According to Manny Navarro of The Athletic, the Miami football coaching staff spent part of the bye week working with different combinations on the offensive line.
It has been well documented that the offensive line for the Miami football team has been one of the worst in FBS through the first month of the season. The Hurricanes are 128th nationally in sacks allowed per game and 126th in stuff rate. The success Miami has had on offense has been almost in spite of the offensive line.
Miami has already made changes on the offensive line this season. After redshirt freshman John Campbell started the season opener at right tackle, Miami moved Delone Scaife from right guard into Campbell’s place at right tackle. True freshman Jakai Clark was moved into the starting lineup at right guard after Scaife’s move.
There has been more speculation on if the Miami football team is going to make more changes on the offensive line for Saturday’s game against Virginia Tech. The move of Clark came as a late surprise the week Miami played North Carolina. There were rumors it was going to happen, but the team kept it quiet until game time.
What changes if any the Miami football coaching staff decide to make on the offensive line is open to interpretation. Campbell and sophomore Ousman Traore who is listed as the backup center behind redshirt sophomore Corey Gaynor are players to watch who could eventually move into the starting lineup upfront.
Manny Navarro of The Athletic quoted Enos discussing the potential offensive line combinations for the Hurricanes. Enos spoke to the media on Monday during his weekly press conference.
"“We moved the guys all around last week…(Freshman starter) Zion (Nelson) is doing a nice job. Being a left tackle and being 18 it’s hard. In a lot of other places, he might be on the scout team right now, getting big and trying to figure out how to go to class and everything. We think he’s improving daily. We have a lot of confidence in Zion.The big thing is he’s gotten beat off the ball. We have to help him maybe with cadence and snap counts and things like that to help him. But certainly, when he’s been in trouble this year, it’s been because he’s been late off the ball and that’s about it. His technique and fundamentals are getting better. Again, he’s a good player.But we kind of moved a lot of guys here, there and everywhere this week, but we’re pretty much back to where we were, and we feel good about the five moving forward. We’re just going to keep coaching them to play hard, give great toughness and get better every week. All of those guys again it’s a process, they’re getting better.We used last week as a practice week. We went against our (first-team) defense a lot, a lot of live, good-on-good work, put these guys in tough situations and again it’s a process. They’re going to get better. We’ve got build this offense from inside out.”"
There has been some suggestion that Enos is not helping the offensive linemen enough in the schemes and play calling. Some analysts have suggested that Miami use the shotgun more often if not exclusively. Enos squashed that idea during the press conference on Monday. Enos said they will always be balanced on offense.
That was in response to a question about Miami redshirt freshman quarterback Jarren Williams being under center or in the shotgun. Enos elaborated about the reasons behind his decisions to have Williams in the shotgun or under center.
The Miami offensive coordinator stated different plays work depending on being under center or in the gun. Whatever happens, going forward, Miami needs to figure out a way quickly what the best protection scheme is for Williams, The Hurricanes cannot afford another performance like Florida when Miami allowed 10 sacks.