Miami Hurricanes Depth Chart Almost Finalized? PREDICTED STARTERS, Injury Outlook Looks Good

Intro there might be Hurricanes game one depth chart is almost finished are we expecting any surprises in that starting lineup you are locked on canes your daily podcast on the Miami Hurricane part of the locked on podcast Network your team every day [Music] I am Alex Dono University of Miami alumnus longtime South Florida sports radio vet and contributor to allhurricanes.com and thank you so much to the everydayers for making locked on canes your first listen each and every day we're available free wherever you get your podcasts and available free on YouTube so when we spoke to Mario Cristobal on Monday afternoon I think one of the more interesting tidbits that he dropped uh you know classes have started again so you could say maybe they're not technically still in Fall camp they're just on a regular practice schedule but he's kind of considering Monday and then today Tuesday to be the end of fall camp and Mario crystal ball told us flat out by Wednesday tomorrow he expects to have a good idea of the two to three deep depth chart going into game one important note on that just because Mario and his coaches might know by tomorrow what the two to three deep is Game 1 Starters doesn't mean we're gonna know do not expect any final version of the depth chart to be published or released until game day on September 1st against Miami Ohio that's when the depth chart is going to be officially released and it's probably only going to happen 90 minutes an hour two hours before the game starts on that Friday night so the depth chart I think it's cool to know that they're almost done internally figuring out what their two slash three deep is going to look like because there have been some really competitive training camp battles and the idea that they're almost done with that I think is interesting to me they're going to have a good idea about that so I wanted to give you guys my projected starting lineups on offense and defense and I'm going to tell you where I think the most heated position battles have been so far to this point and where I've got a few question marks as to who's actually going to start but based on everything I've seen in practice over the past three and a half weeks everything I've heard all the conversations I've had this is the way that I see it playing out game one let's start with the offense starting quarterback this one was easy Tyler Van Dyke starting running back this one's a lot more difficult okay because if you follow the Reps probably say Henry parish is the game one starter but if you follow the trends and the performance I'm gonna go out on a limb here and say AJ Allen transfer from Nebraska who I think has popped the most in that running back group during fall camp in my opinion he should be and maybe the starter come September 1st so I'm gonna go out on a limb and say AJ Allen will be the starter running back but that one has definitely been a battle and it's not just AJ and Henry Parish Mark Fletcher has had himself very much in that conversation being very productive in practice so has Don Cheney so uh this one's not a no-brainer by any stretch of the imagination but I'm gonna go for a mild upset and say AJ Allen will line up as the starting running back tight end also not an easy one because I know they've been taking it a little bit easy on Elijah Arroyo coming off the knee injury so it's cam McCormick or Elijah Arroyo um now Mario crystal ball we'll talk a little bit more about the injury situation a little bit later on but Mario crystal ball says that everybody's good uh the only issues they've had are like the normal Camp banged up type of stuff so if I'm assuming he's fully healthy I'm going to say Elijah Arroyo starts just over cam McCormick but there's definitely a battle there for starting tight end receivers this one was easy Colby Young Xavier Restrepo Jacoby George with Restrepo playing in the slot that's going to be your starting three wide receivers I would be very surprised if it doesn't play out that way offensive line This one is also pretty much a no-brainer from left to right Jalen Rivers at left tackle now Jalen Rivers starting left tackle because Zion Nelson is still working his way back if he was completely healthy Zion which he hasn't been since very early last season and I wish him the best because he's a really really talented left tackle uh then maybe we'd be having a different conversation right now but Jalen Rivers who by the way um I think Jalen is a stud and he's versatile enough to play every position on that offensive line I think he's good enough to do the job at left tackle so it's going to be Jalen rivers and left tackle game one Javion Cohen left guard Matt Lee at Center Inez Cooper who's having a really good camp at Right Guard and then one of the best stories of fall Camp period the true freshman Francis Maui Noah young CeCe is going to be holding down the right tackle spot so uh the offense was a little bit easier than the defense and I'll give you my defensive starting lineup when we come back so again on offense Tyler Van Dyke AJ Allen at running back I'm gonna give the edge to Elijah Arroyo a tight end uh receivers Colby young Xavier Restrepo Jacoby George offensive line Jalen Rivers Jade Beyond Cohen Matt Lee Inez Cooper Francis Maui Noah let's talk about the defense when we come back and guys also on this episode of Locked on canes I'm going to give you Mario Crystal Ball's injury report from Camp which is very encouraging uh some interesting nuggets about the offensive line and cornerback because guys there are some position battles