Football Hosts Canes Correspondents Day

CORAL GABLES, Fla. – Head coach Al Golden and the Miami Hurricanes football team held the second annual Canes Correspondents Luncheon outside the Schwartz Center for Athletic Excellence.

Members of the media were invited to tour the Schwartz Center with Associate AD for Development Jesse Marks and Assistant AD for Giving Chris Cohen. Afterwards, the media watched the final 30 minutes of practice before Athletics Director Blake James welcomed everyone to the Canes Correspondents Luncheon with his ‘State of the U’ address.

Following James on the podium was Golden, who answered questions before players were made available to the media.

Thanks to Smoothie King, Miller’s Ale House, Chick-fil-A and Brother Jimmy’s BBQ for donating food for Friday’s luncheon. Also thanks to all the media that attended the event, including WQAM, Radio Caracol and WVUM.

QUOTABLES
Anthony Chickillo on motivating his teammates…
“I think we are determined and motivated. Guys are pushing each other. The D-line and guys like Shayon Green, (Luther) Robinson, Olsen Pierre and Curis Porter all push each other and want to see each other compete.”

Freshman Ray Lewis III on adapting to DB position and system…
“Getting acclimated to the system was a bit tough. It was a huge speed change and that was the number one thing for me. The speed of the game was just so much faster. Everybody was once the best on the high school football team. The only thing that differentiates you is your mindset and how much work you put in to it.”

Al Golden on how he would describe depth chart changes…
“It’s fluid every day. As soon as we go from here, the staffs are going and evaluating the tape, seeing if anybody performed better than somebody else and then we make a determination of what is the best. When guys get nicked up sometimes, it causes you to think outside the box, as it did with defense (where) we moved some guys around and we liked it.”

Golden on his motivational philosophy impacting his players…
“The motivational part of it and the science that we have constructed, it’s all apart of our DNA. I hope they appreciate it and hope they understand that we can change plays year-in and year-out, but what remains the same is what drives the program and our values.”

Golden on speed vs. size…
“There is a line of demarcation, where the x and y-axis meet and you don’t want to go past that because then they start taking away their quickness or their speed.

Golden on having the Gators on the schedule…
“We are always going to play one of those hitter-sectional games. My first year, Ohio State. Last year, Notre Dame and Kansas State. Kansas State the other year or so. We are going to play those games; Florida and Nebraska moving forward and then go from there. We always want to take out one of those hitter-sectional games. Again, our guys will be excited about Florida. We don’t need to be talking about Florida now. They will be excited enough come game day.

James Coley on Stephen Morris…
“He’s extremely talented physically, with his arm. He’s a guy that can speed up his delivery or slow it down. He can throw at different arm angles. To me, guys that do those things are next level guys—physically. Now, mentally, he sees it as well. He understands coverage’s. He understand multiples, you know this offense is multiple. It’s what you see in the next level. He knows when there are two tight ends in the game in the shell, the way it looks. Sometimes when you’re just a spread team you get the same look every time because you’ve got the same personnel in the game and you’ve got the same three-by-one or two-by-two. But when you go into the pro system you may see an I formation, it’s a different look. Slot, it’s a different look. Then you get the two-by-two, three-by-one. So really, you’ve got more in your basket than you do if you’re just a spread guy. So, being able to do that you have to have a trigger guy who can do all the things I said physically but they can grasp what you’re doing offensively and apply it to what they’re doing defensively. So, he has big upside. Now, here’s the thing with all quarterbacks that have those two good attributes—physically and mentally they can handle those things—consistency, consistency, and consistency. In a course of a game, you can get eight yards on first down, you can reach your goal of being high-percentage on first down but if you aren’t worth a darn on second and third down that’s not too good. Same thing, you can drive the ball from backed up all the way to the opposing twenty yard line to go score, if it shuts down there then that’s not good either. So it’s consistencies, how do you take your game through the different fields of offense?”

Freshman DE Al-Quadin Muhammad on his strengths…
“I’m good at a lot of things, I run the ball real quick and I’m good at being a tackle.  I watch a lot of film so that really gives me an advantage and I’m already athletic and play the game well and then I’m watching film on the tackle we run again and I study his footwork and see if he leans a lot and see the way he gets off the ball, the way he takes back and whatever and I watch all these kinds of things so I have an advantage on the guy.  Basically I gotta do my research on who ever we’re playing against and that’ll give me a hole different edge on the person and there are a lot of tackles that aren’t really good on their feet, they’re slow, so I’m fast on the ball and I’ll make my move off their move. I base if off what they do.”