Brown injury prompts shuffle on offensive line

CORAL GABLES When the Miami Hurricanes returned to the practice field on Monday morning after their first scrimmage of fall camp, they were dealing with an injury to one of their reserve offensive linemen, while coaches had made some depthchart adjustments at several positions.

George Brown Jr., an LSU transfer who had been taking reps at the No. 2 left tackle position during the first week of camp, suffered a knee injury in Saturday’s scrimmage, Hurricanes coach Mark Richt said Monday, though he did not disclose any specifics on the nature of the issue or address when Brown might return to the field.

Brown was not seen working with Miami’s offensive linemen during the media viewing portion of Monday’s practice. Instead, freshman DJ Scaife — who earned praise from Richt after Saturday’s scrimmage — was working at Brown’s previous spot.

That prompted additional moves on the No. 2 offensive line, with Tennessee transfer Venzell Boulware playing at left guard and freshman Cleveland Reed playing at right guard.

“We’re still functioning with three lines, which is good,” Richt said. “But you get one or two more out and all of a sudden, it’s hard to give everybody the work that they need.”

Brown played in three games last season in a reserve role, but spent most of the season on the practice squad.

Moving into the second week of camp, the offensive line isn’t the only position group dealing with an injury and making adjustments to its depth chart.

Freshman Brevin Jordan was seen working with No. 1 quarterback Malik Rosier on Monday, while sophomore Brian Polendey and Will Mallory were alternating reps with the second and third teams.

That marks a change from last week, when after losing junior tight end Michael Irvin II to a knee injury, Polendey was at the No. 1 spot ahead of Jordan and Mallory.

“Overall, for brand new guys, they’ve looked great. I mean they are making mistakes, they can’t get lined up right sometimes, they need a little help,” Richt said. “They have the toughest position to learn besides offensive line play and quarterback play. Especially where Brevin is, he’s what we call the adjustor. He’s got to know by play where he lines up sometimes. He’s got so much to process. We ask him to be an on-the-line run blocker, on-the-line pass blocker, off-the-line pass blocker and route runner. We got him as a on-the-line tight end running routes. We got him split out in space running routes, catching bubbles, blocking for bubbles. He’s got a lot on his plate. Mallory has a good bit, too. But not quite as much as the position Brevin has had.” ...

Miami’s quarterback rotation remained unchanged, with Rosier at No. 1, redshirt freshman N’Kosi Perry at No. 2, Cade Weldon at No. 3 and freshman Jarren Williams at No. 4 . ...

The Hurricanes No. 1 offensive line also remained unchanged with 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 . ...

Another change seen during the media viewing portion came at running back, where Trayone Gray — who has been working at fullback early in camp — was seen working behind Travis Homer and DeeJay Dallas. Robert Burns was at the No. 4 spot.

Lorenzo Lingard and Cam Davis were alternating at the No. 5 spot.

“I’ll tell you the guy that’s probably helped himself more than anybody this camp is Trayone Gray, as a fullback and he got some tailback reps, too,” Richt said Monday. “He’s not done playing tailback here for us.” ...

The Hurricanes had their practice briefly interrupted Monday morning when a storm came through the area, setting off the school’s lightning detection system.

That forced the team inside, though they were able to return to the practice field not much later.

Construction is ongoing at the school’s Carol Soffer Indoor Practice Facility, which athletic director Blake James and Richt have said they hope will be available for the team to use by the end of the month.

On Monday, James seemed to move that timeline up a bit. While work continues on some parts of the building, if practice is interrupted again this week, there’s a chance the Hurricanes will be able to use the facility.

“We’re in a great position. We have the temporary certificate of occupancy, we’re just finishing up the turf,” James said.