Canes Spring Practice Report: April 10

CORAL GABLES, Fla. – The Hurricanes are one step closer to wrapping up spring drills after Thursday’s workout on the Greentree Practice Fields.

After practice, offensive coordinator Shannon Dawson and defensive coordinator Corey Hetherman spoke with reporters and shared their thoughts on how the offense and defense have grown ahead of Saturday’s looming spring game.

Here’s some of what they had to say, in their own words…

Offensive coordinator Shannon Dawson

On what he’s learned about the offense during the spring:

“I think we’ve got some young guys that are extremely talented. We need to work on consistency. We’ll have one period where we look really good, and we’ll have one where we don’t. And I think that just comes with reps because we do have some new pieces out there. But very excited about the overall energy people bring. The leadership has been really good. People getting on to people, correcting, taking coaching is huge. So, really, a unique group. I know they’re young, but they’re excited to show what they can do.”

On receivers Nathaniel “Ray Ray” Joseph and Malachi Toney:

“I think they’re more similar than they are different. You know, you look at them and they kind of look alike and they move around alike. Ray Ray’s just been here a long time. He’s been here two years and taking reps and all the rest now. … I feel comfortable with both of those guys, really.”

On the tight end room:

“We have the ability to go a number of personnel groupings. … It’s a fairly deep position. [Elija] Lofton’s been here for a little bit now. … It’s hard to think about him as an older guy, but he kind of is because he’s taken a lot of reps. And much like the receiver room, we’ve got some talented young guys that show spurts but then the consistency pops up every now and again. … Experience is the only thing that matters when it comes to consistent play. You’re not going to be a consistently good player until you’ve taken so many reps where it just comes natural to you. And those new guys are just in that situation where … and the way the summer’s organized now, it’s easier to get young guys ready to play because you do more football. Used to be it was harder because you did less football.”

On what he’s learned about quarterback Carson Beck this spring:

“Well, a couple things. I mean, his football IQ is really high. He’s played a lot of football and so when you talk to him about plays or the regurgitation of plays and in the meeting room, you can tell he’s played a lot of football. And also, that his personality comes out over time. He’s a guy that once you spend a lot of time around him and get to know him, he’s a fun guy to be around. His personality comes out not necessarily at first, but as time goes, and you can see it now – like his rapport with the group and his interactions, I like watching people ingrained in the group like that. I think it’s very interesting to me – and so, he’s done a really good job of building relationships with people in a fast way because it has to happen.”

On how the other quarterbacks have progressed in the spring:

“Emory [Williams], Judd [Anderson] and Luke [Nickel] have taken all the reps in the spring, and you know, it was spotty at the beginning a little bit. Emory’s been consistent. He’s taken a lot of reps. I mean, he’s played a lot of football in this offense and so, he’s been pretty consistent obviously every day. The other two guys, you can see the learning curve from the beginning of spring till now. Like, their last three practices have been really, really on point. And there’s been some time in between then that was hit or miss, and so, I’ve been pleased with those guys over the past week and a half, two weeks, to be honest with you. And their sense of urgency has gotten really high and we’re doing a good job of putting the ball in play and understanding where the trouble is on specific plays and staying out of negative plays, which is the key when you’re a young quarterback, being able to decipher trouble spots in certain concepts.”

Defensive coordinator Corey Hetherman

On how the linebackers group progressed during spring drills:

“I think a lot of different guys have done really good things in different areas. Chase [Smith] has definitely made some big strides coming off an injury, playing multiple positions there. [Cam] Pruitt in space, some of the things he does, [he’s] continuing to grow as an inside linebacker. Jaylin Alderman, you can tell he’s got a lot of experience. He’s got like a comfortableness to him a little bit where you can tell, making some of the checks and understanding some of the splits and the fits, and then just how to play inside the box, how he defeats blocks. He is doing a really good job right there. Overall, the group, in general, I think, continues to get better every single day. …

“[Raul ‘Popo’ Aguirre Jr.] is the other guy right now, you watch Popo, how well he plays with his hands, how violent he is. He does a good job as a leader, just getting everyone set up every single play, right away. He’s always out there, getting the defense set up, getting the defense aligned, making the different checks and then he’s just violent at the point of attack, which is what we want.”

On how the defense has handled learning a new system:

“From Day One, I think the guys have been all in. I think playing faster is showing up every single day. That first day, I don’t think we ran to the ball very well. As practice has gone on, as spring ball’s gone on, you can tell we’re getting faster and faster as we play. Some of it, I think, was just trying to figure out what the calls were. Some of it was just trying to figure out the tempo or what exactly we want. I think the guys are communicating better. I think they’re all in with how fast they’re playing, how we’re finishing, how we’re teaching the leverage on the football, how we’re teaching block destruction, how we’re teaching our swarm and finish. And I think if you go back and look at Practice One compared to today, Practice 14, I think you’ll see major strides from everyone on the defense.”

On how situational football will affect the personnel on the field in his scheme:

“In different situational football, you’ll see a lot of different guys in a lot of different spots. And just in general, you watch practice today, we’ve got some guys on the line of scrimmage, some guys off the line of scrimmage; some guys in on the slot, some guys out at corner; some guys are playing deep-half, some guys are playing post, where maybe, traditionally, that’s not where they’re used to playing. And to us, it’s all ‘Okay, what’s the situation? Who are we playing? Where’s their best players? Where’s the speed? Okay, now we’ve got to find out what the matchups are this week’ and that’s where, week to week, game to game, period to period in practice, we’re going to put some guys in different situations.

“For us, it’s really positionless defense. Is that guy a linebacker? Is that guy a d-end? Is that guy a safety? Or is he a linebacker? Always trying to put guys in different roles so we can get bigger, we can get faster, we can get – depending on what opponent we’re playing, what the offense’s personnel is or who their style is. So, every week that could be different. Yeah, at times you’ll see four corners on the field and sometimes, you’ll see them in different spots. Are they at corner or are they not at corner? Sometimes, you’ll see multiple linebackers on the field. You may see a fifth d-linemen. Every situation calls for something a little bit different and every call, it’s ‘Okay, what’s our personnel, what’s our strengths right now? How do we want to attack the offense?’ Because, same thing: it’s always going to be about us before it’s going to be about what Coach Dawson’s doing on offense right now or what our first opponent’s going to do in that scheme. It’s always going to be [about] where are our strengths? How do we put our guys in the best situations to make the play? And if that means three or four safeties are on the field, we’ll have four safeties on the field. Every situation can be different.”