Podcast: Takeaways from the first week of Mario Cristobal’s first Miami training camp
The first week of Mario Cristobal’s first training camp as coach of the Miami Hurricanes is in the books.
Miami finished off Week 1 on Thursday by hosting a big group of alumni on Greentree Practice Fields to watch its first fully padded practice of fall camp and the Hurricanes, for the first time this month, kept the whole thing open for reporters to watch.
It means David Wilson and Susan Miller Degnan, the Miami Herald’s Hurricanes beat writers, have some real observations — made with their own four eyes — to share on this episode of the Eye on the U podcast.
Some of those takeaways include:
- The strong state of Miami’s quarterback position,
- The undeniable practice heroics of wide receiver Xavier Restrepo,
- A group of new offensive linemen emerging with star tackle Zion Nelson sidelined by a knee injury,
- A pretty much all new rotation on the defensive line,
- The quiet excellence of star defensive tackle Leonard Taylor
- And much, much more.
Suddenly, there are only about three weeks left until the start of the regular season and Miami will hold its first preseason scrimmage Saturday. The Hurricanes have a long way to go, but the biggest takeaway is we feel better about Miami right now than we did before camp kicked off last Friday.
The biggest reason is the defense. Our biggest question mark left is the wide receivers. The good news is the Hurricanes still have time to get everything figured out before the season starts and they seem to be in good shape.
All the alumni hanging around Coral Gables on Thursday certainly seemed to feel that way. The feedback is still positive and the excitement is undeniable. Can the season just start already?
As always, thanks for listening and please continue to rate, review and subscribe on Apple, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.
