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As the Miami Hurricanes return from taking the past two weeks off due to COVID issues, OL coach Garin Justice said on Tuesday that the time off really helped in getting Miami’s OL back to full strength.
“We’re probably the most healthy we’ve been since UAB line-wise,” OL coach Garin Justice said. “We had a little bad luck streak before the Virginia Tech game. We’re the healthiest we’ve been overall.”
Head coach Manny Diaz talked in the past about how the offensive line almost didn’t have enough healthy players to play vs. VT in their last game, and Justice echoed that sentiment in saying there was only six available players he trusted against the Hokies; the starting five on the OL ended up playing every snap in the contest.
“Thankfully and lucky for us, we were able to stay healthy and not sustain any injuries that game,” Justice said. “Navaughn (Donaldson) was a guy we had targeted as a sixth man. DJ Scaife knew he’d have to bump out and play tackle (barring injury). Ousman (Traore) knew he’d have to play center if something happened to Corey (Gaynor).”
Donaldson has not yet played this year during his recovery from a knee injury, but he was available on an emergency basis vs. VT and he has been cleared in full ahead of the Duke game this weekend.
"We’re trying to be as careful as we can with Navaughn,” Justice said. “His rehab has been going well, he just got cleared a week and a half, two weeks ago. Like anything, it’s how you do in practice whether he starts or not - it would take him totally blowing away the guys and killing it this week. He’s a guy I would like to slowly mix in the games, get him back because we do think very highly of him. At the same time, we don’t want to put all the load on him and then we’re back to square one. He’s been really good the last couple of weeks before the shutdown.”
If Donaldson does play vs. Duke, you could see him work in at LG, where Ousman Traore started Miami’s last game after regular starter Jakai Clark was out with COVID-related issues.
“Given the circumstance with Ousman - Ousman came off injury on that Thursday (before VT) and was cleared and played the game without practice,” Justice said. “All things given, we’re pretty proud of the effort Ousman gave. It really speaks to Ousman’s capacity mentally to stay engaged even though you start the season as the starting guard, Jakai comes in and takes your place.
“The thing about Jakai, Jakai has been steady since day 1. You know what you’re getting with him. Jakai will always be a factor in what we’re doing. He’s steady, reliable and an all-around good player.”
Does Justice see the OL being further ahead at run blocking or pass protection at this point in the season?
“It depends what game - all in all, I’d like to think we’ve improved them both from last year,” Justice said. “The thing that still has to take off is the run game. We’ve been able to run at times - you look back to the Pitt game, we had the ball I think all but three minutes of the fourth quarter in the Pitt game, were able to run it, keep it out of Pitt’s hands. The NC State game we were able to run the ball, ice the game running the ball. There have been times we’ve been good here or there, have shown flashes, but we’re not as consistent in either phase.
“The reasons we’ve been more productive pass protection wise, the run game has to be a lot of guys working together on the same page. Once it clicks, it’s going to click. Unfortunately, it hasn’t clicked like we want to yet.”
Looking ahead to next season’s roster, Justice says he anticipates current senior starting RT Jarrid Williams going pro, while he sees adding Donaldson back after a full year of recovery as being akin to landing a three-year P5 starter in the portal.
“Really that’s Jarrid’s call,” Justice said. “I would think the fact (is) he would try to go (to the NFL). We haven’t had those discussions. He came with a purpose - Jarrid was an older senior as it was. That’ll be his call. If you had to guess, I’d guess he would try and leave.
“The neat thing about Navaughn is we can kind of look at Navaughn as a portal guy - he hasn’t played for us this year yet. If someone could come and say this spring you could add a former high-notch recruit who has 30 plus college starts under his belt to the guys you have, everyone would be excited about that. That’s the way we look at Navaughn, he’s going to be our transfer guy. Outside of that, you never turn down a great player. I don’t know if it’s something we’ll actively try to do. But if great players present themselves, I’m never going to say no to those situations. That’s more of a head coach call. Hopefully Navaughn can be that boost like Jarrid was to us this year.”
Another player from the portal that could contribute on the OL next season is Issiah Walker, who hasn’t played this season due to both medical and transfer eligibility issues.
