Young QBs take center stage as King rehabs

Hurricanes coach Manny Diaz spoke about spring football, the spring game and gave updates on QBs D’Eriq King, Tyer Van Dyke and Jake Garcia.

The Miami Hurricanes might not have the type of spring game next month that fans prefer, but judging by the strong words of football coach Manny

Diaz and his offensive coordinator Rhett Lashlee, they will have a record-breaking quarterback to begin the season Sept. 4 against reigning national champion Alabama.

Speaking on a Zoom video conference Friday in advance of Monday’s start of spring practice, both coaches were thoroughly impressed with the rehab process and timeline of Canes starter D’Eriq King, who tore the

ACL of his right knee during the Dec. 29 CheezIt Bowl.

Diaz added that UM is hoping to secure Hard Rock Stadium on April 17 (the final day of the 15 spring sessions) for its spring game, but “unfortunately right now, given where things are, I think fans [are] still highly unlikely at this point.”

Said Diaz: “D’Eriq is just doing D’Eriq King things in the training room with his rehab. He’s smashing every benchmark and every goal they put in front of him to the point that you almost have to slow him down. But it’s been fun to see him back moving around with our guys.

“… There’s almost steam coming off the [exercise bike] wheels because he’s riding the thing so hard. In a sort of stationary way, he can stand there and throw a short pass, so I think now going forward it should be the functional movements. We’re still only two months and change from the surgery, so it’s

that point where you’re starting to feel good and you actually have to slow down, be more careful than you were those first eight weeks.”

THE ‘BEAST’

Diaz called second-year freshman quarterback Tyler Van Dyke “a beast” in the offseason.

“The way he works, the way he does everything right.” Diaz said. “We split our teams into these sort of accountability groups where everything in our program is a competition. You want Tyler on your team.”

Redshirt freshman quarterback Peyton Matocha also will be competing in the quarterback race, and vaunted newcomer Jake Garcia will be limited “for the first few spring practices” because of an injury he sustained “at the end of his senior year of high school,” Diaz said, but “will be able to participate in 7-on-7s and 1-on-1s, and individual drills.”

“With regards to Jake,” Lashlee said, “Jake had a minor injury to his foot in his senior season in high school, and he played through it the last five or six weeks and they won a state championship. So it was nothing major that he couldn’t play.

“Since he got here we’ve just been trying to do things to help that situation totally heal to where there’s no issues or setbacks. He’s progressing each week. He’ll be out there with us on Monday in maybe a limited capacity. But he’ll be throwing, he’ll be taking reps. I fully expect him to continue to improve and do more and more as the spring goes on. I don’t think at this time there’s any reason to believe there’s any major issues there.”

Lashlee, who was asked if he had a date he was targeting for King’s return to do 7-on-7 work, gushed about King’s rehab.

KING TIMELINE

“D’Eriq is doing exactly what anybody knows D’Eriq in the last year would do,” Lashlee said. “He’s doing a phenomenal job with his rehab. Everything is on track. He’s probably exceeding expectations in a lot of areas. And that’s not a shock to anybody here. When it happened, I almost in a joking way was, like, ‘What’s the record for the fastest guy coming back from an ACL? Because whatever that is he’s going to beat it.’

“But fortunately we don’t have to rush that process and we’re not going to. I don’t have a date [and] the doctors, I can’t speak for them, haven’t given us a date that they would clear him but I would fully expect that by this summer he’s able to throw with the receivers and do sevenon-seven and do all those things — May, June and July — that we would want him to do leading up to fall camp. Unless we have some unexpected setback, I don’t see any reason that won’t happen. From that standpoint, I feel really good that he’s going to have plenty of time to get ready going into fall camp.”

Lashlee said he’s especially excited to see how Van Dyke and Matocha have progressed on the field. “I’m going to learn a ton about them myself,” Lashlee said. “They worked extremely hard.”

Lashlee said Van Dyke, who played in two games last year and threw two passes, had a “phenomenal” first year and will get “the bulk’’ of the spring reps.

“Tyler just has something about him,” Lashlee said. “There’s an intangible trait about Tyler. Yeah, he can throw the football well and he’s a talented athlete, but there’s just something about him. He just does everything right. He competes hard. The guys love him. He carries himself like you want a quarterback carry himself, so I’m excited to see him get those opportunities as well.

“… Both guys have at least been in our system for a year so they have an idea what they’re doing. But there’s no substitution for real reps, whether it’s with the ones or the twos or a scrimmage. That’s the blessing of this spring with D’Eriq being out. Those guys are going to get more reps than they ever would have gotten to grow and develop and show what they can do.”

Lashlee said this of Matocha, who played in one game last year and also threw two passes: “Peyton is a really athletic kid. There was a time during this season in COVID world that we were losing so many guys that literally on a Tuesday or Wednesday practice he went over and played safety for a day. He had never done it before and he did OK. He was back with us the next day. That’s how athletic he is. He loves Miami and loves the game.”

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Running back Jaylan Knighton is cleared and “full go,” Diaz said.

Cornerback Al Blades Jr. (myocarditis after COVID-19) is cleared but working slowly toward “building back his cardiovascular foundation.”

Tight end Will Mallory and defensive tackle Nesta Silvera are out for spring after “maintenance” shoulder surgery.