OPINION: Miami QB Van Dyke’s performance struggles of recent weeks bear resemblance to what Simone Biles battled at the Tokyo Olympics

She was the best pound-for-pound athlete in the world, maybe in history at the time. Simone Biles was in the middle of the team competition at the Tokyo Olympics two years ago when her mental health struggles came to a boil on the global stage.

The best gymnast in history couldn’t twist. They call it the “twisties,” a mental block where competitors can lose track of where they are while in midair even though they have performed their routines tens of thousands of times.

Biles was in the middle of the biggest competitive moment of her life and suddenly, inexplicably, could not compete. She withdrew during the team final and then withdrew ahead of the all-around final and individual events of vault, uneven bars and floor exercise. She did compete in the balance beam final, winning bronze instead of gold.

“I was scared to do gymnastics,” Biles said.

Every moment I have watched the struggles of Miami QB Tyler Van Dyke the past two weeks my mind kept flashing back to Biles. We obviously have watched TVD – Tyler Van Dymes – since day one at Miami. We saw him throw for more than 300 yards in each of the final six games of the 2021 season. We saw him throw for 374 yards earlier this season against Texas A&M.  He threw for 391 yards and four touchdowns just four games ago at North Carolina. We know what Van Dyke physically is capable of doing every time he steps on the football field.

But snap your fingers. Just like that, Miami’s franchise quarterback has disappeared and so has Miami’s passing offense the past two weeks.

It has been stunning, absolutely crazy.

We see Van Dyke out there on the field. But he in no way, shape or form is resembling the same guy who has had so many positive moments as a Hurricane.

Yes, Van Dyke has been hurt this year. He tore ligaments in three fingers when his hand hit a helmet in practice during fall camp. His knee got banged up somewhere along the way this season too. And the shoulder he injured last season still may not be totally right. But Van Dyke played great earlier in the season for Miami and has consistently practiced well.

While his interceptions at North Carolina might have been the beginning of his freefall (he then sat out the next week against Clemson), the signs that something might really be amiss began at home two weeks ago against Virginia when Van Dyke finished with 163 yards passing, no touchdowns and two interceptions. Then last Saturday when Miami went to NC State, he had 173 yards and three interceptions, missing almost every opportunity for a big play that would have turned the loss into a victory.

Nobody, including Van Dyke, is blaming his physical health. Van Dyke is simply not seeing the field real well or what he sees is very “muddy,” as Miami Coach Mario Cristobal has called it. He’s not executing the plays he successfully reps in practice. He has thrown 10 interceptions in his last four games.

Van Dyke isn’t playing right or looking right. He is emotionless. You can see it in his eyes. He looks defeated.

And in a span of these couple weeks, the entire Miami fan base has now turned on him, creating the most toxic of environments as Miami tries to prepare for its biggest game of the year Saturday afternoon at Florida State.

Heck one of the most decorated Hurricanes ever, Warren Sapp, a NFL Hall of Famer, even posted a mocked up picture of Van Dyke on his social media showing Van Dyke being escorted off the field in handcuffs by a team of police officers. I’m not sure how that is advancing the Miami program or the player involved, but you at least get the idea of how ugly things have become for the quarterback who can’t possibly wall himself off from all of this noise. There is a chance he may not start Saturday even though the real TVD obviously gives Miami the best chance to turn the season back around and crush the title hopes of its biggest rival.

The anger and hate directed toward Van Dyke the past few days has been astonishing considering how obvious the evidence suggests that he is experiencing some form of a mental meltdown at a time when there is great awareness of mental health among top athletes being asked to perform on very public stages. There is nothing about Van Dyke from his throws to his decisions the past two weeks that has looked right. It has mystified everybody in the program.

What if Van Dyke is mentally broken similar to the way Biles became at the Olympics?

Doesn’t it look eerily similar?

Biles got the “twisties.” Van Dyke has the “intercepts.” This is a kid that had just six and five interceptions in entire seasons the past two years.

What if Van Dyke is experiencing performance anxiety of some form?

