MIAMI GARDENS — After everything that happened to Miami on Saturday in its bungled beginning — a blocked punt, a muffed punt catch, so many penalties the referees’ flags needed washing — it merely set the table for the defining story.
Tyler Van Dyke’s skills are obvious and portable. That’s the story. It’s something you had to appreciate as much as his career-high five touchdowns passes that first pulled Miami out of its self-constructed hole and then to a 48-33 victory over No. 23 Texas A&M.
Give Van Dyke a chance, Saturday again showed, and he’ll make the best of it. And new offensive coordinator Shannon Dawson’s Air-Raid offense – Cane Raid? – gives him a chance again after a season where people wondered if Van Dyke was good enough.
Did you see his 52-yard strike in the first half? Or the cool manner he moved the offense down the field just before half? Or at the end, the night needing a finish, Dawson not sitting on the ball but letting Van Dyke throw a 64-yard touchdown to Jacolby George?
It’s always hard to sort out quarterback traits from systemic ideas, but Van Dyke’s day tells of this new marriage: 374 yards, five touchdowns and no interceptions on 21-of-30 passing. Those five TDs are the most by any Miami quarterback against a Top 25 team, too, according to ESPN Stats. Vinny Testaverde. Steve Walsh. Anyone.
All this is welcome news to Van Dyke, who is on his third offensive coordinator in three years. That’s the kind of burden that can sink a college quarterback. New system, new concepts, new terminology and a slow-learning spring for the offense by any view? No problem, he showed Satuday.
Texas A&M was gifted a 17-7 lead with early touchdown drives of 15 and 9 yards. Those are putts, not drives. They’re what happen when you have a punt blocked and don’t catch a punt. It put a Miami team trying to find its way in a tough spot.
“Last year I think we would’ve quit quieter honestly,” Van Dyke said. “We’re a totally different team.”
That’s explains in part why coach Mario Cristobal called this win a, “massive step for the program.” This was a team that lost its last five home games last year, including to Middle Tennessee and Duke. Now it beat a ranked team.
Everyone had a part in that, but no one had a bigger part than Van Dyke. He isn’t on the short list to the NFL like USC’s Caleb Williams or North Carolina’s Drake Maye.
He has a little quirk in his game, though like the guy who was on the field celebrating the 40th anniversary of a national title, Bernie Kosar. Van Dyke can run a college offense, too, if it’s the right offense.
“Last year is not the way I pictured everything to go,” Van Dyke said. “This gives me a lot of confidence.”
In Saturday’s first half, Van Dyke led Miami on three, 75-yard touchdown drives. They all had a repetitive look, too, starting at Miami’s 25 and ending with Van Dyke raising a first in the air after a touchdown pass.
Tracking the various throws he made was a neck-wrenching task. One touchdown, set up a by a 48-yard pass to Xavier Restrepo, had Van Dyke throwing 3 yards to Colbie Young. Then 52-yarder to Isaiah Horton followed.
The third touchdown was different still. Van Dyke came on with 52 seconds left in the half after Texas A&M missed a field goal. Here was something to measure just how daring this offense might be under first-year coordinator Dawson considering Van Dyke was grounded at times last season.
He threw a couple of incompletions before finding Colbie Young for 32 yards, then Restrepo for 19 to the Texas A&M 6-yard line. A delay of game followed showing there remains some fundamental work to be done.
Van Dyke then tore open the scoreboard again with an 11-yard touchdown to Jacolby George. Miami didn’t just survive its skittish start, but led at half, 21-7.
Lets the chest-beaters and cliché-mongers talk of Miami responding to adversity or praising their heart and soul. But this was as much as talent being pointed in the right direction.
It was always easy to see how the sophomore Van Dyke was helped by then-coordinator Brett Lashlee’s spread offense. In his last six games, he completed 66 percent of his passes and threw for more than 300 yards. That helped Lashlee to the Southern Methodist head-coaching job after that season.
In came Mario Cristobal, who hired Michigan assistant Josh Gaddis as offensive coordinator. Everything looked out of step, lost even. Van Dyke seemed shackled some Saturdays. Miami averaged 23 ugly points a game.
Out went Gaddis, in came Dawson and Miami’s back to an attack-the-field idea. Saturday showed that. It doesn’t mean Miami’s back. It means it got a nice win for a program needing one, though. And it means Van Dyke is plenty good enough in the right offense.
