After Monday’s drills, Miami Hurricanes offensive coordinator Rhett Lashlee discussed what he saw from his unit in last week’s win against UAB, pointing out he wants to see UM connect on more big plays through the air moving forward.
“We learned a lot in Week 1 and that’ll make us better in Week 2,” Lashlee said. “There were some passes, deep balls we need to hit if we want to be explosive.”
In the passing game, TE Brevin Jordan only saw one target in the first half, but caught 3 passes for 51 yards and a TD in Miami’s 17-point third quarter.
“We weren’t able to get Brevin and a couple of other guys going as early as we want, but we got them going in the third quarter,” Lashlee said. “We’re always going to try and get our best players the ball.”
QB D’Eriq King was 16-24 (67%) passing and had no turnovers in his first career Miami start, but missed on a few throws that could have improved his final totals of 144 passing yards and 1 TD.
“He was okay, he can be better,” Lashlee said of King. “He’d like to have a couple of vertical passes back, still completed 67 percent (of his throws). He protected the ball. It just takes some time. There were times he could have hung in there, we had guys open downfield. We took two sacks that weren’t on the O-Line, to be honest. For game one, he was fine, could be better.”
The Canes were very run-heavy against UAB with 52 total rushes vs. 27 pass attempts, something that was by design in preparation for the Blazers even though Lashlee expects the offense to be more balanced moving forward.
“We want to be balanced, be explosive throwing the ball. I think we’ll get better on that each week,” Lashlee said. “That’s definitely a big point of emphasis for us right now.”
According to Lashlee, UAB mostly played a defensive formation they’ve never put on tape previously, leading the offensive staff to make a few in-game adjustments to the gameplan. After a slow start in the first half, UM’s offense came out and scored on all three of their third quarter drives, totaling 17 points.
“Give UAB a lot of credit, they ran a defense they never ran before,” Lashlee said. “They’ve been a really good defense the last few years, they threw a big curveball at us. I thought our kids adjusted on the fly really well. We had time to make adjustments at halftime, made some on the fly in the first half. That helped us get going a little bit. That third quarter is a little closer to what we want to be.”
Former walk-on redshirt junior Marshall Few earned the backup slot receiver role over freshman Xavier Restrepo despite Restrepo having a strong fall camp, and Few caught his first career pass in the win over UAB.
“With those older guys, experience is a factor - we really like those young receivers and as the year goes on, we’ll see those guys help us more and more,” Lashlee said. “Marshall is a [4th year player], very reliable, dependable. Xavier, we’re excited about his future, but there’s a consistency element there.”
Heading into UM’s next game against #18 Louisville, the Canes made a notable depth chart change during Monday’s practice in moving Jakai Clark ahead of Ousman Traore at first team left guard.
“We have a lot of confidence in both those guys,” Lashlee said. “Jakai missed a considerable amount of time in fall camp with injury, slowed his progress. We feel we have six or seven guys that can start. We feel right now it’s a good time to get Jakai that shot.”
Clark only played three snaps vs. UAB. Why was that?
“It was just going in we felt both guys were ready to play, but the bulk of fall camp, Ousman was there for all of it, we felt he deserved that opportunity,” Lashlee said. “Looking at tape the last couple of weeks of practice, we felt this was the best time to make that move. Nothing is permanent, both will be ready to play.”
**With the Canes preparing for a high-powered Louisville offense this weekend, defensive coordinator Blake Baker feels stopping the Cardinals’ run game will be the main key to success. Miami allowed only 80 yards rushing vs. UAB in week 1, but will now have to contend with last season’s 24th ranked rushing attack that averaged 212.9 rushing yards per game and brings back most of it’s key contributors in 2020.
“Last week, we played (the run) really well, this week it presents a different challenge,” Baker said. “We’ll have our hands full up front, they’re really good. Their backs can run. When you talk about team speed, their quarterback, two backs and receivers, they have really, really good team speed on the offensive side of the ball. It’ll present a challenge. We have to shore up some stuff in the run game, and I know our guys are excited about that challenge.”
