TE Elijah Arroyo sees a player-led Miami team developing, agrees with sky-high expectations: “I’m excited for what we have going on”

Ask Miami Hurricanes tight end Elijah Arroyo what he does for fun, and he’s not going to regale you with tales of time spent on South Beach or fishing trips to Islamorada. A snapshot of what Arroyo does when he’s ended the day’s workout and finished looking at film of Florida (yes, he’s already studying their defensive tendencies) / cutups from the spring?

Well, he puts on a nice, relaxing movie classic.

And by movie classic, we mean Miami vs. Florida State v. 2001, 2002 and 2003.

“I just watched that the other day,” Arroyo told CaneSport. “I was by myself, felt like watching some old games. I said `Let’s see what they did, the greats and that Miami swag, try to bring it back.’ Watching those you see that you have to be a dog, really want it. That’s what it is. I was watching (tight ends) Kellen Winslow and Jeremy Shockey – it was actually funny, because I was watching and saw coach KB (Kevin Beard) score a touchdown. I was like, `Hold on!’”

Now Arroyo wants to make his own instant classics this coming season. At 250 pounds he’s cut down his body fat from 12 to seven percent since last season and says he feels faster than when he weighed 210 pounds coming out of high school. Heck, he even insists that he’s one of the fastest players on offense before naming RB Chris Johnson the fastest. Hard to beat a state champion sprinter, right? But Arroyo says he’s not far behind Johnson’s runners-up of Ny Carr, JoJo Trader and Ray Ray Joseph.

“I put myself up there at No. 5,” Arroyo says. “I feel fast, this is the fastest I’ve ever felt, especially at this weight.”

It’s easy to say when you don’t have any results, of course – Arroyo hasn’t run the 40 in a while as he’s come back off a torn ACL suffered two years ago and then other injuries that cropped up and cost him most of last season. In other words, we haven’t seen the real Arroyo.

“I feel like I’m 110 percent, honestly,” Arroyo said. “I feel like I’m back, this is the best that I’ve ever felt.”

The real Arroyo might just combine with freshman H-back phenom Elija Lofton to make Miami fans remember the days when TE David Njoku and H-back Chris Herndon were teaming up for a combined 1,032 yards in 2016.

“I don’t really compare us to everybody, but I feel personally that we’re the best tight ends room in the country – at this point we just have to prove it to everybody else,” Arroyo said. “Elija is too good for them to keep him off the field, so I know he’ll play and ball out when he does get the opportunity.”

Arroyo played in every game as a freshman in 2021, starting once (he had five catches for 86 yards), then in ’22 suffered the torn ACL in Game 4. This past season he only played 69 reps due to injury.

Those that watch him, i.e. his coaches, know he can be an ACC star.

“Now I have a daily routine I do every day, know how to take care of my body,” Arroyo says.

Arroyo plans to do his part to help meet sky-high expectations for this year’s Miami team. But while oddsmakers set Miami with a 9 or 9.5 wins over/under , some facts tend to slap the program right back into place: 5-7 and 7-6 records in Mario Cristobal’s first two years, and a single 10-win season in the last two decades.

“We faced a lot of adversity, and I think we’re getting better at handling it, how to react when times are tough,” Arroyo says.

Entering Year 4 as a redshirt junior, Arroyo knows this isn’t the same team Miami fans have watched for the last 20 or so years. He estimates the roster is “25, 30 percent” better than last year, and when you have that combined with a pretty easy schedule you can see why 10 wins is the bar many are setting.

A big reason for the ratcheted up expectations is an offense that most think can be one of the best in the ACC and perhaps the nation.

“We were talking about this the other day, actually – it’s great looking around and seeing that we really don’t have any weaknesses in the offense,” Arroyo said. “What I really like about the talent is everyone on the offense is willing to work, willing to get better. And if they’re not starting, guys that are twos and threes see what the ones are doing and they are trying to get on our level.”

Arroyo says there are some offensive surprises in store from coordinator Shannon Dawson, and he’s not just talking about his expectation that the tight ends room will be a lot more involved after no one at the position had more than 72 receiving yards last year.

