TEs Jordan, Mallory hurt, won’t face Pittsburgh
CORAL GABLES — The Hurricanes win against Virginia Tech on Saturday helped them avoid revisiting some ugly history, ended their four-game losing streak and helped Miami secure bowl eligibility.
It also, it turns out, proved to be costly. Both of the Hurricanes’ freshmen tight ends — Brevin Jordan and Will Mallory — were hurt in the 38-14 victory and Miami coach Mark Richt said on Sunday neither will play in Saturday’s regular-season finale against Pittsburgh at Hard Rock Stadium.
Richt did say, though, he was hopeful Jordan, who hurt his ankle, and Mallory, who injured his knee, would be able to play in the Hurricanes’ still-to-be-determined bowl game next month.
“We feel good about both of those guys making it back for the bowl,” Richt said.
The Hurricanes’ tight ends group has been decimated by injuries this season, with veteran Michael Irvin II suffering a seasonending knee injury during training camp and sophomore Brian Polendey suffering a season-ending knee injury in September.
Now, as they try to improve their bowl stock and close out a tough regular season on a high note, the Hurricanes’ lone healthy tight end is walk-on Nicholas Ducheine, who has appeared in just two games this season, including Saturday night’s win over Virginia Tech.
Without Jordan and Mallory, the Hurricanes implemented more of a spread attack, using more receivers in the second half and opening things up for freshman running back Cam Davis, who had a game-high and career-high 77 yards against the Hokies.
More of that might might be necessary this week against Pittsburgh. Earlier in the year when Mallory was limited by an eye infection, the Hurricanes didn’t move any players to tight end as they had in the past when, for example, defensive end Scott Patchan moved to tight end.
“We’ll just have to be in different personnel groups, obviously,” Richt said. “We’ve got Ducheine, who is a walk-on tight end that we can use in some of the sets that we use a tight end, but how much of that we use, I don’t know. There’s other ways to line up. We did it [Saturday], so we’ll have to figure out what’s going to be the best plan.”
There was some better news for the Hurricanes on the injury front though, with Richt saying he was hopeful Patchan, who injured his hip against the Hokies, would be available Saturday against Pittsburgh.
“It was kind of a hip pointer type of injury,” Richt said of Patchan. “Those sometimes last a while, but usually, guys get over those relatively quick. We’re hopeful he can play by the end of the week.”
Perry continues improving: For the second week straight week, redshirt freshman N’Kosi Perry proved he could handle the challenges of playing on the road, putting together a 21-of-34 performance that netted 171 yards and two touchdowns against the Hokies.
Richt on Sunday praised the quarterback’s performance, especially considering he was without Jordan and Mallory in the second half.
“He did a very nice job. We got three turnovers defensively, gave up no turnovers offensively and the quarterback’s mostly responsible for the decisions that are made that cause turnovers whether he’s getting hit back in the pocket or running the ball or throwing an interception or something like that. None of those things happened,” Richt said. “I thought Kosi took care of the ball well. There was one time he was getting sacked that I thought he was a little bit reckless, trying to throw it at the last second and almost fumbling it, but he did a good job overall.
“In the run game, a lot of decisions that had to be made, he made mostly good ones. Every once in a while, he maybe should’ve pulled the ball and he didn’t. … but as many times as we were in zone-read last night, he did very well overall.”