Fall Camp: What We've Learned So Far
By Camron Ghorbi
HurricaneSports.com
As more than 120 FBS programs nationwide make final preparations for their opening day of fall camp, the Miami Hurricanes will take the Greentree Practice Field for their seventh practice on Friday. With only three Saturdays remaining before the Hurricanes storm Orlando for their season opener with the Florida Gators, it’s time to take a look back at what we learned through the first week of camp.
NEWCOMERS GETTING ADJUSTED
If any member of the coaching staff can discuss the impact of incoming players early in camp, it’s assistant head coach / defensive line coach Todd Stroud. The first-year Miami assistant coach has added a whopping six scholarship players to his position room since his hiring in January, and that’s not including early enrollee Jahfari Harvey.
Joining Harvey for fall camp were graduate transfers Trevon Hill and Chigozie Nnoruka, freshman defensive end Cam Williams and three true freshmen defensive tackles: Jason Blissett, Jr., Jared Harrison-Hunte and Jalar Holley.
“Those three tackles are all going to be really good football players,” Stroud said Monday. “They all kind of have a different skillset that they’re good at. You can actually, this season, see all three of them at different times, with the four-game rule in place [for redshirting], it would probably behoove us to get them as many reps as possible their first years and see how it goes.”
Stroud said that a staple of head coach Manny Diaz’ coaching philosophy over the years has the focus on a ‘two-deep,’ and not necessarily a starting position. With a timetable of return for sophomore Nesta Jade Silvera, who injured his foot early in camp, yet to be determined, Stroud said the development of the defensive line is pivotal over the next three weeks.
“It’s obviously an honor to start at the University of Miami, but in our two-deep rotation, you never know how it’s going to end up, who’s going to have the hot hand,” Stroud said. “Developing your two-deep is one of the biggest things we’re looking at right now this fall, coming into camp.”
CARTER, HALL LOOKING TO TAKE NEXT STEP
Defensive coordinator Blake Baker said one of the lingering questions coming out of spring was about which safeties would emerge as candidates to see significant action in the fall. After six practices, count Baker among those impressed with the play of a veteran group led by junior Amari Carter and sophomore Gurvan Hall, Jr.
“A lot will be determined after the first scrimmage on Sunday, but so far into camp, Gurvan and Amari have picked up where they left off,” Baker said Monday. “Rob Knowles and Derrick Smith have actually upped their game. Smith has been a turnover machine so far in camp. He’s moving much, much better.”
Co-defensive coordinator and safeties coach Ephraim Banda said Wednesday that continuity in the staff, and the familiarity of Baker with Diaz’s system, has played a role in the progress of his unit.
“I think the biggest thing that I’ve seen between them is just the culture that we’ve built in that room over the last few years, starting with Jamal Carter and Rayshawn Jenkins [in 2016], and then [Sheldrick] Redwine and Jaquan [Johnson] and the standard that they held and put up there,” Banda said. “They understand it. They’ve seen it. They know what it looks like.
“That’s the positives of keeping your coaches the way Blake [Baker] has and Coach Diaz, and having continuity on the staff. That’s what you get. You start to build that. You see that other places who have had their staffs stay and be around. That’s why they play well. They understand the standard, they understand what it looks like, you’re keeping that continuity.”
Carter and Hall are roommates, and Hall said he considers Carter like an older brother.
Carter echoed the sentiments Wednesday.
“I feel like everything we go through here is not easy. Nothing is easy,” he said. “You need those people around you. It’s not just me, it’s everyone. Everyone is getting closer. Gurvan, that’s my brother. We fight, we’re there for each other. We meet in the middle. It’s a bond that real brothers have. We’re not related, but that’s like my brother on and off the field.”
OFFENSIVE LINE GELLING EARLY IN CAMP
In the most recent practice viewing period, Miami’s starting offensive line unit consisted of freshman Zion Nelson, junior Navaughn Donaldson, redshirt sophomore Corey Gaynor, sophomore DJ Scaife, Jr., and redshirt sophomore Kai-Leon Herbert.
But Scaife, who made seven starts a season ago, emphasized Thursday that the line is still a work in progress. He affirmed every player is practicing at multiple spots.
“I’ll do whatever I’ve got to do to help my team win,” Scaife said.
Miami’s position group was bolstered in the offseason by additions like Jakai Clark, Adam ElGammal and Ousman Traore. Scaife said that freshman Zion Nelson and graduate transfer Tommy Kennedy benefited greatly from spring practice and summer workouts. Nelson has been a fixture in the first unit and spent a lot of time blocking the blindside for Miami’s quarterbacks.
“[Zion] goes to right tackle, too,” Scaife said. “We’re trying to groom him. He gained like 40 pounds. We’re trying to make him get right. He’s very good.”
More important than anything, Gaynor said, is absorbing the information and teaching of Miami’s first-year offensive line coach Butch Barry, who arrived in Coral Gables after serving on the Tampa Bay Buccaneers coaching staff.
“Just the message that I’ll get across to my guys on offensive line is just that we’re going to be tough, be smart and we’re going to be dependable, all the things that Coach [Butch] Barry preaches,” he said. “I’m just like a junior version of him just instilling that into our guys and that’s what we want to play with, that’s the passion we want to use all season.”
