Courtesy of Miami Athletics
The Hurricanes were back on the Greentree Practice Fields on Tuesday as spring practice continued at Miami.
After the workout, assistant head coach/offensive line coach Alex Mirabal, defensive line coach Jason Taylorand wide receiver Malachi Toney shared their thoughts on the day’s session and more.
Here’s some of what they had to say, in their own words…
Assistant head coach/offensive line coach Alex Mirabal
On the task of preparing for the season ahead knowing Miami’s offensive line has to replace multiple starters:
“I feel invigorated. I feel renewed. I feel refreshed. It’s awesome to start with a new group of young men. Obviously, you have Matt McCoy, you have Samson Okunlola, you have Ryan Rodriguez to help me, along with the other guys that are coaching on the offensive line staff, to help me establish the culture, the foundation, the principles of how we want to play football on the offensive line at the University of Miami. But I love it. It’s a challenge for me and like I said, it’s reinvigorating and a rebirth for me. So, I love it. I love it. I go back to how I was when I was a high school coach, where you get a new group of kids every year and just, let’s go. Let’s roll.”
On how the offensive line has done during the first week of spring practice:
“Going great. It’s going great. It’s a work in progress. It’s progress. They’re doing what they have to do to get better. They’re learning how when they get beat, to get back up and go back to the next rep. … You don’t win or lose practice. You get better throughout the course of practice. To me, that’s what practice is and I’ve always held that belief. That’s why I think it’s foolish when the media wants practice stats. I mean, in real life … when you’re in games, they don’t blow the whistle early. They let you finish runs. So, to me, it’s just about progress and getting better as a program and that’s what we’re doing. We’re not keeping track of wins and losses during spring football. We’re just trying to get better, and we got better today than we were on Saturday.”
On the leadership growth he’s seen from Matt McCoy and some of Miami’s returning offensive linemen:
“McCoy? From a leadership standpoint, now it’s his room. Now it’s Samson’s room. It’s Ryan’s rom. It’s their turn to pick up the flag. When Sisi [Mauigoa] left, when [Anez Cooper] left, when Markel [Belll] left, when [James] Brockermeyer left, the flag was on the ground for a second, and then the next day, those guys picked up the flag of the room. They picked up the flag of the room and now it is their job to help carry the messaging of [head coach Mario] Cristobal and our staff to the rest of the guys in that offensive line room.”
On freshman offensive lineman Jackson Cantwell:
“He’s got to work on everything because the guys that he’s going against in practice, those guys are better than any players he played, ever, in his high school career. So, it’s implementing your technique, your fundamentals, your footwork, your hat placement against tremendous speed and power. So, he’s catching up to that and he’s doing really well. … What’s amazing is when you put [younger linemen] next to a Ryan Rodriguez or next to a Matt McCoy, their level of play goes through the roof. Now, they’re telling them exactly, ‘Hey, this is what we’re doing,’ … and they go out and play fast.”
On center Ryan Rodriguez:
“We had a heck of a center here in James Brockermeyer and we had another heck of a center named Ryan Rodriguez. And to Ryan’s credit, he loves the University of Miami, and he didn’t transfer. So, to me, he’s a guy that should be praised for choosing to stay at Miami. He waited his time, and you know what? He kind of did it [using] the old path, right? That’s what used to happen at Miami all the time, when guys would play when they were juniors and seniors and they weren’t playing as freshmen and sophomores and there’s nothing wrong with that. Everybody makes their turn at a certain time, and this is Ryan’s turn and he’s got to keep competing. But he’s doing a heck of a job from a leadership standpoint, and so we just felt confident that was the path we wanted to take. It’s a decision Coach Cristobal made as the head football coach and then he asked me and I said, ‘Coach, I agree with you 100 percent.’ I think Ryan is a guy that we can trust with the ball in his hand. We can trust him to lead that room, and we could roll from there.”
