Gauthier vows line play will get better
Hurricanes follow lackluster showing against Seminoles with another in practice
CORAL GABLES — On Tuesday morning, as most of their teammates trudged off the practice field and headed into the cool comfort of the locker room, members of the Miami Hurricanes offensive line stayed behind.
After an ugly performance against rival Florida State and a lackluster practice Tuesday that left veteran center Tyler Gauthier fuming, Miami’s linemen were put to work — again — once practice was finished, their coach Stacy Searels directing them through drill after drill in the steamy sunshine.
Joining them in their post-practice work was Hurricanes running back DeeJay Dallas, a sophomore who — like Gauthier — has emerged as one of Miami’s vocal leaders through the first half of the season.
Like his teammates on the offensive line, Dallas wasn’t pleased with his performance Saturday and so, the 5-foot-10, 210-pound Dallas worked diligently alongside Miami’s 300-pound linemen.
Later, both he and Gauthier vowed better performances are in store this week when Miami (5-1, 2-0 ACC) travels to Charlottesville on Saturday night for a crucial Coastal Division game at Virginia (3-2, 1-1).
“Just everybody holding each other accountable. I feel like I let my teammates down Saturday a little bit, so we just have to go over there and reassure them that I still have their backs,” said Dallas, who had 10 carries for 31 yards against the Seminoles. “I just feel like I didn’t perform and I didn’t play to the standard of Miami football.”
Gauthier felt the same way about how the Hurricanes offensive line.
The unit, which was expected to be one of Miami’s biggest question marks entering the season, gave up five sacks of quarterback N’Kosi Perry and allowed a season-high 13 tackles for loss, more than double the amount they allowed in any of Miami’s first five games.
As if that weren’t bad enough, in Tuesday’s practice, the offensive line was whistled more than once for false starts during drills.
That set off the typically measured Gauthier who was none too pleased with the line’s continued struggles.
“It gets hot and people get in their feelings and get yelled at. That’s about it. We’ve got a long ways to go,” Gauthier said. “Most of the starting line does it well and I mean, there were a couple hiccups here and there and it gets in their heads. We have to figure out how to get mentally tougher around here. We ain’t going to get better until that happens.”
He continued, “We got our tails kicked most of the game against FSU. We came back and won because our defense helped us. Today we played like we were going to get our tails kicked again. I don’t want that to happen.”
For the first three games of the season, the Hurricanes line featured Tyree St. Louis at left tackle, Jahair Jones at left guard, Gauthier at center, Hayden Mahoney at right guard and Navaughn Donaldson at right tackle.
In the last three games, the Hurricanes put Tennessee transfer Venzell Boulware at the starting left guard spot ahead of Jones and against Florida State, freshman D.J. Scaife saw a significant amount of playing time at right tackle, with Donaldson shifting to right guard.
Whether those changes hold against Virginia remains to be seen, but it’s clear the Hurricanes are trying to find solutions to some of their woes on the line, with Scaife again at the No. 1 right tackle spot and Donaldson at right guard during the media viewing portion of Tuesday’s practice.
“We’re getting better. I think we’re getting closer,” Hurricanes coach Mark Richt said Tuesday when asked if he felt Miami had a championship-caliber offensive line. “We are a lot farther along than we were a year ago, and especially two years ago, in my mind. We’ve been making progress, for sure. I have to do a better job of realizing there are certain guys that probably no one in America can block and do a better job of getting a guy some help on a guy like [Florida State defensive end Brian] Burns. Once we did that, we didn’t have as much trouble.”
Added offensive coordinator Thomas Brown, “We definitely have to play better. We definitely have to play less guys. I think a lot of guys had the opportunity to play and prove they were who we thought they were. Some of them were, some of them weren’t. We have to get that worked out and put the best product out on the field.”
Against Virginia, the Hurricanes will line up against a defensive line that doesn’t quite have the top-level talent Miami faced against Florida State. The Cavaliers have managed just nine sacks in their five games, which ranks 12th among 14 ACC teams.