it matters, especially with younger players.Look, it doesn’t matter that they are young. If they are Miami Hurricanes, they have got to go play. That’s the understating of what it means to be a big-time guy, week in and week out, and not a guy that plays good for a couple games and then doesn’t play well.Some of those signs you could see on Wednesday and that is part of the maturation process that some guys have got to go through.”"

Miami Hurricanes Football

The time for the Hurricanes to be able to mature is during the bye week. Once the Miami football team resumes play against Virginia Tech on October 5, the Hurricanes need the young players to perform on the field. Diaz doesn’t have much of a choice but to rely on many of his young players.

Too many Miami veterans have not reached their potential. That is particularly true on the offensive line. Zach Dykstra, Kai-Leon Herbert and Zalon’tae Hillery are all redshirt sophomores who have been passed by younger players like Scaife, Clark and Campbell on the Hurricanes depth chart.

Redshirt freshman Cleveland Reed announced his entrance in the transfer portal last week. Reed played only six snaps against FCS Bethune-Cookman.

Games against FCS teams are ones that an inexperienced redshirt freshman, sophomore or older should be playing in. According to Inside the U the backups who received more snaps than Reed were numerous against Bethune-Cookman.

"“LG John Campbell (17 snaps) LT Kai-Leon Herbert (15 snaps), RG Ousman Traore (15 snaps) and RT Kai-Leon Herbert (15 snaps).”"

While the excuses are over once the Miami football team begins a six-game stretch of consecutive ACC Games at home, realizing that the Hurricanes are relying on such young players to perform at a high level requires patience.