Miami Hurricanes Week 0 Depth Chart

Before today’s presser, the Hurricanes passed out a packet of information which had their first official two-deep depth chart on it. Here it is:

The first thing that jumps out is that the Hurricanes will be starting two freshman at the tackle spots — true freshman Zion Nelson at LT and redshirt freshman John Campbell at RT.

“Those guys are good players. These guys know they're going to play very hard. Coach Barry, he’s doing a tremendous job of preparing those guys and those guys are going to play well this week and then they're going to continue to improve throughout the season,” Dan Enos said of the two young tackles during today’s presser.

Another thing that stuck out to me, which I asked Manny Diaz about, was having Jeff Thomas, K.J. Osborn, and Deejay Dallas, three cornerstones of the Hurricanes offense, as punt and kick returners.

“There will be starters all over our special teams unit...we’ll rest a guy on first down if we have to. There is a lot better chance to score on kickoff and punt return than there is to score on first down and 10,” Diaz said regarding special teams play.

He also mentioned that Florida plays a lot of starters on special teams as well.

Someone to look out for is Trajan Bandy, who corners coach Mike Rumph said earlier this fall needs to play special teams to become a “complete corner.”

Amari Carter and Gurvan Hall are the two listed starters at safety, and true freshman Te’Cory Couch is listed as Bandy’s backup.

On the defensive line, a position which is still filled with competition, Blake Baker says “regardless of who goes out there first, they're all going to play and that’s something that we’ve preached.

“You might go in there second and end up with more plays than the starter.”

Otherwise, the rotation is looking the way everybody expected it too. Shaq Quarterman, Mike Pinckney, and Romeo Finley make up the linebacking corps, with Finley as striker. Senior Zach McCloud is backing up Pinckney as the Hurricanes outside linebacker.

And one of the biggest surprises is Sam Brooks as Quarterman’s back up at MLB after being a hand-in-the-dirt DE in high school.

“Sam was a terror at Miami Northwestern coming off the edge, but you have to be able to project. And thats something that goes back to the Jimmy Johnson and Howard Schnellenberger days here... Sam is a guy we know can run and when he gets fully developed it’s going to be really impressive to see, but he's already made great gains.” Diaz said of the freshman.

There is still no answering regarding the backup quarterback. N’Kosi Perry and Tate Martell are still battling it out.