Receiver Richards cleared to practice
WEST PALM BEACH — He ran up and down the field, passed a few tips on to the players watching him and had a hard time hiding the smile on his face.
Friday morning, Hurricanes receiver Ahmmon Richards was back on a football field in Palm Beach County helping run drills with teammates and coaches at one of Mark Richt’s youth football camps. For the former Wellington High standout who endured an injuryplagued 2017, it was one more step forward, another reminder that a new season looms.
And Richards, who missed five games last season, couldn’t be more excited.
“It feels like an elephant’s off my back,” Richards said. “I can feel like I can go work out and just do the extra stuff to get better. I don’t have to worry about injuries and stuff like that. It feels great to be back normal.”
It’s been a long time, the receiver acknowledged, since he’s felt that way.
Richards, who earned Freshman All-American honors after a breakout 2016 season that saw him break Michael Irvin’s 31-year-old freshman receiving record, was hampered last August by a hamstring injury that sidelined him throughout much of camp and forced him to miss Miami’s first two games against BethuneCookman and Toledo.
He played well in his season debut against Duke on Sept. 29, making three catches for 106 yards with a touchdown, but the injury nagged him beyond that game and before long, there was an ankle issue, too.
Richards tried his best to stay on the field, but he noted he was compensating too much because of his injuries and that might have contributed to the eventual knee injury that ended his season before the ACC Championship.
“I don’t think I’ve been hurt that much in my entire life,” said Richards, who still finished as Miami’s thirdleading receiver with 24 catches for 439 yards and three touchdowns. “It was hard, just mentally trying to go to rehab every day, try to get better and play at a high level. It was hard, but I had to fight through it. … To know what I went through last year, all the injuries and being hurt almost every day, I think it made me tougher. I don’t think there’s an injury I can’t deal with it. I’ve been through it all.”
Now cleared to resume full workouts with his team, Richards says he’s begun the process of getting himself back into game-shape and rebuilding his chemistry with Hurricanes quarterback Malik Rosier.
The quarterback and receiver have been running routes throughout the offseason and getting their timing down again will be critical for a Hurricanes team hoping to defend its Coastal Division title and make another run at the ACC Championship Game.
“If Ahmmon can stay healthy, and that’s true of everybody, I can’t imagine him doing anything less than he did his freshman year, which was phenomenal,” said Richt. “I can easily see him get over 1,000 [yards] and who knows how many touchdowns. But the thing about Ahmmon is he’s a gifted blocker, he’s a great teammate in regard to that and he could probably be the best blocker we’ve got at the wide receiver position, too. He’s a leader. He knows it and this is a big year for him and our program.”
McCloud improving
Hurricanes linebacker Zach McCloud, who was limited during spring drills after injuring his wrist in March, said Friday he is making progress in the weight room and has added about 10 pounds to his 6-foot-3, 240-pound frame, but is still being held out of some offseason workouts.
The former Santaluces standout was still sporting a protective brace on his left wrist and arm and said his progress over the course of the next month will determine whether he’ll be ready for the start of camp.
“I’m still lifting full capacity, I go in the weight room one-on-one with a coach and we handle that,” McCloud said. “But as far as competition, I’m not really diving on the ground or anything with anybody right now. That’s it right now. I’m more like a coach.”
As to what the future could hold for him and fellow junior linebackers Shaq Quarterman and Mike Pinckney, McCloud said Friday the trio hasn’t spoken much about whether any of them could leave Miami after the season. But McCloud did say he arrived in Coral Gables with the hopes of playing his full four years with the Hurricanes.
“It could be,” McCloud responded with a smile when asked if 2018 could be the last time he, Quarterman and Pinckney suit up together. “From Day One, I planned on coming in here and doing all four [years]. I haven’t talked too much [with] the other two guys about how they feel. Shaq and Mike, they’re their own people and they’ll do what they do, but hopefully, we get to see it for four years.”
McCloud, Quarterman and Pinckney made Hurricanes history in 2016 when they became the first three freshmen to start together at linebacker.
Catching up with the coach
More than 200 young football players participated in Friday’s camp at Lake Lytal Park, including brothers Cole and Parker Brigman who traveled from Savannah, Ga., specifically to work with Richt, who coached at Georgia for 15 years before taking over as Hurricanes coach.
After teaching the young men how to properly hold up Miami’s traditional “U” hand gesture, Richt posed for pictures with the brothers and assured them they can cheer for both the Bulldogs and Hurricanes moving forward, especially since the teams are in different conferences.
“It’s about promoting the game of football, because we love football for a lot of reasons,” Richt said of why the youth camps are so important to him. “It’s the best team sport in the world. And it also teaches a lot of life lessons about hard work and teamwork and overcoming adversity and all those things. We love teaching that. And we want to help them see our current players come out and know they can go to college through the sport of football.”