Canes Camp Report: Aug. 10
CORAL GABLES, Fla. – The Hurricanes continue making their way through preseason camp and on Sunday, held their first scrimmage ahead of their Aug. 31 season opener against Notre Dame.
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 looked in the scrimmage:
“Solid. Some big plays, some missed opportunities. I have to credit the other side. The other side brought it. The communication and physicality of the defense has certainly made strides. We had a chance to see the ones-on-ones, the twos-on-twos and then mixed and matched some as well, to get some guys opportunities to earn roles, both as starters and as contributors. But saw us execute at a fairly good level. Not what we want yet, but certainly a solid performance.”
On the defense under new defensive coordinator Corey Hetherman:
“The expectation has not been met, but there’s progress towards that expectation. Communication, the physicality and playing with technique and fundamentals showed up today. It showed up there in the way that we ran the ball on offense. It showed up for them on defense. It showed up in the way we also stopped the run. There were some legitimate, we’ll call them ‘game day collisions.’ It was all game-day situationally and I’m proud of the team, the way we responded to that. From red-zone opportunities to two-minute [drills], to two plays left in the game, one play left in the game, 2-point conversions, all that stuff. I thought that overall, they handled it really, really well and that they weren’t fazed. And we do feel there’s a lot more in the tank and that’s what we’ve talked about right now. Let’s go watch the film, let’s see what it tells us and let’s go attack it full throttle.”
On what he’d like to see from the team moving forward in camp:
“[Go] full-throttle, every part about it. Situationally, we still have some things we’ve got to cover. We’ve got to cover four-minute, do some more overtime. We spend an enormous amount of time on all of the other phases, but really, technique, fundamentals, communication, ball security, ball disruption, playing with great effort. Every single play for us has to have a life of its own. I think our team is getting there. Process-oriented players tend to forget about and not think about the result or the previous play or what may happen later, but just staying in the now. There’s a lot of progress towards that and we’re going to hammer that and we’re going to demand a lot out of each other and we’re going to need a lot of energy and we’re going to progress.”
