Position battles, practice standouts and more from Miami Hurricanes fall camp
The Miami Hurricanes are holding their second scrimmage of fall camp on Sunday, after which coach Mario Cristobal said the team “should have a lot of our answers” regarding key position battles heading into the team’s marquee, top-10 matchup against the Notre Dame Fighting Irish on Aug. 31.
But where exactly do things stand through two-and-a-half weeks of practices and two weeks ahead of the season opener? Here’s a look at some key storylines with insight from Cristobal, offensive coordinator Shannon Dawson and defensive coordinator Corey Hetherman.
Backup quarterback
Carson Beck is the clear-cut No. 1 quarterback. That’s obvious.
But how have the backups — a trio of redshirt sophomore Emory Williams, redshirt freshman Judd Anderson and true freshman Luke Nickel — looked so far? By the way Dawson talks about them, it looks as if Williams remains the frontrunner to be Beck’s backup.
“I think I got the best quarterback room in the nation and that might be a little crazy and obviously I’m biased a little bit, but Emory’s playing really, really well and he’s taking a lot of snaps,” Dawson said. “And the young guys [Anderson and Nickel] are really doing good things too. Now, will they make a bonehead deal every now and again? Yeah, they will, and that’s my job to kind of level that out a little bit, but they show spurts of doing some really, really good things and are really talented guys.”
The Herald’s Barry Jackson wrote at the start of fall camp about how Williams saw his poor performance in the Pop-Tarts Bowl as a “wake-up call” and what he has done to get his confidence back.
How many wide receivers could see the field?
The Hurricanes are replacing their top four wide receivers from last season in Xavier Restrepo, Jacolby George, Sam Brown and Isaiah Horton.
While Miami has a few returnees — notably sophomores Josisha Trader and Ny Carr plus junior Ray Ray Joseph — looking to take the next step, the Hurricanes overhauled the receiver group with three veteran transfers in CJ Daniels (LSU), Keelan Marion (BYU) and Troy Johnson (Cincinnati). They also have three true freshmen in Malachi Toney, Josh Moore and Daylyn Upshaw, with the first two impressing in camp and looking like they’ll get playing time early.
Dawson said the receivers have “a lot more people that are rotating in” and that he feels the group as a whole is “deeper there than we’ve been.”
“Deep in a way where I feel very comfortable with looking out there and seeing a whole lot of different people out there,” Dawson said. “I’m excited about that.”
So does that mean Dawson plans to use everyone until a smaller core separates itself or utilize a deeper rotation all season? Right now, he’s leaning toward the latter.
“I’m not Nostradamus; I can’t tell you exactly how it’s going to go,” Dawson said, “but if I had to guess right now, I would tell you that my whole purpose right now is to get that group to where at the end of the games, middle of the season and end of the season we’re healthy and we’re hitting on all cylinders. And to do that, splitting time with guys and rolling people where we’re fresh the whole game and we always have fresh legs out there is key. It’s vital. Now the big part of that is I’ve got to trust the people going on the field, and that’s their part too. They have to take ownership of the fact that if there isn’t a level of trust there, then I won’t get my opportunity. But I will say right now, there is a level of trust with a lot of guys.”
Just how solid is the cornerback depth?
The Hurricanes needed to revamp their secondary after the group struggled down the stretch last season. While their starting safeties appear to be set in Jacksonville State transfer Zechariah Poyser and Tennessee transfer Jakobe Thomas, the top of the cornerback group is still being decided.
Hetherman said right now there are “probably around five guys” at cornerback he’s comfortable with playing in games but added “there’s some guys that are still learning the position a little bit.”
Sophomore OJ Frederique Jr. returns after earning Freshman All-American honors last year. Redshirt sophomore Damari Brown is trying to prove he can be a steady contributor after being sidelined almost all of last season by injury. UM added four transfers in Xavier Lucas (Wisconsin), Ethan O’Connor (Washington State), Keionte Scott (Auburn) and Charles Brantley (Michigan State). True freshmen Chris Ewald and Ja’Boree Antoine round out the group.
“It’s a competition every single day,” Hetherman said. “It could be a rotation. It could be by certain packages or by certain series, but right now there’s a really good group of guys that I feel at the position, as long as we continue to stay healthy and compete, I think we have a group.”
A key player having strong camp
Based on camp, Rueben Bain Jr. looks like he is back to his full strength self.
That’s big for the Hurricanes.
Bain has the potential to be one of the top edge rushers in college football, as evidenced by him landing on several preseason All-American teams and on the watch lists for the Lombardi Award, Bronco Nagurski Trophy and Chuck Bednarik Award. After being named the ACC Defensive Rookie of the Year in 2023, Bain was slowed by injuries in 2024 and a dip in production followed.
Cristobal said Bain is having “about as strong a camp as you could have.”
Hetherman added: “He’s got great get off. He’s got great pad level. He swarms to the football. He’s detailed in how he finishes every single rep. And then after practice, he’s one of the guys when you walk back up in the office, he’s down working on whatever it was that day in practice that he needs to clean up.”
Who else is standing out?
Dylan Day: After spending most of his freshman year on special teams, Day has impressed during camp and could find himself in the safety rotation.
When asked about which players have been the best at forcing takeaways, Hetherman quickly responded with Day.
“Wherever he is, be careful,” Hetherman said. “He is going to get the ball.”
Donta Simpson and Mykah Newton: The Hurricanes’ true freshman defensive tackles dealt with injuries in spring, but their mentality in how they attacked rehab impressed Cristobal.
“They fought their way out of the training room. Your biggest fear as a coach is when somebody finds their way in the training room and they don’t fight their way out. These guys got out way ahead of schedule and they are stronger than they have ever been and they are performing at, for freshmen, really high levels. They are getting closer and closer to significant playing time.”
Miami is looking for a steady fourth player for their defensive tackle rotation beyond Justin Scott, David Blay and Ahmad Moten. Simpson, Newton, Artavius Jones and Daylen Russell are options there.
The offensive line: While so much talk about Miami’s offense focuses on Beck and the skill position players, Dawson stressed that the offensive line will dictate how far UM’s offense goes.
It’s the team’s most experienced and cohesive unit. The projected starting group of left tackle Markel Bell, left guard Matt McCoy, center James Brockermeyer, right guard Anez Cooper and right tackle Francis Mauigoa has a combined 85 starts under their belt. Brockermeyer, a transfer from TCU, is the only newcomer to the group.
“We can sit here and talk about receivers, this and that, but the core of our offense is the five guys up front,” Dawson said. “That’s what makes everything go. … Carson said early in camp, ‘Man, I’ve got to get used to all this time, you know?’ Those guys do a really good job, which makes offensive football, your ability to execute higher. Everything builds around them. They’ll be the first to tell you they’re tired of people talking about them. They’re ready to play ball.
“Everything they do is the heartbeat of what we do,” Dawson added, “and so everybody around them kind of morphs into their personality, toughness, physicality and all the rest. I’m excited about that group.”
This story was originally published August 17, 2025 at 9:00 AM.
.JPG)