CORAL GABLES — Elijah Arroyo has spent most of the last two seasons watching his Miami Hurricanes teammates from the sidelines.
An ACL tear in his left knee ended the tight end’s 2022 season prematurely, and setbacks kept Arroyo out of eight of Miami’s 13 games last season. But the redshirt junior is fully healthy entering the 2024 season, and he hopes to lead the group to a more productive season than their 2023 campaign.
“Tight ends have always been big in this offense,” Arroyo said. “I feel like we had a little setback last year with injuries and everything. I’m just excited for this year. I’m excited to see where we can take it.”
With Arroyo out for most of the year, Miami’s returning tight ends combined for just 17 catches for 145 yards and one touchdown last year. But Arroyo is healthy again after fully recovering from his injury. Arroyo was a full participant in spring practice, but he often wore a brace on his knee. Now the brace is gone.
Arroyo was a four-star prospect coming out of high school, and this season represents his biggest chance to show his abilities since he arrived in Coral Gables. He was a reserve behind current Indianapolis Colts tight end Will Mallory in 2021 and 2022 and only had limited reps last year due to his knee injury.
“Man, it feels great,” Arroyo said. “I feel like myself again. It’s just good being able to play without thinking about any injuries or anything that’s going on. Just being able to focus on the task at hand. … I feel like with injuries, confidence is a really big thing. Being able to get back to doing everything that I’m doing has been great for me.”
UM has four more scholarship tight ends to play alongside Arroyo: ninth-year redshirt senior Cam McCormick, sophomore Riley Williams, redshirt freshman Jackson Carver and true freshman Elija Lofton.
McCormick got the bulk of the reps last year and made eight catches for 62 yards. He also performed admirably as a blocker. McCormick has an extensive injury history, which is why he is eligible for a ninth season of college football. He ultimately chose to exercise his last year of college eligibility and return to Miami.
“I’m the first person to play nine years,” McCormick said in the spring. “That’s something that holds value to it, you know what I’m saying? I don’t know if another person will ever get to that point. It’s cool to, I guess, own that title.”
Williams is entering his second year with the team. He came to Miami as a touted prospect, earning a four-star rating. He was listed as the No. 4 tight end in the 2023 class, according to 247Sports’ composite rankings. He had eight catches for 72 yards and a score.
Carver arrived in the same class as Williams but did not play much as a freshman. The Minnesota native only started playing football as a senior in high school, so there was a lot to learn when he got to UM.
“It was definitely a learning curve, but the coaches we have here are all amazing,” Carver said. “They’re all extremely smart, extremely helpful. (They) helped me get caught up to speed pretty quickly. It’s been a huge transition into the weight room, into the strength program here. I’ve been able to put on a good 20 pounds since I got here. Being bigger, being faster, being stronger helped me keep developing so I can get on the field.”
Lofton, who arrived at UM in January, was the talk of spring camp and impressed observers by even lining up at running back in the spring game. The four-star prospect from Las Vegas powerhouse Bishop Gorman is expected to be an earlier contributor after drawing rave reviews from teammates and coaches alike.
“Hell, if I knew (what makes Lofton so special), dude, I would bottle it and sell it and you would never see me again,” UM offensive coordinator Shannon Dawson said. “That’s just the honest of it. … He’s wired a little bit different. He takes this game serious. There’s not a lot of grey area with him. If you ask him to do something, he does it. He doesn’t talk a whole lot. He just does his job, and he does it at a high level. He’s a very low-rep guy, meaning that if you go out there, the first time that you teach him something, it looks pretty much like you envisioned it. … The game moves in a little bit slower motion to him.”
One minor issue that has come up for Lofton: He and Arroyo, who share first names, sometimes get mixed up.
“We get mixed up all the time,” Arroyo said. “It’s hard.”
Despite all the players competing for a limited number of snaps at tight end — as well as the age gap between the freshman Lofton and ninth-year McCormick – the group has gotten close, spending time with each other off the field.
“Shoot, we hung out a lot during the summer, just going to find thing things to do in Miami,” Williams said. “Whether that’s going to eat, going to hang out on a boat or something, going to ride jet skis, downtown and stuff. Just building that camaraderie in our room. I say, as tight ends, we’re probably one of the closest rooms, I feel like, in terms of knowing each other, what we’re about, what we’re looking for, what are goals for each other (are).”
