Hurricanes Complete First Week of Spring Practice

March 10, 2005

Coral Gables (hurricanesports.com) – The Miami Hurricanes completed their first week of spring practice today with their third day of practices at the Greentree Practice Fields. The team worked in full pads in contact drills for the first time of the spring. The Hurricanes will not practice next week, which is spring break for the University of Miami.”We got to see a lot of players today,” said head coach Larry Coker, especially on defense, where we played a lot of players at different positions and some young players. Both quarterbacks really made some nice plays, and (wide receiver) Ryan Moore really stepped up and made some extremely nice plays.”Of the three days of practice, Coker said, “I saw some encouraging things. We had three good days, and I’m glad we got all three days in before spring break. Now we have a chance to evaluate. We came out of the three days pretty healthy.”With 17 seniors having departed, Coker talked about the young players who have moved higher on the depth chart. “We have to challenge them. We have to make sure they take some hits. We don’t want to get guys hurt, but they have to get hit,” he said. “We have some scrimmage opportunities to see that. We did some inside run drills today, and guys were making the three-and four-yard gains. That’s a pretty good gain for an inside run.”

COACHES CLINIC SET FOR APRIL 1-2 The annual UM Coaches Clinic will be held April 1-2 for area high school coaches, hosted by Hurricanes head coach Larry Coker and his staff. The two-day clinic costs $50 per coach and includes breakout sessions with the coaches and seminars with other high school coaches. Attendees will also be able to attend UM practices and learn the latest position drills. For information, area coaches should call (305) 284-2563.