With Miami football depth at LB Sam Brooks should have been playing ahead of walkon

Due to injuries and the decision to redshirt senior Zach McCloud the linebacking depth for the Miami football team is minimal. Why wasn’t Sam Brooks cross-trained for all three positions?

After Michael Pinckney went out of the Miami football game against Georgia Tech on Saturday he was replaced by walkon Ryan Ragone. It is understandable that the Hurricanes are short depth at linebacker. With freshman Sam Brooks on the sideline, it is inexcusable that he was not in the game over Ragone.

Following the game, Miami football head coach Manny Diaz stated the reason that Ragone was in the game instead of Brooks is that they play different positions. Diaz said that Brooks played the MIKE and Ragone the WILL. The loss to Georgia Tech was far more than who was in the game at LB in the fourth quarter and overtime.

All the little things add up though. The Miami football program has known for a few weeks that Zach McCloud was not going to be available the remainder of the year baring a season-ending injury. The follow-up question to Diaz should have been why hasn’t Brooks received time during practice at all three LB positions.

The injury to Pinckney was one of several suffered by Miami players on Saturday. The Hurricanes were able to overcome a knee injury that knocked junior running back DeeJay Dallas out of the game by a great performance from Cam Harris. Miami knew the issues with depth at LB and should have been far more prepared.

Redshirt freshman Patrick Joyner was switched from defensive end to LB during the spring. Joyner suffered a groin injury during spring football and he has been out since. Joyner was expected to be back by now. It has been widely reported that Joyner has been back in practice for weeks.

Joyner has yet to play in 2019. Getting Brooks ready to play all three linebacker positions as the only healthy player on scholarship behind Shaq Quarterman and Pinckney should have been done. It’s an easy out to say that Ragone and Brooks play different positions. Learning a different LB pos should not be complicated.

"“Sam Brooks plays MIKE and Ryan plays WILL. They play different positions. He is our back-up WILL linebacker since Zach took the redshirt and I thought it looked like he did a good job when he was in there.We were monitoring Ryan to see, but we felt like he was in there doing a good job and he wasn’t hurting us. We will have to just assess things moving forward.”"

If Brooks was cross-trained at all three LB positions bringing McCloud out of the redshirt would not have to be a thought. The original reason to redshirt McCloud stands. Miami will need McCloud in 2020 because they have almost no experience at LB other than him. Letting Brooks learn all three positions makes sense.