Canes Scrimmage Under the Lights at Hard Rock
By David Villavicencio
HurricaneSports.com
CORAL GABLES, Fla. – The Miami Hurricanes were under the lights at Hard Rock Stadium Saturday, closing out the opening week of fall camp with the first of three scrimmages.
The Canes put in some major work, as head coach Mark Richt estimated that all three units averaged around 45 plays each.
“As a whole, the defense — No. 1 unit dominated against the No. 2 [offense],” Richt said. “But No. 1 [offense] — if you had to say who won between 1 [offense] and 2 [defense] — I’d say the No. 1 [offense] got the best of them. It was a closer battle than our one defense versus two offense.”
There were standouts on both sides of the ball, with Richt praising quarterback Malik Rosier’s two touchdown passes and Lawrence Cager’s two touchdown receptions. Defensively, he highlighted the play of Shaq Quarterman, crediting him for “about six tackles” and safety Sheldrick Redwine for an interception.
Miami’s defense looked fast and ferocious, with players on all three units applying pressure to quarterbacks and delivering big hits downfield. While the Canes’ defense swarmed the pocket and picked up sacks, Richt credited the first team offensive line for its solid work on Saturday.
“Our No. 1 unit protected, I thought, very well,” Richt said. “Navaughn [Donaldson] is doing much better. I feel good about him at right tackle right now. I feel good about the one unit. Hayden Mahoney has had a really good camp. We’re thinking Venzell [Boulware] would really challenge him and I think he still can challenge him, but as you would imagine, he’s still learning what to do. Venzell is still learning. When he really learns it and can play full speed, he can probably compete a little bit harder at that spot. Right this second, I would say [DJ] Scaife is probably the sixth guy at a few positions probably.”
Rosier impressed on Saturday night, consistently delivering throws on target and protecting the football, but Richt also saw some flashes from Miami’s reserve quarterbacks against the Canes’ first string defense.
“I think N’Kosi [Perry] is coming along well,” Richt said. “Jarren [Williams], he just still kind of sometimes gets his head on a swivel and finds somebody and zings it to them. He doesn’t always know exactly where he’s going and why, but he’s got ability.”
“[Cade] Weldon’s really had a great camp,” Richt said. “Really only had one day where he was off. I think first five in a row, he was on fire and really probably had the highest passing percentage of all the QBs. Tonight, he didn’t get on track much tonight.”
Freshmen tight ends Brevin Jordan and Will Mallory got their first taste of playing on the Hurricanes’ home field on Saturday and both flashed some impressive ability. The duo is expected to play a bigger role at tight end following the injury to Michael Irvin II, but Richt just wants them focused on learning the intricacies of the position.
“Overall, for brand new guys, they’ve looked great,” Richt said of the tight ends. “I mean they are making mistakes, they can’t get lined up right sometimes, they need a little help. They have the toughest position to learn besides offensive line play and quarterback play. Especially where Brevin is, he’s what we call the adjuster. He’s got to know by the play where he lines up sometimes. He’s got so much to process.”
“We ask him to be an on-the-line run blocker, on-the-line pass blocker, off-the-line pass blocker and route runner,” Richt said. “We got him as a on-the-line tight end running routes. We got him split out in space running routes, catching bubbles, blocking for bubbles. He’s got a lot on his plate. Mallory has a good bit, too. But not quite as much as the position Brevin has had.”
Freshman defensive lineman Nesta Silvera is another young player who showed he can be a contributor, especially when he becomes more consistent.
“He is one of them flashers,” Richt said of Silvera. “He’ll flash real good and [then] he’ll do something like he can’t get lined up right. But he’s tough, he’s physical and we need him to get ready. He’s going to play, I can tell you that.”
The veterans are leading and the freshmen are learning. With one week of camp complete, Richt is excited with where the Hurricanes are as a team.
“I think we’re in a good place,” Richt said. “I think guys are fighting hard. I think they’re working the way they need to work. After watching this tape, we’ll get closer to figuring out who can play and who can’t. The thing we got to remember is with the young guys, they may make huge improvement from this week to next week. No. 1, we’re not going to install a lot more. We were installing something new every day, every day, something new, something new. And after a while, it gets cloudy for them. Now next week, we’ll install very little. Now they can start trying to perfect it. So where they can go from week one to week two can be a big jump.”
“Overall, I’m proud of what we’ve done at this point,” Richt said. “We’ve got one more scrimmage a week from now and then after that we are pretty close to getting ready for LSU.”
