ANALYSIS: 10 players that need to step up in 2024
As the Miami Hurricanes turn the page on 2023 and welcome in 2024, there are several players that the team will need to step up next year that are somewhat unknowns or haven’t really broken out to this point.
That’s going to be a must if the team is going to reach that 10-win plateau for the second time in the last 20 years.
Without further ado, your top 10 Miami Hurricanes that need to step up in 2024:
10 TE Riley Williams
Williams scores vs. Georgia Tech
Riley Williams played behind blocking tight end Cam McCormick this year as a true freshman and finished with all of eight catches for 72 yards and a TD in 11 games. So why is he on this list? Well, for this Miami offense to function at peak efficiency there has to be an athletic, physical tight end who can not just help block at the point of attack but make plays down the field as an adept receiver. With Elijah Arroyo perpetually seeming to be banged up, it’s a thin and inexperienced tight ends room for the most part. And Williams seems best poised to be the next guy up at Tight End U. He has all the attributes you want in a do-everything tight end, but he has to cure some of the issues he had this year with a couple of dropped passes. He has the potential to be a future star.
9 DL Josh Horton
Had Horton enrolled early last year, we think he would have been in the defensive tackle rotation. But because he came in the summer there just wasn’t the time to get him ready physically and mentally for what Lance Guidry does and the jump up in level of play from high school to the ACC. This year we think Horton competes to start and will be in the tackle rotation. Coaches are extremely high on him, and with starters Leonard Taylor and Branson Deen gone the team desperately needs playmaking tackles to step up.
8 CB Damari Brown
Brown with the big hit vs. Bethune-Cookman
Brown started games late in the year and held his own, and with the team losing starting corner Jaden Davis and nickel Te’Cory Couch there’s every indication he will be a full-time starter in Year 2 as a Miami Hurricane. Brown has the length and quickness to be a shutdown guy on the outside and his future is extremely bright. Brown ended his freshman year with 14 tackles, 1.5 for loss.
7 DT CJ Clark
Miami turned to the transfer portal with starting defensive tackles Leonard Taylor and Branson Deen gone, and the team hopes that NC State’s CJ Clark will be a bigtime answer in the middle of the defensive line. It will be a bit of an adjustment to Clark after he played in a 3-man front (assuming Lance Guidry goes back to his usual four-man fronts), and the 6-3, 305-pounder had 22 tackles, four for losses with a sack this past season. In 2022 he had 18 tackles and three sacks. Miami stresses being strong at the line of scrimmage on both sides of the ball, so it’s a must given the lack of proven DT depth that Clark come through.
6 WR Isaiah Horton
Horton’s 52-yard TD vs. Texas A&M
Horton seems like a likely replacement for the departing Colbie Young but he’ll have to earn his place in the starting lineup. Horton was a bit banged up last season and entering the bowl game he had eight catches for 114 yards, including a highlight 52-yard TD in the win over Texas A&M. Then against Rutgers he got more of an opportunity with Young gone and responded with five catches for 54 yards on six targets. He was a redshirt freshman in 2023, so he’s still young and has great size and athleticism. Look for him to be a major factor in the passing offense in 2024.
5 DE Nyjalik Kelly
Off a strong freshman season, it was expected that year 2 for Nyjalik Kelly in 2023 would be a breakout campaign. Instead it lasted just four games (all as a starter) before a season-ending injury. He ended with eight tackles and one for loss. Now he will look to be back at full strength but is likely to be a backup and key rotation guy given that Akheem Mesidor and Rueben Bain are expected to be one of the nation’s best end tandems (unless the team decides to move Bain inside). Lance Guidry will rotate his ends to keep them fresh, so Kelly should still be getting plenty of reps, and the team needs him to be just as effective as Mesidor/Bain when he’s in games. Kelly continues to have a very bright future.
4 OL Matthew McCoy
McCoy was mostly used as an extra tight end during the regular season before getting an expanded role in the bowl game with Javion Cohen opting out and leaving early for the NFL Draft. It’s McCoy that appears most likely to start next year at left guard, regardless of Luis Cristobal, Jr. starting ahead of him in the bowl game. McCoy is just too good not to get on the field … although Samson Okunlola may have something to say about it (Jalen Rivers could play guard or tackle depending on who the best five linemen are). McCoy has coaches excited about his ability, and he’ll be just a redshirt sophomore next year with a ton of upside.
3 LB Wesley Bissainthe
Bissainthe will enter year 3 looking for a breakout season. It was expected he’d emerge this past year, but he wound up sharing the starting job with Louisville transfer KJ Cloyd and had 44 tackles, 6.5 TFL and two sacks. Now Bissainthe will look to really take on the role of playmaking outside linebacker in 2024, but he’ll have to hold off some second-year linebackers that have tremendous upside as well.
2 TE Elijah Arroyo
The last two years have both been hampered by injury for Arroyo, so it remains to be seen if he can stay healthy/be a major force. It was expected he’d be a bigtime playmaker in 2023 with Will Mallory gone, but instead the team had to rely on blocking TE Cam McCormick and true freshman Riley Williams. Neither was really able to string together a solid season. So now it’s a case of the team needing Williams and/or Arroyo to really step up next year since they are the best bets in the room to be solid blockers as well as receivers downfield. Arroyo has all the ability in the world but has to stay healthy and show what he can do on the field.
1 WR/KR Ray Ray Joseph
Entering this past season we thought Joseph would emerge as a secret weapon of sorts for Miami. He’s got a little bit of Roscoe Parrish in him and is really hard to tackle when he gets some space. But Joseph wound up not playing all that often, and he ended with six catches for 36 yards, two punt returns (15.0 average) and nine kickoff returns (long of 31). As we look to next year it seems fairly obvious that Joseph needs to get the ball in his hands a lot more, and there should be more opportunities with Brashard Smith transferring. We can see him really helping the return game be explosive while also breaking free for some big plays on offense. A guy with this level of talent cannot be underutilized.
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