It didn't take long for Jordan Lyle to break into Miami's running back rotation. The #1 high school back in the nation according to on3, Lyle spoke to reporters about his quick start and first career touchdown:
On scoring a TD : I thank God and my teammates. The O-line kind of carried me in there. We've been busting our behinds all week. All my thanks go to God and the O-line.
On pass protection: I’ve been practicing pass protection since high school. It was a big thing in high school (at St. Thomas Aquinas). It transitioned into college with Coach Merritt and Coach Dub (Benedick Hyppolite). They've been helping me out with the pass protections. And I do some extra work after practice to ensure that I'm able to block those people.
On running backs he emulated: I want to have my own style, but guys I did look up to were Le'Veon Bell, Saquon Barkley, Reggie Bush. I like watching those guys. Their highlights were incredible. Hopefully, I can get a highlight like that, too.
On the running back room: The whole running back room is incredibly talented. You can start off by the young guys like [Chris Wheatley-Hunphrey]. He is a great running back. You’ve got Damien Martinez. You’ve got Mark Fletcher. You’ve got Chris Johnson. Yo ‘ve got Ajay Allen. And you even got walk-on guys like T-Wall (Terrell Walden II). So everybody's talented. Everybody's great. Everybody's really smart at the game. Everybody's helping each other out. We're picking little things from everybody's game, and we're including it in our own game.
On the last two weeks: It’s been rough with us working hard. We work hard every single day. I feel like these past two weeks, we picked up the intensity. We knew what we had to do in order to make it far this season. Leaders like Cam and Xavier Restrepo and guys on the defensive side like Rueben Bain and Wes [Bissainthe], they made it easy for us younger guys to pick up and just keep moving in their steps.
On Cam Ward: He's incredibly talented. He's probably one of the first quarterbacks I ran into that's this talented. It's hard to see guys like that. In practice every day, he's a hard worker, trash talker. I like him because he can trash talk. He works hard.
He's just great with everybody. He's great with his environment. He doesn't treat anyone lower than what they are. Everybody's equal to him.
On his 19th birthday: We celebrated with nice little touchdown and [my family] being here. The fans, my family, everybody wishing me a happy birthday, it's the biggest blessing.
On scoring a TD : I thank God and my teammates. The O-line kind of carried me in there. We've been busting our behinds all week. All my thanks go to God and the O-line.
On pass protection: I’ve been practicing pass protection since high school. It was a big thing in high school (at St. Thomas Aquinas). It transitioned into college with Coach Merritt and Coach Dub (Benedick Hyppolite). They've been helping me out with the pass protections. And I do some extra work after practice to ensure that I'm able to block those people.
On running backs he emulated: I want to have my own style, but guys I did look up to were Le'Veon Bell, Saquon Barkley, Reggie Bush. I like watching those guys. Their highlights were incredible. Hopefully, I can get a highlight like that, too.
On the running back room: The whole running back room is incredibly talented. You can start off by the young guys like [Chris Wheatley-Hunphrey]. He is a great running back. You’ve got Damien Martinez. You’ve got Mark Fletcher. You’ve got Chris Johnson. Yo ‘ve got Ajay Allen. And you even got walk-on guys like T-Wall (Terrell Walden II). So everybody's talented. Everybody's great. Everybody's really smart at the game. Everybody's helping each other out. We're picking little things from everybody's game, and we're including it in our own game.
On the last two weeks: It’s been rough with us working hard. We work hard every single day. I feel like these past two weeks, we picked up the intensity. We knew what we had to do in order to make it far this season. Leaders like Cam and Xavier Restrepo and guys on the defensive side like Rueben Bain and Wes [Bissainthe], they made it easy for us younger guys to pick up and just keep moving in their steps.
On Cam Ward: He's incredibly talented. He's probably one of the first quarterbacks I ran into that's this talented. It's hard to see guys like that. In practice every day, he's a hard worker, trash talker. I like him because he can trash talk. He works hard.
He's just great with everybody. He's great with his environment. He doesn't treat anyone lower than what they are. Everybody's equal to him.
On his 19th birthday: We celebrated with nice little touchdown and [my family] being here. The fans, my family, everybody wishing me a happy birthday, it's the biggest blessing.
