Miami Hurricanes great Bryant McKinnie returned for Legends Camp: “I try to come back and show support”

Former Miami Hurricanes OL great Bryant McKinnie was among numerous former champions that returned for Legends Camp on Thursday afternoon.

“I wanted to come back and enjoy being around this atmosphere, seeing the many changes,” said McKinnie, who is in the Miami Hall of Fame and the College Football Hall of Fame. “Coming to these camps and seeing the potential guys you may get as Hurricanes, we come out here to support Mario Cristobal – to remind everybody he was my GA (graduate assistant), helped me a lot in my career. So anything I can help him out with, I try to come back and show the same support.”

McKinnie says when it comes to Cristobal that he “has a great eye for potential.”

“That makes him a great recruiter, he has a great eye for talent,” McKinnie said. “You have to get guys who don’t mind coming here and working, coming and taking another guy’s position.”

McKinnie recounted how when he arrived at Miami guys like Phillip Buchanan and Clinton Portis were talking about how they were going to take guys’ jobs in Year 1 and head to the pros after three years.

“That was our mindset coming in, being hungry,” McKinnie said. “Coming to take someone’s job, that makes that player have to raise their level to keep their job, so it makes everybody better.”

McKinnie knows the culture that Cristobal is instilling, and he sees the work ethic eventually becoming contagious throughout the team.

As for the coming season, McKinnie simply says “I expect it to be better than last season.”

McKinnie says when he talked with Miami coaches at Legends Camp they mentioned two freshmen “that reminded them of myself.” We assume that would be 5-star signees Francis Mauigoa and Samson Okunlola, who could wind up being the team’s starting tackles in Year 1.

“That was kind of neat,” McKinnie says.

McKinnie certainly knows what great players … and a great program look like. He arrived at Miami in 1999 out of Lackawanna (Pa.) Junior College (the same program that produced current Miami Hurricanes WR Colbie Young), redshirted and then started as a junior and senior. His final year at Miami he didn’t allow a sack and helped Miami to a national title while winning the Outland Trophy as a consensus First-Team All-American.

The massive 6-8 star was taken with the No. 7 overall pick in the 2002 NFL Draft and his pro playing career spanned 2002-13 with the Minnesota Vikings, Baltimore Ravens and Miami Dolphins.

He was a Pro-Bowler in 2009 and won a Super Bowl with the Ravens in 2012.

Think campers were in awe working with him? And those campers were working out in the Indoor Practice Facility … something that wasn’t around when McKinnie was playing at Miami.

“I mentioned it today, Najeh (Davenport) and I, we didn’t have a top facility but we had our work ethic and our grind, just go out there and get it done,” McKinnie said, adding “I don’t feel it’s about the facilities. A weight is a weight. … Miami has definitely come in and enhanced this facility a lot.”

McKinnie also commented on the new dorms not far from the practice facility, joking “It’s a lot more convenient, so they shouldn’t be late!”

The bottom line message from McKinnie as it pertains to Miami recruits?

“They have to know it’s a marathon, not a sprint,” McKinnie said. “We have 358 players that went on and had successful careers in the league. We do have a standard here and we are able to get people to the next level and graduate as well.”

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