What would the Miami Offensive Line have looked like?
The offensive line for the Miami football team in 2019 greatly underperformed. The hirings of Lashlee and Justice to the Hurricanes are expected to correct that. Completely overhauling the offensive line in one offseason is difficult. Justice already showed the willingness to experiment with different combinations up front.
Miami Hurricanes Football
Based on the end of the 2019 season the Hurricanes expected offensive line to begin the 2020 season would likely have been from left to right, Zion Nelson at tackle, Navaughn Donaldson at guard, Corey Gaynor at center, Delone Scaife moving from right tackle to right guard and John Campbell at right tackle.
Jakai Clark started the last 12 games of the season in 2019 as the right guard. To get their best five linemen on the field in their most natural positions the above group seemed more likely, Scaife was the MVP of the offense last season because of his versatility but is better at guard than tackle.
Justice spoke about where the offensive line was at with reporters earlier this week. The Hurricanes first-year coach acknowledged that the youth on the offensive line hindered Miami last season. In addition to Clark, Nelson was also starting as a true freshman. Campbell was a redshirt freshman in 2019.
"“Really we just have a young group. For all the misfortunes they went through last year, people forget they were really, really young. That takes a lot of development. It usually takes a couple of years before a lot of them truly, I guess, get it. The biggest thing I’ve been impressed with is the fact of their willingness to accept me, their willingness to be open to learn new things. They want to be good. They’re working hard to be good.”"
Other players are likely to figure into the mix on the offensive line in 2020. Redshirt juniors Kai-Leon Herbert and Zalon’tae Hillery, redshirt freshman Adam El-Gammal and true freshman Jalen Rivers all figure to push for playing time. Rivers is the highest-ranked signee on the Miami OL since Donaldson in 2017.