What’s wrong with Van Dyke? Is it Garcia time? Miami faces tough QB questions on bye week

The one championship-level piece Mario Cristobal knew — or, apparently, thought he knew — he had in place when he took over as the Miami Hurricanes’ coach late last year was his quarterback. A year ago, Tyler Van Dyke took the Atlantic Coast Conference by storm when he finished the regular season with six straight games of at least 300 passing yards and three passing touchdowns, winning ACC Rookie of the Year and putting himself firmly on scouts’ radars as a potential early-round pick in the 2023 NFL Draft.

The one thing Cristobal figured he’d never have to do in Year 1 back at his alma mater was bench this once-ascendant star. In the third quarter of Miami’s stunning 45-31 loss to the Middle Tennessee Blue Raiders on Saturday, he did, turning to Jake Garcia in hopes the redshirt freshman could spark a comeback at Hard Rock Stadium.

Only four weeks into the Cristobal era, the Hurricanes’ quarterback situation is somehow back at Stage 1, where the issue coaches face is just finding one guy capable of doing the job.

Van Dyke finished the Hurricanes’ loss 16 of 32 for 138 yards, one touchdown and one interception, but the performance was really even worse than the final stat line suggested. The sophomore threw interceptions on his first two passes and Middle Tennessee ran the second one back for a touchdown, continued to misfire on throws down the field and, even though Miami (2-2) trailed 17-3 in the first quarter, he only even attempted three passes at least 20 yards past the line of scrimmage, according to Pro Football Focus.

Garcia finished the loss marginally better at 10 of 19 for 169 yards, but the final stat line, of course, doesn’t tell his full story, either. The backup quarterback led a touchdown drive on his first series, launched deep passes on about 65 percent of his attempts and made the best throw of the day when he hit wide receiver Key’Shawn Smith over the shoulder for a 39-yard gain.

What’s wrong with Van Dyke?

The circumstances of this specific situation — with Garcia entering with the Hurricanes already down 31-10 — will make it so Miami’s coaches can’t solely make their quarterback judgment off this one game, but it’s also wrong to suggest this was an outlier for Van Dyke, who’s now just 70 of 118 with 809 yards, four touchdowns, three interceptions and has only the 98th best passer rating in the country.

“Scheme change,” Cristobal said, as he began to try to explain why Van Dyke has regressed so badly. “Over 65 percent of his receiving production is gone and then an injury to Xavier [Restrepo] is having us get all the guys that are working hard to get better, so we’ve got to do a better job setting him up for success and moving things offensively that allow us to have a more successful, more productive passing game.”

It doesn’t explain all the issues, though. Neither of those two receivers who accounted for more than 65 percent of his production last year — Mike Harley and Charleston Rambo — are on NFL rosters now, so it’s not like he was just being lifted up by transcendent talents. The move from an up-tempo spread to a more pro-style scheme also doesn’t entirely explain the fundamental lack of accuracy and surprising unwillingness to take deep shots.

After Miami’s win against the Southern Miss Golden Eagles on Sept. 10, Van Dyke critiqued his own play, citing some mechanical issues, particularly with his release point, and vowed to clean them up. He also faced some mechanical issues when first pressed into action last season — former offensive coordinator Rhett Lashlee cited some sloppy footwork in some of Van Dyke’s early games last year — and was able to fix them to go on his historic season-ending run.

Right now, he has less than two weeks to figure things out before the Hurricanes return from their bye week to face the North Carolina Tar Heels next month and he has to do it with a new group of instructors. So far, offensive coordinator Josh Gattis and quarterbacks coach Frank Ponce have not gotten the production out of Van Dyke that everyone knows is possible because they saw it last year.

It doesn’t matter if a new offense will improve other aspects of Miami’s offense. Currently, the Hurricanes’ most valuable offensive asset isn’t playing like a starting-caliber quarterback.

Is it time for Garcia?

The crowd in Miami Gardens certainly felt the same way by halftime last week, when chants for Garcia rained down from the Hurricanes’ faithful.

With 7:55 left in the third quarter, Garcia finally got his shot and gave them reason to cheer, completing back-to-back passes for 23 and 39 yards to lead Miami to a touchdown in just 1:35.

“He provided, certainly, some big plays, threw the ball well, created some opportunities for us to go down there and score,” Cristobal said.

Those first two throws, however, accounted for 37.9% of Garcia’s yardage, although he did complete one more 23-yard pass to Smith on his next drive.

In the small sample size, Garica certainly displayed more confidence than Van Dyke has in the last three weeks in this offense. It also, however, might be something more like hubris — it’s not unusual to see a backup come in and try to make hero-ball plays, only for it to be unsustainable across a longer timeline — and the Hurricanes’ coaches will have to assess this dilemma from all angles.

The case for Van Dyke is he’s a known commodity, who has already proven he can be one of the best quarterbacks in the country. The case for Garcia is he might just be a better fit in this pro-style offense and his ceiling, as a former top-50 prospect in the 247Sports composite rankings, may be just as high — or even higher — than Van Dyke’s.

“At the end of the day, we want big plays. That’s the goal. I feel like Jake went out there and he gave us that,” offensive lineman Jakai Clark said Saturday. “Some of that we tried early on, but we didn’t connect. That’s not on Tyler. That’s just the game of football.”

Miami-UNC game time, channel

Miami’s next game against North Carolina on Oct. 8 will kick off at 4 p.m. in South Florida and air on ESPN2, the ACC announced.

The Hurricanes are off this weekend with their lone bye week of the season.