Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Childhood teammates ready for one last home game as ’Canes
CORAL GABLES — There are moments Miami Hurricanes standout Jaquan Johnson looks around the apartment he shares with teammates Sheldrick Redwine and Robert Knowles and shakes his head.
“Redwine, he’s pretty messy,” Johnson laughed. “I’m always on the two of them. ‘Can we please clean up the kitchen today? Can y’all please wash the table?’ It’s been a long time with these guys.”
But Miami’s preseason AllAmerican safety can’t stay mad too long.
“I love them, so it is what it is,” Johnson smiled.
As Johnson prepares to play his final home game as a Hurricane at Hard Rock Stadium on Saturday against 24th-ranked Pittsburgh, he knows it will likely prove to be an emotional afternoon.
One of the major reasons why? It will be the last home game he shares as a Hurricane with Redwine, one of the teammates he’s shared the field with long before both arrived in Coral Gables.
Johnson and Redwine grew up in Miami’s Richmond Heights neighborhood. They played youth football together for the Rich- mond Giants. Later, they starred at Miami’s Killian High, and it was there that both decided to play college football for their hometown team.
The Hurricanes have been grateful ever since.
As Miami prepares to host Pittsburgh (7-4, 6-1 ACC), the Hurri-
canes are among the top defenses against the pass, holding opponents to an average of just 141.7 yards per game, which ranks second in the nation. Opponents manage an average of just 5.5 yards per pass against the Hurricanes (6-5, 3-4), which ranks sixth in the nation.
And safeties Johnson and Redwine are major reasons why, with the two anchoring the back end of the Hurricanes’ third-ranked defense with their big hits, interceptions and smothering coverage.
That they’ve been able to do that together — especially after Redwine moved from cornerback to safety in the spring of 2017 when the Hurricanes lost veterans Rayshawn Jenkins and Jamal Carter — has meant the world to the two friends, who also share a birthday along with a position and apartment.
“When I first started at safety, I didn’t really know too much about it,” said
Redwine, who has 52 tackles, three sacks and a teamhigh three interceptions. “He was the vocal leader and if I was stuck in a coverage or I didn’t know something, I just looked at him and he’d tell me something real quick, just to get me right on track. He helped me the whole way
through. He’s still helping me. We help each other, really. That’s the biggest part.”
Added Johnson, who is second on the team with 69 tackles, “It’s been amazing going through this whole process with him. He worked hard. He was overlooked. They said I was
undersized. So we felt like we had something to prove our whole lives and just to be at the University of Miami, the two starting safeties making plays for our team, it’s amazing.”
Saturday will mark the last time they get to patrol the defensive backfield together at their hometown stadium, so Johnson and Redwine — who expect family and friends to come out in droves to celebrate their careers — have been pestering teammates for extra tickets.
And more than a few have been happy to oblige, knowing what the two veterans have meant to the Hurricanes both on and off the field.
“Their legacy is that you can grow up wanting to be a Hurricane and wanting to do it together with your best friend,” Miami safeties coach Ephraim Banda said. “Great players want to play with great players. It’s the things our kids are starting to really want and what they proved is that you can do it, you can have a great friendship, have a great experience at a university and still fulfill every dream you want. That’s what they’re doing. Their legacy is that you can do it the right way. All the things you want to do can be done right here at Miami.”