Canes Chat with Reporters at Football Media Day
By David Villavicencio
HurricaneSports.com
CORAL GABLES, Fla. – Monday was Media Day in Coral Gables, as the Miami Hurricanes sat down to talk with reporters following their first practice of the week.
Head coach Mark Richt, all 10 assistant coaches and over 50 players met with the media at the Newman Alumni Center, answering questions about a variety of topics including who is standing out in fall camp and their mindset entering the upcoming season.
“I don’t think guys are thinking much about last year and how we finished,” Richt said. “We’ll talk about it sometimes, but really, especially in the middle of camp, they’re focusing on ‘every day, every play’ mentality. It’s hot. It’s testing them physically. It’s testing them mentally. The practices are at a high tempo. That’s what they’re focused on – trying to do their job and do it well, prove that they deserve to play, prove that they might deserve to start, prove that they might deserve to be on the plane when we take off here in a couple of weeks.”
“There are moments that we’ll talk as a team and we’ll talk about the way we need to finish,” Richt said. “If you remember two years ago, my first season here, we lost a lot of really close games. Then that was kind of the big focus – we have to do what it takes to win those close games. Then we did win close games last year, but we didn’t quite finish. We finished some games, but we didn’t quite finish the season. Part of it was due to the lack of depth on our football team, to be real with it. Hopefully we’re developing more depth now where that won’t be as big of a problem.”
A hot topic on Monday surrounded the shuffling on the offensive line following an injury to reserve lineman George Brown, Jr. Richt first announced the injury on an interview with 560 WQAM’s Joe Rose Show and announced in his press conference Monday afternoon that freshman DJ Scaife, Jr. will step in to fill Brown’s spot, causing a ripple effect throughout the second and third team offensive lines.
“We moved DJ Scaife outside,” Richt said. “We put DJ outside. We took [Venzell] Boulware and flipped him to left guard. We moved up Cleveland Reed to right guard with the ‘two’ unit [second string]. It might have been nice to keep Venzell there, but for Cleveland being a brand new freshman, trying to learn what to do – to flip him over there [to left guard] might have been a little tough, assignment-wise. Boulware, he actually played a little left guard in college. Venzell is a graduate transfer who played a lot of ball, so he can probably adjust a little better and maybe push Jahair [Jones] a little bit. So then [Zach] Dykstra ended up being Cleveland Reed on ‘three’ unit. I think we had Kai-Leon [Herbert] on the right, we had [John] Campbell on the left, we had Bar [Milo] at center…we’re still functioning with three lines, which is good. But you get one or two more [players] out, and it gets tough to give everybody the work they need.”
Scaife has impressed early on in camp and he credits enrolling at Miami in January for the 2018 spring semester as playing a key role in his success this month.
“It helped me a lot because my conditioning wasn’t as good when I got here,” Scaife said. “But when I went through spring, I got used to it and got my conditioning right.”
Freshman Lorenzo Lingard is one of two five-star recruits in the freshman class, joined by wide receiver Mark Pope, but the standout running back is still adjusting to the college game and learning how to use his natural ability most effectively.
“I’ve been taught to hit the hole full speed,” Lingard said. ” Now I have to take a step, read and slow things down. For me, that’s a big issue because I’m like a rocket. I want to go like 1000 miles-an-hour, but I can’t. Pretty much, it’s about patience for me.”
Offensive coordinator Thomas Brown has raved about Lingard’s natural ability in the past. A former college star at running back, Brown is excited about the six backs he gets to coach at Miami this season.
“Running back-wise, Travis Homer has emerged and continues to emerge as the number one guy, without question,” Brown said. “He continues to separate himself more and more every day just because he knows what to do and how to do it and he brings it every day. He’s a consistent guy.”
“DeeJay Dallas is behind him and DeeJay is a very versatile player for us,” Brown said. “We’ll line DeeJay up all over the place and DeeJay is working on being more physical and more consistent from a running back standpoint. The surprise in camp so far has been Trayone Gray. He’s emerged as our third string tailback right now. Kind of moved to fullback in the springtime and embraced that role. He’s a really big, powerful starightline speed guy that’s worked himself into the rotation. Behind him, we have Robert Burns, Lorenzo and Cam Davis all competing for playing time.”
The competition for playing time happens every day in practice, but Saturday’s scrimmage was the first opportunity for players to show their ability in game situations and Richt liked the effort he saw from his team, especially several newcomers.
“I don’t know if we moved somebody from a backup to a starter at this point, but guys are just beginning to prove that they’re game-ready,” Richt said. “I’ve got a lot of faith and confidence in [Brian] Hightower that he’s ready. He might not have even caught a ball [Saturday], I don’t even know…I don’t remember. But when I watch him practice every day, I know he knows what to do and I know he’s a physical blocker. He will catch the tough ball in traffic. I feel good about it. A guy like [Dee] Wiggins is getting there. Is he there yet? Maybe not. Of course Hightower was here in the spring – that helped him out. When [Marquez] Ezzard figures it out, he’s going to be a really good player. Is he ready today? Probably not. But he’s getting there – that’s why we practice.
“Lorenzo [Lingard] really struggled early in pass protection – learning who to block, because it’s not that easy, and learning how to do it,” Richt said. “He was getting knocked around a bunch, quite frankly. Then I saw him start to pick up a blitz or two. It was physical. He ran the ball with more power and finishing the runs like we finish. He did a couple of runs like he probably did in high school – where it didn’t look good and he wanted to spin around and run over there and out-run everybody, and you can’t do that in college. If you stop and spin around, you’re going to get a seven-yard loss. He is starting to learn to stick it in there, drive his feet and those types of things. The guy who has probably helped himself more than anybody this camp is Trayone Gray, as a fullback and he got some tailback reps, too. He’s not done playing tailback here for us.
“Defensively, guys like [Greg] Rousseau we talk so much about,” Richt said. “What excites you about Rousseau is, that when you do your drill work and it’s a pass-rush, and you just see him come off the line so fast and long and athletic and you see the potential. But he still has to learn to play the run downs and that kind of stuff. He’s getting better as he goes. All those young defensive linemen. Nesta Silvera has got to be ready. Jordan Miller has got to be better. Tito [Odenigbo] has got to be better. They kind of don’t have a choice because of our depth right now. Those are some of the names.”
