Brian Smith and Alex Donno explain the complexities and pros and cons of Miami making a possible change at starting quarterback this week.
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00:00 If you can get the best version of Tyler Van Dyke, like the September version of him, that
00:04 would be the guy that gives you the best chance of beating the Seminoles.
00:07 The problem is we haven't seen that version of him in over a month.
00:11 So the biggest nightmare for Hurricane fans would be you trot out Van Dyke like nothing's
00:16 changed.
00:17 He has another three interception game and Miami gets destroyed against Florida State.
00:22 You've also noted that making a quarterback change, especially for a game like this, it's
00:27 a complicated thing for a college football team to do.
00:29 What goes into that and do you think Miami might be doing that this week?
00:35 Here's the disconnect.
00:36 Fans look at it from a long-term perspective.
00:39 Their only objective by and large is when do we win a national title?
00:43 It's just a one-prong simplistic thing.
00:46 Well, coaching is not that way, especially when it comes to the quarterback position,
00:50 a thousand reps between that signal caller and his primary receiver is just a drop in
00:55 the bucket.
00:57 You can't possibly get enough reps even for him, let alone number two and number three
01:01 being Brown and Williams, whoever is number two or three, whatever it is, you can't do
01:06 it.
01:07 So that's a huge conundrum.
01:08 And then there's the signals and then there's all the chemistry with the offensive line
01:12 making checks.
01:13 It's a nightmare to do even before the season.
01:16 Like if you see a big change in fall camp, one guy just gets better.
01:19 You used to have a little chance in the middle of a year.
01:22 I mean, you're, you're throwing caution to the wind and this isn't my opinion.
01:26 This is from talking to college coaches.
01:28 So they know how hard it is on top of that.
01:32 And this is the one that is touchy and it's sentimental.
01:35 It's subjective.
01:37 It's the locker room, especially those junior seniors and fifth year seniors.
01:41 Do you really think they care about hearing about next?
01:44 They put on all those pads and done all that workout stuff for hours and hours every day,
01:50 weeks, months, and years.
01:53 And now you're saying you're planning for, you know, basically the future.
01:56 How well do you think that goes over?
01:57 I've had a lot of coaches talk to me about that as well.
02:00 It's a nightmare because you can lose a team really quick, especially like captains and
02:05 key guys.
02:06 You think about Matt Lee, he transfers in, he's, this is his last year.
02:10 Tell him that you're going to go to a different guy all of a sudden that he, you know, like
02:14 Tyler was there to meet him when he visited Miami.
02:17 There are connections there and personalities that are just connected to Tyler, whether
02:22 the Miami fans want to hear it or not.
02:24 And that is very complex.
02:26 So if Mario pulls the plug, especially to start the game, it's one thing that goes out
02:30 and it's just, he plays terrible by halftime.
02:32 It is what it is.
02:33 You know, you make the change at half, but like before the game, there are a lot of possible
02:38 bad things that can happen with your roster.
02:41 So that that's rough.
02:43 And I just don't know if fans understand it from that perspective or want to, because
02:47 they want to win now I get it, but because he's playing so bad, they also want to hear
02:51 about the future.
02:53 And Emory's not a guarantee in either.
02:55 There's a lot of, a lot of problems there, but I guess like my counterpoint to that with
02:59 what you're saying about the locker room is I think it could be just as bad or even worse.
03:04 If you keep starting the quarterback who has been like single handedly.
03:09 Yeah, obviously.
03:10 And I want to make this clear.
03:11 I also think the offensive play calling could be, could be better and a lot more creative.
03:17 And I will also point out that Shannon Dawson is not only the offensive coordinator, he
03:20 is the quarterback's coach.
03:22 So it is his job to get Tyler Van Dyke prepared to play these games.
03:26 He's not looked prepared in recent weeks.
03:28 How much of that is on him?
03:30 Probably most of it, but I think some of it goes on Dawson as well, but at the same time
03:34 with how much Van Dyke has been struggling, if you keep playing him and he keeps playing
03:39 the way he's been playing for the last month, doesn't that then also risk like, cause couldn't
03:44 might the locker room be like, man, we're still any other position.
03:48 This guy's play guy.
03:49 He gets benched by now.
03:50 Like if I'm a running back, I fumble a couple of times.
03:52 I get benched, right?
03:54 If I, if I miss a couple of blocks on the offensive line, I'm getting benched.
03:57 Might the locker room look at it that way.
03:59 You could lose them if you keep playing him.
04:02 There's part of that, but I think most football players, especially the upperclassmen understand
04:08 that quarterback's different, like their reps and what they got to go through.
04:13 A fumble is huge, but like to get to the point to be the starting quarterback, the amount
04:17 of work and the effort with the playbook and knowing everybody else's assignment.
04:20 If you're the QB, you got to know where everybody is, not just you.
04:24 You know, I used to have a buddy that was an offensive lineman that played big time
04:27 football and he said, only thing I got to know is like what assignment they want.
04:30 I don't, I don't pay attention to anything else.
04:32 I'm like, wow, that's pretty simple.
04:35 It's not that way of quarterback, man.
04:37 So unfortunately you're going to take some people off either way.
04:41 Yeah.
04:42 There is not a 100% good answer here.
04:43 [BLANK_AUDIO]