Hurricanes Work Out One Last Time Before First Open Practice
March 10, 2010
Coral Gables, Fla. – The University of Miami football team held its final on-campus practice before spring break Wednesday with another two-hour afternoon session at the Greentree Practice Fields. The Hurricanes will scrimmage Thursday at Lockhart Stadium in Fort Lauderdale before taking next week off for spring break.
The Hurricanes will hold an intrasquad scrimmage, open to the public, at Lockhart Stadium in Fort Lauderdale (5201 NW 12th Avenue) at 7 p.m. Gates will open at 6 p.m. and players will take part in an autograph session from 6-6:45 p.m.
Miami returned to full pads on Wednesday. UM worked on a few plays off goal-line situations where the offense had to drive the length of the field. The Hurricanes kept to their regular script spending time working on third-down blitz situations, 11-on-11 and 9-on-9 team drills and wrapped up practice with two-minute drill situations.
A few Practice Highlights
In 9-on-9 action, sophomore safety Ray Ray Armstrong intercepted a pass in red zone action. Also, junior defensive tackle Jeremy Lewis recorded a sack.
In third down blitz, A.J. Highsmith connected with Aldarius Johnson and Leonard Hankerson for first down gains. Johnson slipped a few tackles for a big gain that might have resulted into TD. Hankerson had a nice 20-yard gain over the middle.
Freshman quarterback Stephen Morris hooked up with freshman Allen Hurns for a 20-yard gain to end third-down blitz.
In the two-minute drill, Spencer Whipple guided the offense down the field as he completed passes to Kendal Thompkins twice and Tommy Streeter once to get the offense inside the red zone, but an interception by walk-on Nate Gholston ended the threat.
On the last play of two-minute drill, Morris and Streeter connected for a touchdown in the back of the end zone.
Shannon Post-Practice
After practice, head coach Randy Shannon met with members of the media, here’s some of what he had to say …
On what he’s expecting from the scrimmage: Improvement. That’s the only thing you could want from a scrimmage is that each week you are improving and you don’t go backwards. We expect the running backs to keep that intensity. They can’t go backwards, because they had a little excess. You always want to improve from the week before. Guys who made mistakes, see if they’ve cut down on their mistakes. Guys who missed tackles, see if they’ve cut down on their missed tackles. Everybody has to improve. Guys who maybe had a great scrimmage (last week) have even a better scrimmage.
On the quarterback rotation for the scrimmage: They’ll get the same amount of snaps. They’ll rotate like they’ve been doing all the time. Somebody will go with the one’s. Somebody will go with the two’s and they’ll keep rotating.
On defensive back DeMarcus Van Dyke: He’s doing alright. He’s playing with a little more intensity and playing like he’s been there before – like a veteran. That’s the things we need him to do, keep stepping up that way and he’s done a great job of that in practice. The more he takes upon himself to get better, the better we will be as a defense.
Post-practice notes
The Hurricanes will practice two more times this week before taking off next week for Spring Break.
Details for Open Practice and Spring Game Announced
Miami will hold an open scrimmage on Thurs. Mar. 11 and its annual spring game on Sat. Mar. 27. Both events are free and open to the public. The Hurricanes will hold an intrasquad scrimmage, open to the public, at Lockhart Stadium in Fort Lauderdale (5201 NW 12th Avenue) on Thurs., Mar. 11, at 7 p.m. Gates will open at 6 p.m. and players will take part in an autograph session from 6-6:45 p.m. Spring Practice will conclude at Traz Powell Stadium located on the north campus of Miami Dade College (11380 NW 27th Avenue) on Saturday, March 27. UM’s annual spring game which is slated to start at 4:30 p.m. Gates will open at 3 p.m. Players will take part in an autograph session from 3:30-4 p.m.
Spring Game to be Aired Tape Delay on CSS
Miami’s spring game on Mar. 27 will be aired on a tape delay basis on Sunday Mar. 28 at noon CSS has announced.
For `Canes Tickets
To purchase tickets for Miami’s upcoming 2010 season at Sun Life Stadium, contact the Hurricanes ticket office by calling 1-800-GO-CANES. Lower level season tickets start at just $199.
