Canes Spring Practice Report: March 20
CORAL GABLES, Fla. – The Hurricanes were back on the Greentree Practice Fields on Thursday as spring drills continued at Miami.
After Thursday’s practice, defensive tackles coach Damione Lewis, associate head coach and offensive line coach Alex Mirabal, and defensive line coach Jason Taylor spoke with reporters and shared their thoughts on the day’s drills.
Here’s some of what they had to say after Thursday’s practice, in their own words…
Defensive tackles coach Damione Lewis
On what it has meant for him to be back at Miami and back on Greentree:
“Greentree will always be Greentree. There’s a lot of great players that have practiced out there on that field and [I’m] just kind of stressing to the guys the culture of this program was set a long time ago. The fun thing about that is all they’ve got to do is hold the line. Just continue to work, continue to get better, come out and give their best effort every day and we’ll be just fine.”
On how active he and defensive line coach Jason Taylor are while on the practice field:
“We’re high-energy. JT’s a high-energy coach and so am I. … We’re trying to get the absolute best out of these guys. It’s all in love. So, we’re chasing them down the field, trying to coach them on the way back to the huddle, just little details to remind them of or things to look at, things to look for and just trying to help them be on the mindset of thinking about what I just saw, what I need to do, and then move on to the next play.”
On his first impressions of Miami’s defensive tackles:
“I think they’re a great group. They are dedicated. They’re working extremely hard and they’re giving us all that effort. I’m extremely proud of their progress. I’m proud of how fast they’ve come along, how fast they’ve adjusted to my coaching style, and the details and stuff that I want, and I want to see executed out on the field. They’re doing their best to get it done. I’m really proud of our group.”
On whether he feels Miami’s defensive linemen are as high-energy as their coaches:
“Yeah. I feel like your players should match your coach. If your coach is high energy, then the energy in the room should be high. It’s going to be high in the meeting room, because we both coached with a lot of intensity, watching film, and then we get out on the field and going through individual drills, and stuff like that. It’s high intensity, so you want to see their attitudes kind of mold and start to shape to be like yours so they can be high-energy guys out on the field when it comes time to play a football game, because as you all know, in this game right here, every series is a new series and you’ve got to reset your mind, you’ve got to reset your way of thinking. You’ve got to go out there and get after it, so that’s just the way we coach. That’s the way you want to see them play.”
On how the defensive linemen are learning first-year defensive coordinator Corey Hetherman’s defense:
“It’s some different stuff than [what] you’d do on a conventional defensive line, but it’s easy once you understand what we’re trying to get done. So, the big thing is for me to paint the picture in the meeting room to make sure they understand exactly what we’re trying to get done and technique changes from what they did last year. I think they’re adjusting to that well. It’s taking some time because, you know, you’ve got to retrain your mind, got to retrain your body because you see things and you just automatically react a certain way to it. So, just trying to get past that and get over that hump. Now that they’re reacting the way we want them to react to what they’re seeing, I think we’re coming along and progressing. We have a long way to go, [but] they’re ahead of the curve right now.”
Associate head coach/offensive line coach Alex Mirabal
On center James Brockermeyer, who transferred into the program during the offseason:
“Well, he’s a new center, but he’s also a kid who started 12 games last year at TCU. So, he’s new in Miami, but he’s not new to the game of football. He comes from a football family. His father was a first-round pick of the Carolina Panthers out of Texas, Blake Brockermeyer. … One of his brothers played at Texas as a linebacker, the other brother played with him at Alabama before he went to TCU. So, you’re talking about a guy who comes from football bloodlines, right? When I was out at Oregon, I recruited him out of [All Saints Episcopal School in Texas]. Obviously, we didn’t get him at Oregon. He ended up going to Alabama out of high school. So, I’ve known James and his family for a period of time, right? We had Matt Lee come in, we had Zach Carpenter come in, so it’s old hat for us that we have a center coming in and how that whole dynamic needs to work. At the end of the day, the center needs to be the leader of the room, both in the classroom and on the field. He’s been doing a great job with that.”
