‘We’re throwing the kitchen sink at them’: Hurricanes to up intensity as season opener looms
The Miami Hurricanes open the 2024 season in less than three weeks when they face the Florida Gators on Aug. 31 in Gainesville.
“Right around the corner,” Hurricanes coach Mario Cristobal said Monday.
With two weeks of practice and the team’s first scrimmage already under its belt, Cristobal said the intensity is about to kick up a notch as they make the most of the final practices they have left in camp.
“We’re throwing the kitchen sink at them this week,” Cristobal said on “The Joe Rose Show” on WQAM. “That’s from a situational standpoint, adversity standpoint, working-in-the-heat standpoint, extended drives, trying to gut it out, putting 10, 11, 12 [plays] into a drive. And they’re going to respond. They’re going to have to find a way to respond and get their teammates to respond. They’re all about it and that’s what makes working with these guys so much fun. It gets everybody so fired up because they love ball. They love the work. They run to it, and they’re going to get a heavy dose of that this week.”
This comes two days after the Hurricanes wrapped up their first scrimmage of fall camp, one in which Cristobal said the offense had the better day following two weeks of the defense being the better unit.
Cristobal said camp to this point has been “very competitive.”
“I think as a coach, you really start to worry if it’s a butt whopping on one side every single day and that’s nowhere near the case here,” Cristobal said. “There is a ton of legitimate back and forth competition, and it bodes well for us. There’s a lot of improvement, and again, just a lot of a lot of enthusiasm within the walls for just going out there and getting better.”
Other news and notes from Cristobal’s interview with Rose...
▪ Rose mentioned that redshirt defensive back Mishael Powell, who transferred in from Washington, had an interception during the scrimmage. Cristobal said Powell has been “as good as any of the guys that have been fortunate to be around.”
“It’s because he’s a professional about everything he does, and he wastes no time,” Cristobal said. “There’s no BS to him. He’s all about the work. Tremendous human being. Super high IQ. And he just goes, I mean, he knows one speed and one speed only, whether it be in walkthroughs, whether it be in live drills, and he knows ball. He knows how to leverage the ball. He knows how to play man to man. He knows and understands all of our defensive concepts. So not only is he a really great player, he’s also a great teacher and example for the guys around.”
▪ On if there’s any area or position group Cristobal has been pleased with: “Oh, I’m not going to give any of these guys sugar. They know that. I mean, you praise the stuff that’s good, but you really pour your focus into just getting better. And you’re around the group of guys that likes that. These guys don’t like that fluff. The ‘Hey, great job,’ they’re not into that stuff. We’ve got to focus on getting better. Certainly, we reward the guys that perform well and praise the stuff that does well, but there’s a lot of focus on the intensity and physicality of football and getting better at it.”
▪ On the number of true freshmen who could see significant playing time: “The way the team is layered and what we have from a depth chart standpoint, I’d say most of them will have some type of contribution or be in the rotation or compete for being a starter. There’s a lot of great young talent. They know what they know and they don’t know what they don’t know, and that’s OK. Throw them in there and let’s go find out. These next couple of weeks will determine exactly what their role is to begin the season. But that role as the season goes on, it’s on us to keep expanding it and improve our guys.”
Two Hurricanes on Bednarik watch list
Defensive end Rueben Bain Jr. and linebacker Francisco Mauigoa on Monday were named to the watch list for the Bednarik Award, given annually to the top defensive player in college football.
Bain was the 2023 ACC Defensive Rookie of the Year after recording 44 tackles, 12.5 tackles for loss and seven-and-a-half sacks.
Mauigoa led the ACC last season with 18 tackles for loss while also having 82 total tackles, seven-and-a-half sacks, two forced fumbles and an interception. Mauigoa is also on the watch list for the Nagurski Trophy, another defensive player of the year award.
This story was originally published August 12, 2024 at 8:08 AM.
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