Football
March 29, 1999
CORAL GABLES, FL –The University of Miami football team entered itssecond week of spring practice with a two and a half hour session inhelmetsand shorts at the Greentree Practice Facility on the UM campus.
Following stretches, theHurricanes broke off into offensive anddefensive segments for the first hour of practice. Both unitsworked onvarious fundamentals, before closing practice with nine-on-nine scrimmaging.
“Today’s practice was aboutcorrecting mistakes from the scrimmageon Saturday,” said Head Coach Butch Davis. “One of the thingsabout havingour first scrimmage is that it opens a can of the things that you aredoingwell and the things you would like to improve on.
“An area we are workingon is center to quarterback exchange. Wehave good athletes at quarterback and then we have centers who arepractically brand new with Ty (Wise) being out. So we are strugglingfromtime to time. Our defense is really challenging this ‘wood bat’.The playof our defensive tackles Damione Lewis and Matt Sweeney, plus someof theother guys playing on the inside, are really giving the centers somefits.
“Again, today was for correctingmistakes. We made a few slightadjustments in the lineup and moved some people around, which we willprobably continue to do all spring long to get the best players onthe fieldand create the best position competition.”
Davis later complimentedthe play of Mondriel Fulcher, who made theswitch from tight end to fullback prior to the start of spring practice.
“That has been very positiveso far,” said Davis on the progressionof Fulcher at fullback. “We always knew that Mondriel was a verygood passreceiver. The question was how he would play in the backfieldas far aspicking up some of the ball handling skills he will need to masterand someof things from a blocking standpoint. He has done an exceptionaljob. Heis really gifted and has a lot of talent. We expect him to continueto makeimprovements.”
Miami continues with springpractice on Tuesday, March 30 at 3 p.m.at the Greentree Practice Facility. The Hurricanes will continuewithpractice through Thursday, before taking April 2-5 off. For moreinformation contact the UM Sports Information office at (305) 284-3244.ForHurricane ticket information, please call 1-800-GO CANES or (305) 284-CANESin Dade County.
