Canes Convos: St. Louis on O-Line struggles, Jordan adjusting well to college game

Stefan Adams
8 min read
According to senior LT Tyree St. Louis, coming off a bye week and some quality practices has the team feeling more confident heading into the Boston College game.

“Well, after taking a good break it’s always a great time to come back and get work in,” St. Louis said. “The main thing that can happen is, when we take breaks some teams come back kind of slow, not everyone is on the same key, but we definitely picked it up here and we did good these last few days.”

Despite having struggles at times, St. Louis believes his line has still played well overall. Has the line played up to its standard?

“Yes, we have,” St. Louis said. “But there are definitely a lot of games, a lot of moments, where we didn’t do as good as we can do. Granted, we’re not perfect, but we have to be perfect with the O-Line.”

Senior QB Malik Rosier will again take the first snap behind center on Friday night at Boston College, but St. Louis said he was one to make sure to uplift Rosier’s spirits after he got benched previously.

“We look aside from the football aspect, he’s not just a quarterback, he is also a player and one of our great friends,” St. Louis said. “So whether we are all starters, or second team, or third team, it doesn’t matter what level you are playing at. Someone goes down, loses a job or whatever, it doesn’t mean you are not on the team anymore or that we don’t care about you anymore, it’s just that at that moment the next person is up and we still have your back.”

What does Rosier bring to the table that is different from the other options at QB?

“It’s definitely a lot of experience,” St. Louis said. “This is his fifth year here. It’s my fourth year playing with him and second year as a starter, so just the experience he has. He has pretty good leadership, as all the other quarterbacks do, just he is a bit different because he has been here, he knows all the guys, he knows all the calls, he knows everything.

“The offense flows a little bit better, just because of the experience that he has. Whether it be making the calls, or getting things lined up, or hitting certain targets, things just flow a little easier.”

After the UVA loss, Miami pretty much has to win-out to take the ACC Coastal crown again. For the remainder of the season, St. Louis feels a “one game at a time” approach is best, and the Canes won’t be overlooking anybody else in 2018.

“We’re not basing our team on the ACC championship, we’re basing it on the very next game,” St. Louis said. “So we’re taking it one game at a time. Trying to focus on getting to Charlotte or to a big bowl game will be out of the question if we don’t handle each game.”


**Freshman TE Brevin Jordan has been a bright spot on a struggling Miami offense, as he leads the team in catches with 18 in his rookie season.

“Since I’ve been here, I’ll say the biggest adjustment has been blocking bigger defensive ends,” Jordan said. “They’re going to get me right. I have adjusted pretty smoothly to it. Overall, being a better tight end: blocking, route running, just every aspect of being a tight end. It’s such a hard position to just hop in, especially as a freshman to do. Overall, I think I have done pretty good so far.”

According to Jordan, Miami’s loss to UVA was preceded by a down week in practice, but that this week has been a complete 180 on Greentree.

“We didn’t have the best week of practice (before UVA),” Jordan said. “We had to stop in the middle and do up-downs. So, this week we came out and did pretty well.”

How important was it to see the Miami offense come out and practice well since the Virginia loss?

“We needed it really bad. That loss to Virginia, it kind of fell on our shoulders,” Jordan said. “The defense held them to less than 200 yards, three turnovers, and the offense didn’t show up, we didn’t come to perform.”

Jordan has been catching passes from multiple QB’s this season and this week against Boston College will see Malik Rosier return to the starting lineup. That doesn’t mean Jordan’s lost any confidence in N’Kosi Perry, though, and his main focus is going out and winning games with a full team effort.

“I don’t mind it, I have faith in N’Kosi and Malik,” Jordan said. “I have faith...that they are going to get us a 'W.' At the end of the day, whoever is in, I just want them to lead us to a 'W.' It doesn’t matter to me.”

On Rosier: “Malik, he’s so smart. Malik knows all of his reads. I have a lot of faith in Malik that he won’t throw poor reads. Malik, he’s that guy. Malik and Kosi, I have faith in both of them.”

Is there a difference between the two QB’s?

"Whoever is in, we see them in, we're like `Hey, let's go ball out,'" Jordan said. "Our job is to make them feel comfortable at the end of the day, not for them to make us feel comfortable."

