CORAL GABLES – When veteran Hurricanes offensive line coach Art Kehoe went on the radio Monday and named five starters, Kc McDermott wasn’t among them.
Even though the sophomore from Palm Beach Central High is currently behind redshirt sophomore Sunny Odogwu at right tackle, he said the race isn’t close to complete.
“Nothing’s set until the game starts,” McDermott said.
Even though junior Alex Gall, whom Kehoe named as his No. 1 left guard, might make his first career start Sept. 5 against Bethune-Cookman, he said he’s not getting too comfortable.
“I’m excited – might be, that’s the key thing,” Gall said. “It’s still a competition until the first game. Nobody knows until we literally step on the field for the first game who might be starting.”
Though coach Al Golden stated last week he would set his team lineup for the season-opener on Sunday morning, and Kehoe said on WQAM on Monday that each player met with the coaching staff to discuss roles and responsibilities, Miami players all but denied a depth chart exists.
It’s different around here, to be sure. UM previously released depth charts to the public. The last one was released after spring drills ended. Golden previously handed starters different-colored practice jerseys than the backups, as a means of motivation. Beginning with spring drills, offensive players now wear the same orange jerseys. All defensive players are in black.
Now, Gall said players have been told, even if a he starts for the first drive against Bethune-Cookman, he “might not be in for the second drive. You never know.
“I think it’s good,” he said. “It keeps you on your toes.”
All this is an effort to satisfy the team-first mantra Golden has preached since the days that followed last year’s disappointing 6-7 season.
Almost universally, players pepper their answers to a question – pick a topic, doesn’t matter – with talk of togetherness and “winning the [ACC] Coastal,” and eschewing any talk of 2014. They are reminded by staff members to do so, but some need little help. As such, the players UM made available to speak to the media Tuesday had little interest in talking about their roles.
The first-team defensive line at the start of Tuesday’s practice, according to Canesport, was rush end Trent Harris and strong-side end Ufomba Kamalu, nose tackle Calvin Heurtelou and Courtel Jenkins at the other tackle. The second team: Demetrius Jackson, Chad Thomas, Kendrick Norton and Anthony Moten. UM, Canesport said, brought in Tyriq McCord as an extra rusher in passing situations.
What about Al-Quadin Muhammad, the 6-foot-4, 260-pound redshirt sophomore who is expected by many to start? According to Canesport, he lined up “essentially as a scout team quarterback in the simulated offensive backfield” as the first two units practiced.
Muhammad said he’s “getting the same reps I get every day, the same reps everybody gets. … I think I’m working in pretty good. We’re all just getting better as a unit and working towards winning the Coastal.”
What role will be play on this team?
“My role is developing a lot,” he said. “Which is helping my teammates win the Coastal.”
McDermott said he’s still planning to win a starting job on Sept. 5.
“It’s very important to me, but also I understand that coach is going to put the best person out there, and the [best] team,” he said. “If that’s not me, that means I’ve got to work harder. If I don’t work harder, that’s my fault.”
Golden, Edwards absent: Golden was not available to speak to the media Tuesday – UM said he had a meeting to attend – and thus did not give updates on why junior running back Gus Edwards was absent from practice, or the progress of injured receivers Braxton Berrios and Malcolm Lewis, both of whom wore yellow (limited contact) jerseys during the early part of practice the media was allowed to watch.
Coley’s comments: Junior wide receiver Stacy Coley, who teammates and coaches often cite as one of the standouts of camp, said he was off his game mentally during his sophomore season.
“You’ve got to want it yourself,” he said. “My sophomore year, I wasn’t really there.”
He added that he was “trying to press too much on myself” last year, when his production dipped mightily from his freshman All-America season of 2013. Offensive coordinator James Coley said part of Coley’s troubles stemmed from back and shoulder injuries and a lack of size and strength. Coley, who is 6-foot-1, added some 20 pounds of muscle.
“I took all my frustrations out in the weight room, first,” he said. “Then came out here and worked with Brad [Kaaya], worked with our receiver corps and honed in on not dropping passes and staying focused, looking in all the balls and practicing on my game.”
McDermott explains bond: Here’s another window into the mentality of this year’s Hurricanes. McDermott was asked to explain exactly why they’re so tight.
“This is the tightest team I’ve ever been around,” he said. “The camaraderie that we have is amazing. I’ve never seen kids, in the time that I’ve been here, as happy to be here as they are now.”
McDermott himself is happy, having overcome a torn MCL suffered last Sept. 27 against Duke. He said he’s “very confident” his knee is healthy now. But as he recovered last season, even McDermott, a player who always wanted to follow in his brother Shane’s footsteps and be a Hurricane, said his motivation waned.
“Last year, I’m not going to lie, even sometimes I felt like, ‘I really don’t want to be here right now. I’m tired,’” he said. “But now, every day I wake up with a fat smile on my face and I want to come here because we’re all happy.
“We’re all one big team. We’re all happy to be here. We’re all excited to go out. If you see us before we go on the field, we’re dancing because we’re happy. We’re ready to hit somebody.
“The amount we’re hanging out – yesterday I had about an hour and a half before we had to go to a student-athlete barbecue, so I came to the player’s lounge because I didn’t want to drive home. Almost everybody was there. We were all watching TV together. Everything we do is together and that’s all we care about. We care about the team. We all have the same goal and that’s winning the Coastal.”
Will that make a difference when the games start?
“It’ll make a huge difference,” McDermott said. “There’s only one way to play this game and that’s together.
“We watched the top teams in the country last year and we’re like, hey. They were all teams last year. They played as a team. That’s what we’ve got to do. We realized, we have too much talent to not play as a team.”
