Miami Hurricanes DE Chad Thomas improving, should play Saturday

UM sophomore defensive end Chad Thomas, whom interim coach Larry Scott described Tuesday as “a little banged up,” was a limited participant in practice Wednesday after missing Tuesday’s workouts.

But Scott was encouraged enough to say, “I think we’ll have Chad” for Saturday’s game against Virginia.

Scott added: “Chad did a little bit more [Wednesday]. He said he’s feeling better. He practiced and did the things we needed him to do to make sure he’s ready to go. Now it’s just keeping him dialed in, keeping it mentally fresh with him and him just continuing the treatment process and getting him ready to go.”

▪ Scott had officials attend practice for the second day in a row in an effort to cut down on UM’s school-record 23 penalties against Duke.

“I wanted the refs to be extra hard on us and ticky-tack to a T just so we can drive home the point of the penalties that we can control,” Scott said.

Scott said those are false starts, offsides and alignment penalties. With “physical” penalties, Scott said, “I want them to play ball. I want them to play physical.”

This story was originally published November 4, 2015 at 9:27 PM with the headline "Miami Hurricanes DE Chad Thomas improving, should play Saturday."