Maybe it’s the fear of letting others down or failing to meet the performance standards expected of him as Miami’s top NIL earner and face of the offense? That can lead to heightened anxiety and stress. This pressure can manifest as self-doubt, pre-game jitters, or even performance paralysis, the closest thing to what we saw in Raleigh.

How might Van Dyke have become consumed by the pressures of his position and the expectations to be Tyler Van Dimes?

He was on top of the world after those final six games of 2021. Van Dyke threw for 325 yards against NC State with four touchdowns and for 426 yards and three touchdowns at Pittsburgh. Then he had 389 yards and three touchdown passes against Georgia Tech followed by 316 yards and four touchdowns against Florida State. Van Dyke finished with 357 yards and three touchdowns against Virginia Tech and 381 yards and three touchdowns against Duke.

Think about this. Van Dyke had 20 touchdown passes and just three interceptions in those six games, averaging 365 yards a game.

That’s really not much different than Biles performing the best gymnastic routines anybody had ever seen leading up to the Tokyo Olympics. They were both athletes absolutely at the top of their game.

But after the 2021 season, things changed drastically in Van Dyke’s orbit.

For starters, his coach, Rhett Lashlee, left to become the head coach at SMU. That meant learning a new system under Josh Gattis and then that turned into a third system in three years this year under Shannon Dawson. Injuries also derailed Van Dyke in 2022. But this year, despite the torn ligaments in his fingers, his game against Texas A&M in Dawson’s offense showed that he had conquered all of that.

Maybe more significantly, Van Dyke entered the world of business and money and expectations. He got an agent, signing with Rosenhaus Sports. They in turn lined up a large assortment of NIL deals, even trademarked the name “Tyler Van Dymes.”

Meanwhile, Van Dyke also was floated as a Heisman Candidate and a potential first round NFL Draft pick. After just six games in a season already gone sideways, maybe it just was all too much, too quick.

Those dreams obviously went up in smoke last year, an experience that only ratcheted up the pressure on Van Dyke to perform this season and justify all of the belief in him, his brand and the hype. Now the entire game plan once again has been derailed by Van Dyke’s recent play.

The best athletes are expected to perform under the greatest pressure. But that pressure to deliver on the field, combined with the weight of expectations from coaches, teammates, fans, and even one’s self, can create a tidal wave of performance anxiety that overwhelms a player.

The injuries Van Dyke has been experiencing and playing with can create their own set of mental issues. Being hurt or the anticipation of getting hurt can trigger anxiety and stress. The fear of missing out on crucial games due to injury can lead to increased pressure and performance anxiety.

Miami has a sports psychologist on staff to counsel players on dealing with these pressures and others on a daily basis. Football programs have found how important that it is to create an environment where student athletes feel comfortable discussing their mental health and can seek help.

“Getting the mental health therapy that I needed has been really relieving for me,” Biles recently said.

She has returned to competition and is back to being the best gymnast in the world.

“It’s hard, I’m sorry,” she said. “And I don’t think people understand the magnitude of what I go through. I thought I could figure it out on my own, but that’s sometimes not the case.”

Her mental health took time to work through, something Van Dyke doesn’t have right now if he truly is experiencing some of these same issues.

Mario Cristobal and Dawson as extension have a really difficult decision to make this week regarding their starting quarterback because of what a “right” Van Dyke could mean for Miami’s chances at Doak Campbell Stadium. Emory Williams performed great in a controlled game plan against Clemson. But FSU is more explosive than Clemson, averages about 40 points a game. Winning this game might require being able to engage in a shootout and who knows if Williams is ready for that. And once he touches the field again, he also would lose a redshirt year which Dawson seems to value.

It’s not the best situation.

Biles’ mental health battles cost the United States the team gold medal at the Olympics. It cost her several individual gold medals on the world stage after a lifetime of preparing for that moment.

But today she is well and back performing at the highest level. She even has unveiled a difficult new move that drew the ultimate compliment — it was named after her.

Maybe, and hopefully, we will see Van Dyke throw for 350 yards and four touchdowns again, too.

Maybe it will even be as soon as Saturday.

Even more importantly we hopefully will see him conquer whatever has caused this sudden downturn in his life so he can bounce back the way Simone Biles has.