‘Amped-up’ ’Canes hit practice fields
CORAL GABLES — Miami’s 5-7 season in 2022 was firmly in the rearview mirror on Saturday as the Hurricanes returned to the Greentree practice fields to start their slate of spring practices.
“Man, it feels good,” linebacker Wesley Bissainthe said. “Ending off last season with a pretty rough season, it just feels good to have another opportunity, another chance to get it right.”
Mario Cristobal, entering his second season at the helm of his alma mater, said the first day of practice brought a lot of energy to the team.
“Day 1 in the books,” Cristobal said. “The things that stand out are accountability, running routes from point a to point b, finishing plays, certainly energy overall. An attempt to improve culture was evident. And I would say execution overall for a Day 1 was fairly decent. That being said, lots to build on, lots of good film to watch.”
Miami’s players have a lot to learn this spring. The Hurricanes replaced offensive coordinator Josh Gattis with Houston’s Shannon Dawson. After Kevin Steele left for Alabama, Miami hired Lance Guidry away from Tulane to take over the defense. The Hurricanes have new position coaches, too: running backs coach Tim Harris Jr., wide receivers coach Kevin Beard, interior linebackers coach Derek Nicholson and defensive line coach Jason Taylor.
“I think football’s football,” Cristobal said. “Sometimes it’s called an apple, sometimes oranges. I think for Day 1, you’re probably where you feel you should be.”
The Hurricanes signed more than 30 new players in their high school recruiting class or through the transfer portal, and more than 20 were on campus for Miami’s first practice.
“All of them [are] dogs,” safety Kamren Kinchens said, praising the freshmen. “They love working, especially Kaleb [Spencer]. That’s why I love Kaleb. In [UM’s winter workout program], he’s calling me out in every drill. Shoot, I didn’t back down. We only made each other better.”
Several players were out for the start of spring practice — and Miami did not disclose most of the players who were out or their injuries — but Cristobal said the team feels “very optimistic that everyone on the team will be ready for the season.”
Cristobal pointed out that he wanted to improve the team’s culture in his second year, and Kinchens said the Hurricanes are looking to work more as a team.
Offensive lineman Jalen Rivers said the entire team spent the offseason looking forward to spring, hoping to put last season’s struggles behind them.
“I think every first practice, first everything — especially this first spring practice — everybody’s amped-up, excited,” Rivers said. “We’re trying to move forward and better ourselves from last year, so this whole offseason, our winter program, was to come in this spring and this is a new energy, new, positive team. We’re all building to get to our common goal.”
With the 2023 campaign months away, the Hurricanes are hoping for a happier end to the season than they had last year.
“Guys are just tired of losing and being average, and we want to win games, so we’re going to use that as motivation,” quarterback Tyler Van Dyke said. “I think leaders have done a great job of really helping the younger guys and even some older guys step up, and understand that we can’t be average anymore and we want to win.”