’Canes’ Cager feeling good in return Poor efforts halt Tuesday’s practice

CORAL GABLES — A year ago at this time, Hurricanes receiver Lawrence Cager was little more than a spectator, watching helplessly as his teammates worked their way through Miami’s ACC schedule.

Sidelined by a torn anterior cruciate ligament suffered during offseason workouts, Cager couldn’t practice, couldn’t play and spent more time doing rehabilitation work than any other football activity.

Now three games into his redshirt sophomore season, though, Cager says he’s feeling good, physically and mentally, as No. 13 Miami prepares to travel to Tallahassee to face Florida State on Saturday.

“I’m just staying on top of my knee, every day and stuff,” Cager said.

Through three games, Cager has seven catches for 89 yards. His 5-yard touchdown pass in Miami’s 41-13 opening-season win over Bethune-Cookman was his first score since he caught a touchdown pass against North Carolina in 2015.

He’s looking forward to a return to Florida State, where he played as a true freshman and had a 13-yard catch.

Fellow Hurricanes receiver Ahmmon Richards was a full participant in practice Tuesday, Miami coach Mark Richt said.

Richards, who missed the first two games of the season with a hamstring issue, stumbled into the end zone on a late score in Miami’s 31-6 win over Duke on Friday, but said after the game he felt fine. He is expected to play Saturday at Florida State.

Next game: No. 13 Miami at FSU, Saturday, 3:30, ESPN getting treatment

BOCA RATON — Florida Atlantic coach Lane Kiffin became so irritated he interrupted Tuesday’s practice.

At about the midway point, he gathered the team for a meeting to say he was disappointed with how the players were practicing.

“I think they were just going through the motions and feeling good about themselves instead of working really hard,” Kiffin said. “They fixed it after that. We need to come out and have another good one [Wednesday].”

After 10 months on the job, Kiffin said he is still trying to work out the kinks among the players. He still believes they are adjusting to winning. Kiffin believes the players are letting last week’s victory against Middle Tennessee State linger too long.

“I thought it was just an average practice,” Kiffin said. “I think that’s just a continual goal of getting our guys to understand how to handle success, stop focusing on last game, stop listening to people around them telling them how good they played. I thought after a rough start [to practice], we finished better. We’ll keep pushing away.”

Kiffin said he doesn’t want the issue to remain for the rest of the season. As a staff, they just don’t want to have to keep reminding the players.

“I just think it’s not being used to handling success,” Kiffin said. “You’ve got to do it every week. If you’re not prepared to play, you’re going to lose no matter who you play. Our guys got to understand that. Hopefully, we’ll continue to grow from that.”

Next game: FAU at Old ESPN3 Dominion, p.m., WTCN,