“We’ve had Issiah some on scout team and he wasn’t eligible to play anyway,” Justice said. “Shows a lot of upside and hopefully this’ll be a great spring for him.”
“We’re probably the most healthy we’ve been since UAB line-wise,” OL coach Garin Justice said. “We had a little bad luck streak before the Virginia Tech game. We’re the healthiest we’ve been overall.”
Head coach Manny Diaz talked in the past about how the offensive line almost didn’t have enough healthy players to play vs. VT in their last game, and Justice echoed that sentiment in saying there was only six available players he trusted against the Hokies; the starting five on the OL ended up playing every snap in the contest.
“Thankfully and lucky for us, we were able to stay healthy and not sustain any injuries that game,” Justice said. “Navaughn (Donaldson) was a guy we had targeted as a sixth man. DJ Scaife knew he’d have to bump out and play tackle (barring injury). Ousman (Traore) knew he’d have to play center if something happened to Corey (Gaynor).”
Donaldson has not yet played this year during his recovery from a knee injury, but he was available on an emergency basis vs. VT and he has been cleared in full ahead of the Duke game this weekend.
"We’re trying to be as careful as we can with Navaughn,” Justice said. “His rehab has been going well, he just got cleared a week and a half, two weeks ago. Like anything, it’s how you do in practice whether he starts or not - it would take him totally blowing away the guys and killing it this week. He’s a guy I would like to slowly mix in the games, get him back because we do think very highly of him. At the same time, we don’t want to put all the load on him and then we’re back to square one. He’s been really good the last couple of weeks before the shutdown.”
If Donaldson does play vs. Duke, you could see him work in at LG, where Ousman Traore started Miami’s last game after regular starter Jakai Clark was out with COVID-related issues.
“Given the circumstance with Ousman - Ousman came off injury on that Thursday (before VT) and was cleared and played the game without practice,” Justice said. “All things given, we’re pretty proud of the effort Ousman gave. It really speaks to Ousman’s capacity mentally to stay engaged even though you start the season as the starting guard, Jakai comes in and takes your place.
“The thing about Jakai, Jakai has been steady since day 1. You know what you’re getting with him. Jakai will always be a factor in what we’re doing. He’s steady, reliable and an all-around good player.”
Does Justice see the OL being further ahead at run blocking or pass protection at this point in the season?
“It depends what game - all in all, I’d like to think we’ve improved them both from last year,” Justice said. “The thing that still has to take off is the run game. We’ve been able to run at times - you look back to the Pitt game, we had the ball I think all but three minutes of the fourth quarter in the Pitt game, were able to run it, keep it out of Pitt’s hands. The NC State game we were able to run the ball, ice the game running the ball. There have been times we’ve been good here or there, have shown flashes, but we’re not as consistent in either phase.
“The reasons we’ve been more productive pass protection wise, the run game has to be a lot of guys working together on the same page. Once it clicks, it’s going to click. Unfortunately, it hasn’t clicked like we want to yet.”
Looking ahead to next season’s roster, Justice says he anticipates current senior starting RT Jarrid Williams going pro, while he sees adding Donaldson back after a full year of recovery as being akin to landing a three-year P5 starter in the portal.
“Really that’s Jarrid’s call,” Justice said. “I would think the fact (is) he would try to go (to the NFL). We haven’t had those discussions. He came with a purpose - Jarrid was an older senior as it was. That’ll be his call. If you had to guess, I’d guess he would try and leave.
“The neat thing about Navaughn is we can kind of look at Navaughn as a portal guy - he hasn’t played for us this year yet. If someone could come and say this spring you could add a former high-notch recruit who has 30 plus college starts under his belt to the guys you have, everyone would be excited about that. That’s the way we look at Navaughn, he’s going to be our transfer guy. Outside of that, you never turn down a great player. I don’t know if it’s something we’ll actively try to do. But if great players present themselves, I’m never going to say no to those situations. That’s more of a head coach call. Hopefully Navaughn can be that boost like Jarrid was to us this year.”
Another player from the portal that could contribute on the OL next season is Issiah Walker, who hasn’t played this season due to both medical and transfer eligibility issues.
“We’ve had Issiah some on scout team and he wasn’t eligible to play anyway,” Justice said. “Shows a lot of upside and hopefully this’ll be a great spring for him.”
