Pinckney excited for third season with trio
Time is flying for Miami Hurricanes standout Michael Pinckney.
With the 2018 season about six weeks away, the linebacker is preparing for his junior campaign.
Pinckney will be flanked this season by fellow juniors Shaquille Quarterman and Zach McCloud, as usual.
Quarterman, Pinckney and McCloud were the second, third and seventh leading tacklers on Miami’s defense last year. They played in all 13 games in 2017 just like they did as freshmen in 2016.
“I mean the time’s going fast, man,” Pinckney said at an event at Care Elementary School on Tuesday. “It feels like we just got here. So I’m just excited to see another year for us, all three of us, especially with the backup, younger guys. I’m excited to see what all we can do.”
In May, McCloud said “it could be” the trio’s last season together, before saying “hopefully we’ll get to see [the trio] for four years.” All three linebackers will be eligible for the NFL draft after the 2018 campaign.
Pinckney isn’t thinking about that yet. His focus is on the potential of this season’s Hurricanes.
“I’m not really focusing on that.” Pinckney said. “I’m really just focusing on just getting better and getting back to the ACC Championship and winning that.”
The linebackers are one of the main reasons the Hurricanes defense is expected to pick up where it left off last season.
Add the young talent on the defensive line, which Pinckney says is “one of the best defensive lines in the country,” and the return of safeties Jaquan Johnson, Sheldrick Redwine and cornerback Michael Jackson in the secondary, and you’ve got the makings of a stout defense.
At this point in the season, though, the players aren’t thinking about the games in the fall, save daydreams. Instead, they’re focused on trying to improve their bodies, whether that be speed, strength or a little bit of both.
Take, for example, sophomore cornerback Trajan Bandy, the potential replacement for Malek Young, who suffered a careerneck injury in the Orange Bowl.
Bandy has used the offseason to improve his footwork, his cardio and his body. He’s bulked up 10 pounds to prepare for the physical toll of a college football season.
He says that’s something he didn’t understand as a freshman, but he’s learned fromhis experience.
“I was just eating snacks and cookies and drinking juice and things like that, you know what I mean?” Bandy said. “And when I got out on the field Iwas a little tired, but I feel like if I would have put the right stuff in my body, in the offseason, it would have been way better.”
Time is running out to improve physically though. Fall camp is right around the corner. It’s getting to the stretch run of the summer before the Hurricanes kick off against LSU in Arlington, Texas.
And just like the time has flown by for Pinckney in his tenure with Quarterman and McCloud, he feels like it’s done the same thing this offseason.
“It came fast,” Pinckney said. “I feel like we were just in Spring, and now we went through the summer. And it’s about that time, man. It’s time to do what we’ve gotta do.”