Offense Scores Big in Hurricanes Spring Game
March 28, 2009
Fort Lauderdale, Fla. – Rising junior running back Damien Berry carried 14 times for 114 yards including a 54-yard touchdown run and quarterback Jacory Harris completed 9-of-16 passes for 141 yards as the Miami offense shined in a 52-3 win over the defense Saturday morning at Lockhart Stadium in the annual UM Spring game.
“We went through the spring adding in a new offense, new defense, and you watched the players come out today and execute a lot of great things,” UM Head Coach Randy Shannon said. “You see a guy like Damien Berry run the ball pretty well. {Running back] Mike James did a lot of good things. [Quarterback] Taylor Cook came in and worked well with the twos but also came in late in the game and got another touchdown with the ones. You’re starting to see the team gel a lot and do the things we want to get done.”
Miami’s offense racked up 406 total yards on 71 total plays while scoring 52 points in a scoring system put together by the Hurricane coaching staff. The offense scored six points on a touchdown, three points on a field goal, one point on a PAT, one point for crossing the 50-yard line and one point for every first down. UM’s defense was able to score six points for any defensive touchdown, two points for a fumble, two points for an interception and one point for a three-and-out.
The defense scored its three points on an interception by safety Randy Phillips and one point for a three-and-out, which it recorded on the first possession of the game. Phillips returned the pick 25 yards.
Miami’s offense tallied 17 points on first downs, 18 points on touchdowns, three on PATs, three on a field goal and another 10 by crossing over the 50-yard line.
Harris guided the offense on five possessions. He threw the lone interception on a pass deflected into the hands of Phillips. Cook completed 11-of-14 passes for 103 yards. He led the offense on a 10-play drive capped off with a Jake Wieclaw 41-yard field goal. Cannon Smith went 6-of-8 for 31 yards. He had the only touchdown pass of the game – a 2-yard TD pass to fullback John Calhoun.
Thearon Collier led all receivers with 65 yards on five receptions including a 26-yard long. Kendal Thompkins caught two passes for 45 yards while LaRon Byrd had 43 yards on two receptions.
Defensive backs Chavez Grant, Ryan Hill, Joe Wylie, DeMarcus Van Dyke and defensive end Andrew Smith each had five tackles. The defense had seven tackles for loss, four pass breakups and a sack recorded by freshman Olivier Vernon.
The offense got rolling on its second possession. Harris hooked up with Collier for a 26-yard gain which gave the offense a 2-1 lead. The offense scored a few more points on its next two possessions by picking up four first downs and crossing the 50-yard line. Wieclaw was good from 41-yards out on the fifth psession.
Phillips’ concentration on a deflected pass that was intended for Byrd and broken up by Brandon Harris on the offense’s sixth possession resulted in the defense’s second score, but Berry answered on the next drive with a 54-yard TD run. Wieclaw missed a 21-yard field goal after Harris guided the offense down the field highlighted by Byrd’s 29-yard grab.
Harris and Leonard Hankerson hooked up for 33 yards on the first play of the next offensive possession. Cook and Smith split the 10th offensive drive which ended with a two-yard pass to Calhoun. Cook then led the final offensive series of the game as he hooked up with Thompkins for a 34-yard grab down to the 14-yard line. Three plays later, Mike James rushed three yards for a touchdown for the final points of the game.
Season tickets are on sale for as low as $99 now by either visiting www.hurricanesports.com or by calling 1-800-GO-CANES. Miami opens its home schedule on Sept. 17 when it hosts Georgia Tech.
Other Notes:
* Players that missed the spring game but are expected back for fall camp: TE Dedrick Epps, DT Allen Bailey, DE Adewale Ojomo, TB Lee Chambers, TB Javarris James, CB Brandon McGee, LB Colin McCarthy, DE Eric Moncur, LB Ramon Buchanan, PK/P Matt Bosher, TE Tervaris Johnson, OL Joel Figueroa, WR Travis Benjamin.
The first summer football opportunity for fans will be the Summer BankUnited CanesFest scheduled for Saturday, July 25 at Dolphin Stadium. UM players will be on hand to sign autographs. UM players will also be featured in a dunk tank. Sebastian and the UM cheerleaders will also be on hand while fans will be treated to several infatables in the fan zone.
The defense won last season’s offense vs. defense spring game 32-29 on a late interception.
UM HEAD COACH Randy Shannon QUOTES
On biggest area of concern before the season starts:
All you can do is hope injuries don’t ever get you. This time of year, we’ll go back in the weight room for about six weeks and lift hard. Then, we’ll get into finals after that. When August comes around, we start from scratch. We have the nucleus done. We evaluate the tape this upcoming month and will go back in August, get ready for the season.
On what areas need improvement:
We won’t know until you evaluate the tape. But I think everybody improved. I told coaches this – I watched Damien Berry from when he first started to where he is now. I watched Sam Shields from when he moved over to now. Are they improving? Yes. They both got a lot better. Those are things you want from a football team. There’s improvement everywhere. What we stress is don’t slack off because spring is over – get ready for a great season.
