Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Van Dyke: ‘It’s on me’
Hurricanes QB accepts responsibility for slow starts on offense
Tyler Van Dyke knows the Miami Hurricanes need better offensive starts than they’ve had in recent weeks, so when it came time to reflect on why UM has come out the gates slowly in its past two games, the second-year quarterback didn’t hold back on critiquing himself.
“It’s on me,” Van Dyke said after Tuesday’s practice. “I just have to get more comfortable in the beginning of the game. Just got to get the ball and let it rip.”
The letting “it rip” part hasn’t come easy for Van Dyke in the first halves of Miami’s conference losses to Virginia and North Carolina.
Van Dyke has combined for 9 of 26 for 122 passing yards and two interceptions in the first two quarters against the Cavaliers and Tar Heels en route to the Hurricanes not scoring their first offensive touchdown until there were less than two minutes in the second quarter of either game.
“Early in the game, it can be more nerves,” offensive coordinator Rhett Lashlee said. “Some of it is just experience. In both games, the opponent did a really good job of early in the game showing some looks that were a little unique to what they had done, so maybe it’s some things we haven’t been able to show him or prepare him for as well.
“Tyler will be the first to tell you he can make some of the throws he’s been missing.”
Among those missed throws was a pass attempt to Key’Shawn Smith off a flea-flicker on Miami’s first play against UNC that was low and behind the second-year wide receiver, with Van Dyke saying it was “one of the worst throws I’ve ever thrown.”
Despite the admission, he doesn’t see his slow starts as an issue with nerves, but simply about comforting and not overthinking on his passes.
“Don’t think, don’t aim it — just let it rip,” Van Dyke said. “Once I do that, I think we’ll start faster.”
Lashlee said he’s still trying to learn how to call plays that fit Van Dyke’s skill set after coming into the season with an offensive game plan designed around D’Eriq King, who’s out for the season with a shoulder injury.
“Each quarterback has their own strengths, their own comfort zones, you get used to them and what play-calls they are best at in certain situations,” Lashlee said. “I think there is also the chemistry with the guys they are playing with too.
“When you try to build your offense in the direction of one’s quarterback’s strengths and you lose that quarterback and you bring in a new guy, you learn and build around what he does well. Not only are you learning him, but the guys around him are kind of learning him too and maybe starting to do some things a little differently than what they were doing with the other guy.”
To his credit, Van Dyke hasn’t allowed slow starts to lead to bad games.
Van Dyke has combined for 26-of-48 passing for 344 yards, three total touchdowns and one interception in the second halves against Virginia and UNC, and has led the Hurricanes to potential game-winning drives before both games ended in agonizing, one-score losses.
“Tyler is showing massive courage in the way that he gets after it during the course of the games, but he’s still a rookie quarterback,” coach Manny Diaz said. “We’re still not playing with our starting quarterback.
“When he got his feet underneath him and started feeling comfortable and got a sense of what they were doing because they were changing up the things that they were showing beforehand, I thought it was as good as we’ve looked on offense all year over the second half of the game [against UNC].”
Van Dyke’s confident he’ll start putting together strong games instead of second halves soon, starting with Miami’s home game against No. 18 N.C. State on Saturday. And he believes that once he does, Miami’s season will start to turn around.
“We’re in a good place right now,” Van Dyke said. “Everyone’s still with us and have the confidence we can win. Like I said before, we could be 4-2. We’re this close. We just come out in the first half offensively and just do what we do like we did in the second half, these games wouldn’t be close. Once we do that, it’s over with.”