OPINION: The work’s gone in, and with Game 1 two weeks away there’s optimism this Miami Hurricanes program can turn the corner

The two week countdown to a new season has begun. The race against time is nearing its judgement days of fall. You have never seen anything like this in Coral Gables, a Miami roster purge on steroids followed by a hopeless outlook from everybody in the outside world.

It has been a blood transfusion, out with the bad red blood cells and in with some white ones that are simply more potent and intended to heal the infection of mediocrity.

But time itself is not an asset anymore. The days. The hours. The minutes and seconds are counting down at a breathless pace toward September 1, 2023. The Miami Hurricanes begin a new football season in two weeks.

So where is the team right now? There seems to be a quiet optimism building in Coral Gables despite the fact that Miami was ranked at No. 40 in the USA Today Coach’s Poll and not even mentioned in the opening AP Poll.

“I’ve learned that we’re understanding the standard a little bit better,” Head Coach Mario Cristobal said. “Certainly a lot of guys are living up to the expectation or pushing others. Others are trying to catch up and they gotta catch up in order to be part of this organization.

“But what we see is a lot of progress in every aspect in terms of culture, in terms of effort, in terms of physicality.”

Miami is bigger, stronger and faster than it was last season. That’s undeniable.

“A year ago today, you look at this team versus that team and it’s entirely different,” Cristobal said. “We certainly have added the right kind of size. I mean, some of the body comp numbers are staggering. And then some of the improvements are just really eye popping. So credit to coach (Aaron) Feld, our nutritionist, certainly the Sports Science Department and then the effort by the players.“

But the biggest challenge facing Cristobal right now extends beyond building muscle. That is simple, really. Eat right, do the right things and put in the time in the weight room.

Transforming culture is a different beast.

Fighting harder when the going gets tough, not quitting. That’s easy to ask for, but it’s much more difficult to yank that passion and effort out of the kids.

Playing hard every snap, not taking plays off. The same when the heat index climbs above 100 in South Florida.

Making good choices like skipping the extracurricular recreational activities that college students love.

“Every year, you’ve got to hit the restart button and you think about it now in this day and age and the advent of social media, distractions, all the things that go on, you almost have to restart it every single morning to make sure everybody’s on the same page,” Cristobal said. “We are getting better every single day. There is progress.”

Defensive coordinator Lance Guidry has entered the fray with a fresh set of eyes. Training camp has been an opportunity to probe, find out what guys do best.

For years Miami ran a passive defense, and the fan base and everyone else called for aggression. Manny Diaz came in under Mark Richt and gave it to everyone for a few years.

Miami got away from that a bit last year under Kevin Steele, but Guidry will bring it back this year with an exclamation point.

“The guys like the pressure, seems like they want to play man-to-man a lot better than zone, which is a good thing for me,” Guidry said. “But I think we’re doing a good job in the secondary challenging some routes, and we’re really rushing the passer well right now. The backers are starting to get better and better each practice and we’re trying to get some continuity in there and just see how many guys we want to play with at linebacker.”

The experimentation stage of fall camp will end after Friday night’s scrimmage. Position battles will be decided for the season opener against Miami-Ohio and the Canes will start game planning.

Shannon Dawson’s offense has shown up as an asset this fall as it is showing the defense a lot of concepts and making it adjust. Tyler Van Dyke seems back to 2021 form and is benefitting vice versa from all the looks that Guidry’s defense throws out on the practice field every day.

Guidry likes his guys on the outside capable of manning up because it frees up so many things from a schematic standpoint.

“These guys have been playing seven-on-seven, probably throughout their whole career. And they’re used to playing man-to-man,” Guidry said. “I just think the kids like to be physical and they like to run to the football. We are playing zone as well and getting better at that too. We need to need to be multiple and disguise things.”

Maybe it is just the optimism of a new season but It just seems that this is an organization that is coming together and working well together.

“It was about as opposite as you can get, bringing in our hard-nose blueprint and tireless work ethic and what Miami was doing [before],” Cristobal said “So what happened last year, it’s not fun. No one likes it, and I certainly don’t like it. But it had to happen.”

This year, now two weeks away, there is just one thing that needs to happen.

Winning.

The Hurricanes seem on their way so far this fall.

“Every team has a different starting point,” Cristobal said. “This one in particular needed work. And the massive amount of work done in one year has put us on a great trajectory to begin progressing at a good rate.”

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