Hurricanes Defense Rebounds In Sunday Practice

Aug. 20, 2002

CORAL GABLES, Fla. (www.hurricanesports.com) – The University of Miami football team continued preseason practice Sunday afternoon at the Greentree Practice Field on the UM campus and head coach Larry Coker was pleased by the performance of his defense, which struggled during a scrimmage on Saturday but returned with a strong performance on Sunday.

“I liked the defensive enthusiasm today, I thought that we were a little lethargic yesterday when we didn’t really come out ready to compete from the opening bell,” said head coach Larry Coker. “They really chased the ball well today and the coaches were getting after them pretty good. There was much, much more enthusiasm today. The defense made a lot of plays and that’s very encouraging. We talked before about how sometimes one side tends to do well and the other side tends to rally and retaliate. I think we saw some of that today.”

The Hurricanes received more good news in the form of a healthy junior receiver Andre Johnson, who returned to team drills.

Two-a-day practices will continue this week and will remain closed to the public.