Hurricanes Continue Early Texas A&M Work On Thursday

Hurricanes Continue Early Texas A&M Work On Thursday

Sept. 11, 2008

CORAL GABLES, Fla. –The University of Miami football team held its second practice during its bye week on Thursday at the Greentree Practice Fields, working just over two-and-a-half hours on early game preparation for next weekend’s game at Texas A&M in College Station.

“We’re just giving them a break,” head coach Randy Shannon said regarding UM’s light practice week. “We played a physical game [against Florida], so we gave them a break. We came out and spent half the work on Texas A&M and the other half on getting better with technique.”

After working through normal position drills, the Hurricanes spent time running against the opponent scout teams before working in 7-on-7 and 9-on-9 scenarios. For the second straight afternoon, the team also stressed running ones-vs.-ones.

The battle between the Hurricanes and Aggies is slated for Sept. 20 at A&M’s Kyle Field, with ABC set to broadcast the contest at either 3:30 p.m. or 8 p.m. eastern time.

“They run a pro-style attack,” Shannon said regarding the Aggies’ offense. “We may see a little bit of what we saw last week from [Florida’s] offense. Defensively, they’ll run some eight-man fronts that we have normally been seeing the last two weeks. We’ve just got to keep improving on those things.”

Thursday’s practice opened with cloudy skies and temperatures in the high 80’s before eventually dropping to 85 degrees by the end of the session.

Miami will now take Friday and Saturday off before returning to the practice fields on Sunday for a light practice session to open its game-week schedule.

Texas A&M also has a bye this weekend after going 1-1 in its first two games – a 28-22 win at New Mexico last weekend and an 18-14 loss to Arkansas State at home in its season-opener.

Last season, the Hurricanes defeated the Aggies, 34-17, at the Orange Bowl on Sept. 20 in just the second meeting all-time between the two programs.

Post-Practice notes
• Thursday afternoon’s practice lasted just over two-and-a-half hours.
• The Hurricanes will take Friday and Saturday off before returning to the practice fields on Sunday for a light session.
• UM’s contest with Texas A&M is nine days away.
• Fans can order tickets for the 2008 season, including season tickets starting at $99, by visiting www.hurricanesports.com or by calling the UM ticket office at (800) GO-CANES or (305) 284-CANE. The UM ticket office, located at the Hecht Athletic Center on UM’s campus, is open from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday to Friday.