Miami’s 2023 Passing Attack Must Improve Its Production From Last Season

The air raid offense will be counted on to bolster Miami’s passing game.

The 2022 Miami passing offense was a roller coaster.

After looking at Tyler Van Dyke and then Jacurri Brown, heading into the start of spring practice today, a broader overall look at Miami’s passing game was needed.

After taking a very deep dive into the statistics, there were some bad numbers, and some pretty good ones as well, despite what some may have otherwise believed.

There’s a reason that head coach Mario Cristobal made a change at the offensive coordinator position.

Can Miami’s passing attack rebound with offensive coordinator Shannon Dawson instituting the air raid offense?

Spring ball starts on Saturday, so the transition begins soon. Before that happens, here’s a look back at the raw passing numbers from last season.

The number in parenthesis is Miami’s national FBS ranking.

First off, the Hurricanes’ third down conversions, regardless of running or passing, was just 40% (55).

For a program of Miami’s magnitude, that’s low. The big-play passing numbers – listed directly below – helped to define why the always important overall third down conversions were below what was expected. Too often, the Hurricanes had to fight their way down the field by converting too many third downs; that’s hard to do drive after drive.

Miami needed more big plays, as the following statistics suggested:

Passing Plays of 20 or more yards: 25 (101).

Passing plays of 30 or more yards: 14 (92).

Passing plays of 40 or more yards: 4 (117).

Here’s a look at third down numbers for each of Van Dyke and Brown from an individual perspective.

Van Dyke hit 31 of 46 passes for 67.4% and 394 yards. He did not throw a touchdown or interception on third down.

When Brown was in the lineup on third down, he went 8 of 13 for 61.5%, 73 yards, 1 touchdown and 1 interception. For such a young player, and one that did not have a full contingent of skill players with a plethora of injuries around him, Brown was solid.

On a positive note, the red zone passing was usually good when Van Dyke was in the lineup. He went 19 of 33 for 57.6%, 163 yards, 9 touchdowns and just 1 interception. It’s ironic that Van Dyke was able to hit so many third down touchdown passes (he played in 9 games) in the red zone and did not throw a single touchdown on third down. 

While limited in opportunities, Brown was 3 for 3, 16 yards, two touchdowns and no interceptions. Does not get any better than that. The interception totals were mixed.

Van Dyke was picked off 5 times from 253 attempts, for 2% of the time. That’s a fairly normal number. Brown had a significantly higher interception rate by throwing 3 interceptions from 45 passes, for 6.7%. When it was crunch time in the fourth quarter, Miami had some of its biggest passing struggles. 

Van Dyke was 32 of 55 for 58.2%, 317 yards, 1 touchdown and 1 interception. His completion percentage was its lowest in the fourth quarter. Part of that was Miami having to throw the football while being down, but it’s still lower than what it probably should have been.

Meanwhile, Brown was 5 of 9 for 55.6%, 35 yards, 1 touchdown and 1 interception. He did not receive many chances to throw in the final quarter of games, so it’s harder to truly evaluate his numbers.

There are numerous other areas that Miami’s passing attack could be discussed heading into spring ball. Moving forward, there needs to be one key component that defines the passing game.

Consistency.

The Hurricanes were too up and down with throwing the football last season. If the Canes have a passing attack opposing defenses have to respect, Miami’s record will significantly improve in 2023.

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