CORAL GABLES, Fla. — The Hurricanes will stick with their more experienced starter heading into their first Atlantic Coast Conference game.
Despite benching him against Middle Tennessee State on Sept. 24, Mario Cristobal said Monday that Tyler Van Dyke will be Miami’s starting quarterback this Saturday against North Carolina.
“We are honest about the fact that Tyler has played great football here for a long time, and you don’t turn on your quarterback because we had a bad day as a program,” Cristobal said during a Monday morning interview with WQAM. “You make sure you do things and install things and work on things that the quarterback and supporting cast feels comfortable with and at the same time you recognize and acknowledge Jake [Garcia] did a great job and has a super bright future here at Miami.”
Van Dyke has struggled for most of the season, culminating in his performance against the Blue Raiders, when he completed 16 of 32 for 138 yards and one touchdown and two interceptions. The Hurricanes put Garcia in the game in the third quarter, and he went 10-of-19 passing for 169 yards.
“[We have] a world of confidence in Jake,” Cristobal said Monday. “We feel we have two great quarterbacks and a third, young one that’s developing into a really good one, as well. Jake showed that he’s a really good player. He showed in high school, he’s showed it in opportunities here.”
Cristobal said Van Dyke had a “great competitive response” in practice after the upset loss, and both Cristobal and offensive coordinator Josh Gattis said the third-year sophomore had a strong week in practice.
“He’s been here long enough and has proven enough where a guy that works hard like that, has proven himself, you always give him the benefit of the doubt,” Cristobal said. “You dive into tape, and you find ways to get him better as opposed to just flying around and bashing and looking for critiques and errors. Our job is to make sure guys get better.”
The Hurricanes head coach said he didn’t think Van Dyke, who has completed 63.6 percent of his passes this year (up 1.3 percent from last season), has any mechanical issues when throwing. He said the offense needs to improve so Van Dyke has support in the passing game.
“I wouldn’t say it’s mechanical,” Cristobal said. “We’ve got to do a really good job of cleaning things up for him, and we’ve got to do a really good job with the supporting cast. ... We’ve got to make it as clean and as clear for him to operate at a high level.”
Gattis said Van Dyke has not seemed confused or overly upset since his benching against Middle Tennessee State and has gone about his business like normal.
“He just seemed like Tyler,” Gattis said. “He had a really good week last week and really kind of bouncing back. Tyler, he’s a great kid. Just a great leader, a great person on this team. Players respect him. So I don’t think there’s any cloud that’s hanging over top of him at all. It’s time for us to move forward as a team and as a program.”
