MdCanesFan
OVERLORD
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http://miami.247sports.com/Article/CB-Tracy-Howard-Credits-Darrelle-Revis-180461
Darrelle Revis surprised Tracy Howard with a phone call during his senior year at Miramar before a playoff game. Revis gave Howard a message that prophetically came true.
“You are in high school right now and you’re doing very good, but in college it’s going to take another level, another skill set,” Revis said.
Howard, who was the top-ranked corner in the country with 10 interceptions his senior year, didn’t think much of Revis’ words at the time, but during his freshman year at Miami, he knew exactly what Revis meant.
“I just thought, ‘I’ll be alright, whatever,’ but actually it does take another skill set,”
Howard said. “You’ve got guys out here running 4.2s and 4.3s so your technique has got to be swift, everything has to be in line, and you have to be mentally prepared. You know in high school it’s not that much. I watched film and always treated it professionally, but I really didn’t have to, to be good. In college it takes another mindset, it takes another skill set, you’ve got to get bigger, stronger, and faster, but I didn’t really understand and if I could give advice to somebody in high school, that’s what I’d give.”
Howard had 17 tackles with four pass break-ups in 12 games as a freshman reserve before being a full-time starter as a sophomore registering 35 tackles, one pass break-up, one forced fumble, and four interceptions.
And even though he hasn’t met Revis in person, Howard believes Revis has been a big reason why he’s developed into the player he is today.
Howard played wide receiver at Miramar his freshman year before switching to cornerback as a sophomore and to help him learn the position, he turned to YouTube videos. More specifically, he watched Darrelle Revis.
“He was the best corner in the game so I said let me watch him and I took his press technique and tried to master it and I got real good at it,” Howard said. “So I thank him even though I don’t know him.”
Howard believes the team-high four interceptions was just a starting point.
“I just set the stage, I feel I just gave people a piece of what I could do,” Howard said. “Now I want to put the whole thing together. Not just making plays on the ball, but plays on the run, doing a better job of getting off blocks, get my weight up—I just want to put the whole package together, but not just me, I want to bring the guys along with me like Deon (Bush), Rayshawn (Jenkins), and Ladarius Gunter. We want to put on a show. We want to show the coaches that we can play.”
The Hurricanes have completed their first two spring practices over the weekend and Howard likes what he seems from the team.
“As a team I feel it’s going pretty good, we have a lot of guys competing, a lot of guys making plays, a lot of guys getting better, we’re just having fun out here,” Howard said. “At the end of the day, football is football, but it feels different out here, guys are older. We’re having fun and guys are just getting better, that’s our main goal.”
On Sunday, he picked off a pass thrown by Kevin Olsen during 11-on-11 action and returned it for a touchdown.
“There aint too many things that feel better than a pick in this world,” Howard said. “That’s the best feeling in the world to me. That’s why I study so hard so I can get those. I had four last year, those are the best feelings even in practice you want to get those. I just want to make explosive plays and it felt good. We were in a man concept, high to low, and I just made a great play on the play from just listening to what my coaches tell me. I’m just out here having fun, I’ve been doing this since I was yay-high. It’s nothing new.”
Howard has been part of a heavily criticized defense the last two years which ranked 89th in total defense and 65th in scoring defense last year compared to 116th and 82nd in 2012. Defensive coordinator Mark D’Onofrio has received the majority of the criticism, but Howard insists it’s on the players.
“As a corner you have to have short-term memory and forget about it and to be honest I don’t think about it a lot, but of course everywhere I go somebody is always talking about the defense, ‘Hey, y’all need to do this, y’all need to do that,’ but it’s not on the defensive coordinator, it’s on the players,” Howard said. “Everybody runs the same defense. We don’t run no different defense than other people in the country. It’s not like we just have a magical defense and the other 117 teams runs something and then only UM runs a different defense. People actually run our defense and do good at it.
“The Seahawks run our defense and they do a great job of it. People who know football and watch film, it’s just that the players have to execute and the players have to trust and hold each other accountable and study and I don’t think that’s what we’ve been doing. But we’re older now and we’ve been natural born leaders since we were in high school so now it’s time for us to step up and hold people accountable, that’s something we weren’t doing.”
Howard pays close attention to the Super Bowl Champion Seattle Seahawks’ defense and hopes to apply things he’s seen with his current squad.
“I notice how they play as one unit, they’re dogs,” Howard said. “They are so hungry. If the ball is thrown over there, the other corner is going to sprint over there. It’s like their hungry and they feed off of each other. You can tell that they don’t want to let each other down and they don’t let each other down. They’re furious. That’s just over the years, that don’t happen in one year. We’ve been here two years now and going on our third year so I feel like we’re coming together, everybody has been playing together and I think that’s what it was with them. It takes years for people to gel, it doesn’t just take one year and as the years have gone on, we’ve gotten better and better. The only thing we can do is get better.”
I think we do run something similar to theirs (Seattle) such as our gap integrity and the "Tampa2" our back end guys play..I posted this not because I'm trying to defend D'No (it would behoove Tracy to do so, he hasn't made it big league yet enough to start yappin about his coaches) but to get some of you guys reaction to his comment on our D v Seattle's..I know the common difference would be talent but do you see Seattle's defensive scheme.........or nah?
