Pushing Each Other to Excel

CORAL GABLES, Fla. – Xavier Restrepo can’t help but get excited this time of year.

A new football season awaits. Another opportunity to represent the orange and green is right around the corner. And seemingly everywhere the veteran looks, he sees talent aplenty – especially around him in Miami’s wide receivers room.

Size, speed, athleticism, power, skill. Restrepo believes his group has it all.

“I mean, Sam [Brown], just like Jacolby [George], just like Isaiah [Horton], just like Ny [Carr], Chance [Robinson], they’re all different types of receivers and they bring something to the game,” Restrepo said. “Every single one of them is unique, you know? I mean, every single one of them comes every single day to work. … just gives their all. And that’s what I love the most about them. I respect those guys a lot and can’t wait to play next to those guys all season.”

Restrepo has his own impressive resume to add to the mix.

The fifth-year senior is coming off a historic 2023 campaign that saw him set a new Miami single-season record with 85 catches. He finished the year with 1,092 yards and six touchdowns.

He recorded just the sixth 1,000-yard season by a receiver in program history, earned first-team All-ACC honors and totaled five 100-yard games.

As he prepares to begin his final season with the Hurricanes, Restrepo is determined to not only increase his production on the field but make a difference for Miami off of it.

“I make sure I’m the first one in line,” Restrepo said, “Leading by example basically and just setting the tone and being that thermostat.”

That leadership will no doubt be invaluable once the season begins, as will the versatility the Restrepo noted he and his fellow receivers will bring to the offense.

This offseason, Miami’s receivers corps added Brown, a fifth-year redshirt junior who spent the last two seasons at Houston.

With the Cougars, Brown totaled 1,286 yards, including a breakout 2023 campaign in which he finished with 815 yards, 62 catches and three touchdowns.

Now, after learning more about the Hurricanes’ system, he’s looking to make an impact at Miami, where he’ll once again be working with Hurricanes offensive coordinator Shannon Dawson, one of his former coaches at Houston.

“I wouldn’t say it was hard. I would only say it’s hard if you don’t take the time and effort to research what you’re getting yourself into,” Brown said of his transition to Miami. “And, I’m not going to say I had a jumpstart, but I felt like I had a jumpstart with the offensive terminology a little bit. So, everything else, it just evolved with the vocabulary and stuff like that. … I feel like Dawson evolved, you know what I’m saying? Can’t be the same player. You can’t be the same player you were last year, so he’s doing the same thing a player does, as a coach. Just evolving.”

Brown and Restrepo will be joined by a group of receivers that saw a decent amount of action last fall.

George, a senior, made 12 starts for Miami and finished the year third in the ACC with a career-high 864 yards. He finished with 57 catches, averaged 15.1 yards per reception and had a team-high eight touchdown catches.

Now, he, Brown and Restrepo are all on the preseason watch list for the Biletnikoff Award, which is awarded annually to the nation’s top pass catcher.

Meanwhile, Horton, a redshirt sophomore, played in all 13 games, started two and finished with 13 catches for 168 yards and a touchdown.

All of them want to make sure they build on their success of a year ago.

“I don’t want to get complacent. I don’t want to, since I had a good spring, get relaxed,” Horton said. “I want to keep going. I want to be better. I want to be great. I have my teammates inside the receiver room – Sam Brown, he just got here, he’s motivating me. Jacolby George, he’s been motivating me. Xavier Restrepo, he’s been motivating me. Even [quarterback] Cam Ward, since he got here. … They’ll all get on me, but they’re motivating me to be the best I can be because they see the potential in me.”

Added George, “I really just want to take advantage of every opportunity I have.”

Joining that core of veterans is a talented group of freshmen that have already made an impression early in camp.

Freshman Joshisa “Jojo” Trader was rated a five-star prospect by ESPN coming out of Chaminade-Madonna in Hollywood and was an Under Armour All-American.

Fellow freshman Carr was a four-star prospect at Colquitt High School in Moultrie, Georgia last season, while Robinson out of St. Thomas Aquinas in Fort Lauderdale was a four-star prospect who totaled 1,053 receiving yards and 24 touchdowns during his final two high school seasons.

And in their own ways, each has added to the competition in the room, which the Hurricanes know will only make them better once the season begins Aug. 31 in Gainesville against the rival Gators.

“Great competition. We keep each other going every day,” Horton said. “We motivate each other. We’re pushing each other to be better. … We understand how it’s going to go, and we just want everybody to be good and we’re not trying to be selfish about it. We understand how it’s going to go.”

With one scrimmage now behind the Hurricanes and preseason camp moving into a crucial stretch, Dawson wants to see his receivers continue growing and pushing each other.

The next few weeks, he stressed, will be crucial for their development, both mentally and physically.

“At receiver, mental toughness is in such high demand, and you develop that in practice. You reveal it in practice. And that’s the one thing I want more than anything with that group, to be resilient,” Dawson said. “When things get tight and you need to make a play or you need to be in the right place, you know, you do your job. There were times last year where in key situations, we kind of did our own deal. That goes back to mental toughness.

“That group has grown a lot and they’re competing. They’re bonding. I’m very, very proud of that group, but we’re nowhere where we need to be right now. But we’re getting there. We’re going in that direction.”