Setting the Tone

CORAL GABLES, Fla. – As the youngest in his family, Andy Borregales likes to joke that for most of his life, he’s been the one looking up to others and trying to learn from them.

Now, as one of the seniors on Miami’s roster, Borregales is embracing the opportunity to step up and be one of the Hurricanes’ leaders, particularly in the specialists room.

“I love it. I mean, I’m the youngest of six, so I’ve never really had like someone looking up to me. It means a lot,” Borregales said with a smile. “I put myself in [my younger teammates] shoes, back when I was looking up to my brother and I think of it as the same way. Anything I learn, I’m going to pass on to them, especially [freshman kicker] Abram [Murray]  and [redshirt freshman kicker] Will [Rocha]. You never know what someone’s going through, so I always try to be there for them, not just as a teammate, but as a friend and a brother, too.”

As the Hurricanes prepare to return to Greentree on Wednesday for their first day of camp, Borregales is one of several playmaking veterans that will be called on to provide leadership and guidance as a new football season officially begins in Coral Gables.

Some of those veteran leaders – like transfer quarterback Cam Ward – are still relative newcomers in the Miami locker room, but they’ve quickly proven themselves to their teammates, thanks to their resumes and the work they’ve put in since arriving on campus.

Others – like offensive linemen Jalen Rivers and receiver Xavier Restrepo, meanwhile – have spent their entire careers as Hurricanes and have an incredibly personal understanding of what it means to wear orange and green in South Florida.

All of them, though, will be counted on to help set the tone for the Hurricanes over the course of the next several weeks – and beyond, including in Gainesville on Aug. 31 when Miami opens the season against rival Florida.

“I think it always helps when you’ve got guys that are the better players and they’re also the most experienced. It kind of goes hand in hand,” said Hurricanes defensive coordinator Lance Guidry. “Those guys tend to be extensions of the head coach and of the position coaches and the coordinators. I think that’s what [linebacker Francisco Mauigoa] is; he’s an extension of us. And [safety Mishael] Powell fits in that category as well. They’ve both played a lot of games on defense, along with [defensive lineman Akheem] Mesidor, of course. So, you’ve got guys on all three levels who have experience and I think they’ll do a good job of being an extension of us. I’m excited to see them play this year and see how much better we can get.”

Said assistant head coach and offensive line coach Alex Mirabal, “As you know, college football is different now, right? With all the influx of not only high school kids, but now the transfer portal kids, the reason it’s been so seamless [for us] is because of those leaders, those guys that have been accepting, but have also said, ‘This is the way we do things here. This is the way things have been done in a program run by [head coach Mario] Cristobal.’ I think that’s something that’s been overlooked. It couldn’t work and you couldn’t bring in the guys we brought in unless you’ve got strong leadership from the players. … It takes a certain level of maturity and leadership and that’s, to me, been huge. They’ve set the tone, from January through the summer. And what Coach Cristobal has told them is, ‘Listen, we start practice [Wednesday]. Yeah, the coaches are out there [now], but it’s still your team. It’s been player-led all summer. Just because the coaches are back doesn’t mean that should change.’”

For a veterans like Borregales, Restrepo and Rivers, who’ll be starting their final seasons as Hurricanes, the mission to grow as leaders and be the voices they need to be in the locker room is incredibly personal.

They’ve weathered their fair share of challenges throughout their collegiate careers and know some of their younger teammates will be experiencing their own highs and lows soon enough.

Reminding them of what matters and helping those teammates stay focused on the mission ahead will be key.

“You have to be level-headed and just stay not too high, not too low and face the adversity head on,” said Rivers, who on Tuesday was named to the preseason watch list for the Outland Trophy, which is given annually to the nation’s best interior lineman. “We’ve been doing a good job of that. We have the right guys as leaders, as veterans, to help the whole team, help the young guys, help ourselves, and help our peers face those types of adversity. I feel like when things don’t go our way – because things are not going to go our way all the time this year – we’ve got to be able to keep going and learn from our mistakes and just keep moving on and not dwell on the past.”

Said Restrepo, who last season set Miami’s single-season record with 85 catches for a team-high 1,092 yards, “It’s very important from a team culture-wise [perspective]. The young guys don’t know … and even the transfers coming from a different school, they’ve got to see what our team culture is like. I think for the older guys, for the team captains, it’s very important for us to set the stage for those guys.”

And throughout not just preseason camp but the season that awaits, that core of leaders will rely on each other – and their complimentary styles – to make sure the Hurricanes are at their best, on and off the field.

That, Ward says, will only be a positive.

“I got way more vocal this year for sure than what I’ve been in my past, but I feel like it comes with the territory of being a quarterback,” he said. “I mean, I feel like it’s been easy for me to lead here because I [can] just walk in and be myself. And I mean, we have very different leaders on our team, from [offensive lineman Anez] Cooper – Coop’s probably the most vocal person on this team, for sure, to [Rivers], who is more of a lead-by-example guy. All of our leading styles fit together. We all lead in a different type of way … I feel like we have the right pieces for the puzzle in every position. I feel like we don’t lack anything in any spot on this roster. But at the end of the day, we’ve just got to continue to come together like we are now.”

Said Mauigoa, “Great teams are player-led teams and for Coach to have that trust in us to be able to lead this team is a great feeling.”