As the Hurricanes began spring football practice in March, backup quarterback Jake Garcia was asked a blunt question: If Tyler Van Dyke is the established starter, why didn’t you transfer?
“You’ve got to embrace competition,” Garcia said. “You definitely have to embrace competition. I feel like that makes you better. I feel like that makes the team better. That’s something that we’ve been preaching, just a competitive mindset. You welcome competition, right?”
More than six months after giving that answer, the redshirt freshman may be on the brink of becoming the Hurricanes’ starter. As Van Dyke struggled for his third straight game, Miami’s coaches sent Garcia onto the field in the third quarter of Miami’s upset loss to Middle Tennessee State.