'Canes Begin Final Week of Spring Practice
April 3, 2000
CORAL GABLES, FL – The University of Miami football team continued spring practice, with a two hour practice in helmets and no pads, at the Greentree Practice Facility on the UM campus.
Following pre-practice warm-ups, the team broke off into the offense and defense and worked on their formations and plays. After the offensive and defensive workouts, the team separated into their respective position groups to work on fundamental drills. The practice ended with an 11-on-11 drill.
Head coach Butch Davis first spoke about what the team accomplished during Monday’s practice.
“Sometimes you can accomplish just as much with the least amount of contact, like we did today, from the standpoint that you can run an awful lot of plays. We ran close to 200 team plays today and with a lot of the younger players they need repetition even more than they need physical contact.”
Coach Davis then applauded the way Leonard Myers has played during this spring.
“The best thing that Leonard has done is establishing a level of play and coming out and being able to do it everyday. I think that the hallmark of all real good players is consistency and Leonard has established that consistency. He’s come out and challenged himself to have great practices and great weeks every time.”
Davis also gave his thoughts on how he feels Nick Nettles is developing at the fullback position.
“Nick has been a guy that came from obscurity to being a contributor. His development as a fullback is really going to help this team a lot. It’s hard to find a 6-2, 245-pound fullback that can just crush people in the running game. That would be a huge bonus for us to have two guys, with him and Will (McPartland).”
Finally, coach Davis discussed how important the development of Joe Fantigrassi, at the longsnapper position, is to this Hurricane football team.
“There is not a guy on the football team whose development is more critical than Joe being able to take over for Pat DelVecchio. We had a huge luxury with Pat and now Joe has to deliver the same type of performance.”
The Hurricanes will resume practice on Tuesday, April 4 at 3:00 p.m. at the Greentree Practice Facility on the Coral Gables Campus.
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, logos and designs 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.
