CORAL GABLES, Fla. – The Hurricanes were back in action Tuesday on the Greentree Practice fields as the second week of preseason camp continued at Miami.
After practice, head coach Mario Cristobal, long snapper Adam Booker, punter Dylan Joyce and kickers Jack Olsen and Jake Weinberg spoke with reporters to share their thoughts on the day’s session and more.
Here are some of their best quotes from Tuesday’s practice as Miami moves one step closer to its Sept. 4 opener at Stanford.
Head coach Mario Cristobal
On former head coach Jimmy Johnson being at Tuesday’s practice:
“He spoke to the team this morning and hit on some just awesome messages like he always does. It takes you back to being in that room as a player when he talked about the importance of conditioning, about the importance of eliminating mistakes, the importance of having your best players be your hardest workers. It really hit home with the guys and [we] certainly appreciate him. And he was out there at practice today, so it was awesome. Looking forward to having more alumni, more former coaches back here and always sharing with our football players and our team.”
On what it means to have former coaches and players connect with the current team:
“It’s ultra valuable. You notice there’s no cameras and it’s not for show. We don’t subscribe to that. We have our very private behind-the-scenes, hit-you-right-between-the-eyes lessons, mentorship [and] betterment. And for our players, that’s special. We want to keep it that way. We want to keep it strong. We want to keep it real. It’s extremely impactful. So, it’s something we’ve always incorporated, but we’re incorporating it more and more and we look forward to doing it some more.”
On the competition between kickers Jack Olsen, Jake Weinberg and Will Rocha:
“I think it’s important. … I think it’s also important not to label them and let them compete because what [Olsen and Weinberg] have both shown in camp, they could both kick it out of the end zone and they both have excellent range. We did kicks [from] 48, 50, 52, and I forget what we got to, but it was close enough to 55 where you feel comfortable where you feel confident you could do it. And then Will Rocha, who’s been here for a bit, is a guy that’s really, really dependable. We feel really good about all three, but we’re tapping everything. We’re putting them in situations that they have to shine and create separation. So, I really can’t say how it’s going to work out yet. We’d rather let it play out, but make it as fair as possible, assess, and then provide each guy with a path for betterment to give him a chance to be that guy. I think this will be an ongoing thing all season.”