Quarterback Emory Williams will miss the remainder of the season after sustaining a left arm injury and Tyler Van Dyke will regain his starting role this week against No. 11 Louisville, head coach Mario Cristobal announced on Monday.
CORAL GABLES, Fla. — Quarterback Emory Williams will miss the remainder of the season after sustaining a left arm injury and Tyler Van Dyke will regain his starting role this week against No. 11 Louisville, head coach Mario Cristobal announced on Monday.
“Emory is doing well,” Cristobal said. “He had a significant injury on Saturday. He’s doing great. He’ll be full-go for spring practice and he’s a tough guy. This means a lot to him. He has the full support of his teammates. I saw him this morning and will see him here in a little bit. I’m proud of him for his effort and proud of him for the way he handled everything from the week itself, the game itself and dealing with the circumstances. He’s never had a bad day.”
Williams, a true freshman, made his fifth appearance and second start against No. 4 Florida State on Saturday and completed 8 of 23 passes for 185 yards and two touchdowns in a 27-20 loss. He was injured late in the fourth quarter when scrambling for a first down and coming down awkwardly on his arm when reaching for a first down.
”I thought he handled it great, poised,” offensive coordinator Shannon Dawson said. “His pocket presence was great. Every thing about his actions on the sidelines was extremely positive. There’s always things you wish you could have done like I thought we could have hit a couple over the middle, but I thought over the course of the game he continued to battle.”
His season ends with 470 yards and three touchdowns and one interception on 62.0-percent (44 of 71) passing and a 128.7 passing efficiency rating. He was 1-1 as a starter.
Van Dyke was replaced as the starter against Florida State for his struggles—10 turnovers in his previous four games. He will make his ninth start of the season in the home finale on Saturday (12:00 p.m., ABC).
“Tyler is going to be the starting quarterback going in,” Cristobal said. “Jacurri (Brown) is going to compete and get a lot of reps and he’s a really good player.”
Van Dyke has thrown for 2,086 yards and 16 touchdowns with 12 interceptions on 67-percent passing. His 145.8 rating ranks fifth in the ACC.
“Being the quarterback at Miami, you’ve got to be tough,” Cristobal said. “You’ve got to have thick skin. You’ve got to be a competitor and he’s all of that. He handled last week like a pro, which means disappointed, upset, really fought hard all week and it was a great week of practice by both guys (Van Dyke and Williams) and at the end of the week I felt like we made a lot of progress. I felt like as a staff and the players we did a better job of putting things together knowing it was going to be a difficult team to move the ball against a team that has been tough to throw against. Because of last week, because of his determination, his past success–that’s what your job is as a coach, it is to provide clarify, remove the clutter and make people better. He has done really, really well and he’s handled everything really well. He has the confidence of his teammates and the coaching staff.”
Jacurri Brown assumes the role as the backup behind Van Dyke as the only other scholarship quarterback in the roster. Brown has not played this season after playing in eight games with two starts last year, totally 453 yards and three touchdowns.
“He has developed in a lot of different ways as it relates to–everybody talks about he’s a good athlete, but he’s developed as a passer,” Cristobal said. “What I mean by that is going through his progressions, being accurate with the football, understanding the offense, understanding how to get us in and out of plays, understanding the protections because with extending plays some of it is natural, but some of it is understanding that we’re in a rough spot, but if I can hang in there and use my eyes to pull this particular defender out so I can flatten out, extend, or get the ball downfield. He continues to evolve in that way.
“He played last year and the whole thought going into this year was with Tyler being the quarterback it was trying to find a way to preserve a redshirt if we could, it would be great for all of us because he has such a bright future here at Miami. Then the last couple of weeks were muddy and Emory received a lot of the preparation time so that’s the route we went to. He continues to get better and better. He has natural leadership skills, you saw some of that last year in the Georgia Tech game both running and throwing the football, improvising, extending plays and he’ll be doing that all week in practice. He’s very much competing and working really hard.”
Miami (6-4, 2-4 ACC) has two games left in the regular season, which concludes at Boston College on Nov. 24, and a third game with the bowl game.
Louisville (9-1, 6-1, No. 9 AP) can clinch a spot in the ACC Championship game for the first time with a win.
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