In 2019, Louisville’s offense averaged 33.1 points and 447.3 yards per game, and the Cardinals recorded 35 points and 487 yards in their season opening win over Western Kentucky over the weekend.
“Schematically, they believe in what they do,” Baker said. “You do not see them change a bunch from a week-to-week standpoint, which shows they have a lot of confidence in their scheme. They do a good job knowing if you’re man or zone, how to beat those concepts. They do a lot of good stuff, complementary plays that look exactly the same until right after the ball is snapped. More than anything, I fully believe they have 100 percent confidence in what they do and their players have that same confidence and they execute it at a really high level. For me, that says a lot about coaching.”
In terms of his own unit, Baker hinted at possible personnel changes moving forward, especially in the secondary after CB DJ Ivey got beat multiple times against UAB. Could we see Te’Cory Couch or Christian Williams pass up Ivey for the #2 corner role this week?
“I feel good about putting any of those three out there, it’s an open competition this week,” Baker said. “Couch can challenge for who trots out there first.”
Baker also mentioned that LB Sam Brooks (3 tackles) impressed him in the opener coming off the bench and played slightly less than half of the total defensive snaps.
“He is really pushing BJ Jennings, thought he came in and played really well,” Baker said of Brooks. “He almost split reps 50/50 with BJ, which I can see the same (moving forward)... For the first game, I thought everyone that went in and played linebacker did a nice job.”
Baker also praised Jared Harrison-Hunte (2 tackles) and Cameron Williams on the DL, saying they could be in line to see more snaps moving forward.
Speaking on starting defensive ends Quincy Roche and Jaelan Phillips, Baker felt they played better than the stats indicated (1.5 TFL, 1 sack between the pair).
“I thought they were outstanding. Sixteen quarterback pressures - they were disruptive,” Baker said. “Both of them had an outstanding game, versus the run as well.”
Asked about redshirt junior safety Bubba Bolden (2 tackles), who played a ton off the bench vs. UAB, Baker said he feels Bolden is essentially a third starter along with Gurvan Hall and Amari Carter at safety.
“Bubba played outstanding on Thursday, I was very impressed with how physical he was.”
“We learned a lot in Week 1 and that’ll make us better in Week 2,” Lashlee said. “There were some passes, deep balls we need to hit if we want to be explosive.”
In the passing game, TE Brevin Jordan only saw one target in the first half, but caught 3 passes for 51 yards and a TD in Miami’s 17-point third quarter.
“We weren’t able to get Brevin and a couple of other guys going as early as we want, but we got them going in the third quarter,” Lashlee said. “We’re always going to try and get our best players the ball.”
QB D’Eriq King was 16-24 (67%) passing and had no turnovers in his first career Miami start, but missed on a few throws that could have improved his final totals of 144 passing yards and 1 TD.
“He was okay, he can be better,” Lashlee said of King. “He’d like to have a couple of vertical passes back, still completed 67 percent (of his throws). He protected the ball. It just takes some time. There were times he could have hung in there, we had guys open downfield. We took two sacks that weren’t on the O-Line, to be honest. For game one, he was fine, could be better.”
The Canes were very run-heavy against UAB with 52 total rushes vs. 27 pass attempts, something that was by design in preparation for the Blazers even though Lashlee expects the offense to be more balanced moving forward.
“We want to be balanced, be explosive throwing the ball. I think we’ll get better on that each week,” Lashlee said. “That’s definitely a big point of emphasis for us right now.”
According to Lashlee, UAB mostly played a defensive formation they’ve never put on tape previously, leading the offensive staff to make a few in-game adjustments to the gameplan. After a slow start in the first half, UM’s offense came out and scored on all three of their third quarter drives, totaling 17 points.
“Give UAB a lot of credit, they ran a defense they never ran before,” Lashlee said. “They’ve been a really good defense the last few years, they threw a big curveball at us. I thought our kids adjusted on the fly really well. We had time to make adjustments at halftime, made some on the fly in the first half. That helped us get going a little bit. That third quarter is a little closer to what we want to be.”
