Tyler Van Dyke on Miami fighting through adversity: 'Last year we would've quit'

This season is different for the Miami Hurricanes. At least, that’s how quarterback Tyler Van Dyke feels through two games.

Early in the team’s win over Texas A&M, Miami made a couple of huge special teams errors that gave the Aggies touchdowns off short fields. That’s adversity that Van Dyke doesn’t think the team could have handled last year but dealt with more easily this season.

“I think last year we would have quit, honestly,” Tyler Van Dyke said. “We’re a totally different team. The leaders stepped up. The players stepped up. Held each other accountable the entire offseason to tell each other we can’t give up in big games like this.”

Last season, Tyler Van Dyke led Miami to a road game against Texas A&M. In that game, they lost 17-9 in a frustrating game. This season, however, the offense bounced back and made up for the team’s early mistakes on special teams.

“We just fought, even with the muffed punt and the blocked punt, and when we were down 10-0 early. The way we fought through adversity, that’s something we really wanted to work on this year, and that was a perfect moment for that to happen, and we fought through it.”

Against Texas A&M, Tyler Van Dyke was dominant. He threw for 374 yards and five touchdowns without throwing an interception. In many ways, this was the performance that Miami fans had long since been waiting to see out of Van Dyke.

Van Dyke was such a problem for Texas A&M that Aggies’ head coach Jimbo Fisher highlighted the need to get pressure on him at halftime of the game.

“I think we’ve got to affect the quarterback,” Fisher said. “We’re playing the run pretty well. They popped one in the two-minute, but we’re not affecting the quarterback enough and getting enough pressure on him. He’s getting comfortable and they’re making throws down the field.”

How Tyler Van Dyke changed his body

This past offseason, Tyler Van Dyke worked on changing his body to improve as a player overall. That meant cutting down on body fat while not losing any weight from his frame.

“I lost like 2.5 percent in body fat,” Tyler Van Dyke said. “I feel faster, more mobile, side to side. Feel a lot better about that. It’s the same weight. Just 2.5 percent less than I was…I was up near 15 percent, like 14.9, and now I’m down to 12.3.”