Miami Hurricanes Focusing On Mental Muscle On Day 1 Of Fall Camp

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Posted on July 27, 2019 by Marcus Benjamin
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Coral Gables, FL — New coaches, new players, ‘The New Miami’ (#TNM).  Despite a 7-5 2018 season and a deflating 35-3 loss to Wisconsin in the Pinstripe Bowl, the excitement surrounding the Miami Hurricanes is high.  Head Coach Manny Diaz decided to take the job after already accepting the head coaching job at Temple at the end of last season. Former Head Coach Mark Richt decided to step away from the program so Diaz jumped on the opportunity and in that he created the hashtag that we now know as ‘The New Miami.’ 

“There’s been a lot of change in our program,” said Coach Diaz.  “I was so excited today to coach football regardless of the role.”  

Diaz replaced the entire offensive coaching staff and hired a new strength and conditioning coach in David Feely.  Feely has seemingly transformed this team to work harder than they have in the past with intense tests of strength and endurance.  One of the new traditions is the ‘Iron Cane’ awards which were given to the players that displayed the best overall performance in strength and conditioning. 


Junior defensive end Jonathan Garvin (Lake Worth, FL), who is on the Walter Camp Award watch list, earned the best overall award. The Walter Camp award is given to the best defensive player in college football.

“That was the guy that had the best performance,” said Diaz.  “What was really encouraging was seeing how everybody, as we gave out the awards, how excited the team was for their individual teammates.” 

The first practice of fall camp ran for four hours and was held on Greentree Practice Field at the University of Miami with over a thousand fans watching Friday evening.  Inviting fans to the first practice is a rarity in today’s landscape of college football, but Coach Diaz felt like creating the atmosphere was necessary.  

“In the past, I felt we were a mentally weak football team.  We know we can’t succeed being mentally weak. To me, one of the ways you do that is you put people in front of them.  Get that performance anxiety out there day one.”  

The Hurricane fans let their presence be known.  Fans shouted “we do not lose to Florida” and cheered on every big play.  Canes fans also sarcastically cheered every solid punt from new punter from Australia Louis Hedley (6’4,” 230 pounds).  Senior linebacker Shaq Quarterman (Oakleaf, FL) explained that Hedley is heavily involved in all of the strength workouts and does not want to just be considered as just a punter.  Miami as a team averaged 38.2 yards per punt which would rank 118th out of 125 individual punters in FBS college football.  

Punting is one of the areas Miami will hope to improve in 2019.  Here are some reasons for concern and optimism in other areas for the Hurricanes.

CONCERNS

Linebacker Depth

Besides the big three seniors of Quarterman, Michael Pinkney (Raines, FL) and Zach McCloud (Santaluces, FL), the depth chart gets somewhat murky.  Redshirt sophomore DeAndre Wilder has officially left the team after missing the entire 2018 season with a neck injury. Redshirt freshman Patrick Joyner (South Dade, FL) is nursing an injury and is questionable to start the season.  True freshman Sam Brooks (Miami Northwestern, FL) and Avery Huff (St. Thomas Aquinas, FL) are athletic but unproven and inexperienced on the college level.

Redshirt sophomores Wayman Steed (Miami Central, FL) and Bradley Jennings Jr. (Sandalwood, FL) are also questionable to start the season.  So there is a definite concern if one of the top linebackers goes down with an injury.  That this will force a Gibert Frierson (Coral Gables, FL), Romeo Finley (Niceville, FL) or a Shawn Walker (Cardinal Gibbons, FL) to have to step into the linebacker position.

Offensive Line

We have Redshirt sophomore Corey Gaynor (Stoneman Douglas, FL) as the projected starting center and junior Navaugn Donaldson (Miami Central) who has played everywhere on the O-Line projected to start game one.  Who is in contention for the last three spots? Sophomore DJ Scaife (Southridge, FL) is likely to start as well, but the talk around town has been all about true freshman Zion Nelson (Sumter, SC) possibly making the starting five.  Nelson made the ‘Iron Cane’ list and went from 235 pounds to 275 pounds in just a few months.


Also in contention to start is redshirt freshman Cleveland Reed (Fort Meade, FL), redshirt sophomore Kai-Leon Hebert (American Heritage, (Plantation) FL), redshirt sophomore Zalon’tae Hillery (Glynn Academy, GA), redshirt freshman John Cambell (Dr. Phillips, FL), and Butler grad transfer Tommy Kennedy (Lake Forest, IL).  The good news is that there is depth at the offensive line. The bad news, we do not have a close idea of who will make the starting five with less than four weeks to go.

Who is replacing Gerald Willis?

The leader in tackles for loss (TFL) for a Miami team that led all of college football in TFLs is gone to the NFL with the Baltimore Ravens.  Who are the contenders to replace the tackling giant? Junior Jon Ford (Dillard, FL) and senior Pat Bethel (Vero Beach, FL) are the likeliest starters but fans want to see sophomore Nesta Silvera (American Heritage, FL) (Plantation) or UCLA transfer reshirt senior Chigozie Nnoruka (Kennedy, CA) step in and make a huge impact.

