UM offensive line working on chemistry
COCONUT GROVE After losing two veteran starters in Kc McDermott and Trevor Darling, the Hurricanes offensive line knew it might endure its share of struggles throughout spring drills.
Those fears proved true in Miami’s first two scrimmages, with defensive linemen consistently pressuring Hurricanes quarterbacks Malik Rosier, N’Kosi Perry and Jarren Williams.
Miami’s early-April spring game marked just the second time the Hurricanes used a starting line that included Tyree St. Louis at left tackle, Jahair Jones at left guard, Tyler Gauthier at center, Hayden Mahoney at right guard and Navaughn Donaldson at right tackle and that day, that group — along with Miami’s second and third units — gave up nine sacks.
Since, Miami’s starting offensive linemen say they’ve done their best to try and fine-tune their chemistry, knowing that in the Hurricanes’ Sept. 2 opener against LSU there will be little time to communicate or try to get their calls down.
“To be able to work as a unit, hang out with each other more, work in the summertime more and be able to make calls easier and everything like that so that when we do do the team stuff, all five [of us] are making calls on the offensive line and it’s not just one guy here, one guy there,” Gauthier responded Thursday when asked about unit’s goals during summer workouts while at one of Miami’s community outreach events. “That’s a big thing for us.”
Added St. Louis, “The entire offensive line’s goal is to be the biggest and fastest and best unit that we can be, try to get everything down technically. The young guys are going along with us.”
Like most of their teammates, Miami’s offensive linemen aren’t pleased with how the 2017 season ended.
The Hurricanes, who opened the year with 10 straight wins and rose as high as No. 2 in the College Football Playoff rankings, stumbled in their regularseason finale at Pittsburgh, lost to Clemson in the ACC Championship Game and ended the year with a loss to Wisconsin in the Orange Bowl.
With the Hurricanes widely expected to be a potential Top-10 team to open the season, the offensive linemen say they understand they’re responsible for setting the tone and giving Miami’s playmakers time to work.
And they’re determined to make sure this season things go differently, that none of them “run out of gas” late as St. Louis said they did last year.
“It was different things, between injuries and kind of a lack of focus,” he said. “We lost the Pitt game and it was definitely a big shocker to us. Trying to bounce back from that, we didn’t have a good showing the last two games. … Mainly [it’s about] taking better care of our bodies and [having] better toughness. This summer is basically what will make or break our season. What we do now and what we put in now to get ready for the next five, six months of the season, it all starts right now. Whether it be conditioning or eating habits or just mental reps that we take and physical reps on the field, everything we do now gets us next year.” ready for the