UM class that brought boost wants 1 more win
CORAL GABLES — Funny, the small changes that led to big changes. For Hurricanes receiver Braxton Berrios, it was Miami hiring a nutritionist to help players. For Malik Rosier, it was freshmen actually getting the chance to play.
“Only one freshman in our class played — Brad [Kaaya],’’ the Miami quarterback said of his predecessor.
For tackle Kc McDermott, it was spring practices that suddenly were highlevel competitions rather than lackluster assignment tutorials.
“The first ones with our new coaches were eyeopening,’’ he said.
Or, wait, it might be coach Mark Richt’s first speech to the Miami team two years ago.
“He said, ‘I want to treat you like men, but if you make me treat you like boys I’ll treat you like boys,’ ” McDermott said. “That told me we were in good hands.”
Or maybe it was more fundamental than even that. Maybe it was just having coaches who knew where to put players in the lineup.
“The talent is no different than before [Richt] came,’’ he said. “But before we had wide receivers COMMENTARY playing defensive back and defensive backs playing wide receiver. We had a guy who should be at X instead playing Y or Z. I played all five line positions.”
Now he’s a tackle. A good tackle. A strong tackle. He’ll be needed because No. 6 Wisconsin’s strategy in tonight’s Orange Bowl will be to overpower No. 10 Miami on the lines as a means of snuffing out their speed. Notre Dame failed trying that. Clemson, with more firepower, succeeded. We’ll see what happens.
We’ve already seen what’s happened in the big picture these past couple of years. A lost team righted itself. An uncertain program re-found its winning identity. And this class right here, these players who arrived four years ago and weathered a 6-7 season, weathered a 58-0 Clemson loss, weathered the whole Al Golden experience — this class started the way back.
It didn’t start with anything as dramatic as Rosier’s throw to Darrell Langham against Florida State.
“It started with mat drills,’’ Berrios said.
“Wow, those were so hard,’’ Rosier said.
“At halftime at Florida State, when we’re talking with each other, we started saying, ‘Remember the mats — remember how hard we worked to get here,’ ” McDermott said. “So work like that didn’t just make us tougher, but it brought us together. We used it as a rallying point.”
Five wrestling mats. Tough conditioning exercises on each one. Day after offseason day. It’s nothing sexy to write about. It doesn’t translate into a magical turnaround. There is nothing magical about turnarounds. It’s a series of planned steps. It’s the common talk about trusting “the process.”
This was the process. Mat drills. A new strength program. And, yes, a nutritionist. These players are teenagers when they enter college. They’ve never thought much about food beyond eating everything in sight. Now they had someone to give them more than just options.
“We learned how to put weight on and how to take weight off,’’ McDermott said. “We got a full education on what to put in our bodies and how to work with weights depending on what we wanted to do. That’s something we hadn’t had before.”
This season is just the new step in the revival, they feel. They talk of the younger players seeing what it takes now. They talk of great times ahead with Richt. Nothing is guaranteed from one turnaround season, as the Miami Dolphins proved this dismal season after making the playoffs last year. Lose against Wisconsin, they know, and people will point out they lost their last three games.
“People always have something to say,’’ Berrios said. “But we want to play good for ourselves. For each other. This is it for most of us.”
Rosier, of course, returns. But the recruiting class he came in with is feeling the moment right now. Their end is coming.
“I’ve got my last practice,’’ McDermott said Thursday. “Then comes my last game.”
“We’ve been throught a lot,’’ Berrios said. “We’re 10-2. Hopefully we end 11-2.”