Canes Camp Report: Aug. 10

CORAL GABLES, Fla. – The Hurricanes continue making their way through preseason camp, and on Saturday, held their first scrimmage ahead of their Aug. 31 season opener at Florida.

After the scrimmage, head coach Mario Cristobal shared his thoughts on the day with Hurricanes radio analyst – and former Miami lineman – Don Bailey, Jr.

Here’s what the coach had to say about the day that was on Greentree…

On how the offense responded, after strong play from the defense early in camp:

“The defense was getting after them and knocked them around all week and today, the offense countered in a big-time way, all sparked by a big-time third-down play that snowballed into more and more big plays. But also, [there was] good physicality at the line of scrimmage on both sides, but today, the day belonged to the offense.”

On how the defense looked Saturday:

“I think the offense today adjusted to the speed of the defense and throughout the course of the week, the defense created a lot of negative plays for the offense, really pressured the quarterback, did a good job snuffing out our receivers and tight ends in coverage and today the offense created more separation, more air, and they made more plays.

“Now, the defense did make their plays too, now. But the offense today, they certainly had more and their share of successful plays.”

On the special teams play in Saturday’s scrimmage:

“The most important part is getting work out here. We wanted to get, in essence, an entire game, an entire game of football out here; the ones, twos and threes as well … work on our rotations, our communication, our substitutions, everything. We got our entire special teams, our base special teams, schematically in, and so, overall, just a very positive day.

On what comes next for the Hurricanes:

“The same. It’s camp. It’s camp. We’ve got a family barbecue today, so, it’s not like prison. You’ve got your family for an hour, so it’s visitation hours now. See your family. But if you take a nap, make sure you set your alarms because we’ve got meetings, we’ve got lift and we’ve got walk-through. We’ve got a lot of work to do.”