College football preseason awards week kicks off with Miami star nominated for Maxwell

In Miami, football never sleeps soundly.

And if it dozes for a minute, an alarm jolts it back to the forefront soon enough.

On Monday, the one signaling the start of preseason awards week sounded, and, naturally, one of the most prominent Miami Hurricanes was among the nominees for the Maxwell Award.

Canes quarterback and 2021 Atlantic Coast Conference Rookie of the Year Tyler Van Dyke was named to the watch list for the Maxwell, which goes to the player of the year at season’s end and was awarded to Alabama’s Bryce Young last season.

Van Dyke, heading into his third-year sophomore season, played in 10 games last season and started the final nine, completing 202 of 324 passes (62.3 percent) for 2,931 yards and 25 touchdowns, with six interceptions.

Van Dyke, listed at 6-4 and 224 pounds, ended the season with six consecutive games with at least 300 passing yards and at least three touchdown passes, becoming the first Power 5 quarterback quarterback to do so in a single season since LSU’s Joe Burrow in 2019, when he won the Heisman Trophy.

The last Hurricane to win the Maxwell was Ken Dorsey in 2001, which also was the last time UM won a national title. The other past UM winners: Gino Torretta in 1992 and Vinny Testaverde in 1986.

Van Dyke will be available to the media on Thursday during the Atlantic Coast Conference Football Kickoff in Charlotte, North Carolina. He is a first-round NFL prospect, according to some projections, if he leaves early after the 2022 season. He is tied for seventh in Miami football single-season history in touchdown passes (25) and posted the sixth best single-season completion percentage by a UM quarterback (62.3).

UM practice begins the first week of August. The Canes open the season at home at 3:30 p.m. Sept. 3 against Bethune-Cookman. The game will be televised on ACC Network.