Just like everybody else during the coronavirus shutdowns, the Miami Hurricanes’ coaching staff has had to adjust to a new way of life. The newest member of that staff is receivers coach Rob Likens, who was hired in early February and was still getting used to things in Coral Gables when the pandemic hit.
“We’ve got a great routine - coach (Manny) Diaz, I’ve gotten to sit back and watch him lead during this,” Likens said. “It’s not easy to be a leader at this time. He’s done a great job of putting us all in a routine, challenges us to work out, do physical stuff every day… I got a punching bag from my neighbor, I swim, bike, run - which I’ll never do again - don’t go running at 3 in the afternoon in Miami. That was stupid. This humidity is no joke.
“We do staff meetings every day, talk, [Diaz] just wants to know how our families are doing and it’s just awesome. And we meet as an offensive group, coaches, then we meet with our individual position groups, say hello to everyone on Zoom meetings… make sure everyone is on top of academics. Then it’s recruiting time. We recruit like ‘Wow, man.’ It starts early right before lunch and sometimes I don’t get off the phone because I’m recruiting guys on the West Coast. Sometimes I’m on the phone till 11:30 at night - my wife looks at me like I’m crazy - `You’ve been on the phone since 8:30 this morning!’”
Likens arrived at Miami after three seasons at Arizona State – two as the OC/QB coach after his first year as the Sun Devils’ WR coach.
“When I hear `The U,' it elicits a different response with me,” Likens said. “It’s one of a handful of places, it’s `Man, I would love to coach there.’ When I got to do some interviewing with Manny and talking with him, the type of person he is, talking with everyone that knew him, his leadership style - `Man, I want to come down there. Let’s do this, this is great.’”
Of course, Likens got just four spring practices to begin evaluating his receivers on the 2020 roster, and his players were challenged even more in trying to learn a brand-new offense.
“I saw some flashes out of some guys - it’s so hard to tell out of one week,” Likens said. “It’s new what we’re doing, playing fast, and fatigue had something to do with it and guys weren’t in spring shape yet. It was hard to tell what they can and can’t do. But (Dee) Wiggins and (Mark) Pope, (Jeremiah) Payton, (Mike) Harley, all to me showed flashes of the type of guys you want in your offense, that’s for sure.”
Does Likens prefer having clear #1 target or a larger rotation of solid players that can get the job done?
“I’ve done it both ways and won both ways in systems where you have a first-round draft choice at Arizona State - also won at Cal and we had 10 receivers we played,” Likens said. “You can take one receiver out of a game plan, then you have to move the guy around… It’s harder as a coordinator if you have only one, is easier to run your system if you have a group of guys that are solid and good, the defense tends to play base coverages and play ball. You don’t have to have one great guy to be good on offense. You can do it both ways and I’ve done it both ways.”
WR Brandon Aiyuk was one player that starred for Likens at ASU last season and Aiyuk is a likely early round pick in this year’s NFL Draft; Likens recruited him out of JUCO when Aiyuk was garnering little attention.
“I went and watched him and yes - I don’t care what any recruiting service says, that he’s not on the radar,” Likens said. “I trust myself, trust my eyes. No one else is recruiting him, why? You have to go with your gut sometimes, and I did.”
Like Aiyuk, Likens is hoping to take his new group of receivers at Miami to the next level, and the plan is to spread that mindset of hard work and improvement through the rest of the team.
"If I make the receivers better than they were last year and we all take our individual groups and concentrate on us being better position coaches, better communicators and therefore make our room better, then that helps coach Diaz, the entire team," Likens said. "My job is to make sure those dang receivers know what to do, that they're playing really fast and playing with intensity and doing their job to the best of their ability. If I do that and the other nine (coaches) do that, we will be better."
Most teams that move to a spread offense end up relying much more on their receivers, and Likens feels like keeping things simple is the best way to maximize his players’ potential.
“It’s easy for us to make the game more complicated than it should be,” Likens said. “That’s the biggest thing about this offense is, it’s not overly complicated. The experience we have with Rhett (Lashlee), coach (Garin) Justice, myself, others that have been around the spread a long time, we understand it’s important we don’t make this thing hard, let the kids go out there, play freely. That’s what we’re hoping is going to happen with that new offense.”