that cornerback we're about to talk about and Miami wide receivers Colby young Jacoby George and Tyler Harrell interesting nuggets that they dropped on us yesterday about Miami's new hopefully vertical offense under Shannon Dawson we are only getting started keep it locked Sponsor right here to locked on canes my friends mental health is a topic near and dear to my heart because I 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awesome um that's one of those spots all along the defensive line just because you don't start doesn't mean you're not going to play expect guys like Ruben Bain and Jafari Harvey uh and maybe even Jayden Wayne because Jaden Wayne another true freshman like Ruben Bain he's been lighting it up in practice so you're going to see your rotation on that defensive line just because you're not starting doesn't mean you're not playing but I think it's going to be Nigel Lee Kelly Branson Dean Leonard Taylor Akeem mezador uh and I think mesador by the way is going to have a monstrous year I think Nigel Lee Kelly is going to have a monstrous year I think Ruben Bain is going to have a monster sheer and Leonard Taylor man I'm getting so bullish on this defensive line at the linebacker spots there is definitely some competition here my friends the only guarantee I'm going to give you Linebacker at linebacker is Kiko Maui Noah Francisco he has been consistently looking like the starting Mike linebacker on this team so I'm going to assume Kiko locks down a spot and then uh alongside Kiko at uh at will there's been I I think it's fair to say a battle between West basant who had an awesome back nine of last year as a true freshman really figured things out at the second half of last year and became the starter but then you've got uh the old man uh cage he's not gonna like me calling him that he's like the old man he's like 22 23 years old but very experienced KJ Cloyd who comes over from Louisville who's having a really good fall Camp so I'm going to give a slight Edge to West besaint over K.J Cloyd but it's not necessarily academic guys I could definitely see some competition there but I'm going to go with West Saint and Francisco Maui Noah as the linebacker starters at the star position that seems to be Jaden Davis's job I'm expecting Jaden Davis to be the week one starter there cornerback Devante Brown the transfer from UCF seems to have one spot locked down for the other spot there's definitely a battle I think a three-way Battle Royale is happening there but guys I am going to give the edge to Daryl Porter because I believe he's having a very good camp had a very good spring and I think his experience could be the difference there so I gave a slight Edge to Daryl Porter over Demari Brown while I'm also not sleeping on judeas Richard the transfer from Vanderbilt who's had some really really good moments in Camp as well so there's been a lot of competition there in the defensive backfield and then with the safeties I know this is a spot where some of you might be expecting some surprises because Marquette Williams was a starter at the Kane's Fest scrimmage but I don't think it's going to be Mark Heath I'm going with James Williams and cam tensions as the starting safeties on this team so friends let me know did I get Question of the Day anything wrong in your opinion or are you gonna go out on a limb the way I did on a couple of different positions do you expect any major surprises in the Miami starting lineup this year is there anything that I left out you think no dot I was way off on that or maybe you think Reuben Bain is going to start maybe you think Mark Fletcher is going to start both of those true freshmen have really been competing at a high level maybe you think damari Brown because if you follow the Reps we have seen Demari Brown get some work with the first team maybe you think damari is going to start alongside Devante let us know if I got anything wrong or if you see any surprises in the starting lineups let us know in the comments if you're a YouTube viewer you can let us know in the YouTube comments if you listen to the audio version you can let us know on our Twitter slash X profile at locked on canes and if you follow us at locked on canes we will follow you back the injury Outlook is compared to last year's fall camp really good right now that was something we asked Mario crystal ball about yesterday and yeah there have been certain times in practice where you see a handful of guys working off to the side you had a couple of guys held out of the scrimmage at canes Fest that we all noticed and obviously there's you know guys like uh Zion Nelson who's working still working through an injury from last year but Mario Cristobal described the injury situation as just Camp banged up the usual little bumps and bruises you get during a physical fall camp and he said there's been no true injuries like last year now he did say knock on wood and I'm I'm knocking on wood right now because you remember by this time last year you had already had you'd already lost a couple of your running backs for the season Don Cheney and travonte citizens so the hurricanes have done a much better job navigating through this fall Camp being injury-free uh and crystal ball described hey we we have a tried and true method of having a really physical active fall Camp because he thinks that prepares his players more for the season he doesn't go as easy on guys in Fall Camp as maybe some of the other coaches do around the country because he says his method is tried and true and the more physically ready you get for that and the stronger you get and the more these guys attack the weight room and the