Mario Cristobal shares injury update on Tyler Van Dyke after missing Clemson game

Miami quarterback Tyler Van Dyke’s absence vs. Clemson came as a bit of a surprise to the coaching staff and Mario Cristobal, who said the Hurricane star is on track to return to the field next weekend.

Van Dyke’s been dealing with a bit of a right hand injury (his throwing hand) and apparently has to miss the game Saturday when something “flared up” later in the week leading up to it. Afterwards, Cristobal credited backup QB Emory Williams for hitting the ground running after he didn’t expect to start for most of the week.

“Emory got the call a little bit later in the week. It was a bit of a surprise to us. We thought we were ok with Tyler,” Cristobal revealed in his postgame presser before praising Williams.

“But I could’t be more proud of a guy to step in and do things that he did. Early on, the game was a little bit fast, but as he settled and he got better and better, the offensive line and the entire defense—what a performance by those guys.”

Sure, Clemson isn’t the same program they were in the late 2010s, but that’s still a very strong football team that’s loaded to the gills with four-star and five-star talent. For a rookie QB to lead that sort of win is pretty remarkable.

As for Tyler Van Dyke, Cristobal answered that he’s doing fine and will hopefully be able play in netx weekend’s game against Virginia.

“He is doing well. He was good to go and in the middle of the week it flared up and caught us off guard,” explained the ‘Canes head coach. “It was the right thing to play Emory because he was getting most of the reps. We feel like he will be good to go next week, but I will hold off comment on that until we get back to the training room so I can give you more accurate data.”

So, no official word on the injury but Mario Cristobal seems pretty optimistic that the longtime Miami starter will be back taking live snaps next Saturday.

While Van Dyke has struggled in his past two games, throwing five interceptions in those contests, he’s looked much better overall in 2023 compared to 2022. He’s completed 70.5% of his passes for 1,721 yards, while tossing 16 touchdowns with six interceptions.