“I’m excited for what we have going on,” Arroyo said. “A lot of the offense is the same, we’re just making it look different. I’d say overall probably like 50 percent at least (will look like a different offense compared to what UM ran last year).”

In the background of the excitement for the coming season is the unmistakable feeling that this Miami program is turning the corner. Arroyo sees it coming, pointing to the Cristobal recruits as guys that are ready to show out and supplement older personnel. In addition to all the guys you already know will produce on offense, from QB Cam Ward to RB Damien Martinez, WRs Xavier Restrepo, Jacolby George and Sam Brown plus four solid linemen with starting experience and the tight ends, there also is a foundation being laid for this as a player-led team.

That’s new, by the way, for those that haven’t paid attention.

Arroyo says he heard how in the old days Miami players would dole out discipline among themselves with no need for coach intervention.

That’s making a comeback of sorts.

“I’ve heard those stories, and it’s similar to that,” Arroyo said. “I feel like the players are starting to take over. We try to hold each other accountable to a higher standard. If we’re supposed to do something we know coaches will get on us, but it really means something if your teammate, one of your brothers says `Hey, man,’ goes and talks to you.”

Arroyo’s one of those guys that is taking on a leadership role – “I’ve talked to a couple of guys, said `If you want to win – everybody wants to make it to the NFL, wants to win, but it’s a matter of how bad do you want it?’”

“The culture is different,” he adds. “Shoot, it’s just different. We can feel it as a team, and we’re starting to feel the potential we can have in the future if we keep working.”

Arroyo also credits Ward as a guy who’s really put the L in Leadership.

“Cam has helped a lot coming in and being that vocal leader the offense needed,” Arroyo said. “The whole team looks up to him – when he talks, people are going to listen. Other leaders on the team see that, and now we’re not scared to hold each other accountable. We know everybody has an angle, that mutual goal. So if we want to be great, everyone has to listen.”

A big difference in this year’s offense isn’t just the addition of Ward and the leadership … Arroyo expects a couple of second portal window pickups to have a major impact.

“(Martinez and Brown) are fast, explosive guys, speedy,” Arroyo said. “I think Sam will be a big threat downfield, and Damien is a do-it-all guy. The way he can move off what I’ve seen so far is crazy. Adding that to our offense, the sky is the limit for us.”

Indeed.

And guys are putting in the work, waking up at 5 a.m., arriving at the facility by 6. Arroyo says his excitement is off the charts, and the same for his teammates.

Arroyo also says this isn’t going to be just a one-year deal – he sees the younger players and knows their potential down the road.

“I’m excited for the future – we have a lot of guys with great potential that are going to have long careers,” Arroyo said. “They just have to keep building. We show them how it is to act as a professional, how to carry themselves.”

Last year there were six true freshmen that started games – QB Emory Williams, RB Mark Fletcher, OL Francis Mauigoa, DL Rueben Bain, CB Damari Brown and P Dylan Joyce.

Who might be some first-year impact guys in 2024?

“On offense there’s Elija Lofton, obviously, and I think JoJo Trader is going to be big for us,” Arroyo said. “We have a chance to do really good things on offense, so I’m excited. There are a lot of freshmen that can contribute to that.”

The last time a Miami team averaged 35 or more points on offense was all the way back in 2002.

It’s been a minute.

“We’ll top that this year, easy,” Arroyo says.

Confidence, swagger.

Sound familiar? It probably was somewhere on those 2001, ’02 and ’03 tapes.

Those old Canes were never afraid to say the team was chasing a national title. Heck, Clinton Portis used to stand up in front of a room full of reporters each week and predict how many yards he’d get. More often than not, he hit the number.

Maybe, just maybe, that swagger that helped create the State of Miami is coming back.

That would be oh, so refreshing for a fanbase thirsting for that lost Braggado that can only be backed up by one thing – wins on the field.

“Shoot, honestly I think we can win the ACC,” Arroyo says. “And make the playoffs.”

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