Hurricanes hoping first scrimmage of camp bolsters experience, provides clarity on depth chart

Their first practices involved no pads and no contact. Then slowly, as they added more equipment over the course of the last week, things started getting a little bit more intense.

Now, come Saturday night, on the same field where they’ll play their home games this season, the Hurricanes will get their first taste of real contact and real hits as they hold their first scrimmage of camp.

Though the scrimmage — closed to both fans and reporters — will take place at a relatively quiet Hard Rock Stadium, it will be, for all of Miami’s players and coaches, a dress rehearsal of sorts as the Hurricanes move closer to their Sept. 2 opener against LSU at AT&T Stadium in Arlington.

For the youngest Hurricanes, it will be their first real taste of college football, complete with veterans testing them on the field and coaches putting them through the typical game-day routine ahead of kickoff.

“As always, you want guys to prove that they’re ready to either start or that they’ve earned playing time. How far have you come? These controlled situations…that’s what they are. They’re situations. It’s first-and-10. It’s third down. It’s red zone. It’s short yardage. It’s a one-minute drill. You don’t know, in the game, how it’s going to happen,” coach Mark Richt said on Thursday after the Hurricanes wrapped up their final practice ahead of Saturday’s scrimmage. “So in the scrimmage, you have to play all situations as they come and we have to find out what kind of ballplayer you are. This is the closest thing we have to a game.

“We’re actually going to have our pregame meal like we normally have for a game. We’re going to have our pregame warmup like we do for a game. We’re going to try and make it as much like a game as possible, the night before and even the day of. Just [to] see who’s close enough to say he’s either on the plane, or he’s going to play, or he’s a starter.”

Among the position groups Richt will likely be watching closely are Miami’s offensive and defensive lines, both of whom are adapting to the losses of veteran leaders that are now trying to earn spots on NFL rosters.

The Hurricanes offensive line struggled in the spring, giving up — according to statistics provided by Miami — 22 combined sacks in three scrimmages. That number included nine sacks in the spring game.

Richt and offensive line coach Stacy Searels made adjustments to the starting unit, settling on a group that has still been playing together during the first week of camp. The hope is that more time together will lead to better results for a unit that features Tyree St. Louis at left tackle, Jahair Jones at left guard, Tyler Gauthier at center, Hayden Mahoney at right guard and Navaughn Donaldson at right tackle.

“We are meshing together pretty well. You know, since Coach Searels shifted around us, [there’s] a bunch of positions that a lot of people never played or [are playing] again. But, you know, it’s meshing together,” Jones said. “We are making progress. But we’ve got to stay consistent. Stay consistent and keep working because we have a big task ahead of us, and we are just getting ready. That’s all.”

Across from them, Miami’s defensive line will be looking to make progress too, after losing veterans Chad Thomas, Kendrick Norton, RJ McIntosh, Trent Harris and Anthony Moten.

Defensive tackle Tito Odenigbo, a graduate transfer from Illinois, will be looking to continue making his mark, while youngsters like Nesta Silvera and Jordan Miller will get their first chance to showcase their skills to coaches and teammates in a more game-like setting.

Across the rest of the field, pushes for playing time will be made and the expectation is that there will be changes to the depth chart come the second week of practice.

All of it, the Hurricanes hope, will just continue helping them prepare not only for the Tigers, but for the rest of the challenges that await them.

“We don’t get a preseason game. Those [scrimmages] are our preseason games. You want a little bit of the butterflies. We can’t recreate running out in [AT&T Stadium], but it will be as close as we can [to say], ‘Hey, it’s game day,’” Hurricanes defensive coordinator Manny Diaz said. “And really try to get that feeling of, okay, does a guy who all of a sudden has great technique out here lose his technique? Does a guy that all of a sudden out here [on the practice field] that doesn’t bust, all of a sudden start busting? Do things start to go faster for that guy? That’s the best we can coach them.”

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