UM welcomes a few key players back to practice
The Miami Hurricanes welcomed back one of their best players (defensive end Akheem Mesidor), a key rotation cornerback (Damari Brown) and a rotation tight end (Cam McCormick) to practice on Tuesday, after each missed the first week of spring drills.
Mesidor played in only two games last season, both early in the season, and has been out with an undisclosed injury since.
“He’s one of the higherlevel players in the country,” coach Mario Cristobal said Tuesday. “When you combine guys like that and Rueben Bain, we were so productive when those guys were in there together along with Nyjalik [Kelly].
“We added Elijah Alston as an upperclassman and now these young guys are learning behind them. ... You have impactful and powerful edges.”
Kelly is out this spring with an injury but will be back this summer. The defensive end rotation of Mesidor, Bain, Kelly and Alston (a former player at Marshall) could be UM’s greatest strength this season.
As for Brown, the second-year cornerback is competing with Jadais Richard and others for a starting boundary cornerback job opposite Daryl Porter Jr.
McCormick — the first player in history to be granted a ninth year of U.S. college eligibiliity — will compete with Riley Williams and freshman Elija Lofton for snaps behind Elijah Arroyo.
THIS AND THAT
Cristobal wants more from both his offensive and defensive lines: “Our offensive line and defensive line has to play with more grit, more toughness, more physicality. We have to continue to improve.”
UM is likely to add a running back in the portal following Henry Parrish’s departure from the program on Tuesday.
But Cristobal said UM will be “focusing on everything” in the portal market.
A fresh set of players can enter the portal between April 15 and 30.
“There will be an opportunity to bring in a good handful of guys and maybe more at different positions,” he said. “As you assess spring and go further into it, we’ll have a better idea what we go after.
“We are going to be very aggressive making sure our roster, have to get to 85, find a way to get there and make sure everyone involved is given the best opportunity. But you do what’s best for the University of Miami. That’s the bottom line, and we’re going to do that.”
On the running backs beyond Fletcher, Cristobal said TreVonte’ Citizen — who is practicing after missing two years because of a major August 2022 knee injury — is “a guy that is getting better coming off of a major injury.
“Chris Johnson has had a great spring, Ajay Allen is on the mend; he’ll be back. [Early enrollee] Chris Wheatley-Humphrey looks really good. And we signed a guy who was a top back in the country on paper [Jordan Lyle], a guy on our board as a top guy in the country as well.
“He’s run a system that is similar to ours. So we feel really good about the competitive nature of that room and what we have heading into the season.” Lyle has not yet enrolled.
Second-year receiver Robby Washington worked at cornerback on Tuesday.
“Robby has had a really good spring at wide receiver,” Cristobal said. “This is a really good time to take certain guys and experiment . ... Maybe we can use their skill set to help the team in a certain way, and he’s a team guy first.
“That’s something we’ll experiment with throughout the course of spring football. He’s really good, a natural athlete.”
Asked about new quarterback Cam Ward’s fumbling a lot (25 times in two years at Washington State), Cristobal said:
“Ball security has got to become second nature. He’s very analytical, very hard on himself, and [offensive coordinator] Shannon Dawson is very tough on those quarterbacks also.
“Some of the read option plays that require ball handling, as well as the pocket getting a little bit muddy and elusiveness in those situations has been a big point emphasis. We’re getting better.”
Washington State radio analyst Alex Brink, a former WSU quarterback, told the Miami Herald this offseason that Ward has a “bad habit of keeping one hand on the football when scrambling.” Brink said he hopes Ward will learn from that.