Miami Hurricanes College Football Pregame Quote, 08/17/2019

I want to thank everybody for being here on our new little Monday afternoon tradition. I hope this works out well for you all. We’re obviously very honored to be opening up the 150th college football season a week ahead of everybody else. Not just the fact that it’s Miami, but the fact that it’s Miami and Florida ‚Äì two of the big three schools in the state of Florida. When you think about the history of college football, the sport may not have been invented in this state, but it was certainly revolutionized in this state. You’re talking about 11 national championships in less than the last 40 years, that’s over a quarter, by my math. To have two of the marquee programs in this state open up the curtains on the 2019 season is a pretty cool thing that we’re excited to be a part of.

Obviously, in Florida, we have got an outstanding opponent. All the rankings that just came out, pretty much a consensus top-10 team and for good reason. I look at the way that they finished a year ago, and I really look at two programs, in a way, separated by 12 months. I look at Dan Mullen and his staff, coming in and inheriting a four-win team two years ago and changing the culture of that program. I think of us both being 5-1 on the same weekend last October. Florida is down 21-3 to Vanderbilt and finds a way to come back to win that game. And then that night, we go play Virginia and, in a close game, we find a way to not win. I thought the Florida win versus Vanderbilt a year ago, and then they came home a couple weeks later and were playing South Carolina and in very similar circumstances, came back from a double-digit [point] deficit. I thought that gave them the confidence, where they played their best football in the final four games, where they won all four games by a truckload of points and finished the year with 10 wins and a top-10 ranking. Whereas our season went the opposite direction, losing four out of our last six and limping across the finish line.

One of our main objectives this offseason has been to find that competitive spirit, that drive, that backbone, that benefited Florida a year ago. We know that they will provide that test because obviously, I know Coach Mullen well. I know Nick Savage, their strength coach. I know how their teams will be conditioned, and I know the energy and the toughness that they will play with. Certainly when you’re looking at their personnel, you’re talking about as good of skill [players] as anybody we’re going to see all season.

On freshman OL Zion Nelson, who won the starting left tackle job:

Zion, at left tackle, in a strange way, reminds me of the linebackers when they were here spring of their freshman year. First of all, Zion impressive in offseason program, in our mat drill program. You’re like,  ‚Äòlook at this guy.’ His athleticism is really off the charts. His body was changing. David Feeley and his staff did an amazing job, just in terms of putting on weight. Kyle Bellamy and nutrition. Butch Barry getting him ready and versed in the offense. It was one of those deals where, ‚Äòhe might be our best guy there. Let’s put the freshman in and let’s kind of see what happens.’ I remember seeing the same thing with Shaq Quarterman and Mike Pinckney and Zach McCloud in spring of 2016. What happened is, he just maintained the job from there on out. He is a very highly motivated young man. He’s very mature beyond his years. He does not look like a young guy out there. What helps – similar to Pinckney and Shaq, for example ‚Äì he has above-the-charts athleticism. Even if he makes a mistake, he has the quickness to make up for it at some time. I also remember Pinckney and Quarterman and McCloud, the first month of their freshman year‚Ķthey’re a lot different today than they were then. But Zion has for sure earned our tackle spot.

On QB Tate Martell and QB N’Kosi Perry and the back-up quarterback job:

Right now, Tate and N’Kosi are battling it out to be our ‚Äònumber two’ quarterback. We felt like, after we got through last Friday, that we had not, as we were getting into the game plan stuff for the opener, to really see which of the two guys could really grasp that. Tate is still, to that point, he may be our second quarterback, so it’s hard to have him play another position when he may be our next guy in, God forbid, if something were to happen to Jarren [Williams]. To me, right now, that’s the battle that’s going on.

On his personal experience with the Miami-Florida rivalry:

I think the only time I’ve been to a Miami-Florida game was the 31-4 game at the Orange Bowl. It was hard to find. They haven’t been down here all that often, and I don’t think the two schools played at all in the 90s. I do remember that day. I remember the 31-4 game. It’s hard to get four [points], sometimes, so that’s one you tend to remember.

What I do remember is that when Miami and Florida, and Miami and Florida State, and Florida State and Florida ‚Äì when they played each other ‚Äì we used to stay whoever won the state championship usually had the inside track for the national championship. That’s gone away for whatever reason, but there’s no reason that can’t be the rule of law again. I’m sure Dan Mullen and Willie Taggart feel the same way, and I know we do here.