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For the second part of the LB season recap, we will take a look at the highlights and lowlights of the year. I will also leave you with a quick outlook for the 2018 season.
Highlight: Duke
The top two tacklers in this game were LB’s Michael Pinckney and Shaquille Quarterman, with 10 and 9 total tackles, respectively. The defense as a whole was dominant in this contest, allowing only 6 points all game, but the LB group was the catalyst for the success. Pinckney had his first truly great game in Durham and set the tone for the rest of the year with 1 sack and 1.5 TFL’s. Darrion Owens also added 4 tackles and 2 TFL’s.
Lowlight: Pittsburgh
This game was the lowlight of the entire season, and the LB’s played a part as well, over-pursing, losing contain on the QB and just downright poor tackling. The numbers for the LB unit looked fine, with Zach McCloud and Shaquille Quarterman combining for 18 tackles on the day, but from the LB’s that was about it. We won’t dive into this game right now because we all saw it and yeah, it was a rough day.
2018 Outlook
Miami returns every major contributor for 2018 (unless you consider transfer Darrion Owens in this category) and adds in highly thought-of redshirt freshman Waynmon Steed, who could have a great chance to crack the rotation this year. The Canes also flipped and then signed Patrick Joyner from FSU and he comes in looking for early snaps as well. Our LB ROY De’Andre Wilder returns for his sophomore year along with Bradley Jennings. The three starters: Pinckney, Quarterman, and McCloud are all primed to retain their starting spots, but not without resistance from others. Charles Perry is coming off of injury, but he is a more than serviceable backup along with Mike Smith. With added development and experience, the LB spot looks good to go in 2018 and should once again be a major strength for the team.