ANALYSIS: First- and second-year players making big impact for Hurricanes, a bright sign for the future
The Miami Hurricanes got a glimpse of the future in Saturday night’s win over Clemson. And that’s not just because UM beat the perennial ACC frontrunner. It’s a reflection of the youth on this Miami team showing out. There were five true freshmen and five second-year Canes that made direct impacts in the game.
The youngsters showing out Saturday? Atop that list was DL Rueben Bain. He was all over the field and had a national-best 10 QB pressures, as measured by Pro Football Focus. He also was noted with six QB hurries, two hits on the QB, and the official stats had him with a team-high eight tackles and two sacks including a forced fumble. Think about that for a moment – a true freshman DL led the team in tackles.
On the other side of the ball true freshman QB Emory Williams got his first start … and it was against the nation’s No. 5 ranked defense. The game plan early was conservative, but after Miami fell behind by 10 points you saw Williams throwing some fourth quarter darts. He converted a pair of third-and-longs to help the Canes to a 10-point fourth quarter. In the second overtime period he threw a first down pass to Brashard Smith and then hit a key third-and-three completion to Colbie Young that set up a first-and-goal Ajay Allen go-ahead/winning TD run. Williams ended hitting on 24 of 33 passes for 151 yards.
First-year WR Ray Ray Joseph? He took over the starting punt return job for the first time and was solid, including side-stepping a tackle on his opening return and racing for 14 yards.
First-year TE Riley Williams keeps getting plays dialed up for him and had a couple of catches on Saturday night. His ceiling is through the roof.
Punter Dylan Joyce? He has also been solid in Year 1 (41.9-yard average).
Plus let’s not lose track of the fact that true freshman RB Mark Fletcher was a big piece of the offense in the first four games before going down injured (has 133 rush yards in the four games, averaging 5.5 yards per carry) … or that 5-star OL Samson Okunlola showed promise before he was hurt … or that a lot of other talented young players are redshirting.
From the 2023 class? Redshirt freshman OL Matthew McCoy has been a huge asset in jumbo packages, WR Isaiah Horton has six catches for 109 yards including 52-yard TD on the season, and Allen had the winning TD and ran for 54 hard-fought yards on Saturday night.
True sophomores who were also in that ’23 class and are starting: OG Anez Cooper, DE Nyjalik Kelly (now hurt and out for year but had 8 tackles and TFL in four games) and LB Wesley Bissainthe (17 tackles, 3 TFL, sack, FR).
So go ahead and enjoy a cathartic moment.
Say this out loud: The future for the Miami Hurricanes is bright.
Say it again, louder.
Because it is.
Heck, there are only three current starters who will be running out of eligibility after this season – DT Bransen Deen (started to begin year, just coming back off injury), CB Te’Cory Couch and CB Jaden Davis.
This is a team being built from the bottom up, the way you want a program to progress with development from young players.
To sum it all up?
These young Canes show just how bright the future is for this program.
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