Stars are ready: ‘I’d do anything to play a college football game’
Hurricanes D’Eriq King, Mike Harley and Jaelan Phillips say they are ready to get back to the routine and the football field.
Take it from University of Miami defensive end Jaelan Phillips: There’s just so much “Call of Duty: Zombies” a guy can play. And Phillips has been playing it “a lot.”
This week the Hurricanes, trying to ease their way out of a long layoff because of a coronavirus outbreak, left their dorm rooms and apartments and wherever they were keeping to themselves since they beat Virginia Tech on Nov. 14 to finally get in some real football practice for a game Saturday night at Duke.
“It’s definitely tough if you combine these last two weeks, three weeks we’ve been off — plus the bye weeks we’ve had off,” Phillips said Wednesday, when he, quarterback D’Eriq King and receiver Mike Harley were the first UM players to speak publicly
since their victory in Blacksburg put them at 7-1 overall and 6-1 in the Atlantic Coast Conference. “We’ve just had a ton of down time this season and that’s really unprecedented. For me personally, I really like having a regimented schedule and getting into a routine of things, so that threw me off.
“It’s been great to get the guys back together.”
Miami coach Manny
Diaz, who said earlier in the week that he “won’t have everybody back” for Duke (2-7, 1-7), nonetheless said Miami has had two “really good practices” despite players practicing at different intensities.
“Not everyone is practicing full speed,” Diaz said. “We’ve been picking up maybe five players a day that have been granted access to be able to play full speed and then everybody else is just getting their reps in a walkthrough, jog-through-type environment.
“I don’t think there is one [position] group affected more than another. The players have come back with a great attitude and they’re eager to work. They have the urgency of understanding we need to go hard in practice because the lack of game-day reps.”
Diaz said the Canes usually finish their Wednesday practices by running, but on this day, they “weren’t running just to run,” he said, “they were running to win.
“We’ll get some guys back tomorrow and we’ll start to hone in on the reps we’ll take at Duke.”
The Hurricanes, who already had the final three games of their season rearranged because of the virus-precipitated layoff, learned Sunday even that rearrangement had changed when Wake Forest couldn’t play this weekend because of its own COVID-19 troubles and Duke would become Wake’s replacement.
D’ERIQ KING
“Before the Wake Forest game got canceled,” King said, he and offensive coordinator Rhett Lashlee “and everybody” focused on Wake. “Now we’re focusing on Duke. Missing those two weeks, it makes you really think about how much you love football.”
“I’d do anything to play a college football game, man.”
King, a fifth-year senior transfer out of Houston, said the two weeks off were “super slow” and it was “tough to get together” with his teammates because “a lot of guys were quarantined here and there.”
“You might have had one or two guys free,” King said, “but as soon as we got cleared we came back in the building and had a week of workouts and after workouts me and the receivers and tight ends and running backs threw every day. Practice has been good. It’s been connected. Over time I started to get to know those guys and they started to get to know me. Everything is much easier later in the year.”
King said there’s “no doubt” the team has learned to adjust with everything the year has brought. “Since 2020 it’s been crazy,” he said. “It might be something one day and then the next day something totally different. Our coaches ... do a great job of keeping us on track.”
MIKE HARLEY
King’s close friend and No. 1 receiver Harley had been at the high point of his career when football shut down after Virginia Tech, but he said he’s been working on his mental game, and, “man, it’s 2020,” the year no one will forget.
“That was just a bump in the road,” Harley said.
“We get the opportunity to finally come out, have fun, practice and prep for Duke. We got Duke, we got North Carolina [Dec. 12 at Hard Rock Stadium] and we got Georgia Tech [Dec. 19 at Hard Rock] and then everything plays out. We’d be blessed to stay home and play in the Orange Bowl. We just keep pushing through everything.”
HEAD TRAINER HOSPITALIZED
Popular Miami head trainer Vinny Scavo, 61, tested positive for COVID-19 a few days after the Virginia Tech game and went to UM’s hospital the day after Thanksgiving. He was released Tuesday.
“I was doing OK, but last Friday, after Thanksgiving, it really got bad,” Scavo told the Miami Herald on Wednesday. “I couldn’t bear it anymore and the doctors came to my house. I was so sick. They took me to the hospital.
“I still feel a little weak and sore, but I’m breathing better and my oxygen levels are getting back to normal. I’m going to miss my first game in a long time,” said Scavo, who hopes to be back by the end of the season. “I’m so thankful to Coach Diaz and the coaching staff and administration and football players. Even parents were calling and wishing me well. I’ve been so over
IT MIGHT BE SOMETHING ONE DAY AND THEN THE NEXT DAY SOMETHING TOTALLY DIFFERENT. OUR COACHES ... DO A GREAT JOB OF KEEPING US ON TRACK.
D’Eriq King
whelmed.”
Scavo said he has no idea how he contracted the virus, other than to say, “We do the best we can, but it’s out there.”