What does football at Hard Rock look like in a pandemic? We got a first look at Miami-UAB
Noise wasn’t too much of a factor for the UAB Blazers at Hard Rock Stadium on Thursday. Players sat on chairs rather than benches. The Miami Hurricanes played in front of sparse crowd.
It was football in a pandemic and parts of it were strange, but pay attention to just what happens inside the lines and it mostly felt just like a normal opening game of a season.
Miami’s 2020 season began Thursday, a few weeks late because of the COVID-19 pandemic and with a series of measures in place to hopefully stem the spread of the coronavirus.
UAB traveled without multiple players because they tested positive for the virus and the Hurricanes played without several contributors, including star defensive end Gregory Rousseau, because they opted out of the season for COVID concerns.
Otherwise, the most glaring difference was something which doesn’t feel so unusual anymore in day-to-day life. Whenever players weren’t playing, they were wearing masks or neck gaiters. The referees and coaches, and anyone else who happened to be on the sideline, had masks on, too.
Hard Rock also didn’t have long metal benches on the sidelines, like usual. Instead, they were replaced by individual white chairs scattered about, so players could stay separated while still meeting with coaches. The size of the bench areas was also expanded by the NCAA this year, now stretching from one 15-yard line to the other.
The changes even carried into the locker room, where players’ lockers at the stadium are now separated by plexiglass partitions. After the games, postgame press conferences will be replaced by video chats, like most other sports are doing.
On the fringes, it was all unorthodox. On the field, it still managed to look like a typical football game.
Offensive linemen opt out
Two Hurricanes offensive linemen have opted out of the season, a source told the Miami Herald.
Kai-Leon Herbert and Zalon’tae Hillery both will not play this year, the Hurricanes announced on their pregame availability report. The two offensive linemen were expected to compete for jobs in Miami’s rotation and potentially even starting spots.
The Hurricanes also played without quarterback Tate Martell, offensive lineman Issiah Walker and punter Matias Gasc, who were all unavailable for undisclosed reasons. Last month, coach Manny Diaz said Miami was still awaiting word from the NCAA as to whether Walker would be eligible to play this season after he transferred from the Florida Gators in May.
This and that
▪ Star edge rusher Quincy Roche recorded his first sack as a Hurricane in the second quarter. An All-American defensive lineman last year for the Temple Owls, Roche is the NCAA’s active sacks leader with 27.
▪ Quarterback D’Eriq King ran for his first touchdown at Miami in the second quarter. He has scored a rushing touchdown in 16 straight games dating back to the start of the 2018 season when he was playing for the Houston Cougars.
▪ Running back Cam’Ron Harris’ 66-yard touchdown run in the first quarter was a career-long run and longer than any rush the Hurricanes had in 2019. Harris also had his first career multi-touchdown game and his second career 100-yard game.
▪ UM’s 2020 “season captains:’’ King, senior safety Amari Carter, redshirt senior linebacker Zach McCloud and redshirt junior center Corey Gaynor.
▪ A UAB source confirmed UM will pay the Blazers a guaranteed $1.5 million for playing the Hurricanes.
▪ Like many universities in the South, let alone the entire country, players from South Florida dot the UAB roster. They include Coral Gables grad Kristopher Moll, a 6-2, 225-pound senior linebacker; LJ Smith III, a 5-9, 230-pound redshirt freshman linebacker out of Miami Norland; Kadeem Telfort, a hulking 6-8, 315-pound redshirt junior offensive tackle out of Miami Booker T. Washington; and Colby Dempsey, a 5-10, 160-pound freshman cornerback out of Fort Lauderdale St. Thomas Aquinas.
▪ Mark Richt, who coached the Hurricanes for three seasons before Manny Diaz took over last year, is now a studio analyst for the ACC Network, assigned to air Thursday’s opener. On Tuesday, during a teleconference/Zoom session, Richt said he wished that new quarterback D’Eriq King would have had more days to practice the new spread system with his teammates. Richt said he expects King, who ran the no-huddle offense at Houston, “will be super comfortable in the system,’’ but had he been able to practice the entire spring, rather than just the four practices UM had because of the COVID-19 pandemic, he’d be more prepared more the next four games: at Louisville, vs. FSU, at Clemson and vs. Pittsburgh — all considered formidable opponents.
“It’ll be interesting to see how much D’Eriq has learned and how those guys play together,” Richt said. “It’s still about execution. If you don’t move the ball, get first downs and score points, not only is it a dejection for the offense but it is for the defense.”
However, “Once you get that first first down,’’ Richt said, “[opposing] defensive linemen get fatigued.”
▪ Former Hurricanes great Ed Reed, a member of the 2001 UM national title team and recently inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame, was named the UM chief of staff in January. He was at the game and standing with coach Manny Diaz at the 40-yard line during pregame warmups.
Reed was on the Jim Rome show earlier this week and said that his role with the Hurricanes is “still up in the air,’’ but that he wants to coach in the future.
“If I didn’t want to coach,’’ Reed told CBSSports, “I never would have taken the job.”
Reed can speak to prospective players over the phone or on Zoom. He was instrumental in helping UM nab to freshman safety Avantae Williams, who will not play this season because of an undisclosed medical issue.
This story was originally published September 10, 2020 at 10:46 PM.
