Mark Richt Encouraged By Offense After Watching Tape of Scrimmage
With a few days in between Saturday’s scrimmage and today’s practice, Miami Head Coach Mark Richt and his staff got a chance to view the game film from the first scrimmage of the spring.
The Hurricanes still have five more practices and two scrimmages before they conclude spring ball this season. Immediately after the scrimmage on Saturday Richt said: “If offense dominates in the spring, I can promise you it’s usually a long season…Unless you have like a boatload of guys showing up in the summer.”
Despite that Richt discussed today that the offense did have some glimpses of success on Saturday.
"“Very few times did we have a situation where the play didn’t have a good chance of success…A lot of times, if you get a minus two yards on a run, you might think that’s the worst thing that has ever happened.Then you watch tape, and you see everybody did their job, but you got a little double team up to a linebacker, and both guys go to the linebacker and the let the guy go.“Everything else blocked beautifully, and if they just stayed on the double team a half a second longer, we’re ripping through there for a good 15- or 20-yard gain. That’s promising, when you see that on tape.”"
Miami has ten early enrollees this spring and they impressed their new teammates in Saturday’s scrimmage. Shaq Quarterman who earned freshmen All-American honors last fall spoke about new players on defense.
"“I think we did well as a unit…We have some new guys out there – B.J. [linebacker Bradley Jennings, Jr.] for example, who may not know all the material right now in the playbook.We just told him to go out there and play confident and run around and make plays. And he did that. [Defensive lineman Jonathan] Garvin had a nice sack, real technical with the hands. We did well for the first scrimmage.”"
KC McDermott who will be one of the leaders on the offensive line this fall spoke about two of the higher touted freshman on the offensive side of the ball, offensive lineman Nauvaugh Donaldson and athlete DeeJay Dallas who has been getting most of his playing time at wide receiver.
"“Navaughn Donaldson had one heck of a play during a power [run]…And DeeJay Dallas, you know, if you put a ball up there he will go and grab it. So everyone did well. Obviously, like I said we have got some stuff to improve on.”"
Junior to be Tyler Gauthier also gave his opinion on the massive Donaldson.
"“Just his size and his strength and his physicality for being a freshman…He is not scared to go out there and hit you. There was a play where he drove him all the way to the sideline and it was pretty incredible to watch, for a freshman.”"
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The Hurricanes are excited about Dallas’ versatility. He played running back, wide receiver, defensive back and was a quarterback in high school. Richt spoke about where he will likely wind up this fall.
"“We’re trying to let [Deejay] learn something…We felt like, if we’re going to let him learn a position, receiver is one that is going to take more to refine.The running back position, you tend to be able to teach that a little bit faster. There’s a little bit less of a learning curve. So if we absolutely had to, by the first summer session, training him as a running back, we can.We’ve talked. All along, he’s been like, ‘Whatever you ask me to do, coach, I’ll do it.’ But our goal is not to do that.”"
Miami had a young team in 2016. They return most of that team. Fifteen starters return in 2017, including the entire front seven two deep on defense.
Quarterman was asked where he thought the team had improved from the end of the season.
"“I would say everywhere,…Like coach [Richt] has said, he just said it right now, ‘When we are really urgent, we are really good.’ So everybody has to focus on coming out, getting the crust out of their eyes and getting ready to be better every day.Because being great is being good every day. So we can’t take any days off because you don’t feel like getting out of bed, this and that. We have to come prepared to work.”"
Miami will get back to the practice fields on Wednesday. Each practice and scrimmage provide another chance for the Hurricanes to grow. It’s hard to quantify anything in spring practice with the first game still nearly five months away.
Next: Miami Hurricanes Quarterbacks Under Pressure in Scrimmage
Bringing in a top 15 recruiting class, with the anticipation of the nation’s top-ranked class to follow a year from now has the buzz and excitement high on campus in Coral Gables.