Former walk-on redshirt junior Marshall Few earned the backup slot receiver role over freshman Xavier Restrepo despite Restrepo having a strong fall camp, and Few caught his first career pass in the win over UAB.
“With those older guys, experience is a factor - we really like those young receivers and as the year goes on, we’ll see those guys help us more and more,” Lashlee said. “Marshall is a [4th year player], very reliable, dependable. Xavier, we’re excited about his future, but there’s a consistency element there.”
Heading into UM’s next game against #18 Louisville, the Canes made a notable depth chart change during Monday’s practice in moving Jakai Clark ahead of Ousman Traore at first team left guard.
“We have a lot of confidence in both those guys,” Lashlee said. “Jakai missed a considerable amount of time in fall camp with injury, slowed his progress. We feel we have six or seven guys that can start. We feel right now it’s a good time to get Jakai that shot.”
Clark only played three snaps vs. UAB. Why was that?
“It was just going in we felt both guys were ready to play, but the bulk of fall camp, Ousman was there for all of it, we felt he deserved that opportunity,” Lashlee said. “Looking at tape the last couple of weeks of practice, we felt this was the best time to make that move. Nothing is permanent, both will be ready to play.”
**With the Canes preparing for a high-powered Louisville offense this weekend, defensive coordinator Blake Baker feels stopping the Cardinals’ run game will be the main key to success. Miami allowed only 80 yards rushing vs. UAB in week 1, but will now have to contend with last season’s 24th ranked rushing attack that averaged 212.9 rushing yards per game and brings back most of it’s key contributors in 2020.
“Last week, we played (the run) really well, this week it presents a different challenge,” Baker said. “We’ll have our hands full up front, they’re really good. Their backs can run. When you talk about team speed, their quarterback, two backs and receivers, they have really, really good team speed on the offensive side of the ball. It’ll present a challenge. We have to shore up some stuff in the run game, and I know our guys are excited about that challenge.”
In 2019, Louisville’s offense averaged 33.1 points and 447.3 yards per game, and the Cardinals recorded 35 points and 487 yards in their season opening win over Western Kentucky over the weekend.
“Schematically, they believe in what they do,” Baker said. “You do not see them change a bunch from a week-to-week standpoint, which shows they have a lot of confidence in their scheme. They do a good job knowing if you’re man or zone, how to beat those concepts. They do a lot of good stuff, complementary plays that look exactly the same until right after the ball is snapped. More than anything, I fully believe they have 100 percent confidence in what they do and their players have that same confidence and they execute it at a really high level. For me, that says a lot about coaching.”
In terms of his own unit, Baker hinted at possible personnel changes moving forward, especially in the secondary after CB DJ Ivey got beat multiple times against UAB. Could we see Te’Cory Couch or Christian Williams pass up Ivey for the #2 corner role this week?
“I feel good about putting any of those three out there, it’s an open competition this week,” Baker said. “Couch can challenge for who trots out there first.”
Baker also mentioned that LB Sam Brooks (3 tackles) impressed him in the opener coming off the bench and played slightly less than half of the total defensive snaps.
“He is really pushing BJ Jennings, thought he came in and played really well,” Baker said of Brooks. “He almost split reps 50/50 with BJ, which I can see the same (moving forward)... For the first game, I thought everyone that went in and played linebacker did a nice job.”
Baker also praised Jared Harrison-Hunte (2 tackles) and Cameron Williams on the DL, saying they could be in line to see more snaps moving forward.
Speaking on starting defensive ends Quincy Roche and Jaelan Phillips, Baker felt they played better than the stats indicated (1.5 TFL, 1 sack between the pair).
“I thought they were outstanding. Sixteen quarterback pressures - they were disruptive,” Baker said. “Both of them had an outstanding game, versus the run as well.”
Asked about redshirt junior safety Bubba Bolden (2 tackles), who played a ton off the bench vs. UAB, Baker said he feels Bolden is essentially a third starter along with Gurvan Hall and Amari Carter at safety.
“Bubba played outstanding on Thursday, I was very impressed with how physical he was.”
