O-line staying true to mission

No matter the QB, unit must be set to protect

CORAL GABLES — They don’t yet know which quarterback they’ll be protecting come Sept. 2, but that doesn’t matter.

For Miami’s offensive linemen, the goal is simple and it won’t change based on who’s under center.

They know they have to be better than they were last year, both individually and as a group.

Though the Hurricanes posted a 9-4 record and closed the season with five consecutive wins, there were times the line struggled, with opponents managing 25 sacks against Miami in 2016.

And former quarterback Brad Kaaya, now in Detroit battling for a spot on the Lions’ roster after bypassing his senior year to enter the NFL draft, got knocked around more than a few times.

That was frustrating for a majority of Miami’s veteran linemen. They understand that if the Hurricanes are to live up to some of the lofty expectations out there — including now being ranked No. 18 in Thursday’s Amway Coaches Poll — Miami needs stronger play from them.

The good thing is that early in camp, the unit feels it made some significant offseason progress, and that will make all the difference when it’s time to line up and face Bethune-Cookman in the opener.

“Last year we understood the playbook, we worked it constantly, but with these new

summers that we’ve had, where we’re able to work with the coaches a little bit and have meetings, we have a great understanding of the playbook,” said senior tackle KC McDermott. “We’ve been able to study our opponents much more, we’ve been able to study our defense a lot more.

“We don’t know exactly what’s coming, but we can have an idea of what’s happening on the field and we can make our adjustments based off that, and I’m very pleased with how [the first team has] been running. We’ve been running very smooth and doing a great job of understanding exactly what’s going on. That’s a great improvement from this time last year to now.”

As the Hurricanes continue working through the first sessions of camp, along with the better understanding of the playbook that McDermott noted, they seem to have more versatility and depth than in recent seasons. Freshman Navaughn Donaldson has worked his way into the starting rotation. Former St. Thomas Aquinas standout Nick Linder is fighting back from a shoulder injury and could, along with Tyler Gauthier, give the Hurricanes multiple solid options at center. And Trevor Darling, who started nine games at left tackle last season before McDermott moved into that spot, was one of the players coaches challenged to improve in the offseason.

He answered by losing weight and improving his footwork. On Thursday, Darling drew praise from offensive line coach Stacy Searels, who also had encouraging things to say about some of Miami’s newcomers, including former American Heritage-Plantation standout KaiLeon Herbert, who is already working with the second unit in camp.

“Very talented young man,” Searels said of Herbert, who has been working with McDermott after workouts this week. “He’s got to understand the difference in the college game and speed of our defense, which is really, really good. Once he gets it, he’ll be a good player for us.”

As to what will happen when the Hurricanes finally settle on that starting quarterback? The linemen say they’re already preparing for that, several of them rotating pre-practice snaps with each of the quarterbacks, including redshirt junior Malik Rosier, redshirt sophomore Evan Shirreffs and freshmen Cade Weldon and N’Kosi Perry.

When Hurricanes coach Mark Richt and quarterbacks coach Jon Richt decide who’ll be under center, the linemen say they’ll be ready — and they’ll work to provide whatever help and protection they can.

“We do a lot of drills to get used to it. We are snapping with each other after lifts. Basically, to get used to a new quarterback you need to get used to the way he runs things. Once you figure that out, it’s the snap. Once the snap’s done and he’s jelled in with the team, that’s pretty much it,” Gauthier said. “Every day before practice we have a 5- to 10-minute period when we just snap to the quarterbacks. We probably do 40, 50 snaps and the whole time [Richt] is teaching you. If he thinks something just ain’t right, we would change it up or do something different.”