Canes Open First Fall Camp of Diaz Era
By David Villavicencio
HurricaneSports.com
CORAL GABLES, Fla. – The Miami Hurricanes opened their 2019 fall camp on Friday.
Ho-hum. Another year of Canes Football begins, right?
WRONG!
The 2019 season is the first of “The New Miami” and the Canes, who have established a reputation for decades of being on the cutting-edge of college football, opened their first fall camp under the direction of head coach Manny Diaz in a big way.
“I was so excited today just to be able to coach football, regardless of the role,” Diaz said. “It’s fun to actually have something to do and a practice to take part in.”
After years of honing their craft in the mornings, the Hurricanes opened their first practice of fall camp at 7 p.m., under the bright lights at the Greentree Practice Fields. Adding to the excitement of the first camp practice was the capacity crowd of 1,000 fans in attendance to get their first up close and personal look at the 2019 squad.
“Number one, I’m always trying to build the connection between our fan base and our team,” Diaz said. “I want our fan base to be excited about our guys the same way the guys in our locker room are pretty excited about the season.”
Senior linebackers and Butkus Award candidates Shaquille Quarterman and Michael Pinckney led by example on defense on the first day of their final fall camp.
“I think the whole team has just been really ready to get to this moment,” Quarterman said. “This offseason, this summer has been a really great summer for us as a whole. But getting to practice today, getting to finally put on a helmet – not even shoulder pads – it was just a great moment for everybody.”
Miami’s defense ranked among the nation’s best in 2018, leading FBS in team tackles for loss, third down conversion percentage defense, passing yards allowed and team passing efficiency defense. The Hurricanes also ranked fourth in total defense and fifth in first downs defense a year ago.
National award candidates Jonathan Garvin, Trajan Bandy and Zach McCloud are three of the seven players with starting experience from the 2018 defense. They join Pinckney and Quarterman as headliners of a unit that is hungry for an even better 2019 campaign.
“Just keeping that same level of intensity and tenacity that we had,” Pinckney said. “We didn’t leave off on the note that we wanted [last year], but throughout the season I felt like we kind of made a statement. Regardless of the changes that we’ve made, we still want to be a top defense.”
The UM offense was back in action for the first time since the spring. Junior Navaughn Donaldson, who was named to the Outland Trophy Watch List, anchored a Miami offensive line that was clearing the way for running backs like DeeJay Dallas and Cam’Ron Harris.
Mackey Award candidate Brevin Jordan was one of several weapons catching passes from the quarterbacks, joined by an exciting wide receiver group led by returners Jeff Thomas, Mike Harley and Dee Wiggins and fellow tight ends like Will Mallory and Michael Irvin II.
The quarterback battle in Coral Gables is an important one to watch throughout fall camp and the fans had all eyes on N’Kosi Perry, Jarren Williams and Tate Martell from the minute they lined up with the offense. With every pass completion, Miami’s quarterbacks drew loud cheers from the orange and green faithful.
But the loudest cheers of the night may have come after every booming punt from tatted up Australian Louis Hedley, who donned former defensive lineman Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson’s number 94 for the first time.
Hedley was one of nearly two-dozen newcomers participating in their first fall camp practice as Hurricanes. He was joined by freshmen like receiver Jeremiah Payton, quarterback Peyton Matocha and offensive lineman Zion Nelson, while defensive lineman Jahfari Harvey, linebacker Sam Brook Jr. and defensive backs Keontra Smith, Christian Williams and Te’Cory Couch also got work on the Greentree Practice Fields for the first time.
Diaz and his coaching staff were especially active in the transfer portal, as Martell and defensive linemen Trevon Hill and Chigozie Nnoruka were just some of the many transfers to come to Miami ahead of the 2019 season. For receiver K.J. Osborn, who came to Miami after spending the previous four years at Buffalo, Friday’s fall camp opener was a bit surreal for the redshirt senior.
“When I put my helmet on, I was like ‘who would have thought?’ A year, 365 days ago, I would have never thought I would be here,” Osborn said. “I’m looking more towards the future. Hopefully there is a lot more football to be played for me, but you do cherish it knowing it’s your last one playing college football.”
Overall, Diaz was pleased with how the Hurricanes looked on Day 1 of fall camp and is eager to see how his team grows mentally over the course of the next few weeks.
“I think what we learned is that, coming off our summer program, physically we’re in shape,” Diaz said. “We can handle anything that happened today. Mentally is more my concern. That’s been our issue in the past, of our consistency mentally and being able to stay with it, snap after snap and period after period. I thought we kind of let it go a little bit, then I thought we finished well at the end. But that ‘letting it go a little bit’ could be the difference in winning and losing a football game. They’re aware of that. In the summertime, we try to build a physical backbone and one of the big points in this camp will be to build a mental backbone.”
