Miami Hurricanes receivers coach offers revelation. And key UM player rounding into form

A six-pack of Miami Hurricanes notes on a Friday:

UM receivers coach Rob Likens admitted something this week that you would likely never hear any coach admit during a season:

He didn’t even have six players at his position that he felt comfortable putting in a game last season.

“If we’re in 11 personnel, you have to play six,” Likens told Joe Zagacki on WQAM’s Hurricane Hotline. “Last year, I wasn’t comfortable playing six guys. I do now. I feel like we are going to be able to find six guys who can go out and win for the University of Miami.”

Last year, Likens felt comfortable playing Mike Harley Jr. and two talented but inconsistent players who were juniors in Dee Wiggins and Mark Pope.

He also had Jeremiah Payton and Marshall Few and four freshmen: Michael Redding, Keyshawn Smith, Xavier Restrepo and Daz Worsham. The four freshmen received limited snaps, with Restrepo and Worsham playing the least.

Payton was in and out of the lineup and made little impact (five catches for 35 yards). Few, a former walk-on, caught two passes for 12 yards.

So even though he had nine receivers, Likens couldn’t even find six that he was comfortable putting in the game.

This season, all of those players are back along with Oklahoma transfer Charleston Rambo and freshmen Romello Brinson, Jacolby George and Brashard Smith.

“I have high expectations for all of the freshmen,” Likens said.

Pope and Wiggins each dropped six passes last season, but Likens said: “Both of them have good hands; they have good enough hands to be playing Power 5 college football and at the University of Miami. These guys were inexperienced even though they played in some games.

“The more you do it, the more you have confidence. And with that confidence, there should be a snowball effect. When something negative happens, you cannot allow the snowball effect to go in the other direction. You have to have a plan for that. All human beings are not perfect. Everybody makes mistakes. It’s how you handle those mistakes and the ability to learn from the mistakes.”

Likens made an interesting point about having two former offensive coordinators as offensive position coaches at UM; Likens served in that role at Arizona State and offensive line coach Garin Justice was offensive coordinator at UNLV.

Likens told Zagacki “how much I appreciate and how much of a non-ego [offensive coordinator] Rhett Lashlee has. Two guys who have been OCs [on other staffs]; some guys don’t want that because they’re insecure...

“Coach Lashlee is not like that at all. It’s a huge positive. Hats off to him. My job is to serve him in any capacity so he can do the best job he can do calling plays. Garin Justice has the same mindset so we are able to serve him more than a coach who has never been a coordinator.”

Now more than a year removed from knee surgery, Navaughn Donaldson has looked good in offseason workouts, and he’s a clear favorite for a starting guard spot.

“Navaughn is his best self,” Justice told WQAM’s Zagacki and Don Bailey Jr. on Friday. “Each week, you’re seeing his confidence come back.”

Donaldson was cleared in time to be available for last December’s Duke game. But “being cleared and being ready are two different things,” Justice said. “He wasn’t fully ready in a lot of ways. [Now] he fully trusts his knee. You’re seeing the best of him week in and week out.”

Quick notes from Justice: He said “we’ve got to run the ball better. We ran the ball better but nowhere near the standard we want.”... He said left tackle Zion Nelson “this past year was very dependable for us. Zion was 244 pounds when he came on campus. Before this past season started, he was 312.” ....

He said incoming freshmen interior linemen Laurence Seymore and Ryan Rodriguez are “great football players. We’re in a good place. We are going to play the best five. If any of those two can walk in the door and [win jobs], we’re going to play them. But we don’t quite have the urgency we had in the past” when Nelson and DJ Scaife were needed to start as freshmen.

Freshmen offensive tackle Michael McLaughlin is already on campus; Seymore and Rodriguez haven’t enrolled yet.

All UM offensive players with another year of eligibility are returning except NFL-bound tight end Brevin Jordan plus the transfers (N’Kosi Perry, Tate Martell, Robert Burns).

“When you have so many people who decide they want to come back and decide they enjoyed getting coached by you and enjoyed this program and the leadership of coach Diaz, that’s exciting,” Likens said.

Beyond devastating injuries, UM coach Jim Larranaga told Zagacki this week that mental lapses also have been an issue with his team.

“The mental part of the game has been a real struggle,” Larranaga said, explaining that he told players how he wanted to defend a play during a timeout against Virginia and one player then did the exact opposite moments later.

“It’s very frustrating” for the players and coaches, Larranaga said.

And with injuries, “we don’t have a point guard, don’t have three-point shooters,” he said.

Here’s my Thursday piece with more from Larranaga and new UM receiver Charleston Rambo.

Here’s my Friday piece with lots of Heat things at the All Star break, including Miami being linked to Blake Griffin.