Players to watch in Day 1 of Miami Hurricanes spring practice

Alex Donno discusses the players and positions he is looking forward to watching most during spring football.

Transcript

00:00 Andrew from Chicago. He says, "Hey, with spring practice coming up, what position battles are you

00:05 most excited for and who do you think will be the breakout player?" He says, "For me, I'm most

00:10 excited to see how the left side of the offensive line plays out and my breakout player is Chris

00:16 Johnson." And guys, yes, we will get to Cam Ward and the quarterbacks. I like your shout out for

00:21 Chris Johnson because I think when Gio and I were talking about running backs yesterday, we had on

00:27 Gio Milian. I think that we both, not on purpose, believe me, neither of us mentioned Chris Johnson

00:33 and people were asking us in the comments, "Is Chris Johnson still on the team? Is he still part

00:37 of the rotation?" Yeah, and he's got a big opportunity to step up this spring and we'll

00:43 talk more about the running back group in a second. But yeah, you talk about the left side

00:46 of the offensive line, Andrew. Left guard is going to be something that I watch closely.

00:51 As goes for spring football and fall camp, media availability is limited. I don't know how many of

00:57 the team drills and full contact that we're going to be allowed to actually watch, but I always look

01:04 at who appears to be getting first team reps, second team, and so on. That gives you a clue

01:09 who's doing well in practices. And even in the individual drills, if I spend a little time

01:14 watching the offensive line, you can get a pretty good idea of who looks the part and who doesn't.

01:20 So yeah, I'm going to be watching players like Tommy Kinsler. I'm going to be watching Matthew

01:26 McCoy. I'm not sure what his status is going to be coming off injury. I think he's okay now.

01:32 Assuming he's okay, Samson Okunlola is someone that I'm really going to be watching. And I'm

01:37 also going to be watching to see how much cross training is going on, because that's something

01:41 that Cristobal and Mirabal like to do. And if, let's say, first day of practice, if Jalen Rivers

01:48 lines up at guard instead of tackle, people are going to read a lot into that. Doesn't necessarily

01:52 mean he's moving inside. And also with Francis Maui-Noah, probably going to miss most, if not

01:59 all, of spring. He had his shoulder cleaned up. So did his brother, the linebacker. With CeCe,

02:04 going to miss some time. Who's going to be the de facto starting right tackle if CeCe isn't around?

02:10 And how many reps is a guy like Markel Bell going to get? So left and right side, I'm going to be

02:16 watching the offensive line. I'm going to be watching the defensive backfield like a hawk,

02:21 Andrew. This is going to be the first time I get to see transfer safeties Mish Powell from

02:26 Washington, who could also play at the star position, and Savion Riley, the transfer safety

02:32 from Vanderbilt in person. I want to see Jadis Richard and Demetrius Freeney, if they're going

02:37 to make a jump and look good in spring. Damari Brown, will he be locking down first team reps

02:43 in spring? How much is Jaden Harris going to step up? I thought he did a good job last year as Cam

02:49 Kinchin's understudy. Zaquan Patterson, early enrollee freshman. He's been the talk of the town.

02:55 People are saying he looks like a freak in offseason workouts. And I haven't forgotten

02:59 about Caleb Spencer either. Caleb Spencer is a true freshman. Last year, you know, didn't really

03:04 play, but he looked good in spring and fall camp. So can he make a jump this year? Another group,

03:09 and we are going to take a deep dive and I'll give you my tiers, tier one, two, three, and so on,

03:14 on the linebackers later on today. But let me talk about that for a second. I'm going to be

03:19 watching the young linebackers specifically. I'm definitely going to be watching Wes Besaint

03:24 because we've been talking about how he needs to step up and he needs to be the alpha of that group

03:29 in the spring. Kiko, I mentioned CC had a shoulder cleanup. Apparently Kiko did as well. The linebacker

03:36 Maui Noah, he's going to miss time this spring. So Wes Besaint needs to be the alpha dog of that

03:41 group. Bobby Washington is someone I'll be watching. He bulked up to 230 pounds at six foot

03:46 three. That's a guy physically who seems to be ready to take the next step.