Miami’s offense hits stride with Lashlee in charge
The No. 9 Miami Hurricanes are in the midst of their best four-game offensive stretch of the year. Coordinator Rhett Lashlee and his players are delivering results.
In some ways, the Hurricanes’ offensive explosion against the Duke Blue Devils shouldn’t have been a surprise. Their two tight ends were close to 100 percent for the first time since September. They felt comfortable enough in the health of Navaughn Donaldson, a former freshman All-American, to play the offensive lineman for the first time all season. They were confident enough in their depth at running back to start a freshman over Cam’Ron Harris, who wound up rushing for nearly 100 yards.
While 15 players were still unavailable for undisclosed reasons as Miami comes out of a COVID-19 outbreak, only one was a significant contributor on offense. Purely from a personnel standpoint, the Hurricanes were as deep and healthy as they had been all year and it let Rhett Lashlee’s offense operate at its highest levels.
“When you’re balanced and you’re spreading the ball around, that’s what you hope and it allows you to maybe take more of what the defense is giving you,” the first-year offensive coordinator said. “If you’re good enough, you can take what they’re giving you and you don’t have any issues, as opposed to them kind of dictating to you what you have to try to accomplish.”
On Saturday, the result
was a dismantling of Duke. Miami got six touchdowns — three rushing and three passing — from five different players to beat the Blue Devils, 48-0, in Durham, North Carolina.
For the season, the result has been one of the most improved offenses in the country, and the Hurricanes are hitting their stride entering the last two games of the regular season. The past four games have been the Hurricanes’ best four-game stretch on offense all year, averaging 493.5 yards per game and 6.3 yards per play.
Last season, Miami averaged 25.7 points per game, 367.4 yards per game and 5.7 yards per play — all ranking among the bottom 51 in the country. After Saturday, the Hurricanes’ numbers in those three categories are up to 34.9, 445.4 and 6.0, placing them among the top 40 in all three this year, and they’re doing it in the manner
Lashlee promised.
Miami’s tempo is up and, led by a star transfer quarterback, the Hurricanes are spreading the ball around. Miami has four players with at least 200 rushing yards, six players with at least 10 catches and quarterback D’Eriq King has completed passes to 14 different players. The Hurricanes have had games when they have run twice as often as they have passed, passed 11 times more than they have run and had an even runpass balance. They aren’t overly reliant on any one player other than their quarterback.
“That’s just kind of been what we thought our M.O. would be this year,” Lashlee said, “and it kind of has been that way.”
For the most part, the offense has kept everyone happy, too. Harris has been the only player to publicly express any frustration with the distribution of touches and he still ran for 96 yards off the bench Saturday.
This is also a seismic shift from recent seasons, when thinly veiled comments of frustration were common
place on Twitter and other social media platforms.
It turns out, winning does sometimes solve everything.
“The best thing is we’ve got guys to play for each other and play together, so we’re not managing egos, we’re not managing selfish people that want to get theirs. They want to win and they want us to score points,” Lashlee said. “You just worry about trying to call good football plays, and putting people in position within the system where it fits them and what they do well. ... Usually when you win and the team succeeds, the individual succeeds, the individual success comes, the individual accolades come and those guys have really bought into that.”
THE 800-POUND GORILLA
In Manny Diaz’s first news conference as coach last year, he referred to the Hurricanes’ quarterback situation as “the 800pound gorilla in the room” because of how poor the play had been at the position. The quarterback position draws plenty of attention, but this year it’s because of how good it has been and what it might look like whenever King leaves.
A redshirt senior, King can return for 2021 if he chooses after the NCAA granted every player an extra year of eligibility because of the coronavirus pandemic. It’s just as likely, though, that he decides to enter the 2021 NFL
Draft after revitalizing the Hurricanes’ offense.
As Diaz tried to explain Miami’s offensive success, he couldn’t help but single out King because his presence — along with Lashlee’s — is obvious.
So far, quarterback and coordinator have been tied at the hip for the whole time they have been at Coral Gables. They certainly both deserve credit for Miami’s offensive turnaround, but it’s nearly impossible to discern how credit should be distributed.
Sure, Lashlee is putting athletes in positions to succeed, but would a quarterback other than King be able to get them the ball like this? For the next few weeks at least, it doesn’t really matter.
“They’re both just very special people,” Diaz said. “They’re both great leaders that other people want to be around and want to please, and both of them, by nature of that, had a very positive impact certainly on the offensive side of our team, which they’ve spread into our entire football team. Like I always say: It’s people over scheme more often than not and, as you’re trying to build a program, you’ve got to surround yourself with the right people.”