strength and conditioning program the more prepared they are to go through the rigors of this type of a fall camp and they've done pretty well uh to this point doing that a couple of very encouraging injury notes and again this is minor stuff but you know we'd notice these players hadn't been suiting up in recent days according to Mario crystal ball running back Chris Johnson who had missed about a week he's back and he as of Monday practicing in full Chris Johnson is a full go and folks I hadn't talked probably nearly enough about Chris Johnson on this podcast during fall Camp just because you know we hadn't seen him a lot during fall camp this is one of those players you've got to find a way to get him on the field whether it's as a Return Man in special teams you can line him up in the slot you can line him up wide because he did play some receiver in high school as well he's very versatile his main position though his running back but Chris Johnson he is a home run hitter you know he just just last year set a state record for the uh for the 200 meter so he's he's one of the two fastest players on the team along with Tyler Harrell and Chris Johnson might even be faster all right so you got to find ways to get that dude involved and another player who had missed a little bit of time and was back practicing in full as of Monday is Akeem mezador so you know I talked about Akeem I expect him of course to be a starter this year so mesador back to practicing in full and I think Miami is going to be in in really good shape on the defensive line when we come back really interesting Insight that a trio of wide receivers because we talked to a few of Miami's white outs yesterday they gave me and a few other members of the South Florida media some insight on what that explosive offense is going to look like this year and how Tyler Van Dyke has been progressing and adapting to that offense you want to keep it locked we're FanDuel not done yet here to this all new episode of Locked on canes I hope you're keeping it locked to FanDuel because football season is about to kick off and FanDuel is giving you the chance to win all season long because right now when you bet on a Super Bowl winner you can get bonus bets every time that team wins in the regular season how cool is that so if I if I bet a future right now on my Miami Dolphins to win the Super Bowl every time the Dolphins win a game during the regular season I'm getting bonus bets directly to my account it's a great thing you can use your bonus bets on spreads player props over unders and so much more so visit FanDuel dot com slash locked on and start earning bonus Bets with America's number one Sportsbook that's fanduel.com locked on make every moment more thank you so much for making locked on canes your first listen today we are available free wherever you get your podcast and available free on YouTube and for the everydayers if you want to take your everyday or experience to the next level sign up for our exclusive SMS texting service through subtext I include a link in the show description below I'm very active on the subtech service I send you guys SMS text messages directly from my phone to yours I don't have a social media intern it all comes directly from me I give you guys breaking news recruiting Scoops opinions show previews and one-on-ones you can ask me anything on there so try it free for 14 days with the link in the show description below and then if you like it you can opt in for 4.99 a month and we give you a lot of extra added value on there so uh I mentioned Jalen Rivers who I believe is going to be in my opinion the starting left tackle when the season begins Mario crystal ball was very complimentary of rivers and says uh he is capable at a high level of playing all five positions right I think it's pretty rare when you have an offensive lineman who's capable uh of being one of your best options at every spot including Center okay and honestly I believe that you know if God forbid anything were to happen to Matt Lee um Jalen Rivers I think could end up actually being the backup center but Matt Lee is a guy I don't worry about because I think he's going to be one of the better centers in the entire country he graded out that way graded out as one of the best centers in college football last year when he was at UCF but Jalen Rivers has really been a godsend for this offensive line and we spoke to Rivers about a week ago and he talked about kind of getting his body a little bit more toned to add some speed to make him better at the left tackle position so this is something he has been preparing for okay and I expect rivers to be solid at that spot come September 1st you know when I was talking about uh my projected starting corners and I've got Devonte Brown and Daryl Porter again I can't emphasize this enough I'm not completely sleeping on Demari Brown the true freshman I the main reason why I give the edge to Daryl Porter over to Mari Brown is Porter has experience that damari just does not have at the Collegiate level but according to Crystal Ball now the media did not get to watch practice on Monday the practice was closed to the media and for a hot second Chris the ball seems to have forgotten that we weren't able to watch that practice because he started to reference something that Demari Brown did at the end of practice yesterday but then he realized wait you guys weren't out there were you I'm not going to say anything more so I don't know Chris and it sounded like something positive like crystal ball was hinting at maybe damari Brown had like a I'm speculating here but maybe he had like a big interception to end practice or