UCF transfer center Matt Lee is a big part of a revamped Miami Hurricanes offensive line that struggled tremendously a year ago. In fact, when the Miami Hurricanes kick off the season against Miami (Ohio), there will be four new starters. Gone are 2022 starters John Campbell, Jakai Clark, Justice Oluwaseun and DJ Scaife, and new faces include Javion Cohen (Alabama transfer left guard), Matt Lee (UCF transfer center), and 5-star signees Francis Mauigoa (expected to start at right tackle) and Samson Okunlola (will compete to start at left tackle). The lone holdover expected to start: Jalen Rivers, who could work at right guard or left tackle (where he started in the spring). Plus the team should have former starting LT Zion Nelson back off recurring knee issues. Anez Cooper is also a second-year guard who started games last year.<\/p>\n
So yes, this is a much different and more talented OL than a year ago.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think me and Javion coming through the portal and also guys like Jalen Rivers and Anez Cooper and the new freshman Francisco Mauigoa and Samson Okunlola and a couple of other guys as well \u2013 we\u2019re tough, we\u2019re going to get after it,\u201d Lee said. \u201cWe\u2019re going to work as hard as Coach (Mario) Cristobal and Coach (Alex) Mirabal push us on any given day.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe just have to hang our hats on being the toughest, meanest guys on the field every single snap, every single game. It doesn\u2019t matter. Always be able to rely on us five no matter what.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lee says Miami coaches made it clear how much he was needed when he was in the transfer process, recounting how Mario Cristobal told him \u201cYou\u2019re our guys, we need you here.\u201d<\/p>\n
A year ago Miami ranked No. 95 in the nation in rushing offense and No. 108 in sacks allowed last year.<\/p>\n
Mario Cristobal at ACC Media Day: There is no sugarcoating things, hard work is getting put in and strides are being made<\/a> \u2026 S Kam Kinchens: We don\u2019t need hype, are just going about our business \u2026 and I want a national championship banner<\/a> \u2026 Cristobal knows the task at hand and says while there is no \u201cmagic elixir,\u201d he knows what it will take to get Miami back<\/a> \u2026 Cristobal on Tuesday: \u201cIt\u2019s been a great offseason \u2026 (we are) making change instead of making noise\u201d<\/a> \u2026 QB Tyler Van Dyke excited about offense and this year\u2019s team, says he\u2019s worked hard on one particular dimension of his game<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n So it\u2019s on Lee and his fellow linemen to change that.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen I came in it was when Francis and Samson came in,\u201d Lee said. \u201cStill outside of them there are 7, 8, 9 guys you can throw in that have the mental and physical side to go perform. \u2026 Outside of them me and Javion and Jalen and Anez and Zion with his injury trying to come back \u2013 it\u2019s a deep, talented room that we can have success all year with.\u201d<\/p>\n Lee also said that he\u2019s excited what this new offense under Shannon Dawson can do. He pointed to QB Tyler Van Dyke as \u201creal professional.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cHe\u2019s mature, disciplined, no BS,\u201d Lee said. \u201cOn the football field he knows what he\u2019s doing, right? He knows schematically what we\u2019re running, what we need to do. He\u2019s done a tremendous job since before I got here, continuing to build those qualities.\u201d<\/p>\n Lee will be the guy in the middle of it all on offense. He chose to transfer to Miami after allowing no sacks and no QB hits in 579 reps last year at UCF, per Pro Football Focus.<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve always loved The U just as a Florida guy,\u201d Lee said. \u201cAfter getting down, talking to coach (Alex) Mirabal, coach (Mario) Cristobal \u2013 the vibe, work ethic, discipline of coaches and players, it all made sense for me. It was really a no-brainer, and I could have gone to a bunch of places.\u201d<\/p>\n Overall at UCF Lee played 40 games in the last four seasons. Per PFF, Lee was at an elite 90.6 pass blocking level this past season with a very strong 80.6 run blocking grade and 83.7 overall offensive grade in 1,059 total reps (70 is considered a good grade).<\/p>\n He also graded out at 75.6 in 705 reps in 2021 (81.7 pass blocking, 70.8 run blocking).<\/p>\n His 90.6 grade is the highest for a returning center in college football.<\/p>\n \u201cThe accolades and all that stuff is cool \u2013 I don\u2019t really care about that,\u201d Lee said. \u201cI want to win games, right? I want to win the conference championship. I want to go all the way, all that. All that comes with that because individual stuff is awesome, but it doesn\u2019t really matter. All that matters is the team, winning the team, going as far as you can get the team to go.<\/p>\n \u201cWe are going day by day, working every single day and not losing sight.\u201d<\/p>\n The post Miami Hurricanes center Matt Lee sees \u201cdeep, talented\u201d OL room, eyes winning conference championship<\/a> appeared first on On3<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" UCF transfer center Matt Lee is a big part of a revamped Miami Hurricanes offensive…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11799","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11799","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11799"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11799\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11799"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11799"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11799"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}