OPINION: Off-Season progress undeniable but training camp will mold the fiber of the 2023 Miami Hurricanes

There will come a day when the Miami Hurricanes open a training camp with the level of position competition that Mario Cristobal knows is the foundation of a great program. He witnessed it as a player and coach at Miami. He lived it as an assistant for Nick Saban at Alabama for four seasons.

The Canes are not quite there yet.

But as training camp for the 2023 season opens Tuesday for Miami, the team will have made a sizeable move in the right direction. You can tell from Cristobal’s words of the past week that he likes the progress as he enters year two of his time as head coach at Miami and sees 2023 as a season with potential.

“What we feel that we have done is that we have added some elite components in the personnel department, some unique additions at the line of scrimmage, outside on the perimeter, in the secondary, at linebacker,” Cristobal said. “I feel like our culture led and driven by our team leaders has created ownership in our program. In other words, the steps that you cannot skip, those things have been in full force since the end of last season, and it has led to a great offseason, a great signing day class, one of the best in our school’s history, a top-ten portal class. Most importantly, the retainment of our top players and top leaders led to a great spring and a great summer.

“Now we’re eager to get to camp so we can put all of that to good use, and the bottom line is just to get to work. Not worry about anything or anyone. Just get to work and put to good use this hard work that we have done.”

The competition for Miami starting spots and general playing time will actually be the most intense that has been seen in Coral Gables in a very long time. When it is over, there will be some upset guys on the football team because they will have fallen behind. And that will be exactly the way Cristobal likes it.

How will Don Chaney respond, for example, to the heat placed on the running back room by the arrival of Mark Fletcher, not to mention the transfer from Nebraska of Ajay Allen. When you factor in the continued presence of Henry Parrish, someone who is a good player is going to be spending the bulk of the time standing over on the Miami sideline.

There are only three starting spots at a crowded wide receiver position. Colbie Young and Xavier Restrepo are expected to grab two of them, creating enormous competition between Alabama transfer Tyler Harrell, JUCO transfer Shemar Kirk and Jacolby George among others. Then you have ultra-dynamic freshman Ray Ray Joseph over there demanding reps too and returnees like Frank Ladson, Brashard Smith, Michael Redding and Isaiah Horton wondering if they will get any opportunities at all.

That creates pressure, an urgency to perform.

The defensive side of the football for Miami also is loaded with competition everywhere.

On the defensive line, where Purdue transfer Branson Deen will be trying to outduel Jared Harrison-Hunte, Jacob Lichtenstein, freshman Joshua Horton, Louisiana Monroe transfer Anthony Campbell and Georgia State transfer Thomas Gore for the starting job opposite Leonard Taylor. And where Nyjalik Kelly and Jahfari Harvey will have one of the most intense training camp battles to start opposite Akheem Mesidor.

At linebacker, where Washington State transfer Francisco Mauigoa is a lock to start at one spot, the question of who will join him will be one of the Miami camp’s great sub-plots.

The cornerback competition might be the most intense on the team with six guys competing for three starting spots. Transfer Davonte Brown seems like a lock to grab one of them, but all other playing time seems for grabs between Oklahoma transfer Jaden Davis, Vanderbilt transfer Jadais Richard, JUCO transfer Demetrius Freeney, and returnees Daryl Porter and Te’Cory Couch.

So there is definite roster building progress that has taken place here. Miami has brought in 25 new freshmen and 16 transfers. That’s half a roster. It just needs to be converted to victories beginning September 1 when Miami-Ohio comes to town for an atypically interesting Battle of the Miami’s opener.

Cristobal revamped his staff to try to help make that happen, bringing in new coordinators Shannon Dawson and Lance Guidry.

“They are elite human beings,” Cristobal said. “Coach Dawson brings a great powerful running game (blended with passing). We expect to be a much more explosive offense. It starts with protection.

“Guidry had a top 5 defense for consecutive seasons. Pressure movement. These two guys, we feel they are difference makers.”

But more than anything, Cristobal has gone to work on the culture of the Miami program, something he found was severely lacking in his first year in Coral Gables. Players didn’t know how to work hard or respond to adversity. Things fell apart last season with way too little resistance.

When you replace half a roster, it sends a message, but also pretty much assures you of a different mindset. But it’s like a wet mountain of clay. The challenge is to mold it into something good, which is what training camp over the next month is for.

“I feel like our culture led and driven by our team leaders has created ownership in the program,” Cristobal said. “In other words, the steps that you cannot skip, those things have been in full force since the end of last season, and it has led to a great offseason, a great signing day class, one of the best in our school’s history, and a top-ten portal class.

“Most importantly, the retainment of our top players and top leaders led to a great spring and now, has [been] a great summer. Now we’re eager to get to camp so we can put all of that to good use and the bottom line is just to get to work. Not worry about anything or anyone and just get to work and put to good use this hard work that we have done.”

The work gains urgency for Miami on Tuesday morning.

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