On the depth in the offensive line room behind the top unit:
“I’m never comfortable. Comfort and the game of football don’t go together. So, I try to stay uncomfortable. I never feel like we have enough, you know? It’s something that we’re now working in spring ball to try to get more guys. … I probably feel we have seven, eight guys right now that we can roll out there against Notre Dame on Game One and play with. And my job as the offensive line coach, [head coach Mario] Cristobal’s job as the head coach is for us to increase that number in the room, so that’s what we’re working on now with those other guys. You’ve got Tommy Kinsler IV, who’s now becoming one of those guys that’s emerging in that aspect. Samson Okunlola, Nino Francavilla, Juan Minaya, those guys, now it’s their turn to start stepping up and if the opportunity arises that they take advantage of it.”
On the progress of offensive lineman Markel Bell:
“He is night and day. I mean, it’s a 180. He’s a different football player than when he came here and he came here with a great foundation from his offensive line coach at junior college, Les George. He just keeps getting better and better with repetition. … Markel, at first, it was always ‘Wow, he’s big’ and yeah, no doubt. He’s 6-9. But now, he starting to play where now people are talking about his level of play. People are talking about his technique and not just the fact that he’s 6-9. He’s a darn good football player who happens to be 6-9. So, just his fundamentals and his technique … 6-9 is borderline. It’s a blessing and a curse as an offensive lineman. So, he’s got to work his tail off when he’s 6-9 to not play like he’s 6-9, to play like he’s 6-3 and 6-4 and he’s doing a great job of doing that.”
Defensive line coach Jason Taylor
On his relationship with defensive tackles coach Damione Lewis:
“D-Lew’s been great. I mean, he’s obviously very experienced at it. Coached in the League, has coached in college out there at Colorado, played for a long time, played here. It always means more for guys that played at the place that they’re coaching. D-Lew does not walk in with an entitlement because he played here, because he’s part of the history here. He comes in and works and he’s fiery. High-energy, [has] always got juice. I think we do a good job of good cop, -bad cop sometimes. There’s times where we’re both bad cops and I’m like, ‘Ooh, that might’ve been a bit much.’ But they’ll be alright. They’ll be alright.”
On what he learned last year during his first full season as a coach:
“You always learn stuff throughout the process. Knowing when to push a little more, when to back off a little bit. … I’ve always been real big on supporting the guys mentally and emotionally throughout their journey. There’s different things throughout the course of the year, different ways, I think, to pass information on, game-plan information on that allows young guys or guys that are new to it to be able to absorb that and be able to use it on game day. Sometimes I think we inundate them with so much information that they get paralysis by analysis. So, figuring out what’s important, what does this particular player need to see in this position versus this look that he could use as a pre-snap key and not drown them with information.”
On defensive lineman Armondo Blount’s progress:
“Armondo turned 18 a few weeks ago. It’s crazy. He’s been here for a year, and he just turned 18 a few weeks ago. He’s gotten bigger. He’s gotten stronger. He’s healthy. He loves football. He loves contact. He’s violent as hell. He’s all the things you want in a d-lineman. He’s doing a great job of learning what we’re doing in the system. I think he likes it because it’s less having to think about stuff, and you just go and butt heads with somebody and dent face masks and that’s what he is. … He’s played inside; he’s played outside. Mondo’s going to be a really, really, really, really good football player.”
On the defense being installed by new defensive coordinator Corey Hetherman:
“I think it’s very conducive to what we have in the room as far as personnel. He’s really big on playing vertical as a defensive front, knocking things back with power and violence, playing vertical. … We don’t want to run laterally. We’re not going to do a whole lot of sideways stepping and whatnot. So, it’s a good fit. He did a hell of a job at Minnesota, had a top-five defense up there and [we’re] looking forward to having a really, really big year. … I think we’ve done a good job so far of recruiting and fixing some holes and getting more players, because at the end of the day, we’ve got to get and have really good players.”
