Miami Hurricanes Football: Spring Game Notes & Reaction

The Miami Hurricanes played a football game last night (albeit against themselves), but it was still Hurricanes football. The best part of this game was seeing Mark Richt and his staff on the sideline in what should be a fun era for Miami football.

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The Green team, led by Brad Kaaya and Christopher Herndon won the game 24-7 over the Orange team which was the first-team defense and the second-team offense.

After re-watching the game on ESPN3, here are some thoughts about Saturday’s spring game:

Brad Kaaya the GOAT and the other quarterbacks

Kaaya is one of the best quarterbacks in the country and he showed that on Saturday. He made impressive throw after impressive throw against the first-team defense. The one throw to Malcolm Lewis in the second quarter was insane. He also made some perfect throws to Braxton Berrios near the sideline and Braxton made some really nice catches on those as well. Kaaya had 20 incompletions, but about 6 of them were really bad drops by the receivers. Let’s enjoy what it’s probably his last year as a Cane. Yes, I’m saying what you think I’m saying.

As far as the other quarterbacks goes, they all looked really disappointing to me. Evan Shirreffs lacks arm strength, even though he has really good accuracy and didn’t have the best showing on Saturday. Malik Rosier couldn’t complete many passes and he still just looks like a run-first quarterback. Jack Allison and Vincent Testaverde didn’t show much, either.

Miami’s number one goal this year is to keep Kaaya healthy at all costs.

Offensive Line looked good at times, but lack depth

And keeping Kaaya healthy is the responsibility of the offensive line. The o-line has been the topic of discussion for the last two seasons. Stacy Searels, the new offensive line coach, has been open about the lack of production from his unit all throughout spring, but his group had a nice outing on Saturday for the most part.

The first-team offense, which was without Sunny Odogwu, was pretty solid. Tyree St. Louis and Trevor Darling did solid jobs on Chad Thomas and Al-Quadin Muhammad all day long and that’s not necessarily an easy task. While they did have some breakdowns, it wasn’t a depressing performance by the offensive line, which is a step forward. Now the question is, do they have enough depth is injuries start coming up?

We’re good at tight end, but not so much at wide receiver

David Njoku is a freak and one of the best tight ends in the country, despite not having the most impressive game on Saturday with a couple of bad drops. Christopher Herndon plays some fullback as well, but he’s a freak. I’ve been talking about him for a year now and I’m glad to see him being utilized more in the offense, as you can see why from his two touchdown performance.

While Miami will line up Njoku and Herndon all over the field, Miami needs more playmakers at the wide receiver position. Stacy Coley didn’t play because of a hamstring injury. He’s the number one guy, but that scares me a little bit because of his injury history. Lawrence Cager looked solid, but I would’ve liked to see more out of him. He still looks too stiff for my liking.

Braxton Berrios was the big surprise on Saturday. Berrios and Kaaya are best friends and they looked the part on the field. Berrios made great plays all day long and finished off his strong game with a nice slant route that resulted in the last touchdown of the game.

Dionte Mullins, Sam Bruce, and Ahmmon Richards need to get on campus ASAP.

Defensive line looked good

The defensive line looked sharp, but I would’ve liked to see the first-team defensive line do a little bit more damage. The second-team defensive line was better in my opinion, but they were also playing a weaker offensive line. Demetrius Jackson and Gerald Willis both abused Jahair Jones for a sack and they were in the backfield a lot on Saturday.

Chad Thomas and AQM are going to be the two main pass rushers for Miami and they need them to be more active than they were on Saturday. But the good news is that Miami didn’t show much of their defense and they’ll be more productive come fall.

Wanted: Cornerbacks

The Hurricanes need cornerbacks and they need them now. Corn Elder, as good as he is, I don’t believe he’s a number one corner. Defending the other teams best receiver is a difficult task for many corners in the country. His counterpart, Sheldrick Redwine, had a forgettable day for the most part. He needs to improve a lot more during the summer and the fall or Miami is going to be in a lot of trouble.

Ryan Mayes and Michael Jackson got the start at corner for the second-team defense, but they were non-existing on Saturday as well.

Miami is going to rely on the defensive line getting pressure on the quarterback, which will help the secondary, but if the defensive line can’t get to the quarterback, Miami is in a lot of trouble.

Jaquan Johnson will be called on to play a lot of cornerback this year, and I think that’s going to be a big positive for the Canes.

Linebackers

Linebackers looked good and they were led by the freshman duo of Michael Pinckney and Shaq Quarterman. These kids are going to be playing a lot in the fall and they looked the part on Saturday in their first game as collegiate athletes. Quarterman is impressive. He was around the ball all day and made some good tackles in the box. He still has some work to do shedding blocks, but that’ll come with time.

Jermaine Grace didn’t do much on Saturday in his new position, but he’ll definitely be more involved come the regular season. Jamie Gordinier made a couple of nice plays in the box as well.

Other than that, there wasn’t much out of this group.

Now, let’s get this thing rolling into the fall.

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