Darrelle Revis surprised Tracy Howard with a phone call during his senior year at Miramar before a playoff game. Revis gave Howard a message that prophetically came true.
“You are in high school right now and you’re doing very good, but in college it’s going to take another level, another skill set,” Revis said.
Howard, who was the top-ranked corner in the country with 10 interceptions his senior year, didn’t think much of Revis’ words at the time, but during his freshman year at Miami, he knew exactly what Revis meant.
“I just thought, ‘I’ll be alright, whatever,’ but actually it does take another skill set,”
Howard said. “You’ve got guys out here running 4.2s and 4.3s so your technique has got to be swift, everything has to be in line, and you have to be mentally prepared. You know in high school it’s not that much. I watched film and always treated it professionally, but I really didn’t have to, to be good. In college it takes another mindset, it takes another skill set, you’ve got to get bigger, stronger, and faster, but I didn’t really understand and if I could give advice to somebody in high school, that’s what I’d give.”
Howard had 17 tackles with four pass break-ups in 12 games as a freshman reserve before being a full-time starter as a sophomore registering 35 tackles, one pass break-up, one forced fumble, and four interceptions.
And even though he hasn’t met Revis in person, Howard believes Revis has been a big reason why he’s developed into the player he is today.
Howard played wide receiver at Miramar his freshman year before switching to cornerback as a sophomore and to help him learn the position, he turned to YouTube videos. More specifically, he watched Darrelle Revis.
“He was the best corner in the game so I said let me watch him and I took his press technique and tried to master it and I got real good at it,” Howard said. “So I thank him even though I don’t know him.”
Howard believes the team-high four interceptions was just a starting point.
“I just set the stage, I feel I just gave people a piece of what I could do,” Howard said. “Now I want to put the whole thing together. Not just making plays on the ball, but plays on the run, doing a better job of getting off blocks, get my weight up—I just want to put the whole package together, but not just me, I want to bring the guys along with me like Deon (Bush), Rayshawn (Jenkins), and Ladarius Gunter. We want to put on a show. We want to show the coaches that we can play.”
The Hurricanes have completed their first two spring practices over the weekend and Howard likes what he seems from the team.
“As a team I feel it’s going pretty good, we have a lot of guys competing, a lot of guys making plays, a lot of guys getting better, we’re just having fun out here,” Howard said. “At the end of the day, football is football, but it feels different out here, guys are older. We’re having fun and guys are just getting better, that’s our main goal.”
On Sunday, he picked off a pass thrown by Kevin Olsen during 11-on-11 action and returned it for a touchdown.
“There aint too many things that feel better than a pick in this world,” Howard said. “That’s the best feeling in the world to me. That’s why I study so hard so I can get those. I had four last year, those are the best feelings even in practice you want to get those. I just want to make explosive plays and it felt good. We were in a man concept, high to low, and I just made a great play on the play from just listening to what my coaches tell me. I’m just out here having fun, I’ve been doing this since I was yay-high. It’s nothing new.”
Howard has been part of a heavily criticized defense the last two years which ranked 89th in total defense and 65th in scoring defense last year compared to 116th and 82nd in 2012. Defensive coordinator Mark D’Onofrio has received the majority of the criticism, but Howard insists it’s on the players.
“As a corner you have to have short-term memory and forget about it and to be honest I don’t think about it a lot, but of course everywhere I go somebody is always talking about the defense, ‘Hey, y’all need to do this, y’all need to do that,’ but it’s not on the defensive coordinator, it’s on the players,” Howard said. “Everybody runs the same defense. We don’t run no different defense than other people in the country. It’s not like we just have a magical defense and the other 117 teams runs something and then only UM runs a different defense. People actually run our defense and do good at it.
“The Seahawks run our defense and they do a great job of it. People who know football and watch film, it’s just that the players have to execute and the players have to trust and hold each other accountable and study and I don’t think that’s what we’ve been doing. But we’re older now and we’ve been natural born leaders since we were in high school so now it’s time for us to step up and hold people accountable, that’s something we weren’t doing.”
Howard pays close attention to the Super Bowl Champion Seattle Seahawks’ defense and hopes to apply things he’s seen with his current squad.
“I notice how they play as one unit, they’re dogs,” Howard said. “They are so hungry. If the ball is thrown over there, the other corner is going to sprint over there. It’s like their hungry and they feed off of each other. You can tell that they don’t want to let each other down and they don’t let each other down. They’re furious. That’s just over the years, that don’t happen in one year. We’ve been here two years now and going on our third year so I feel like we’re coming together, everybody has been playing together and I think that’s what it was with them. It takes years for people to gel, it doesn’t just take one year and as the years have gone on, we’ve gotten better and better. The only thing we can do is get better.”
I think we do run something similar to theirs (Seattle) such as our gap integrity and the "Tampa2" our back end guys play..I posted this not because I'm trying to defend D'No (it would behoove Tracy to do so, he hasn't made it big league yet enough to start yappin about his coaches) but to get some of you guys reaction to his comment on our D v Seattle's..I know the common difference would be talent but do you see Seattle's defensive scheme.........or nah?
