OXFORD — The Miami RedHawks will return the most experienced part of their roster to help protect quarterback Brett Gabbert.
Miami brings back four of its starting offensive linemen from last year’s Mid-American Conference championship team.
“We’re really looking for that group to lead our offense and give our quarterbacks tons of time and give our running backs some big holes to run,” RedHawks coach Chuck Martin said.
It all starts with redshirt senior Reid Holskey and redshirt junior Will Jados at the tackle positions.
“Both had really, really good years for us,” Martin said. “Have another jump in both their games, and I know their looking forward to take it.”
Senior Kolby Borders is back at center, while senior John Young returns at one of the guard positions. Martin said he doesn’t know who will start at the other guard position and that “it’s going to be a battle.”
Martin said redshirt sophomore Gavin Rohrs is coming off an injury and had a productive spring. Redshirt junior Charlie Nank has experience, and redshirt sophomore Drew Terrill played goal line packages at tight end a year ago.
Redshirt sophomore Eric Smith, redshirt sophomore Brandon Lawhorn Moore, redshirt freshman Gregory Smith Jr. and redshirt freshman Andrew Lowry are also on Martin’s radar.
“A ton of young linemen that have the ability to play at a high level,” Martin said. “They’re not close to being consistent enough yet. Anyone of those guys can step up and be the other guard.
“With four starters coming back — and three of them playing all-league caliber play and John having a real nice year — we should be good upfront. We’re going to have to be.”
That’s because of Gabbert’s resilient return under center. The sixth-year quarterback is making an impressive bounce back from a season-ending leg injury he sustained against Toledo at Yager Stadium midway through the 2023 campaign.
Martin gave a nod to former running back Rashad Amos — who transferred to Ole Miss — and his ability to make tacklers miss when blocking wasn’t adequate in the trenches.
“But, hey, we’re going to have to be even better up front and do a better job with pass protection,” Martin said. “We had a really good year a year ago, particularly down the stretch. Everybody knew we were going to run the ball when Brett went down. (Aveon Smith) was a running quarterback. It’s hard enough to run the ball, but when the other team knows that’s what you’re going to do — running the ball 48 times and throwing it 12 against (Ohio) in the biggest game of the year — says a lot about that group.
“What we did in shortage in red zone — pretty much when we got the ball inside the 5 — we just hand the ball to Rashad, and he always scored,” Martin added. “It made the play calling pretty easy down there. In previous years, we hadn’t been running the ball as good down in those type of situations.”
Freshman Aiden Howard, freshman Danny Zarco II, redshirt freshman Michael Popov, redshirt junior Marcus White, freshman Kris Manu, redshirt freshman Ben Decker and freshman Jacob Schorsch round out Miami’s offensive linemen.
“There’s a lot of bodies there,” Martin said. “Our two deep is going to be who’s going to surface in fall camps. Who’s going to compete and win the spot? We’ll see. It may be rotational up there.
“We’re excited about that group. We’ve got a veteran group with four starters coming back and some young kids we think should be really good players this year. Not in the future, we know they’re going to.”