Defensive line coach Jason Taylor
On the defensive line room after the departures of veteran defensive ends Rueben Bain Jr. and Akheem Mesidor:
“Well, we start over every year anyway. Yeah, we’ve had some departures, some significant guys that made huge contributions leaving. But we also have guys returning. We’ve got Ahmad Moten Sr., Armondo [Blount], [Marquise] Lightfoot, Justin Scott, Booker Pickett Jr.. … a lot of guys that played football for us last year, so it is exciting. You move on to the next year. Unfortunately, ’25 didn’t end the way we wanted it to, so we get a chance to reboot and start it back up in ’26 and try again. So, it’s exciting. A lot of really good pieces in that room and you get to start at the bottom and build up, continue to build guys that have been here, try to incorporate the new guys that come into the room, into the organization, and then you continue to build culture and standard and leadership and then things will spill over …”
On what Miami’s younger defensive linemen learned from Bain and Mesidor:
“Those guys are learning from it and some of them had a chance to be around Rueben and Akheem for three years, two years, one year, whatever it may be. Bain and Mes did a really good job of being pros. I always tell them, ‘be a pro.’ I always tell everybody in the room ‘be a pro.’ What does that mean? Sometimes it takes longer for guys to figure out what that means. They approached everything as a pro. One of their big points of emphasis last year was to be more contagious, more infectious, to have more gravity to them and draw people in and lead not just by example, but also understanding. Sometimes, you’ve got to put your arm around somebody. Sometimes, you’ve got to put your foot in their hind parts and they found that balance. Did a really good job of becoming elite leaders last year and it’s still paying dividends.
“I mean, Mes was at practice today before practice, for pre-practice and was working with Lightfoot and Armondo. I saw him meeting with Damon Wilson over there … So, they’re still here. They’re still around. Obviously, they’re going to get picked here in [the NFL Draft in] about three, four weeks and be gone. But that way of life, that standard that everybody in the room got to see for the last couple years is contagious and some of these guys are picking that up and they’re all going to be on different timetables. It’s all going to click for everybody at a different period of time, different point in time. So, you can’t compare everybody to Bain. You can’t compare everyone to Mesidor. All those guys are individuals, and they get to collectively find out what those guys do best to put that formula together to be the best Miami Hurricanes for 2026 and we’ll do that.”
On what’s next for defensive linemen Marquise Lightfoot and Armondo Blount:
“Their next step is to compete, just like Damon Wilson IIand Ahmad Moten and Justin Scott and Booker Pickett and Mykah Newton and everybody else in that room … I’m going to leave somebody’s name out, but their job is to compete. Nothing is promised to anybody. It wasn’t promised to Bain and Mes last year. Everyone assumed they were going to be the guys, but they had to go out and earn it, and they did it every day. It’ll be the same way this year. Go earn what you get. They have a lot of experience. They played a lot of meaningful football for us last year. A lot of really good things for us last year, but like I told you 15 minutes ago, we’ve got to pull the plug on that and wait 10 seconds to plug it back in and reboot it. That’s what we’re doing. They’ll go compete and they do it every day. I mean, we’ve had some really good practices.”
On whether he’s discovered he’s loved coaching more than he might have anticipated after his playing career:
“Yeah, that’s an easy answer here. I do love it. I love being around the guys. I love getting a chance to get on the grass and in the classroom and teach and teach and teach and coach. The rest of it is like any other job. There’s some things we don’t like all the time, but no, I love what I do. I’m blessed to be able to do it here in the city of Miami for the University of Miami.”
On transfer defensive lineman Damon Wilson II:
“We liked him coming out of high school, first of all, a few years ago. He’s a weight room guy. Went to a really good program in Venice High School, so he’s been around good coaching, good program, good culture, good standards. The way he works…he’s a talented guy, obviously. You put him on the field and watch him play at Georgia and Missouri, and you see the ability on first, second, and third down. We teach it a different way, a little bit differently here and he’s done a great job so far of acclimating with the guys and learning the way we do it. It’s fun to kind of break things down a little bit and explaining the what, how, and why we do it that way and for him to kind of peel back the layers of the way he’s been taught before and implement that into his game. It’s been great so far. He’s an elite talent. He’s an elite talent. He’s going to help us a lot.”
Wide receiver Malachi Toney
On what stands out to him, when he thinks about what Miami accomplished last season:
“Just how we played as a team. When adversity hit, we just came together and grew closer.”
On what it meant to have youth football players watching him earlier in spring practice:
“It made me feel great, just to see those younger me’s out just there supporting me while I’m here on the journey, getting better each and every day. It’s just a great feeling when you’ve got a support system like that [from] your hometown.”
On transfer quarterback Darian Mensah:
“That’s my dog. I call him D-Dog. That’s my guy, man. We just grew closer ever since he got here, since day one, since he got down here and we’re just going to keep building our bond and that relationship on and off the field.”
On how he’d like to improve going into his sophomore season:
“Just be the best version of Malachi Toney for the University of Miami. Just keep growing, keep maturing, and be a leader to the younger guys.”
On what it means to him to be playing for his hometown program:
“It makes me feel great that I get to do it in my city. I [don’t have to go anywhere] else. I [don’t have to go] three hours away, five hours away. I get to do it 20 minutes from the park I used to play at when I was 8-years old.”
