‘Flat out playing ball’: Cristobal previews Miami Hurricanes’ first fall scrimmage

After two weeks of practices, the Miami Hurricanes are kicking things up a notch this weekend.

The Hurricanes will hold their first scrimmage of fall camp on Saturday, marking their first extended chance to mimic a game-like setting ahead of their season opener on Aug. 31 against the Florida Gators.

“Flat out playing ball,” Hurricanes coach Mario Cristobal said.

Cristobal said the first half of the scrimmage will be full contact, with players able to be tackled to the ground. For the second half, Cristobal said, they will work on “situational football,” including third downs, red zone, short yardage and two-minute drills.

“But the first part of it,” Cristobal said, “will be just playing football.”

“Everybody’s excited,” added junior defensive back Jadais Richard, who is competing for playing time at both outside cornerback and nickel. “It’s the first time [in camp] that we actually get to play hard-nosed football.”

It’s not the first time, however, that the team is being truly evaluated by the coaching staff.

“Every day is graded like like a game,” Crisotbal said. “We go from drill to drill. We grade one on one, grade two on two, grade five on fours. And they know that every single day for us, to be the team we want to be, we’ve got to treat it like a game. They haven’t disappointed. Everyone in the building knows we have work to do.”

Defense ahead of offense

While Cristobal praised the “level of effort and the level of physicality” overall through the first two weeks of practice, he did note that he would give the defense “the edge” over the offense so far in camp.

Players have attested to that as well. The offensive line has touted the skill and depth of the defensive line and a new-look secondary has been competing well against a wide receiver group led by Xavier Restrepo, Jacolby George and Houston transfer Sam Brown.

Richard on Thursday said the secondary already has about 20 interceptions during practice. That’s worth noting considering the only interceptions that came from Miami’s defensive backs last year were by Kamren Kinchens, Te’Cory Couch and James Williams — all of whom are in the NFL now.

“The secondary, we came a long way from last year,” Richard said.

From the offense’s perspective, Brown attributes the defense’s success to the offense being “aggressive.”

“We’re gonna push the ball,” Brown said. “We’ve got a great defense, but we’ve also got a great offense. We want [the defense] to make plays [too]. We don’t want it to be a one-man show.”

This and that

▪ Cristobal said running back Mark Fletcher, who did not participate in spring practice while recovering from a Lisfranc foot injury, has been working at about a 40-percent workload but “looks completely normal” and should be “completely full speed” in the next week.

“Everything is done from a precautionary stance to make sure that we do it the right way,” Cristobal said. ”Time is the best healer for injuries like of that sort.”

▪ When it comes to the Hurricanes’ depth, Cristobal said there are “at least in six or seven positions” where the projected second-team players are “pushing” the starters.

“We’re going to keep rotating those guys in,” Cristobal said. “We want to find out who can do what in certain situations. So overall, there’s a lot of progress.”