UM defensive players have highlight moments in scrimmage

The Miami Hurricanes were given off Friday, a day after they scrimmaged for the first time since fall camp opened Aug. 6.

Hurricanes defensive coordinator Mark D’Onofrio wouldn’t reflect on how he thought his D performed until he watched film, though judging by his players, there were several bright moments.

“There were a lot of good plays,” said starting linebacker Jermaine Grace, who cited middle linebacker Raphael Kirby for forcing running back Gus Edwards to fumble and for “a sack on a blitz,’’ safety Rayshawn Jenkins for “a pick six,’’ himself for “a sack on a blitz’’ and freshman nose tackle Kendrick Norton for “three sacks.’’

“He’s a beast,’’ Grace said of Norton.

Jenkins, elaborating on his interception (he wouldn’t say which quarterback): “We were in coverage. My responsibility was the flat. I kind of baited him. I sat inside like I was the hook player and then at the last minute, when I saw him shoot his eyes to the X receiver, I shot straight to the flat and picked it.

“I think we did pretty well.’’

Said D’Onofrio: “I don’t want to sound like a broken record but we have to watch the film. It’s the first scrimmage. We played probably 45 guys out there — about 20 series. I think we played the [third-team] five of those series and we played the fours one series. The [first-team] and [second-team] probably got seven series each.

“We played a whole lot of people. We’ll just watch the tape, see who stood out and reset the deck based on how they performed.”

This story was originally published August 15, 2015 at 12:19 AM with the headline "UM defensive players have highlight moments in scrimmage."