On where the team is now as a while, including with the two new coordinators:
We’re a whole lot better. We’ve got more players. We feel we’ve done a great job in recruiting – our numbers are up. My first year and second year we played a lot of freshmen. Now those freshmen are sophomores and juniors, and you can see the difference from the last two years to now. Guys coming in [early] like Mike James, Brandon Washington, Olivier Vernon – are going to make a difference this coming season because of what they’ve learned.
On coming out of spring as healthy as you wanted:
We’re very healthy. , we kept him out doing some things – he felt some soreness in his arm. And had an injury, but two weeks from now he can be playing again.
Javarris JamesAllen BaileyOn the second string quarterback and having a No. 2 guy named going into the fall:
We won’t know until we watch the film. The quarterbacks got a lot of work today, so we’ll evaluate that. We’ll have a decision sometime soon.
On offensive line play on Saturday:
They did a good job. Our defensive line is a unit that is very fast, very quick, and they did a good job.
Quarterback QuotesJacory Harris
On the progression of the offense so far:
We’re real far. We’re just doing things the right way. We’re coming out executing and making plays, learning the offense. The offense is something that everybody picked up easily.
On the style of the offense:
This offense schemes everything well. Instead of doing plays that go against that defense, we make the defense play against us. They have to adjust to us instead of us adjusting to them.
On the overall spring game:
It went well, but I feel I could have done better. At the same time, I told my team to step it up, went out and made some big plays. We still have to work on some things, but this is the spring.
On the team’s mindset now that spring is wrapped up:
We just have to get in the weight room. It’s running and conditioning now. We have to make sure we don’t forget anything mentally so we can have a wonderful season.
On RB Damien Berry’s performance:
He surprised everybody. He’s been doing it in practice, but at the same time we didn’t know he was going to come out here and run this hard. Now we know what type of guy that’s going to show up for us on game day.
On what the offense showed today:
This offense is very creative. Right now what we’re running is so basic. We put those plays in before spring, but we have to execute those plays. We’ve got more things in store.
On his interception:
It was just a great play by breaking up the ball [the pass was intended for LaRon Byrd]. I was just the recipient in the right place at the right time.Brandon Harris
On RB :Damien Berry
He’s been working so hard. It’s about time that it paid off for him. He’s a great player. He’s very strong. He makes all the plays he’s supposed to.
RB Damien Berry
On his performance in the spring game:
It was the offensive line, the receivers (blocking). Thanks to them all the runs happened. I thank everyone on the forefront and the receivers.
TEAM STATISTICS
First downs: 17 (6 rushing, 11 passing, 2 penalties)
Rushing: (33 attempts, 158 gained, 27 lost, 131 total)
Passing: (38 attempts, 26 completions, 275 yards, 1 INT)
Offensive plays: (71)
Net yards: (406, 5.7 avg)
Return yards: (25)
Fumbles-lost: (1-0)
Interceptions: (1-25)
INDIVIDUAL STATs
RUSHING: Damien Berry 14-114, 1 TD, 54 long; Mike James 6-14, 1 TD, 7 long; Patrick Hill 4-4, 3 long; Graig Cooper 7-4, 6 long; Aldarius Johnson 1-0; J. Harris 1-(-5).
PASSING: Jacory Harris 9-16, 141 yards, 1 INT, Long 33; Taylor Cook 11-14, 103, 34 long; Cannon Smith 6-8-, 31, 1 TD, 8 long.
RECEIVING: Thearon Collier 5-65, long 26; Aldarius Johnson 4-23, long 8; John Calhoun 3-13, 1 TD, long 5; Kendal Thompkins 2-45, long 34; LaRon Byrd 2-43, long 29; Mike James 2-13, long 15; Daniel Adderley 2-11, long 7; Damien Berry 2-11, long 7; Leonard Hankerson 1-33; Byrne 1-7; Davon Johnson 1-7; Richard Gordon 1-4
FIELD GOALS: Jake Wieclaw 1-2 (made 41, miss 22)
INTERCEPTIONS: Randy Phillips 1-25
FUMBLES/LOST: Graig Cooper 1-0
DEFENSIVE STATISTICS (Solo Tackles-Assisted-Total): Chavez Grant 3-2-5, 1 PBU; JoJo Nicholas 0-4-4; Kylan Robinson 1-3-4; Jordan Futch 1-2-3, 1 TFL, 1 PBU; Sean Spence 2-1-3, 1 TFL; Olivier Vernon 2-2-4, 1 sack (-5); Brandon Harris 3-1-4, 1 TFL, 1 PBU; Ryan Hill 1-4-5; Micanor Regis 1-0-1; Joe Wylie 4-1-5; Andrew Smith 0-5-5; Steven Wesley 1-2-3; Vaughn Telemaque 1-0-1; DeMarcus Van Dyke 4-1-5; Jared Campbell 1-1-2; Sam Shields 1-1-2, 1 PBU; Marcus Forston 1-3-4, 1 TFL; Arthur Brown 1-1-2; Jeremy Lewis 1-0-1; C.J. Holton 2-0-2, 1 TFL; Randy Phillips 1 INT; Darryl Sharpton 3-1-4; Marcus Robinson 0-1-1.
