ANALYSIS: CaneSport pick as top offensive position group this year might just surprise you

Tyler Van Dyke is a returning starter for Miami at quarterback with huge upside. Henry Parrish is returning after serving as the lead back in 2022. At tight end Will Mallory is gone but Elijah Arroyo and Jaleel Skinner have bigtime potential and the team added Oregon’s veteran of all veterans Cam McCormick out of the transfer portal.

All four of those spots deserve consideration as the top position group with spring practice well in the rearview mirror now.

But at QB there is no real proven depth with Jacurri Brown struggling mightily with accuracy in numerous opportunities last season. Did he look better in spring practices? Yes. But you saw some of the issues rear their head again in the spring game. Behind him is a true freshman, Emory Williams, who looks polished beyond his years but still is just in Year 1.

At running back Parrish does indeed return, but his production and ability level shown last year are, quite honestly, begging for a Mark Fletcher or someone else to show they can do better. Parrish ran for 616 yards and four TDs. And behind him this spring the only healthy back on scholarship was oft-injured Don Chaney. Two summer freshmen arrivals will help, but this is not an ideal depth situation.

Tight end, as mentioned above, lost leading receiver Will Mallory and his team-high 538 yards. Arroyo, Skinner and McCormick should lead that position well helped by the arrival of a couple of freshmen that need to pack on some weight (Riley Williams, Jackson Carver). But it’s hard to look at tight end and say that’s going to be for sure a position that is one of the best in the ACC.

Which brings us to the one offensive position we haven’t mentioned yet.

Offensive line.

Dare we list the five guys up front as THE top position group of this Miami offense coming out of spring ball?

Go ahead and dare us. Because we went ahead and did it. This unit that was pretty awful last year, the one that had the offense rank No. 95 out of 130 teams in the nation in rush yards (128.1 yards) and No. 108 in sacks allowed per game (3.0). Poor play up front never let the Josh Gattis offense get off the ground.

So what did Mario Cristobal do?

He reshaped that group.

Miami brought in Alabama’s starting left guard, Javion Cohen, to play the same position here. UCF star center Matt Lee is now a Hurricane and looked great in the spring not just on the field but with his off-field leadership and quick understanding of Shannon Dawson’s offense. Returning players who started games? There’s Jalen Rivers (seven starts before injury) and Anez Cooper (four starts, flashed as a true freshman).

Then there was the successful recruitment of 5-stars Francis Mauigoa and Samson Okunlola, who both enrolled early and were immediately on the two-deep with Mauigoa taking over as the first team right tackle in the second spring practice and never relinquishing it.

Even Laurance Seymore (four starts), Logan Sagapolu (one start) and Jon Denis (two starts) got a taste of bigtime action. They may be backups, but will be the better for that.

Oh, and did we mention the hope is that Zion Nelson will finally be back this fall off recurring knee injuries? The hope is he can step back into that starting left tackle spot – he’s started 32 games at Miami.

Now, will this offensive line instantly be a dominant group? That’s a lot to expect. But it’s not a lot to expect for it to be a heck of a lot better this season and to be, top to bottom, the strongest offensive unit on the team. With that said, we would like to see Rivers move back to guard from LT, where he had some issues this spring. That can happen if Nelson is healthy or if Mauigoa or Okunlola show some continued progress over the next few months.

So maybe it’s not the worst thing in the world that DJ Scaife, John Campbell (transfer) and Jakai Clark (transfer) are starters from last season that are gone.

This offensive line needed a total reboot.

And it seems to have gotten it, with only one returning starter (Rivers) a pretty much sure-fired bet to be starting in Game 1.

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