Every program in America has the same week right now. Names drop, timelines refresh, and fan bases decide in real time whether each departure is a crisis or a cleanup. Miami got its biggest name this week: Tyler Van Dyke is in the transfer portal. Don Chaney Jr., Corey Flagg and Jafari Harvey are going too.
Here’s my take, and I’m sticking to it: none of those exits will decide what the Hurricanes look like in 2024. Losing players isn’t the test. The test is the one quarterback decision Mario Cristobal has to make in the next few weeks, plus whether this staff can finally fix the two position groups that kept letting Miami down in the 2023 season.
Stop Grading the Departures
Think of roster turnover the way the NFL thinks about free agency. Players come and go. What matters is whether you lose someone who actually changes games, and an honest look at this group says Miami didn’t.
Jafari Harvey started five games in four years. That’s not a cornerstone, that’s depth. Corey Flagg never won over the fan base. Don Chaney Jr. is the name with the most history, but his exit clears space in a backfield where Mark Fletcher and Chris Johnson are already climbing the depth chart. When the room behind you is pushing up, a departure is a promotion for someone else.
Then there’s Van Dyke. Plenty of Canes fans felt something closer to relief than heartbreak when that news broke, and that tells you how the quarterback situation has felt for a while. You don’t have to bash a kid who gave this program years to admit the marriage had run its course. Both sides needed a fresh start.
So let’s be done arguing about who left. That part is over, and Miami mostly came out fine. The real question is who’s coming in.
The Quarterback Is the Whole Ballgame
With Van Dyke gone, Miami needs a quarterback from the portal. Not a project and not a camp competition. A guy.
The early wishlist from the fan side starts with Texas’s Malik Murphy, with Mississippi State’s Will Rogers as the fallback. Those are two very different bets, and the choice says a lot about how Miami sees itself.
Going after a Murphy-type means betting on upside and building around a younger arm with room to grow. Going after a Rogers-type means betting on experience: a guy who has taken a lot of SEC snaps and won’t flinch in a hostile stadium. Neither is wrong. Picking the wrong one for this roster would be.
Look at what’s already in place. The offensive line came out of 2023 as the group fans felt best about. When your front five is the strength, you don’t need a quarterback who creates magic out of chaos. You need one who takes what a clean pocket gives him, gets the ball out on time, and doesn’t hand the game away. That should shape the search more than any highlight reel.
Get this hire right and 2024 has a real floor. Get it wrong and Miami is back in the same conversation a year from now, just with a different last name.
The Jacurri Brown Wrinkle
The most interesting quarterback story at Miami right now might be the one that never showed up on a box score.
Word is that Jacurri Brown is staying. According to what’s going around, Cristobal, offensive coordinator Shannon Dawson and Brown’s father agreed during the season to rebuild his mechanics instead of throwing him onto the field. Think about how unusual that is. In an era when a young quarterback who isn’t playing usually heads for the portal at the first chance, Miami’s staff and a player’s family sat down and agreed on a development plan. And the player stuck with it.
That counts for something, and it changes the portal math. If Brown is truly a work in progress who bought into the rebuild, Miami isn’t shopping for a two-year bridge to nowhere. It’s shopping for a starter who can win now while Brown keeps developing behind him. That pushes the decision toward the experienced, steady option over a pure upside swing. You don’t want two projects in the same room.
It also tells you something about Cristobal as a program builder. People can say a lot about his game management, and they do. But keeping a young quarterback in the fold with a real plan and family buy-in is old-school roster building that doesn’t always get credit.
Fix the D’s or None of It Matters
Now the uncomfortable part. Fan grades on the 2023 position groups gave a D to the tight ends and a D to the secondary. Those are two different problems, and both can sink a season no matter who’s under center.
The tight end grade hits the quarterback search directly. Whoever Miami brings in, especially a steady game manager, needs a safety valve over the middle. A quarterback without a dependable tight end is a quarterback holding the ball too long, and that wastes the offensive line Miami has worked so hard to build. If the portal plan is “get a QB” and stops there, it’s half a plan.
The secondary is the other headache. A D grade on the back end means explosive plays given up, third downs that don’t get off the field, and close games that slip away late. Miami has to treat the defensive backfield as a portal priority right next to quarterback, not something to handle after.
There’s good news on the defensive front. Akheem Mesidor is expected back for one more year despite his injury. A proven pass rusher returning makes life easier for every corner and safety on the roster, because the less time quarterbacks have, the less a shaky secondary gets exposed. Pair Mesidor with even two real additions in the back end and the defense looks very different in 2024.
The C Grade Is a Warning, Not a Verdict
Fans gave Cristobal a C for this season. Not an F and not a firing-squad grade. A C means average, and at Miami average has never been the standard. This program built its name on rings, swagger and dominance, not bowl eligibility.
But a C also means there’s a path up. The offensive line is solid. The running back room is growing from within. Mesidor is coming back. A young quarterback is being developed on purpose. Those are the bones of a team that can make a real jump in 2024, if the coaching staff gets the next few weeks right.
That’s why the exits don’t scare me. Losing a backup corner, a linebacker the fans never warmed to, a veteran back and a quarterback whose time was up isn’t a crisis. It’s a reset. Every name that walked out freed up a roster spot, and those spots are only worth anything if Miami fills them with the right people.
So here’s the checklist for Canes fans this offseason. One: land a quarterback who fits this offensive line and doesn’t block Jacurri Brown’s development. Two: bring in real help at tight end so that quarterback has someone to throw to. Three: rebuild the secondary so Mesidor’s pass rush means something. Do all three and that C turns into a B fast. Miss on the quarterback and nothing else on the list matters.
The portal isn’t something that happens to Miami. It’s a tool, and how this staff uses it is the next grade we’ll all be giving.
This take grew out of this week’s milestone 200th episode of U Talk Live, where the panel tracked portal news as it broke and went position by position on the Canes.
This take grew out of the November 28, 2023 episode — watch it here: Miami Hurricanes U TALK LIVE-200