Likens also went more in-depth on what he’s seen from the four returning scholarship receivers.
On Wiggins and Payton: “Wiggins has some experience how to run routes. I’d put Payton in that same category. Those two guys look like they’re route savvy, have a pretty good idea, they’re longer. You like those guys on the outside, they can run some deep balls, they have the speed to do that, have the quickness to run intermediate routes.”
On Pope: “You also have Pope who is the kind of guy that I really like, the 6 foot-ish type guys that are somewhere around the 180 realm. I’ve had success with those guys in my past because they’ve had really good lateral movement. They’re able to get off press coverage… Pope has freakish quick skills. I didn’t really get too much of a chance, wanted to see what he’d do in the open field with the ball in his hands. That situation only came up once in practice. I have a good idea he’ll be pretty good at it given the skills with quick game, intermediate routes and getting out of breaks.”
On Harley: “Love Harley, love his leadership when he walks into the room. He was the leader when I first got in there. He has some experience, he’s courageous across the middle.”
With a lack of total returning numbers at the receiver position, the Hurricanes made a big move in signing four receivers in the 2020 class and getting them all enrolled for the spring. Likens also spoke on what he’s observed from his freshmen during their first few months on campus (Michael Redding was limited with a wrist injury).
On Xavier Restrepo and Keyshawn Smith: “I call him the X man - Xavier, I thought he did a really good job playing slot and coming in the spring, really smart, absolutely loves football, that’s what I love about him. Keyshawn got in some reps - it’s so hard because we were trying to find out who the No. 1 guys were. Those two freshmen stood out to me the most.”
On Dazalin Worsham: “Daz had some flashes, some really good athleticism. He did a great job our last practice; he caught a deep ball on the right side. We moved him a little bit, which side he’d be on, but he’s coming off a surgery he had as well. So we got him in in pieces, didn’t want to rush him. I was pleased with some of the things I saw out of him with his athleticism, he has some speed.”
In the realm of rotating receivers, Likens took some time to explain his philosophy on how often he likes to play his second team.
“You have to look at how fast are you playing? If you’re going to play fast, you cannot just keep your first team in there,” Likens said. “That’s impossible to do and ask them to produce at a high level.
“Whoever that second group is, if you have two guys at the same position and they’re kind of close to each other (in ability), you want to give them as many plays as possible, let them rotate out. It goes case-by-case, position-by-position. It’s how fast are you going, what is the talent level of the one and the two guys that are there at the same position? We didn’t get a chance to figure all that out, we’ll have to make quick decisions in fall camp.”
In terms of recruiting, Likens says he loves the process and spoke a bit on some traits he tries to identify when trying to figure out if a receiver can play for him.
“If you asked me the biggest disappointment out of not being able to finish spring practice, it was not being able to go on the road recruiting,” Likens said. “Miami is just a great place. You have [the U] on your shirt and walk into a high school, it means something.
“Some of things I look for - number one is you need guys that can play outside because if you can play outside, then theoretically you can play inside. Guys have to be able to get off press coverage. So you look for lateral quickness, spot quickness. They don’t have to be 4.3, 4.4, they can be 4.5, 4.6 if they have great lateral movement. The second thing you look for is toughness - is the kid mentally tough? Because then he’ll attack adversity.”
Without the ability to bring kids on campus or evaluate them at their school during their spring practice during the coronavirus pandemic, Likens has had to make adjustments to his usual recruiting routine.
“You have to talk to coaches more, film is great,” Likens said. “I’ve been fooled off highlight films before. The easiest way to see intangibles is watching practices, watching them play. I like to watch what they do after a bad series - does he slam his helmet down, is he pouting on the sideline? All those things you can’t see on film. There’s an element of recruiting, you have to get to know the kids, get to practices and games. We can’t do that. So we have to do more background work on the phone, guys that have seen them in those situations and trust guys’ evaluations.”
With Likens on board, there’s been a ton of UM offers handed out to the west coast of the country and that’s no accident – with his ties to Arizona and California especially, Likens is planning to focus more on bringing in players from those areas.
“I think that now, with the world of social media, the world’s gotten a lot smaller,” Likens said. “Going out to the west coast from Miami you’re like ‘You mean we’re going to fly over all of these places just to go get a kid out there?’ Well I think there’s a lot of kids that are out in California and they want to experience something different.
