Quarterman, Pinckney and McCloud Ready for 'One Last Ride'
By Christy Cabrera Chirinos
HurricaneSports.com
As much as he loves football and as badly as he wanted to get on the field as a freshman three years ago, Michael Pinckney knows that in an ideal world, he and fellow linebackers Shaquille Quarterman and Zach McCloud probably wouldn’t have been pressed into duty so quickly.
But life doesn’t always go as planned and when the Hurricanes opened the 2016 season with a 70-point win over Florida A&M, Pinckney, Quarterman and McCloud made history as the first trio of freshman linebackers to start together at Miami.
“You want to learn the game, learn the ins and outs of it, learn the tricks and I think we had to pick up on the tricks on our own,” Pinckney said. “It was trial by fire. It was learn as you go. And I was undersized. But it made me a tougher player and that was my journey. I’m grateful for it.”
Three years later, those wide-eyed freshmen have become the heart and soul of the Hurricanes defense. And with their final season opener at Miami approaching, each is expecting there will be an emotional moment or two when the Hurricanes take the field against rival Florida at Camping World Stadium in Orlando on Saturday night.
There won’t be much time to dwell on milestones, however. Not when Pinckney, Quarterman and McCloud know what will be expected of them against the eighth-ranked Gators.
During their first three seasons at Miami, the linebacking trio has become a force that has posted eye-popping numbers while helping set the tone for a defense that became one of the nation’s best during head coach Manny Diaz’s time as coordinator.
Between them, Pinckney, Quarterman and McCloud have totaled 581 tackles, 73 tackles for loss, 24 sacks and four interceptions. Additionally, Pinckney and Quarterman were both named Freshman All-Americans after that 2016 season and both have earned All-ACC recognition in the years since.
The trio’s success had many both in and outside the Miami program wondering if any of the three would bypass their respective senior years to enter the 2019 NFL Draft. But after last season’s disappointing 7-6 finish, Pinckney, Quarterman and McCloud each made the decision to return to Miami for one last season.
For all of them, one issue stood out: none wanted their Hurricanes careers to end on a sour note after a tough loss to Wisconsin in the Pinstripe Bowl last December.
The fact that days after that loss Diaz – their former linebackers coach and defensive coordinator – was named Miami’s new coach didn’t exactly hurt either.
“I think we’ve all had a common goal since we first got to college,” Quarterman said. “What we said as freshmen was that we didn’t want to leave this program in a worse place than when we found it and last year just wouldn’t have been the right way to leave it, you know?”
Added Pinckney, “You’ve got a guy in the driver’s seat that you understand his plan, you see his vision and he put his vision in your mind. It’s an opportunity now for us to go out one last time and leave this school on a better note than we got it. … I want to leave a stamp on this University and a 7-6 season wouldn’t be anything for me to brag about, especially when all those older guys like Jon Vilma, [Jon] Beason, and D.J. Williams come back and tell us about that time and show us their rings and all that. You want that, too. You know it’s something you’ll be able to talk about for the rest of your life.”
As much as they’ve accomplished and still want to achieve, Miami’s trio of linebackers make it clear the friendships they’ve forged have also helped make their time as Hurricanes so special.
Pinckney, Quarterman and McCloud were all roommates their freshman year and have grown close since, spending time with each other’s families and pushing each other even when they weren’t in the football facility.
The trio have often joked that during that first year, the sight of one of their roommates either studying the playbook or doing some crunches on the floor prompted them to do the same.
Their bond grew even stronger as together, they endured the ups and downs of their careers, from multiple coaching changes to dealing with injuries.
They’re often seen as a sort of package deal, as “Miami’s linebackers.” But their personalities, Diaz notes, couldn’t be more different. That too, has helped make their friendship special.
“Even from their freshman year, just sitting there and listening to them talk, it was like ‘The Odd Couple,’ plus one,” Diaz said. “Shaq is all business. He’d be the first guy to storm the beach. He’s as tough as they come. He’s the rock and wants to be that guy that is the physical hammer.
“Pinckney is the funny guy. He’s as funny as any player I’ve ever coached, but he cares deeply for others and for the program. It hurts so personally when we don’t play well and it means so much when we do, so, in a weird way, he’s the perfect embodiment of the true Miami player. On the outside, someone might see the flash and not understand the heart on the inside in terms of how hard he works and how important all this is to him. And then Zach McCloud, you hope at any point in your coaching career, you get to coach a human as good as Zach McCloud. … He’s off-the-charts in terms of being a great human being and then on the field, he’s all about trying to knock out the other team. How he switches from being a role model off the field to being a heat-seeking missile on the field is remarkable.”
For all three of Miami’s senior linebackers, Saturday’s opener against Florida is the next chapter in a memorable story.
Together, they’ve made history, helped reshape a defense and worked to uphold a tradition established before them by Hurricanes greats like Vilma, Beason, Williams, Ray Lewis, and Dan Morgan.
But they know their work, their story, isn’t finished. There is one more season left, one last time to play together; one last chance to make their own mark at Miami.
“Playing here has been a dream come true. Since being little and wanting to get in the game, I wanted to be one of the best and I came to a place that generates the best,” McCloud said. “What better place to play than The U? This place will always be in my heart. It’s all I could ever hope for, so I try to make sure I lay it all out on the field and I know I have guys around me that will do the same.”
Added Quarterman, “They say you never miss it until you don’t have it anymore and I know I’m going to be really sad about it when it’s over. We’ve done a lot on and off the field, just being in college together. I had a great experience with those two guys. I’m ready for the last time, our last ride. It’s starting to sink in this is it, but I’m trying not to think about it.”
And the coach who has watched them grow from freshmen into seasoned veterans is trying to savor it, too.
“This is probably something that will be a one-time event in my coaching career. To have three guys at one position early enroll is unusual. To have them all become starters is unheard of and then to have them all stay four years is the stuff of fantasy,” Diaz said. “It’s one of the neatest things as a coach to see these three guys grow as people, to see their different personalities and really watch them mature through all the things we’ve gone through. … More than anything, you see how much they care about Miami. I think that’s what really sets them apart.”
