The Miami Hurricanes wrapped up its month of spring football on Saturday with a short scrimmage that lasted about an hour and 15 minutes at Cobb Stadium on the UM campus.
The defense beat the offense on the day, 25-20.
“A lot of ground was made,” head coach Mario Cristobal said after the scrimmage. “I will never come up here and try to fluff up the spring. We have a ways to go, but we have progressed so much. We are excited. We feel like every spring we are getting better and I feel the same way about this spring.”
Miami’s defense set the tone for the day by forcing a fumble on running back Mark Fletcher who was fighting for extra yards as a pass catcher out of the backfield.
On their next possession of the game, the first team offense drove the ball down inside the five yard line, but could not punch it into the end-zone on four consecutive runs, including a fourth-and-one stop by linebacker Popo Aguirre.
“As an offensive lineman, I want to projectile vomit,” Cristobal joked about that sequence. “Defensively, they did a great job from a schematic standpoint of exposing certain gaps and timing it up really well. It was guys putting their feet in the ground, hunkering down, and knocking people back. We kind of needed that. That was a great job by the defense.”
Early enrollee true freshman wide receiver Malachi Toney generated the most plays on the day while workman wit hate first, second, an third team offenses. Toney scored an explosive touchdown on a quick slant delivered from Emory Williams.
“His maturity in the preparation is what sticks out,” Cristobal said of Toney. “It will be 5:30 in the morning and he will be out there catching extra juggs. If he makes a mistake, he will watch extra film and spend time with the coaches and learn what he needs to get better at. He knows he has a ways to go, but he had a great start to spring and we are going to push him hard this summer to maximize his potential.”
During the second half of the scrimmage, when the defense was not tackling to get ground, true freshman Luke Nickel threw a touchdown to Ray Ray Joseph.
Defensively, Malik Bryant recovered a fumble, Amari Wallace picked off a pass from Judd Anderson, and Isaiah Taylor picked off a pass from Luke Nickel.
Cristobal was pleased by the overall performance by the defense this spring under the leadership of new coordinator Corey Hetherman.
“Hopefully you saw guys get lined up. Our tackling has improved and our physicality has gotten better,” Cristobal said. “Communication is key and certainly it was the biggest area to address. Alignments, assignments, goes to communication. We have made up a lot of ground.”
Plenty of key contributors were limited or held out of action completely during the scrimmage, including WR JoJo Trader, WR Joshua Moore, TE Elijah Lofton, DE Rueben Bain, DE Akheem Mesidor, DT Ahmad Moten, LB Wesley Bissainthe, and CB O.J. Frederique.
Read on for more news and notes from Miami’s scrimmage on Saturday.