Silvera was seen with a brace on his knee at practice one and Ford and Bethel were getting into the backfield on eleven on eleven sets.

OPTIMISM

Skill Positions

No worries at running back, wide receiver or tight end.  There is plenty of depth and skill at all of the aforementioned position groups.  All three units go at least four deep or more with exceptional talents. As there were too many to name, the tight end room looks particularly impressive.  Junior Dee Jay Dallas (Glynn Adademy, GA), sophomore Cam’ron Harris (Miami Carol City, FL) and sophomore Lorenzo Lingard (University, FL) (Orange City) should be one of the best running back units in the country.  

The deep receiving core is headlined by Buffalo transfer KJ Osborn (IMG Academy, FL) and Jeff Thomas (East St. Louis, IL).  The combination will be lethal along with the rest of the skilled pass catchers for the Canes.


Projected tight end starters sophomores Brevin Jordan (Bishop Gorman, NV) and Will Mallory (Providence School, FL) are due for a huge year two while redshirt junior Michael Irvin Jr. (St. Thomas Aquinas, FL) and redshirt sophomore Brian Polendy (Guyer, TX) will be effective in both running and passing situations.

The fifth tight end on the depth chart true freshman Larry Hodges (Tampa Jesuit, FL) looks the part as well adding some insurance to a position group that lost the majority of it’s players to injuries last season.

Defensive Backs

Do not expect a drop off of production with Jaquan Johnson and Sheldrick Redwine graduating to the NFL.  Second-year players DJ Ivey (South Dade, FL), Al Blades Jr. (St. Thomas Aquinas, FL), Gurvan Hall (Palm Beach Gardens, FL), Nigel Bethel (Miami Northwestern, FL) along with junior leaders Amari Carter (Palm Beach Gardens, FL) and Trajan Bandy (Columbus, FL) form a stacked defensive backfield.  Most promising for the future on the day is what we saw from true freshmen Keontra Smith and Te’Cory Couch from Chaminade-Madonna (Hollywood, FL). Smith was seen barking orders to upperclassmen during practice and Couch registered an interception on the day. The future looks bright in the secondary.  

Quarterbacks

Yes, quarterbacks.  We know that this a battle that we will not know who the winner is until a few weeks, but whoever does win the job should be prime position to take this team to the postseason.  All three looked the part Friday night and the competition seems to be raising the overall level of production from the quarterbacks. The question really is who will step up and be a leader? Ohio State transfer redshirt sophomore Tate Martell (Bishop Gorman, NV) has the intangibles to win games on the college level when it comes to accuracy, scrambling ability and throwing on the run.

Redshirt sophomore N’Kosi Perry (Vanguard, FL) has the college-level experience to win big games but some would question his consistency.

Redshirt freshman Jarren Williams (Central Gwinett, GA), arguably the most accurate of them all does not have enough real game experience to add to his resume, but can slang it around the yard with the best of them.

Behind those three the Canes have promising young signal-callers waiting their turn in Peyton Matocha (St. Thomas, TX), Rian Rizk (American Heritage, FL) (Delray) and Carson Proctor (Vero Beach, FL).  The player with the strongest mental focus will likely win the job and start game one.

“It’s about being consistently good, bringing it every day, it’s not about who can make a flash play. It’s a guy that is built to win in all twelve weeks and get us into the postseason.”

Indoor Policy

After the first hour, a lightning delay caused the players and coaches to continue practice inside the Carol Soffer Indoor Practice Facility while fans were forced to leave because of the inclement weather.  When the rain subsided the Canes were back outside on the Greentree Practice Field.  The transition caused a change in energy.

“We came out really good and having the fans here created exactly the atmosphere I wanted.  I want to thank everybody that did come out. It was unfortunate that we had to scurry back inside so soon.  When we came inside I thought our guys handled the sudden change well. During the season you get a lot of lightning delays so that is something that could occur this season.  When we got back outside I thought our attention waned a little bit. What we learned is that physically we are in shape. Mentally is more of my concern and that’s been our issue in the past.  I thought we let it go a little bit then finished well at the end. But that letting it go a little bit could be the difference between winning and losing a football game. So they’re aware of that.  In the summertime we’re trying to build our physical backbone and our mental backbone.”

Miami will continue fall camp this weekend Saturday and Sunday.

The Miami Hurricanes will open the season against the Florida Gators at Camping World Stadium in Orlando August 24th at 7:00 PM on ESPN.

About Marcus Benjamin

Marcus Benjamin works as the senior writer and editor for FootballHotbed.com. He attended Florida A&M and Florida Memorial University completing a bachelors degree in communications in 2010. He's covered high school football in the South Florida area since 2010 for the Miami Herald, Miami Sports Tribune and ShawSports.net. He is married and lives in Fort, Lauderdale, FL.
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