“I think there’s some kids over there that want to experience something different and you might be able to pull a gem out of there.”
“We’ve got a great routine - coach (Manny) Diaz, I’ve gotten to sit back and watch him lead during this,” Likens said. “It’s not easy to be a leader at this time. He’s done a great job of putting us all in a routine, challenges us to work out, do physical stuff every day… I got a punching bag from my neighbor, I swim, bike, run - which I’ll never do again - don’t go running at 3 in the afternoon in Miami. That was stupid. This humidity is no joke.
“We do staff meetings every day, talk, [Diaz] just wants to know how our families are doing and it’s just awesome. And we meet as an offensive group, coaches, then we meet with our individual position groups, say hello to everyone on Zoom meetings… make sure everyone is on top of academics. Then it’s recruiting time. We recruit like ‘Wow, man.’ It starts early right before lunch and sometimes I don’t get off the phone because I’m recruiting guys on the West Coast. Sometimes I’m on the phone till 11:30 at night - my wife looks at me like I’m crazy - `You’ve been on the phone since 8:30 this morning!’”
Likens arrived at Miami after three seasons at Arizona State – two as the OC/QB coach after his first year as the Sun Devils’ WR coach.
“When I hear `The U,' it elicits a different response with me,” Likens said. “It’s one of a handful of places, it’s `Man, I would love to coach there.’ When I got to do some interviewing with Manny and talking with him, the type of person he is, talking with everyone that knew him, his leadership style - `Man, I want to come down there. Let’s do this, this is great.’”
Of course, Likens got just four spring practices to begin evaluating his receivers on the 2020 roster, and his players were challenged even more in trying to learn a brand-new offense.
“I saw some flashes out of some guys - it’s so hard to tell out of one week,” Likens said. “It’s new what we’re doing, playing fast, and fatigue had something to do with it and guys weren’t in spring shape yet. It was hard to tell what they can and can’t do. But (Dee) Wiggins and (Mark) Pope, (Jeremiah) Payton, (Mike) Harley, all to me showed flashes of the type of guys you want in your offense, that’s for sure.”
Does Likens prefer having clear #1 target or a larger rotation of solid players that can get the job done?
“I’ve done it both ways and won both ways in systems where you have a first-round draft choice at Arizona State - also won at Cal and we had 10 receivers we played,” Likens said. “You can take one receiver out of a game plan, then you have to move the guy around… It’s harder as a coordinator if you have only one, is easier to run your system if you have a group of guys that are solid and good, the defense tends to play base coverages and play ball. You don’t have to have one great guy to be good on offense. You can do it both ways and I’ve done it both ways.”
WR Brandon Aiyuk was one player that starred for Likens at ASU last season and Aiyuk is a likely early round pick in this year’s NFL Draft; Likens recruited him out of JUCO when Aiyuk was garnering little attention.
“I went and watched him and yes - I don’t care what any recruiting service says, that he’s not on the radar,” Likens said. “I trust myself, trust my eyes. No one else is recruiting him, why? You have to go with your gut sometimes, and I did.”
Like Aiyuk, Likens is hoping to take his new group of receivers at Miami to the next level, and the plan is to spread that mindset of hard work and improvement through the rest of the team.
"If I make the receivers better than they were last year and we all take our individual groups and concentrate on us being better position coaches, better communicators and therefore make our room better, then that helps coach Diaz, the entire team," Likens said. "My job is to make sure those dang receivers know what to do, that they're playing really fast and playing with intensity and doing their job to the best of their ability. If I do that and the other nine (coaches) do that, we will be better."
Most teams that move to a spread offense end up relying much more on their receivers, and Likens feels like keeping things simple is the best way to maximize his players’ potential.
“It’s easy for us to make the game more complicated than it should be,” Likens said. “That’s the biggest thing about this offense is, it’s not overly complicated. The experience we have with Rhett (Lashlee), coach (Garin) Justice, myself, others that have been around the spread a long time, we understand it’s important we don’t make this thing hard, let the kids go out there, play freely. That’s what we’re hoping is going to happen with that new offense.”
Likens also went more in-depth on what he’s seen from the four returning scholarship receivers.
