The Miami football program announced the addition of Garin Justice as the Hurricanes new offensive line coach. Justice replaces Butch Barry who only spent a year in Coral Gables.
The Miami football program continued the shuffling of their offensive staff with the announcement that they have hired Garin Justice as their new offensive line coach to replace Butch Barry. Barry lasted just one season in Coral Gables. Justice was most recently at UNLV and will work under new offensive coordinator Rhett Lashlee.
This will be the third stint coaching in Florida for Justice. He also becomes at least the third Florida State alum on Manny Diaz’s Miami football staff. Diaz and defensive line coach Todd Stroud are also Florida State graduates. Justice received a Masters in Sports Administration from FSU in 2008. Justice has experience as a head coach.
From 2011-15 Justice compiled a 40-17 record at Division II Concord University in West Virginia. Justice led the Mountain Lions to two West Virginia Intercollegiate Athletic Conference titles and the NCAA Division II semifinals in 2014. Concord finished that season ranked fifth in Division II.
The coaching trees that Justice belongs to are impressive. Justice was an offensive tackle for Rich Rodriguez at West Virginia from 2002-06 and was the assistant offensive line coach on Rodriguez’s staff at Arizona in 2017. He left Arizona to become the running game coordinator and offensive line coach at UNLV.
Under OC/OL coach Garin Justice in 2019, UNLV's offensive line ranked 51st, according to PFF. The Rebels' run-blocking graded out in the top-25 this past season. pic.twitter.com/Js3VfhLz6V
— Josh White (@_JoshRWhite) January 11, 2020
Justice remained the offensive line coach and added the offensive coordinator title under Tony Sanchez in 2019. Sanchez was hired by the Rebels following a second straight 4-8 season and was 20-40 in five seasons in Sin City. Prior to Arizona, Justice spent two seasons as the offensive line coach at Florida Atlantic.
After Charlie Partridge was fired following a third straight 3-9 season in Boca Raton, Justice was the only assistant coach retained when Lane Kiffin was hired for the 2017 season. The Owls went 11-3 in Kiffin’s first season. FAU finished 2017 16th in the nation allowing just 16 sacks. Justice had one other Florida stint as an assistant.
Justice was a graduate assistant at Florida State under Hall of Fame coach Bobby Bowden in 2007-08. The Seminoles went 16-10 in his two seasons in Tallahassee. Diaz issued a generic statement regarding the addition of Justice to the Hurricanes staff.
"“We’re excited to welcome Garin to our offensive staff…He boasts an extensive and impressive background as a position coach, coordinator and head coach, and we’re looking forward to seeing him work with our offensive linemen”"
Adding another former head coach and a successful one at that will help Diaz as he grows as a head coach. Stroud who played at Florida State was the head coach at West Alabama from 1994-96. Three offensive players for UNLV were named
in 2019 under Justice’s tutelage.
Running back Charles Williams, Jr., was named first-team All-Mountain West and offensive linemen Julio Garcia and Justin Polu were named honorable mention All-Mountain West. UNLV had a much better offensive line than Miami in 2019 but finished 86th nationally allowing 29 sacks. The Hurricanes allowed 51 sacks in 2019.
With Justice leading the offense, UNLV finished 89th in total offense averaging 385.5 yards per game. The Rebels were 56th nationally averaging 4.56 yards per carry. The Rebels almost always ran the ball for positive yardage. Under Justice in 2019 UNLV finished 21st on offense in stuff rate at 15.5 percent.
Justice comes to Miami tasked with fixing a porous Hurricanes offensive line. In addition to ushering opposing defensive lines to their quarterbacks, Miami was 113th with a stuff rate of 23.1. Stuff rate is the percentage of run plays that go for one yard or less. More offensive staff changes could be coming. A new WR coach is most likely.