UM Carries On With Spring Drills
March 24, 2000
CORAL GABLES, Fla. — The University of Miami football team continued spring practice this afternoon, with a two hour workout in helmets and full pads, at the Greentree Practice Facility on the UM campus.
Following pre-practice warm-ups, the team broke off into their respective position groups to work on fundamental drills. After the position workouts, the team went to offensive and defensive drills followed by blocking drills, with the wide-outs and running backs working on pass catching drills. Practice ended with full-squad eleven-on-eleven scrimmage.
Following practice, head coach Butch Davis addressed the depth he has at the running back position and how to get everyone enough carries.
“There’s plenty of opportunity for two or three backs to get enough carries and to keep guys fresh. When it comes down to the third and fourth quarter that’s when you find out that depth is a really great advantage. Plus, you can never have enough good football players, it’s one of the reasons you keep going out recruiting and getting talented players.”
Davis also discussed Saturday’s intra-squad scrimmage.
“We’re about two deep at most positions, so I would really love for us to have about a 60-70 play scrimmage tomorrow. That way we could give each of the two units 30-35 plays, which would represent a half of a football game and give us a good idea of where we are at.”
Later, Davis also spoke about the tight end position with the departure of Daniel “Bubba” Franks.
“It (tight end) is a little bit in flux from the standpoint that we have to find somebody and somebody has to emerge. Ivan Mercer is one guy, but he’s coming off of shoulder surgery. The guy that has really surprised me is Robert Williams. We moved him from the fullback position and he’s doing some nice things. He obviously brings some speed to the position and I would say that his athleticism is similar to that of Mondriel Fulcher. I think that at the same stage in his career that Robert may actually be ahead of where Mondriel was at as a tight end or H-back. “
The Hurricanes will resume practice on Saturday, March 25 at 12:30 p.m. at Cobb Stadium on the Coral Gables Campus. Saturday’s practice will consist of an intra-squad scrimmage that will be open to the media, but not to the public.
Spring Practice will conclude with CanesFest and the annual Spring Game at the Orange Bowl on Saturday, April 8. This year’s CanesFest will feature the unveiling of the Hurricanes new uniforms for the 2000 season. Events for CanesFest will include season-ticket select-a-seat, “Ask the Coach” session, Fun Zone interactive area and an autograph session following the game with Hurricane players and coaches.
For ticket information for the upcoming 2000 college football season, please contact the Hurricane Ticket Box Office at 1-800-GO CANES or (305) 284-CANES in Dade County.
