Miami Hurricanes Football: Some Thoughts After 2015 Spring Game

Well, spring football is now over and we’re going to have to suck up five months without any sort of Miami Hurricanes Football activities until fall camp opens. Thankfully, we got to enjoy a beautiful day at Lockhart Stadium on Saturday for the 2015 Miami Hurricanes spring football game.

The Hurricanes offense competed against the Hurricanes defense on the day and there were some things that jumped out to me during the game, so I hope this helps out the people that weren’t able to make it out to the game on Saturday. And if you did go, let us know if you agree/disagree with anything I’m saying.

• Brad Kaaya is the starting quarterback for the Hurricanes and that’s not going to change unless there’s an injury (knocks on every wood), but he did struggle a bit in his first spring game as a Cane. Kaaya overthrew a couple of his receivers down the middle and didn’t seem comfortable at first. Not all of it was number 15’s fault, however, as he had Rashawn Scott drop two balls that eventually turned into two interceptions for the defense. Kaaya is still getting used to new targets in Scott and Standish Dobard so this performance doesn’t come as much of a surprise to me. Plus, there are many things to worry about with this team, and Brad Kaaya isn’t one of them.
• As I just mentioned, Rashawn Scott had some troubles catching the ball on Saturday. In his first drop that resulted in a Corn Elder interception as he laid on the field, the wind seemed to play around with the ball, but it’s still a throw that must be caught. Scott has been receiving all kinds of praise from coaches and media for his camp performance, and he’ll still likely be the number one receiver come going into the fall, but his spring game performance left a lot to be desired.
• Gus Edwards got the start for the offense because Joseph Yearby got suspended for a violation of team rules. Edwards, unfortunately, was held out for the majority of the game after injuring his shoulder on a carry. In his short time out there, he looked pretty average. As did Trayone Gray, who only got about 2.5 yards per carry on Saturday.
• Malik Rosier continued his momentum and had a pretty good game of his own. The dual-sport quarterback reportedly played extremely well in the last Canes camp scrimmage and he played well again on Saturday. Rosier brings an element that Kaaya doesn’t and that’s the ability to tuck the ball and run for extra yards if there’s nobody open in the secondary. No, there is no quarterback controversy and Rosier is the backup quarterback, but it’s absolutely crucial that Rosier continues to develop because you never know in football (knocks on every wood, again.)
• Stacy Coley is the one guy that Miami desperately needs in order to be a good team in 2015, and he showed some flashes of freshman season Stacy Coley on Saturday. Coley didn’t produce any “wow” plays, but he was really consistent and looked confident out on the field, something he wasn’t all of last year. Coley had a couple of nice gains for the offense and it was nice to see him out there competing. I think Kevin Beard will eventually bring out the best of Coley by the end of fall camp and he’ll have a strong junior campaign. Or at least I hope so.
• Braxton Berrios and Malcolm Lewis did impress me coming out of the slot for the Canes and that’s a really good sign for Miami. Lewis looks like Miramar Malcolm Lewis and Braxton Berrios looks more comfortable after missing out last season’s spring game. These two guys are going to be big targets for Kaaya, and you can see the connection brewing already.
• The offensive line has a lot of question marks going into next season, but it’s really tough to tell much of a development from that group based on a spring game. You don’t want your offensive linemen to go too hard and risk injury and you could see that from time to time on Saturday. I was able to see Hunter Wells and Jahair Jones make some good blocks for the offense late into the scrimmage, but this is a unit that we’ll have to keep our out on once fall camp rolls around and they have all the incoming freshman ready to go.
• Much like the offensive line, we’ll still have to see how much the defensive line has improved once we get into fall camp. One thing that is extremely noticeable is how much bigger everyone is on the defensive line. Michael Wyche looks a little bit thinner (at least from where I was sitting) and guys like Trent Harris and Chad Thomas look ready to take the next step. Anthony Moten and Demetrius Jackson showed some flashes later into the game, and even Jelani Hamilton made some good plays from the tackle position. There were some good things from the defensive line, but we’ll get a better sense of where they stand in August.
• The best unit out on the field on either side was the secondary. The Miami secondary was flying around and making plays all day on Saturday. Artie Burns and Deon Bush led the way for the Hurricanes and Jamal Carter performed really well, coming up with a couple of interceptions. The defenders were contesting every pass that Kaaya, Gray Crow or Rosier threw and that was the best sign coming from Saturday. Will the secondary play that way every Saturday in the fall? We sure as hell hope so, because they were pretty good this Saturday at Lockhart Stadium.

These are some of my quick observations on Saturday’s spring game, but stay tuned to more in-depth thoughts and coverage on Saturday’s Spring Game.