Mario Cristobal praises Miami's physical run game

The Miami Hurricanes are playing musical chairs at the quarterback position at the moment. With starter Tyler Van Dyke in and out of the lineup with a shoulder injury he suffered back during the Duke game. In lieu of him has been a pair of players — sophomore Jake Garcia and freshman Jacurri Brown.

In the most recent ‘Canes game, Brown got the start. Garcia had been the go-to backup, but Mario Cristobal opted to yank him during the 45-3 Florida State loss, for obvious reasons, and threw the true freshman to the fire. And he stuck with that decision during this past weekend’s game against Georgia Tech, where Brown threw for three touchdowns and ran for 87 yards.

With Brown under center, the offense as a whole was much improved — against a notably worse opponent than Florida State, though. Really, where Miami dominated Georgia Tech was on the ground. Brown’s dual threat ability was a huge part of that. But Miami’s front just pushed around the Yellow Jackets, paving the way for over 200 rushing yards.

Cristobal was thrilled with the performance on the ground, even though the ‘Canes were missing one of their top tight ends, who also serves an important role as a blocker.

“We miss Elijah Arroyo, man. I mean, that guy’s a really good football player. And, you know, freshman quarterback on the road was going to be necessary to protect him, to get the ground game going,” Cristobal shared after the win. “And part of that is the offensive line and really the coaching staff for putting together a game plan that allowed us to be successful and execute it really well.”

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Cristobal continued, praising the offense, particularly Jacurri Brown for locking down a road win in his first collegiate start.

“You see, when you watch film, you’ll see the difference. It’s a different game plan, right. You know, I won’t get into all this stuff, that’s in the right. We still got to prepare for future opponents and everything else. But he does a lot and throws the ball really, really well, you know. I think some of the throws that came out wrong were him probably being a little bit nervous. This is good to get a road game underneath his belt, make it a victory, and now improve from here.”

A positive development for the Hurricanes before the end of a pretty disappointing year one for Mario Cristobal. Maybe they really have something in Brown.