Miami’s Van Dyke had heart-to-heart with Mallory, but QB won’t be talking smack about Pitt

Miami Hurricanes Tyler Van Dyke and Will Mallory had a nice conversation before last Saturday’s game against North Carolina State.

Both had been feeling somewhat insecure with their play — Van Dyke, the second-year freshman backup quarterback thrust into the starting job when lauded veteran D’Eriq King sustained a season-ending shoulder injury; Mallory, the fourth-year junior tight end with big expectations but underwhelming production.

“Will hasn’t started the year how he wanted to,’’ Van Dyke said. “The first couple games I didn’t start how I wanted to. We were just talking. We were like, ‘Let’s go play out there and just have fun. Who cares what the outcome is? If you have fun the result will come.’”

Turns out the results came for both — Van Dyke, with a 25-of-33 (75.7 percent) performance for 325 yards and four touchdowns; and Mallory, with three clutch catches that included the third-quarter touchdown that gave UM a 21-17 lead, and the third-and-16 catch with about two-and-a-half minutes left that allowed UM to run out the clock and secure the 31-30 win.

“I just went out and ripped the ball with confidence,’’ said Van Dyke, who at noon Saturday faces 17th-ranked Pittsburgh (6-1, 3-0 Atlantic Coast Conference), favored at home over the Canes (3-4, 1-2) by nine points.

Mini-firestorm

A week ago, Van Dyke’s words to the Miami media in the same setting set off a mini-firestorm among Wolfpack players who saw the video of him nonchalantly saying that UM had scored 44 points on them last year and if UM came out faster in the first half the Pack couldn’t stop the Canes.

“When we were warming up, the NC State players were saying stuff to me because of what happened last week,’’ Van Dyke said Tuesday. “They kind of got me a little bit mad.”

A reporter jokingly said to Van Dyke that maybe he should predict that the Canes would score 80 against Pitt.

The quarterback smiled.

“No. I’m not going to do that this week.”

What were the NC State players saying?

They said, ‘We’re going to be on your butt the whole game,’ whatever, blah blah blah. Stuff like that,’’ Van Dyke said, adding, when asked, that “the A-word’’ was used instead of “butt.”

“They kept swearing at me, the whole team when they were walking out and we were warming up.

“They took it the wrong way. I didn’t realize they took it like that. It inspired [our] whole team and then it inspired me too. It just gave us a bunch of confidence. I didn’t mean to do that. But it worked out.”

Did Van Dyke, now 70 of 119 for nine touchdowns and three interceptions in five games (the past four of them starts), have some media coaching this week on what not to say before a game?

“I mean, Coach [Manny] Diaz, he’s like, ‘Try not to say anything like that to the media today,’” Van Dyke said, eliciting plenty of laughs. “So yeah, a little bit.”

Mallory’s contribution

As for 6-5, 245-pound Mallory, who missed the spring recovering from shoulder surgery after catching 22 passes for 329 yards behind current Houston Texans rookie Brevin Jordan, he conceded the season has been mentally straining considering “there were a lot of high goals,’’ but that he “can’t really focus on that anymore.’’

“The past is the past,’’ said Mallory, who has 13 catches and last week’s touchdown for 109 yards in seven games. “We had a good game last week, good team win. You gotta keep building on that. ...It was good for the team. It was good for me. I was happy to help the team that way.’’

Van Dyke on Pitt

So, what did Van Dyke say Tuesday about Pitt, a team with the nation’s sixth-ranked conversion percentage defense, stopping opponents about 72 percent of the time; the 21st-ranked rushing defense (109.3 yards allowed per game); the 20th total defense (318.7 average yards allowed) and 26th scoring defense (19.6 points)?

“They’re a really good defense. ...We have to prepare well and we’ll be ready.

“I was always preparing like I was the starter,’’ Van Dyke said of the way the season has unfolded. “The opportunity came. It’s been good so far. I’m getting better each week.

“It’s pretty cool that happened,’’ he added of the national attention he got by ESPN and other media after last week’s comments. “But none of that stuff matters. You just gotta get better each week and play with confidence and get that win.”