The one freshman Cane who didn’t arrive early but is excelling. And UM nuggets
A six-pack of Miami Hurricanes notes on a Monday:
▪ Former Miami Columbus standout Bryce Fitzgerald — rated by 247 Sports as the No. 19 safety and 237th-best prospect in the 2025 class — is UM’s only freshman who didn’t enroll early.
But we hear he has been very impressive nonetheless, intercepting several passes in practice during training camp.
With Dylan Day emerging as Miami’s potential No. 3 safety behind Zechariah Poyser and Jakobe Thomas, Fitzgerald is competing with veteran Markeith Williams for remaining playing time.
Fitzgerald wanted to be on campus with the other freshmen in January but “when I switched from Belen to Columbus, something happened with my transcript” that prevented that, he told me.
He said he never got UM’s playbook until he enrolled May 18. “Everyone knew the playbook before me. Every night before I go to sleep, I give it 30 minutes to an hour, going over assignments, little things, alignment, getting it down in my head.”
Assistant defensive backs coach Terry Jefferson and Tennessee transfer Thomas have been among those helping him. “Twelve o’clock at night, you’re in here. No one’s in here,” Fitzgerald said. “You’re just studying it by yourself.”
Fitzgerald, who has gained 17 pounds since arriving at UM, won state titles in three sports as a high school star: basketball, football, and the 400 relay in track.
Among UM’s natural freshmen, expect receivers Malachi Toney and Joshua Moore to get early playing time. Fitzgerald and edge player Hayden Lowe also have positioned themselves for September roles, and Donta Simpson is in the mix for backup snaps at defensive tackle.
▪ UM receiver Jojo Trader revealed he had a torn ligament in his wrist in the spring “but I’m good now.”
UM added three veteran receivers (Marion, Tony Johnson and CJ Daniels). All are very good leaders. And we’ve heard a lot of positive things about how Daniels and Marion, in particular, have looked in practice.
Trader revealed that Daniels and Marion “start our meetings off. They have us prepared. We meet with KB [receivers coach Kevin Beard] and they bring us again separate, tell us ‘to make sure you do this, make sure you don’t do this.’ Tony Johnson is a little quiet, but he gets involved a lot.”
▪ Quick hits from Hurricanes defensive coordinator Corey Hetherman’s session with reporters last Thursday: He said backup defensive ends Armondo Blount, Lowe and Herbert Scroggins have been impressive....
Hetherman said linebacker Cam Pruitt “from spring football until now is one of the guys that has made the most improvement. He’s a physical football player … he can cover or be in the box.”...
He said a rotation at safety is likely and mentioned Day, who has made a strong case for playing time....
He mentioned potentially using five corners in a game and said Wisconsin transfer Xavier Lucas is “always watching film.” (Lucas and OJ Frederique are expected to start at cornerback.)
▪ UM offensive coordinator Shannon Dawson, on quarterback Carson Beck, who we hear has been very impressive this month: “I have already had conversations with Carson about what he likes from his previous offenses. I tell him to let me know if there are things that he loves that we don’t do. I am not an idiot, we will do those things.
“He can throw at an elite level. His mentality of the game is different because of how he’s been around the game. The way he goes about things is professional.”
Beck will have the authority to change plays at the line of scrimmage.
“Him and Cam Ward have that in common,” Dawson said. “They like to have control of everything. Protections are set, but they can override them too. I feel like he will do more of that than most quarterbacks I have had.”
▪ More from Dawson: He said “we have a lot of guys that can stretch the field. I do feel good about our ability to attack down the field” and that “a lot more people” will play in games at wide receiver than in the past.
He said freshman receiver Toney “has an advanced ability [to make an impact as a freshman]. He understands spacing, very calm. He has a skillset that fits that position.”
Dawson added that fellow slot receivers Johnson and Ray-Ray Joseph “are really playing well.”...
He said backup quarterback Emory Williams “is playing really, really well” and said North Dakota State transfer CharMar Brown “brings that physical nature” to the running back room.
▪ Dawson gave insight into his job:
“I try to have the first 10 [offensive plays to be used in a game] in my head but that can go off the rails pretty quick. I just dot them, dot the plays I want to call the first drive and the flow of the drive will dictate when I call them. I used to have them one through whatever, but you do that and something happens and you go off of it.”
Dawson says he will have as many as 80 plays in mind for a particular game but that “you can’t get obsessed with calling everything on your script.” He says a lot of his plays are similar but are run out of different looks. “I got to times in my career there were too many plays on the script – that waters down what your players can do effectively,” Dawson said.
“The meat and potatoes of your offense have to exist on that sheet. And situationally being prepared for situations that come up. You need a play on the two-yard line to win the game, you better be prepared for a two-yard line play to win a game.”
Dawson says he watches “a handful of NFL teams that are similar to us on offense” to dissect those plays. “That league is different in a lot of ways, the defenses they see are different, so you have to be careful with the does this correlate to college football deal,” Dawson said.
He watches a lot of Washington Commanders tape, because of similarities with Kliff Kingsbury’s offense.
This story was originally published August 18, 2025 at 12:30 PM.
