Five-star Miami freshman Okunlola to miss rest of season. And more injury news

Freshman offensive tackle Samson Okunlola will miss the rest of the season after sustaining an unspecified injury, the Miami Herald confirmed through a source.

Okunlola was one of two five-star tackles to sign with the Miami Hurricanes as part of their vaunted Class of 2023, and played in three of Miami’s first four games as a reserve and blocking tight end, but will not play again this season. The freshman was listed as the backup left tackle on the Hurricanes’ depth chart.

Okunlola’s season-ending injury was first reported by 247Sports. He was not seen Saturday at the Georgia Tech game.

Mark Fletcher Jr., another highly touted freshman, also did not dress for No. 17 Miami on Saturday due to an injury. The running back first got hurt in the Hurricanes’ upset of then-No. 23 Texas A&M last month and missed Miami’s blowout win against FCS Bethune-Cookman the next week. He returned to play against Temple in the Hurricanes’ last game ahead of the bye week. This week, Fletcher stood on the sideline in street clothes, wearing an almost knee-high boot on his right foot.

Former starting defensive lineman Akheem Mesidor also missed his third straight game with a left-foot injury. He was on the sideline in a warmup suit.

UM tight end Elijah Arroyo also dressed in uniform for the first time in more than a year after tearing an ACL the first month of last season.

Canes debut black neon unis

More than a year has passed since Adidas released news of its all-black, neon-trimmed alternative uniform for the Miami Hurricanes.

Finally, at 8 p.m. Saturday night, the Canes (4-0) will celebrate their first Atlantic Coast Conference game of 2023 by wearing the sleek “Miami Nights’’ unis.

It was August 2022 when Adidas released the uniforms with a “Neon Lights, Miami Nights’’ tweet, accompanied by a 45-second video that showed all black with neon-orange-trimmed jerseys and neon-lime jersey numbers. The black helmets have one thin neon-orange strip and one thin neon-green strip with what appears to be a thick, lighter shade in between. The word Miami is written on the front of the helmet.

There were various games last season when fans believed the all-black uniforms would be worn. One of those games was at Georgia Tech, when the Yellow Jackets had a stadium whiteout. When that didn’t happen, many guessed it would be in the home finale against Pittsburgh. That didn’t happen either.

UM coach Mario Cristobal, a former Hurricane in the team’s heydey, is a fan of tradition and likes orange jerseys and white pants for home games, though the Canes did wear green on Sept. 14 against Bethune-Cookman this season.

Earlier this week, Cristobal, coincidentally wearing all black for UM’s news conference, was asked the process in deciding when the team wears black.

“Those are all behind-the-scene discussion,’’ Cristobal said. “Me wearing all black today is not reflective of that decision. I mean the Johnny Cash look is something that goes on and on all the time. Adidas did a fantastic job with those uniforms. The players wanted to do it. And our leadership council, along with some other players on the team, it’s something they really wanted.

“We have one rule: Make sure when you wear something different, make it look good. Play to the standard. That’s all that matters.’’

Some Hurricanes spoke about the uniforms this week. The one most excited was All-American safety Kamren Kinchens, who will return to the field for the first time in four weeks since a hard-hitting tackle Sept. 9 against Texas A&M hospitalized him over night.

“I would have been too mad if they wore it before I came back,’’ Kinchens said. “It’s an alternate uniform, you know. You only get one time to wear it a year. So I wanted to be a part of it.’’

Fellow safety James Williams likes the black uniforms, but said “at the end of the day the jerseys don’t define how we perform on Saturday.’’

“To me, I don’t really care what we wear. We could wear all white with gray helmets. We could wear all black with silver helmets. We’ve got to go play football to the standard that Coach Cristobal laid out for us.’’

Cornerback Jaden Davis, who played at Oklahoma last year, said, “They’re great.’’

“It’s a nice change up from the orange and white or the green and white. But we still have to go out there and perform. We’re not going to want to wear those black uniforms again if we go out there and lay an egg. The black uniforms are cool to look at, but once that whistle blows, we gotta go out there and perform.”

“I’m excited for the uniform, man,’’ linebacker Kiko Mauigoa, who transferred this season from Washington State.. “We got a little changeup. We’re excited to represent the U, represent the logo. Same thing for Washington State. We had a lot of changeups. I love that we’re wearing all black for a night game.’’

Finally, eighth-year tight end Cam McCormick, who transferred from Cristobal’s former Oregon team, has been used to a lot of uni combos over the years with the Ducks.

“The jersey is a cool thing. I’m excited to wear a different uniform. Obviously, first year out here so everything is a new experience for me. I’m excited to wear it but at the end of the day it’s just a uniform and we gotta go out there and play football.’’

In memoriam

Miami Hurricanes slot receiver Xavier Restrepo, who leads Miami in receiving with 24 catches for 355 yards and two touchdowns, is always driven. But Saturday he was expected to be especially emotional and focused, as he remembered his former Deerfield Beach High teammate and close friend Bryce Gowdy.

Gowdy, a gifted 17-year-old receiver, had earned a scholarship to play for Georgia Tech, but stepped in front of a freight train in Deerfield Beach on Dec. 30, 2019 — a week before classes were to begin. The death was ruled a suicide.

Georgia Tech still keeps No. 7 Gowdy, who would have been a fourth-year junior, on its roster, and Restrepo wears No. 7 and dedicates the annual game to him. Restrepo’s mother Ashley Padgett told the Miami Herald this week that Xavier has the No. 7 Gowdy memoriam T-shirt hanging on the wall above his bed. Restrepo posted multiple messages about Gowdy on social media this week, and has a photo of Gowdy with “2002-2019” above Restrepo’s Twitter-profile photo.

“This game for you 7,’’ Restrepo posted, accompanied by emojis of a heart and cross.

Game captains

The captains for Saturday’s games were, on offense, tight end McCormick and offensive linemen Francis Mauigoa and Anez Cooper; and on defense, linebacker Kiko Mauigoa (Francis’s older brother), and safeties Kamren Kinchens and James Williams. The honorary captain: Miami fullback great and 1987 national champion Mel Bratton.

Recruits

The game was expected to draw dozens of top recruits for various signing classes, including Hollywood Chaminade-Madonna 2024 four-star commit Joshisa Trader and teammate Jeremiah Smith, a 2024 five-star Ohio State commit and Canes target. Also set to be attending among many others was class of 2025 four-star running back Byron Louis out of Plantation American Heritage. Louis is a friend of UM freshman running back Mark Fletcher, who graduated from American Heritage