On Wiggins and Payton: “Wiggins has some experience how to run routes. I’d put Payton in that same category. Those two guys look like they’re route savvy, have a pretty good idea, they’re longer. You like those guys on the outside, they can run some deep balls, they have the speed to do that, have the quickness to run intermediate routes.”
On Pope: “You also have Pope who is the kind of guy that I really like, the 6 foot-ish type guys that are somewhere around the 180 realm. I’ve had success with those guys in my past because they’ve had really good lateral movement. They’re able to get off press coverage… Pope has freakish quick skills. I didn’t really get too much of a chance, wanted to see what he’d do in the open field with the ball in his hands. That situation only came up once in practice. I have a good idea he’ll be pretty good at it given the skills with quick game, intermediate routes and getting out of breaks.”
On Harley: “Love Harley, love his leadership when he walks into the room. He was the leader when I first got in there. He has some experience, he’s courageous across the middle.”
With a lack of total returning numbers at the receiver position, the Hurricanes made a big move in signing four receivers in the 2020 class and getting them all enrolled for the spring. Likens also spoke on what he’s observed from his freshmen during their first few months on campus (Michael Redding was limited with a wrist injury).
On Xavier Restrepo and Keyshawn Smith: “I call him the X man - Xavier, I thought he did a really good job playing slot and coming in the spring, really smart, absolutely loves football, that’s what I love about him. Keyshawn got in some reps - it’s so hard because we were trying to find out who the No. 1 guys were. Those two freshmen stood out to me the most.”
On Dazalin Worsham: “Daz had some flashes, some really good athleticism. He did a great job our last practice; he caught a deep ball on the right side. We moved him a little bit, which side he’d be on, but he’s coming off a surgery he had as well. So we got him in in pieces, didn’t want to rush him. I was pleased with some of the things I saw out of him with his athleticism, he has some speed.”
In the realm of rotating receivers, Likens took some time to explain his philosophy on how often he likes to play his second team.
“You have to look at how fast are you playing? If you’re going to play fast, you cannot just keep your first team in there,” Likens said. “That’s impossible to do and ask them to produce at a high level.
“Whoever that second group is, if you have two guys at the same position and they’re kind of close to each other (in ability), you want to give them as many plays as possible, let them rotate out. It goes case-by-case, position-by-position. It’s how fast are you going, what is the talent level of the one and the two guys that are there at the same position? We didn’t get a chance to figure all that out, we’ll have to make quick decisions in fall camp.”
In terms of recruiting, Likens says he loves the process and spoke a bit on some traits he tries to identify when trying to figure out if a receiver can play for him.
“If you asked me the biggest disappointment out of not being able to finish spring practice, it was not being able to go on the road recruiting,” Likens said. “Miami is just a great place. You have [the U] on your shirt and walk into a high school, it means something.
“Some of things I look for - number one is you need guys that can play outside because if you can play outside, then theoretically you can play inside. Guys have to be able to get off press coverage. So you look for lateral quickness, spot quickness. They don’t have to be 4.3, 4.4, they can be 4.5, 4.6 if they have great lateral movement. The second thing you look for is toughness - is the kid mentally tough? Because then he’ll attack adversity.”
Without the ability to bring kids on campus or evaluate them at their school during their spring practice during the coronavirus pandemic, Likens has had to make adjustments to his usual recruiting routine.
“You have to talk to coaches more, film is great,” Likens said. “I’ve been fooled off highlight films before. The easiest way to see intangibles is watching practices, watching them play. I like to watch what they do after a bad series - does he slam his helmet down, is he pouting on the sideline? All those things you can’t see on film. There’s an element of recruiting, you have to get to know the kids, get to practices and games. We can’t do that. So we have to do more background work on the phone, guys that have seen them in those situations and trust guys’ evaluations.”
With Likens on board, there’s been a ton of UM offers handed out to the west coast of the country and that’s no accident – with his ties to Arizona and California especially, Likens is planning to focus more on bringing in players from those areas.
“I think that now, with the world of social media, the world’s gotten a lot smaller,” Likens said. “Going out to the west coast from Miami you’re like ‘You mean we’re going to fly over all of these places just to go get a kid out there?’ Well I think there’s a lot of kids that are out in California and they want to experience something different.
“I think there’s some kids over there that want to experience something different and you might be able to pull a gem out of there.”
