Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Tight ends have to step up.
CORAL GABLES — The program that has long taken pride in calling itself “Tight End U” finds itself facing some dangerous depth issues at the position after losing another one of its veterans to a knee injury.
Hurricanes sophomore tight end Brian Polendey traveled with the Hurricanes to Toledo this past weekend but did not play against the Rockets. On Tuesday, Miami announced Polendey was set to undergo season-ending surgery.
He is the second upperclassman tight end to sustain a serious injury this season after junior Michael Irvin II injured his knee during camp. At the time, Miami said Irvin was expected to be out approximately four months.
With Irvin and now Polendey out, the Hurricanes have just two healthy scholarship tight ends, freshmen Brevin Jordan and Will Mallory.
The two arrived at Miami as two of the top tight end prospects in the nation this summer and were widely expected to compete for significant playing time.
Things have played out that way, with Jordan notching seven catches for 52 yards and Mallory scoring the Hurricanes’ first touchdown of Miami’s 77-0 rout of Savannah State two weeks ago. Polendey, meanwhile, has played in two of three games and has just one catch.
Now that Polendey is out, though, Jordan and Mallory will only have help from walk-on Nicholas Ducheine at the position.
As of Tuesday, both Hurricanes coach Mark Richt and offensive coordinator Thomas Brown said they did not anticipate moving a healthy player to play tight end as Miami has done in the past partly because Jordan and Mallory have already shown they can handle the responsibilities placed on them.
The Hurricanes, do, however, expect they will have to adjust how they run their offense and will have to take extra care to protect their two healthy scholarship tight ends.
“We do have a two-tight end set, but if we only have two that are really ready to play, it’s hard to play too many snaps,” Richt said. “I would see those guys sharing the load a little bit more in three-receiver sets, onetight end sets.
“Mallory will probably spend more time at the ‘F’ [position] where Brevin is because Brevin, we just can’t let him play 60, 70, 80-however many plays it is. He can’t play every snap, so we’ve got to get him help there and that would be Mallory. … We’ll have twotight end sets, but we can’t make a living doing that, I think because it’s not enough depth. We need to recruit is what we need to do. And get healthy, too.”
While Brown concedes the lack of depth at tight end is “scary,” he feels confident that Jordan and Mallory can continue handling their respective work loads. And with the Hurricanes’ depth at receiver, every expectation is that quarterback Malik Rosier will still have plenty of targets to work with and extra pass protection when he needs it.
“Brevin basically plays almost every snap anyway, so that won’t change a whole lot,” Brown said. “We’ll obviously have less depth behind him and we’ll have to find creative ways to get guys involved in the game and kind of spell him if we need to.”
And as veteran receiver Lawrence Cager noted, having to play without Irvin and now Polendey is likely going to help Jordan and Mallory continue their rapid development, something the offense will be able to capitalize on as the Hurricanes move closer to the start of conference play.
“It’s going to put more on the freshmen tight ends, too and it’s good for them. They need to learn more and get more reps for them. That helps them learn more, faster,” Cager said.