Mario Cristobal refutes concerns over reported Tyler Van Dyke injury

Miami quarterback Tyler Van Dyke played the entirety of the Hurricane’s game this weekend as they suffered a 41-31 loss to North Carolina. But on campus, Van Dyke was spotted on Monday with his right leg wrapped up with an ace bandage above his knee, limping around and keeping his knee completely straight according to a report from the Miami Herald.

Hurricanes head coach Mario Cristobal was asked about the health of his starting quarterback and got rather defensive when Van Dyke’s injury status was brought up.

“I keep telling you I don’t talk about injuries,” Cristobal said. “I just told one of our guys that he’s ready to go. So you have to write what you have to write. Next question please.”

It’s clear that Cristobal was not trying to speak about Van Dyke’s injury after his star quarterback was sacked three times and hit hard versus the Tar Heels defense on Saturday. But regarding his status for their next game, he made it clear there’s no concern about Van Dyke being under center for the Hurricanes this Saturday when they face Clemson.

“For him playing? Zero. Was he banged up in the game? Yeah he got banged up. But is he tough? Absolutely. He’s really tough, he wants to win, he’s ready to roll,” Cristobal added.

The injury bug has been following Van Dyke around over the course of the past year, suffering a third-degree AC joint sprain on his throwing shoulder last season against Duke that essentially forced him to miss the team’s last five games of the season.

He even revealed after the North Carolina game this weekend that he actually tore three ligaments in one of his fingers on his throwing hand during fall camp this year heading into the season.

“It’s getting a lot better,” Van Dyke said regarding his hand injury. “But there’s times when it gets hit, then I feel it a little bit. It’ll be alright. It feels fine now.”

Between his hand and newly undisclosed leg injury, it’s safe to say that the Hurricanes signal caller is currently banged up heading into Week 8 of the season. He’s helped lead a Miami offense that’s averaged an impressive 37.7 points per game this year and is the ACC’s best offense in terms of yards per game this season.

Hopefully, Cristobal is right and Van Dyke’s leg injury is not an issue. But given his injury history and Van Dyke coming off of his two worst performances of the season in back-to-back weeks, the health of Miami’s man under center could potentially be an area of concern moving forward this season.