Canes Wrap Up Spring, Turn Focus to Offseason Work

CORAL GABLES, Fla. – The Hurricanes have spent the last four weeks going through drills on the Greentree Practice Fields. They’ve studied film, held meetings, gotten to know new teammates and coaches and continued the work of preparing for the season that awaits.

On Saturday, they took another step forward in that preparation, hosting family, friends, alumni, former players and fans at Cobb Stadium for their annual spring game.

While the format differed from a traditional spring game – there were a series of drills early before some limited 11-on-11 work took center stage – Saturday was still a chance for those fans to get their first look at the Hurricanes since Miami’s memorable run through last season’s College Football Playoff.

And modified format and all, there were still highlights and big plays to celebrate, though the Hurricanes made it clear there is still plenty of work to do and room for them to grow before their Sept. 4 season opener at Stanford.

“Good to see our guys come out for another full padded session and to flat out compete and execute,” head coach Mario Cristobal said. “Obviously, a vanilla game plan on both sides of the ball just to watch guys play, right? Line up, execute, chase and finish; I think we accomplished that today. I think you saw some guys that could do something with the ball, and some guys that still need to work on that. You’ve also seen some guys that could block ‘em up, knock ‘em back and that’s always a continuing, never-ending process. All in all, successful spring. A lot of progress, a lot more to go.”

Added Miami offensive lineman Matt McCoy, “We’ve got a long way to go as an entire team. We’ve just got to keep going every day. The whole team can’t be satisfied with this. We’ve got to keep going. We’ve got to meet that certain standard that we had last year and even get better.”

Among the new faces that made an impact Saturday was quarterback Darian Mensah, a transfer from Duke who joined the Hurricanes earlier this year after throwing for 3,973 yards and 34 touchdowns last season.

For Mensah, the spring game was another opportunity to continue building chemistry with his new receivers and the Davey O’Brien Award semifinalist more than delivered.

Mensah completed three touchdown passes during the scrimmage portion of Saturday’s workout, connecting with Daylyn Upshaw, West Virginia transfer Cam Vaughn and fellow Duke transfer Cooper Barkate on scoring plays that drew plenty of cheers from the more than 5,000 fans in attendance.

“Awesome experience for sure, just to see all this support,” Mensah said. “I’m out there taking pictures for 30 minutes [after the scrimmage] and I love it all. Just a blessing to be here and what an opportunity to get better with the guys.”

Like Mensah, defensive lineman Damon Wilson II – a transfer from Missouri – came into spring drills looking to learn Miami’s system and get to know his new teammates and coaches.

And after four weeks on Greentree, Wilson said he’s confident the Hurricanes defense can build on the success it had last season under then first-year coordinator Corey Hetherman.

“Getting to meet the new guys, be around a new scheme, I feel like we have a really good team and we’re just going to keep working day in and day out,” Wilson said.

Mensah, Barkate, Vaughn, and Wilson weren’t the only new faces to make an impression.

With Miami choosing to hold several veteran playmakers including running back Mark Fletcher Jr., wide receiver Malachi Toney, and linebacker Mohamed Toure out of the live portion of Saturday’s practice, more than a few freshmen had the opportunity to get some quality reps.

Afterward, Cristobal noted he was encouraged by the progress he’s seen from several of those freshmen, including running back Javian Mallory, offensive lineman Jackson Cantwell and wide receiver Milan Parris.

Still, the head coach reiterated all of the Hurricanes have to continue building on the work they did this spring as summer and preseason loom.

“I wouldn’t label or judge or rate anything until games are played,” Cristobal said. “How many times do you see a top 25 preseason [poll] and then you see half of those teams don’t even make it into a postseason poll. There’s no judgment. We know, we recognize that we have pieces that are coming together. We recognize that we’ve enhanced talent in several areas and we’re working on depth in others, but that we have a long, long way to go.

“So, we’re very encouraged and very enthused about it. But these guys, they really have no reason, no right to hear any phrase about where they are right now. They’ve done nothing, absolutely nothing. And we intend to have the most challenging and the most productive offseason of our time here.”