The Hurricanes were back on the Greentree Practice Fields on Tuesday as spring practice continued at Miami.
After the workout, assistant head coach/offensive line coach Alex Mirabal, defensive line coach Jason Taylorand wide receiver Malachi Toney shared their thoughts on the day’s session and more.
Here’s some of what they had to say, in their own words…
Assistant head coach/offensive line coach Alex Mirabal
On the task of preparing for the season ahead knowing Miami’s offensive line has to replace multiple starters:
“I feel invigorated. I feel renewed. I feel refreshed. It’s awesome to start with a new group of young men. Obviously, you have Matt McCoy, you have Samson Okunlola, you have Ryan Rodriguez to help me, along with the other guys that are coaching on the offensive line staff, to help me establish the culture, the foundation, the principles of how we want to play football on the offensive line at the University of Miami. But I love it. It’s a challenge for me and like I said, it’s reinvigorating and a rebirth for me. So, I love it. I love it. I go back to how I was when I was a high school coach, where you get a new group of kids every year and just, let’s go. Let’s roll.”
On how the offensive line has done during the first week of spring practice:
“Going great. It’s going great. It’s a work in progress. It’s progress. They’re doing what they have to do to get better. They’re learning how when they get beat, to get back up and go back to the next rep. … You don’t win or lose practice. You get better throughout the course of practice. To me, that’s what practice is and I’ve always held that belief. That’s why I think it’s foolish when the media wants practice stats. I mean, in real life … when you’re in games, they don’t blow the whistle early. They let you finish runs. So, to me, it’s just about progress and getting better as a program and that’s what we’re doing. We’re not keeping track of wins and losses during spring football. We’re just trying to get better, and we got better today than we were on Saturday.”
On the leadership growth he’s seen from Matt McCoy and some of Miami’s returning offensive linemen:
“McCoy? From a leadership standpoint, now it’s his room. Now it’s Samson’s room. It’s Ryan’s rom. It’s their turn to pick up the flag. When Sisi [Mauigoa] left, when [Anez Cooper] left, when Markel [Belll] left, when [James] Brockermeyer left, the flag was on the ground for a second, and then the next day, those guys picked up the flag of the room. They picked up the flag of the room and now it is their job to help carry the messaging of [head coach Mario] Cristobal and our staff to the rest of the guys in that offensive line room.”
On freshman offensive lineman Jackson Cantwell:
“He’s got to work on everything because the guys that he’s going against in practice, those guys are better than any players he played, ever, in his high school career. So, it’s implementing your technique, your fundamentals, your footwork, your hat placement against tremendous speed and power. So, he’s catching up to that and he’s doing really well. … What’s amazing is when you put [younger linemen] next to a Ryan Rodriguez or next to a Matt McCoy, their level of play goes through the roof. Now, they’re telling them exactly, ‘Hey, this is what we’re doing,’ … and they go out and play fast.”
On center Ryan Rodriguez:
“We had a heck of a center here in James Brockermeyer and we had another heck of a center named Ryan Rodriguez. And to Ryan’s credit, he loves the University of Miami, and he didn’t transfer. So, to me, he’s a guy that should be praised for choosing to stay at Miami. He waited his time, and you know what? He kind of did it [using] the old path, right? That’s what used to happen at Miami all the time, when guys would play when they were juniors and seniors and they weren’t playing as freshmen and sophomores and there’s nothing wrong with that. Everybody makes their turn at a certain time, and this is Ryan’s turn and he’s got to keep competing. But he’s doing a heck of a job from a leadership standpoint, and so we just felt confident that was the path we wanted to take. It’s a decision Coach Cristobal made as the head football coach and then he asked me and I said, ‘Coach, I agree with you 100 percent.’ I think Ryan is a guy that we can trust with the ball in his hand. We can trust him to lead that room, and we could roll from there.”
