ESPN college football analyst and former Alabama quarterback Greg McElroy praised Miami Hurricanes signal caller Tyler Van Dyke on the Always College Football podcast on Wednesday. Van Dyke was one of several ACC QBs McElroy profiled. The ACC should be the best conference for QBs in college football in 2022.
Six of the top nine QBs in the ACC from 2021 return in 2022. Devin Leary of North Carolina State, Wake Forest’s Sam Hartman and Van Dyke were the top three vote-getters for the ACC Preseason Player of the Year. McElroy discussed how Van Dyke was thrust into the starting job in 2021 after former starter D’Eriq King was injured.
Van Dyke is a prototype NFL QB who is projected as a 2023 first-round pick in multiple mock drafts. The Miami offense will be built around Van Dyke in 2022 after the Hurricanes lost their top two receivers, Mike Harley and Charleston Rambo following the 2021 season. Tight end Will Mallory is Miami’s top returning receiver.
Former Miami offensive coordinator Rhett Lashlee deserves praise for having Van Dyke ready to step in. After poor first halves over the first few games, Van Dyke was one of the best QBs in college football over the last half of 2021. Van Dyke tied a record with over 300 yards and three TDs over the final six games of the season.
"“Let’s go next to Tyler Van Dyke at Miami. What a surprise, last year we’re talking about D’Eriq King at this point of the season saying he’s a sneaky Heisman front runner. Keep an eye on D’Eriq King. Well, it doesn’t go to plan. King gets a little banged up, gets banged up against Michigan State, has a couple ups and downs.The guy who’s tough as nails, by the way love D’Eriq King, just wasn’t meant to be last year. Well in comes Tyler Van Dyke. Nobody knew anything about this guy and he ends up finishing with nearly 3000 yards, 25 touchdowns against just six interceptions. Very very impressive to see how he played down the stretch.He started the final nine games and they finished six and three and honestly big reason why they finished 6-3 is because of him. I mean he had three or more touchdown passes in each the last six games for the Hurricanes, so you saw the lights start to come on.If you look at the wins against both Pitt and NC State you gotta think that Mario Cristobal probably was attracted to the job for a lot of different reasons but the reason why we think that they can win right now is because of Tyler Van Dyke. He’s accurate, he actually has sneaky mobilities.Really solid athlete, you wouldn’t think that when you first take a glance at him but you watch some of the plays…that he extends some of the creative plays that he makes, uses with his legs.He’s got sneaky mobility and he’s a big reason why a lot of people are looking at Miami out of the Coastal and the ACC as a dark horse not just to win that division but to win the league overall."
Van Dyke completed 62.3 percent of his passes for 2,931 yards and McEl]roy said with 25 TDs and six interceptions. If Van Dyke had played a full season his numbers per game would have set Miami passing yardage and TD records. Van Dyke added an impressive TD run nearly sparking a comeback versus NC State.
Miami will not match up against Leary and NC State and Hartman and Wake Forest. The Miami game at Virginia will provide the Hurricanes a chance to avenge last season’s loss to the Cavaliers. Brennan Armstong leads an exceptional Virginia offense. Games at Texas A&M and Clemson provide Miami a national audience.