a big pass breakup or you know did something really impressive so Demari Brown is a guy who uh has been preparing all Camp long to try and take someone's job and again I will remind you guys um being that he's from American Heritage Plantation I can't think of a better High School in the entire country for preparing cornerbacks to play at the college level and a lot of them at the NFL level also I mean Corners that come out of American Heritage are really prepared physically and mentally for that next level and we'll see if Demari Brown can actually earn that starting spot so a couple of interesting nuggets from a few of Miami's wide receivers that we spoke to yesterday Colby Young Who I think is going to be a starter this year quote I Colby Young feel really good about how our offense is being more explosive because that was something I asked Colby about I asked young about kind of the differences you know I I wasn't really trying to tee him up to throw shade at Josh Gaddis nor did he like he didn't take the bait but you know I asked him kind of the differences between last year's offense and this year's and what he likes about this year uh he says um I I really like about I feel really good about how our offense is being more explosive being more Dynamic he said we can still run the ball really well we have a room full of good backs who can take the top uh and who can take the top off the defense they can catch they can run very fast they get in open space and take the ball 80 yards when you have a good receiving core like we have we love to see backs that can get in space and make plays that makes the passing game way better he says he says we are fast we have a lot of Playmakers Tyler Van Dyke is a great quarterback and he's putting the ball in areas that are amazing yeah he was telling us that Van Dyke is really putting the football into Tight Windows which is nice so we've been making plays we're all confident and one of the other things that I asked Colby about yesterday was his chemistry with Van Dyke I brought it up on the show before that um Colby young right before Van Dyke got injured had two incredible games where he and Tyler look to have a great connection like Colby young had 110 receiving yards against Virginia Tech and then I think 127 against Duke right before Van Dyke got hurt and then you know they couldn't continue that chemistry because Tyler didn't really play for the rest of the season so he told me that not only does he feel like he and Van Dyke have picked up where they left off chemistry wise he feels it's been even better and they've taken it to another level so far we spoke with Tyler Harrell the Speedster and you know he's a little bit humble you know I try to ask him about hey is there anybody who can cover you uh is there anybody else on offense who's nearly as fast as you are you know he was very complimentary of Miami's defensive backs and he says more than just the speed they all have different styles and coverage so he says it's really interesting going up against different guys in practice he was also complimentary about the speed that guys like Shamar Kirk have uh and you know Chris Johnson and Miami's running back so he thinks there's a lot of speed on the offense and he says that that speed is really going to affect opposing defenses because they have to respect it Harold Landry it's going to make everybody better uh you know he says he's been having dreams about his first game in a Miami uniform because remember Tyler Hill to South Florida kid uh but you know he went to Louisville for a few years one year at Alabama now he's finally back home at Miami he says he's having dreams about playing his first game and making plays in a Miami uniform and Harold he was complementary very complementary of Miami's offensive line now he didn't really want to compare it to Bama's but he said he's never seen an offensive line in the ACC like this one and he played for I think three years at Louisville before playing one year at Bama so he's got plenty of ACC experience he said he's never see they're very big and very powerful he's never seen an offensive line like this one in the ACC and folks that's where so many of your games are going to be won or lost the line of scrimmage at the point of attack I feel pretty good about Miami's defensive line I feel very good about Miami's starting offensive line and if Mario crystal ball has hit some home runs in improving those areas and he and Mirabal coaching up that offensive line and making the guys who were here last year even better we could be in for Big Time Improvement this season we could be in for it all right guys I want to thank you so much and just so you know for the everydayers uh I'm I'm about to to head off to uh to the facility at the U because we're going to be talking with a handful of players today I know Leonard Taylor is going to be one of those that we speak to today so we're going to have uh four player interviews posted on our YouTube channel later on today so you want to subscribe to that subscribe to locked on canes on YouTube especially because we're just a little over a hundred subscribers away from hitting 11 000. 11 000 subscribers on YouTube that's a milestone we would like to hit before the season starts on September 1st so if you haven't already subscribe to our YouTube channel and make sure you do because we're going to have player interviews dropping on the channel in the early afternoon thank you so much for making locked on canes your first listen we will talk to you guys again next time on another episode of Locked on canes part of the awesome locked on podcast Network your team every day