Defensive line coach Jason Taylor
On the defensive line room after the departures of veteran defensive ends Rueben Bain Jr. and Akheem Mesidor:
“Well, we start over every year anyway. Yeah, we’ve had some departures, some significant guys that made huge contributions leaving. But we also have guys returning. We’ve got Ahmad Moten Sr., Armondo [Blount], [Marquise] Lightfoot, Justin Scott, Booker Pickett Jr.. … a lot of guys that played football for us last year, so it is exciting. You move on to the next year. Unfortunately, ’25 didn’t end the way we wanted it to, so we get a chance to reboot and start it back up in ’26 and try again. So, it’s exciting. A lot of really good pieces in that room and you get to start at the bottom and build up, continue to build guys that have been here, try to incorporate the new guys that come into the room, into the organization, and then you continue to build culture and standard and leadership and then things will spill over …”
On what Miami’s younger defensive linemen learned from Bain and Mesidor:
“Those guys are learning from it and some of them had a chance to be around Rueben and Akheem for three years, two years, one year, whatever it may be. Bain and Mes did a really good job of being pros. I always tell them, ‘be a pro.’ I always tell everybody in the room ‘be a pro.’ What does that mean? Sometimes it takes longer for guys to figure out what that means. They approached everything as a pro. One of their big points of emphasis last year was to be more contagious, more infectious, to have more gravity to them and draw people in and lead not just by example, but also understanding. Sometimes, you’ve got to put your arm around somebody. Sometimes, you’ve got to put your foot in their hind parts and they found that balance. Did a really good job of becoming elite leaders last year and it’s still paying dividends.
“I mean, Mes was at practice today before practice, for pre-practice and was working with Lightfoot and Armondo. I saw him meeting with Damon Wilson over there … So, they’re still here. They’re still around. Obviously, they’re going to get picked here in [the NFL Draft in] about three, four weeks and be gone. But that way of life, that standard that everybody in the room got to see for the last couple years is contagious and some of these guys are picking that up and they’re all going to be on different timetables. It’s all going to click for everybody at a different period of time, different point in time. So, you can’t compare everybody to Bain. You can’t compare everyone to Mesidor. All those guys are individuals, and they get to collectively find out what those guys do best to put that formula together to be the best Miami Hurricanes for 2026 and we’ll do that.”
On what’s next for defensive linemen Marquise Lightfoot and Armondo Blount:
“Their next step is to compete, just like Damon Wilson IIand Ahmad Moten and Justin Scott and Booker Pickett and Mykah Newton and everybody else in that room … I’m going to leave somebody’s name out, but their job is to compete. Nothing is promised to anybody. It wasn’t promised to Bain and Mes last year. Everyone assumed they were going to be the guys, but they had to go out and earn it, and they did it every day. It’ll be the same way this year. Go earn what you get. They have a lot of experience. They played a lot of meaningful football for us last year. A lot of really good things for us last year, but like I told you 15 minutes ago, we’ve got to pull the plug on that and wait 10 seconds to plug it back in and reboot it. That’s what we’re doing. They’ll go compete and they do it every day. I mean, we’ve had some really good practices.”
On whether he’s discovered he’s loved coaching more than he might have anticipated after his playing career:
“Yeah, that’s an easy answer here. I do love it. I love being around the guys. I love getting a chance to get on the grass and in the classroom and teach and teach and teach and coach. The rest of it is like any other job. There’s some things we don’t like all the time, but no, I love what I do. I’m blessed to be able to do it here in the city of Miami for the University of Miami.”
On transfer defensive lineman Damon Wilson II:
“We liked him coming out of high school, first of all, a few years ago. He’s a weight room guy. Went to a really good program in Venice High School, so he’s been around good coaching, good program, good culture, good standards. The way he works…he’s a talented guy, obviously. You put him on the field and watch him play at Georgia and Missouri, and you see the ability on first, second, and third down. We teach it a different way, a little bit differently here and he’s done a great job so far of acclimating with the guys and learning the way we do it. It’s fun to kind of break things down a little bit and explaining the what, how, and why we do it that way and for him to kind of peel back the layers of the way he’s been taught before and implement that into his game. It’s been great so far. He’s an elite talent. He’s an elite talent. He’s going to help us a lot.”
Wide receiver Malachi Toney
On what stands out to him, when he thinks about what Miami accomplished last season:
“Just how we played as a team. When adversity hit, we just came together and grew closer.”
On what it meant to have youth football players watching him earlier in spring practice:
“It made me feel great, just to see those younger me’s out just there supporting me while I’m here on the journey, getting better each and every day. It’s just a great feeling when you’ve got a support system like that [from] your hometown.”
On transfer quarterback Darian Mensah:
“That’s my dog. I call him D-Dog. That’s my guy, man. We just grew closer ever since he got here, since day one, since he got down here and we’re just going to keep building our bond and that relationship on and off the field.”
On how he’d like to improve going into his sophomore season:
“Just be the best version of Malachi Toney for the University of Miami. Just keep growing, keep maturing, and be a leader to the younger guys.”
On what it means to him to be playing for his hometown program:
“It makes me feel great that I get to do it in my city. I [don’t have to go anywhere] else. I [don’t have to go] three hours away, five hours away. I get to do it 20 minutes from the park I used to play at when I was 8-years old.”
