{"id":175946,"date":"2026-03-03T04:42:31","date_gmt":"2026-03-03T04:42:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/175946\/"},"modified":"2026-03-03T04:42:31","modified_gmt":"2026-03-03T04:42:31","slug":"um-defender-moves-to-offense-and-coach-hired-hoops-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/175946\/","title":{"rendered":"UM defender moves to offense. And coach hired, hoops news"},"content":{"rendered":"

A six-pack of Hurricanes football and basketball notes on a Monday:<\/p>\n

\u25aa Two days before the national championship game, UM defensive line coach Jason Taylor said of edge rusher Cole McConathy: \u201cAll the things that made Cole attractive coming out of high school are still there. We look forward to him being a big part of what we do.\u201d<\/p>\n

But it looks like any role might come on the other side of the ball.<\/p>\n

As CanesInSight first reported, McConathy has moved to tight end, a source confirmed. Whether the move has traction remains to be seen.<\/p>\n

McConathy was a four-star prospect out of Spanish Fork High in Alabama in 2024; he was rated the No. 24 weak-side defensive end in the nation by Rivals. He had 16 sacks, 26.5 tackles for loss and 92 tackles as a senior and picked Miami over offers from Colorado, Louisville, Kansas State, Missouri and Pittsburgh, among others.<\/p>\n

But he played sparingly in nine games as a freshman and didn\u2019t play at all on defense last season while battling injuries.<\/p>\n

He faced an uphill climb for playing time in 2026 on a line featuring Missouri transfer Damon Wilson, plus returnees Armondo Blount (who can play end and tackle) and Marquise Lightfoot, Hayden Lowe, Booker Pickett, Herbert Scroggins and freshmen DeAntony Lafayette and Asharri Charles.<\/p>\n

\u201cUnfortunately, he\u2019s had some nicks and bumps along the way, but you\u2019re talking about a guy who does everything the way you want it done,\u201d Taylor said in January. \u201cThere\u2019s never an issue. He\u2019s always early, does everything you ask. Works his tail off, plays hard, loves ball. He will come around.\u201d<\/p>\n

There could be more opportunity at tight end, where McConathy \u2014 at 6-5 and 250 pounds \u2014 has a chance to carve out a role as a skilled blocker.<\/p>\n

With Alex Bauman out of eligibility and Brock Schott transferring to Indiana in December, that leaves seven scholarship players at tight end: Elija Lofton, Luka Gilbert, McConathy, freshmen Gavin Mueller and Israel Briggs and seldom-used Jackson Carver (coming off last spring\u2019s season ending injury) and Jack Nickel.<\/p>\n

\u25aa UM filled one of three open assistant coaching positions in recent days, hiring Denver Broncos assistant Favian Upshaw as its new running backs coach. He replaced Matt Merritt, who left for the same position with the Arizona Cardinals.<\/p>\n

Upshaw spent three seasons as an offensive quality control coach for the Broncos. Denver coach Sean Payton hired him in 2023, and he helped assist running backs coach Lou Ayeni.<\/p>\n

A college quarterback, Upshaw signed with FIU when Mario Cristobal was the team\u2019s coach. He later played three seasons at Georgia Southern.<\/p>\n

Upshaw was a graduate assistant at Tulane and was the running backs coach at Georgia Southern in 2021. He has also coached at Benedict College and Savannah State.<\/p>\n

\u25aa UM recently added defensive back Takai Azziz, a junior college player who had 51 tackles and three interceptions at Santa Maria, California-based Allan Hancock Community College.<\/p>\n

Azziz, who originally committed to Colorado, is friends with new UM quarterback Darian Mensah. He plans to enroll in May.<\/p>\n

\u25aa Quick football stuff: Former UM quarterback Tyler Van Dyke joined his former offensive coordinator, Rhett Lashlee, as an offensive assistant on Lashlee\u2019s SMU staff. Van Dyke played four seasons at Miami and one at Wisconsin before a serious knee injury ended his Badgers career after three games. He spent last season at SMU but didn\u2019t play\u2026<\/p>\n

Former UM running back Chris Johnson, working his way through the Atlantic Coast Conference, transferred from SMU (where he had 67 carries for 479 yards last season) to Clemson.<\/p>\n

\u25aa The UM hoops team, which was ranked in the AP poll for the first time this season (22nd overall),<\/a> also has moved up to an eighth seed in ESPN analyst Joe Lunardi\u2019s NCAA Tournament brackets. Lunardi has UM (23-6, 12-4 in the ACC) playing Georgia in an 8-9 game in Buffalo, New York.<\/p>\n

Greenville, South Carolina, as well as Tampa and Philadelphia are the other three Eastern time zone host cities for first weekend Tournament games.<\/p>\n

UM coach Jai Lucas, who did a fabulous job constructing this roster, was reflective with Joe Zagacki on WQAM\u2019s Hurricane Hotline:<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have good ingredients; they fit and mesh and let each other be each other,\u201d he said. \u201cWe\u2019ve had success with transfers. We\u2019ve had success with Europeans. We have success with freshmen. We have [an appealing] style of play, the opportunity here to play in big games, to show you can come and get better and perform. I feel like we\u2019ve hit on every avenue when it comes to recruiting.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u25aa Lucas prioritized rebounding, size and defense in this roster construction because \u201cour size, ability to control the glass, gives you more opportunities to win\u201d through extra possessions.<\/p>\n

In our view, UM has always seemed just one shooter short of being a Sweet 16 caliber team. So it would be enormously helpful if Noam Dovrat can provide the type of lift he offered in Saturday\u2019s win against Boston College, when he hit 4 of 5 three-pointers. He\u2019s 17 for 38 (45%) on threes this season.<\/p>\n

The 6-foot-5 guard spent last season playing in the Israeli Winner League for Maccabi Urban Ramat Gan and Hapoel Jerusalem.<\/p>\n

This story was originally published March 2, 2026 at 4:26 PM.<\/p>\n


\n \"Profile
\n <\/a><\/p>\n

Barry Jackson<\/a><\/p>\n

Miami Herald<\/p>\n

Barry Jackson has written for the Miami Herald since 1986 and has written the Florida Sports Buzz column since 2002.\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A six-pack of Hurricanes football and basketball notes on a Monday: \u25aa Two days before the national championship…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":175947,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[83211,22868,21656,123,125,124,8469,21516],"class_list":{"0":"post-175946","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-miami","8":"tag-cole-mcconathy","9":"tag-jai-lucas","10":"tag-marquise-lightfoot","11":"tag-miami","12":"tag-miami-headlines","13":"tag-miami-news","14":"tag-smu","15":"tag-um"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/175946","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=175946"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/175946\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/175947"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=175946"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=175946"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=175946"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}