Miami Hurricanes 3rd Scrimmage: Defense Dominant, Offense Still Needs Work
The Miami Hurricanes held their final scrimmage of training camp on Thursday morning. This was the first scrimmage that Head Coach Mark Richt and his staff began to focus on the September 2 season opener against Bethune-Cookman.
The Miami Hurricanes teams for the scrimmage were broken down by players participating on the first team and others on the scout team. The scout team took on the persona of Bethune-Cookman and were spotted a 24-0 lead.
The defense continued to be dominant as they have throughout training camp. The scrimmage began in what Richt described as a torrential downpour. The rain came as Miami has a flood warning throughout Thursday.
With two previous scrimmages and three and a half weeks of training camp in the books, the scrimmage was more about the focus on Bethune-Cookman then finding out what the players on the Miami Hurricanes roster could do.
After being named the starting quarterback on Tuesday, Malik Rosier took all of the snaps in Thursday’s scrimmage. Evan Sherriffs was with the first team but did not play.
N’Kosi Perry, Cade Weldon and walk-on Augie DiBiase played but struggled against the first team offense. Several players made plays both offensively and defensively for both the first string and the scout team.
The Sun Sentinel released stats from the scrimmage via UM.
Passing
First team offense
Malik Rosier 18-of-32, 222 yards, 2 TDs
Evan Shirreffs — DNP
Scout team offense
N’Kosi Perry 6-of-16, 57 yards, 2 INTs
Cade Weldon 3-of-8, 15 yards, INT
Augie DiBiase 1-of-3, 6 yards
Rushing
First team offense
Mark Walton 7-60, 2 TDs
Travis Homer 3-17
Malik Rosier 4-7
Scout team offense
Robert Burns 3-12
Crispian Atkins 4-5
Trayone Gray 3-(-4)
Receiving
First team offense
Jeff Thomas 6-115, TD
Lawrence Cager 3-30, TD
Darrell Langham 3-29
Chris Herndon 2-6
Mike Harley 1-17
Scout team offense
Malik Curry 2-20
Marshall Few 2-17
Brian Polendey 2-14
Defense
(All players on first team defense)
Anthony Moten — 4 tackles, 3 TFL, sack
Michael Jackson — 3 tackles, INT, 2 PBUs
Joe Jackson — 2 tackles, sack
Trent Harris — 2 tackles, sack
Robert Knowles — tackle, INT
Chad Thomas — sack
RJ McIntosh — sack
Malek Young — INT
Zach McCloud — Blocked punt
Richt seemed much happier with the play of the defense in today’s scrimmage than the play of the offense. The Sun Sentinel quoted Richt after the scrimmage.
"“We were trying to track down Bethune and those guys really played well,” coach Mark Richt said. “We had some quality players that played for the scout team today and they did a really nice job. The d-line must have batted down three or four balls and put pressure on the quarterback pretty good.“Defense got a bunch of stops, defense had two turnovers, we had a special teams blocked kick and offense, was hot and cold. They either went right down the field and scored or had a little struggle here and there, nothing bad.”"
After three and half weeks of practice, the coaching staff has gotten a chance to see just about all they could from what each player can provide. The scrimmage was an opportunity to focus on Bethune-Cookman and putting the players in game situations.
The team did not tackle to the ground in the final scrimmage. Richt discussed what his team’s focus was this morning.
"“We’ve learned what we need to learn about our players. It was more about transitioning from offense to kicking and kicking to defense and defense to kicking”"
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The Miami Hurricanes will continue to practice for the next ten days to get ready for the September 2 opener against Bethune-Cookman. Several players are nursing injuries. Some might miss the game against BCC, others might be limited in a game the Hurricanes should dominate.