When told it would be in the 30’s at Boston College on Friday night, Jordan didn’t seem too concerned.

“30’s? Who cares? We’re going to go out there and play football,” Jordan said. “It’s cool. We’re going to go there and are not going to wear no sleeves, no tights, we’re going to ball out.”

This Friday when the Canes come to town is BC's annual “Red Bandanna” game, played in honor of former Boston College lacrosse player Welles Crowther. Crowther died trying to save people in the World Trade Center on 9/11, and the people he saved remembered his red bandanna he wore. The game holds an emotional significance for the BC community and, as a result, Rosier knows the atmosphere of this game will be just a little more charged up on Friday.

“I heard that 9/11, a student that went to Boston College was wearing a red bandanna and saved 15 people,” Jordan said. “That’s pretty cool, a big deal, so they’re going to come to the game juiced. But we’re going to go there ready to play.”


**Sophomore WR Mike Harley agrees that Miami has had a great week of practice.

“We need to just be consistent on a daily basis," Harley said. "The offense has dominated the week so far on Sunday, Monday and Tuesday - we look good so we want to have a great game this week.”

What has Harley seen as the issues on the offensive side of the ball?

“Quarterback standpoint, their jobs - getting the ball there, reading their progressions,” Harley said. “The offensive line is picking up the blitz. Receivers, running backs the same thing. We’re all on the same page so far.”

How quickly Miami has put the Virginia loss behind them will be a key factor in this week's game against BC, as Miami most likely needs to win-out to earn a spot in the ACC Championship Game.

“We need to win all of them,” Harley said. “This is another game on the schedule that we need to win to move on past the negativity of the loss that we took two weeks ago. It’s something we need to do, another `W.’”

At the same time, Harley says the team feels no added pressure, because they always expect to win anyways.

“There’s no pressure, man, no pressure,” Harley said. “We have to come out every day, win out here (in practice), travel and win there, or travel at Hard Rock and win there. There’s nothing to it.”

Malik Rosier will return to the starting QB role this week vs. BC, but Harley actually had the best on-field connection with N'Kosi Perry. Harley said he was one of the first people to reach out to Perry after the benching and has been giving him encouragement.

“N’Kosi is a great guy,” Harley said. “He’s really strong. My pops shoots him a good morning text, my mom called him last week when she heard about the news. We’re all brothers, man. I picked him up, everyone picks him up. N’Kosi is ready, whenever his name gets called he’ll go in and do what he does.”
 

Comments (43)

Despite having struggles at times, St. Louis believes his line has still played well overall. Has the line played up to its standard?

“Yes, we have,” St. Louis said.
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St. Louis must have the same standards as I do at the bar at 3am.
 
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I said it back in the offseason when this offense started talking about "3-headed monster" and that Rosier and the line looked vastly improved. Offseason hype is exactly what it is - hype. It's a shame that we're starting to talk about lackadaisical practices, especially from the offensive side of the ball where they haven't warranted any notion that complacency would set in. That's something I'd expect from the defensive side of the ball given their performance this year, not the offense.
 
Have they played up to what standard? That seems pretty subjective. Maybe their standard is a very low standard.
 
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“The offense flows better with Rosier.”

Word, St. Louis, because Rosier definitely had us “flowing” during UVA. I mean give me a break.
 
It’s like they don’t even watch film . Not that they should need to to know they’ve been getting they *** whipped

They should know right at the moment they are going *** over tea kettle 4 yards in the backfield
 
whelp the good old practice has been great this week story...... we know how this ends...
 
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@Stefan Adams, do you keep a straight face when you get some of these answers? This one with St Louis, yesterday with Thomas Brown. What in the actual fvck is happening to our team?
 
What has Harley seen as the issues on the offensive side of the ball?

“Quarterback standpoint, their jobs - getting the ball there, reading their progressions,” Harley said.

That, my friends, is a pretty telling statement...
 
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@Stefan Adams, do you keep a straight face when you get some of these answers? This one with St Louis, yesterday with Thomas Brown. What in the actual fvck is happening to our team?

“What in the actual ****” is one of my least favorite terms
 
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