Even though the sophomore from Palm Beach Central High is currently behind redshirt sophomore Sunny Odogwu at right tackle, he said the race isn’t close to complete.
“Nothing’s set until the game starts,” McDermott said.
Even though junior Alex Gall, whom Kehoe named as his No. 1 left guard, might make his first career start Sept. 5 against Bethune-Cookman, he said he’s not getting too comfortable.
“I’m excited – might be, that’s the key thing,” Gall said. “It’s still a competition until the first game. Nobody knows until we literally step on the field for the first game who might be starting.”
Though coach Al Golden stated last week he would set his team lineup for the season-opener on Sunday morning, and Kehoe said on WQAM on Monday that each player met with the coaching staff to discuss roles and responsibilities, Miami players all but denied a depth chart exists.
It’s different around here, to be sure. UM previously released depth charts to the public. The last one was released after spring drills ended. Golden previously handed starters different-colored practice jerseys than the backups, as a means of motivation. Beginning with spring drills, offensive players now wear the same orange jerseys. All defensive players are in black.
Now, Gall said players have been told, even if a he starts for the first drive against Bethune-Cookman, he “might not be in for the second drive. You never know.
“I think it’s good,” he said. “It keeps you on your toes.”
All this is an effort to satisfy the team-first mantra Golden has preached since the days that followed last year’s disappointing 6-7 season.
Almost universally, players pepper their answers to a question – pick a topic, doesn’t matter – with talk of togetherness and “winning the [ACC] Coastal,” and eschewing any talk of 2014. They are reminded by staff members to do so, but some need little help. As such, the players UM made available to speak to the media Tuesday had little interest in talking about their roles.
The first-team defensive line at the start of Tuesday’s practice, according to Canesport, was rush end Trent Harris and strong-side end Ufomba Kamalu, nose tackle Calvin Heurtelou and Courtel Jenkins at the other tackle. The second team: Demetrius Jackson, Chad Thomas, Kendrick Norton and Anthony Moten. UM, Canesport said, brought in Tyriq McCord as an extra rusher in passing situations.
What about Al-Quadin Muhammad, the 6-foot-4, 260-pound redshirt sophomore who is expected by many to start? According to Canesport, he lined up “essentially as a scout team quarterback in the simulated offensive backfield” as the first two units practiced.
Muhammad said he’s “getting the same reps I get every day, the same reps everybody gets. … I think I’m working in pretty good. We’re all just getting better as a unit and working towards winning the Coastal.”
What role will be play on this team?
“My role is developing a lot,” he said. “Which is helping my teammates win the Coastal.”
McDermott said he’s still planning to win a starting job on Sept. 5.
“It’s very important to me, but also I understand that coach is going to put the best person out there, and the [best] team,” he said. “If that’s not me, that means I’ve got to work harder. If I don’t work harder, that’s my fault.”
Golden, Edwards absent: Golden was not available to speak to the media Tuesday – UM said he had a meeting to attend – and thus did not give updates on why junior running back Gus Edwards was absent from practice, or the progress of injured receivers Braxton Berrios and Malcolm Lewis, both of whom wore yellow (limited contact) jerseys during the early part of practice the media was allowed to watch.
Coley’s comments: Junior wide receiver Stacy Coley, who teammates and coaches often cite as one of the standouts of camp, said he was off his game mentally during his sophomore season.
“You’ve got to want it yourself,” he said. “My sophomore year, I wasn’t really there.”
He added that he was “trying to press too much on myself” last year, when his production dipped mightily from his freshman All-America season of 2013. Offensive coordinator James Coley said part of Coley’s troubles stemmed from back and shoulder injuries and a lack of size and strength. Coley, who is 6-foot-1, added some 20 pounds of muscle.
“I took all my frustrations out in the weight room, first,” he said. “Then came out here and worked with Brad [Kaaya], worked with our receiver corps and honed in on not dropping passes and staying focused, looking in all the balls and practicing on my game.”
McDermott explains bond: Here’s another window into the mentality of this year’s Hurricanes. McDermott was asked to explain exactly why they’re so tight.
“This is the tightest team I’ve ever been around,” he said. “The camaraderie that we have is amazing. I’ve never seen kids, in the time that I’ve been here, as happy to be here as they are now.”
McDermott himself is happy, having overcome a torn MCL suffered last Sept. 27 against Duke. He said he’s “very confident” his knee is healthy now. But as he recovered last season, even McDermott, a player who always wanted to follow in his brother Shane’s footsteps and be a Hurricane, said his motivation waned.
“Last year, I’m not going to lie, even sometimes I felt like, ‘I really don’t want to be here right now. I’m tired,’” he said. “But now, every day I wake up with a fat smile on my face and I want to come here because we’re all happy.
“We’re all one big team. We’re all happy to be here. We’re all excited to go out. If you see us before we go on the field, we’re dancing because we’re happy. We’re ready to hit somebody.
“The amount we’re hanging out – yesterday I had about an hour and a half before we had to go to a student-athlete barbecue, so I came to the player’s lounge because I didn’t want to drive home. Almost everybody was there. We were all watching TV together. Everything we do is together and that’s all we care about. We care about the team. We all have the same goal and that’s winning the Coastal.”
Will that make a difference when the games start?
“It’ll make a huge difference,” McDermott said. “There’s only one way to play this game and that’s together.
“We watched the top teams in the country last year and we’re like, hey. They were all teams last year. They played as a team. That’s what we’ve got to do. We realized, we have too much talent to not play as a team.”
