Spring Practice #3 — The pads were on and the ‘Canes were hitting

For the first time this spring, the Hurricanes were in full pads. In the first session, the wide receivers were going through blocking drills and the quarterbacks were going through hand-offs and mis-directional hand-offs. The defense was harder to see because they keep the media much closer to the offensive side of the field.

— The quarterbacks and receivers worked through outs, posts, and go routes and I still felt like Jarren Williams looked the best. I’m doing my best to go into every practice with a fresh mentality and no pre-conceived notions about what I saw the practice before, and Jarren Williams finds a way to come out on top every day. He wasn’t perfect, but I believe he’s consistently looked like the best passer.

N’Kosi Perry and Tate Martell are still one and two in the rotation and led all the drills. Perry was great today, but over-threw one or two that could've been placed better with nobody in coverage.

Martell had similar struggles that showed on his first day. An out-route wound up hitting me in the leg because it bounced off the ground before getting to the receiver and shot right back up. What I can say is that he puts some heat on his ball because that thing came up so fast and just nailed me. Safe to say I moved over about ten feet.

Martell’s passes seem to wobble more than any of the other two quarterbacks. I can’t tell you that he has looked better than Williams or Perry.

The fact is that this is just day three of spring practice and I don't believe any decisions are even relatively close to being made. I believe this competition is going to go down to the wire no matter what.

— After the horn sounded on one of Miami’s group periods, safeties coach Ephraim Banda started bouncing up and down and running around screaming. The media didn't really know what was going on, but the entire team met on the 50-yard line and they were screaming and clapping. It was a very energetic 10 minutes of practice. Offensive and defensive players were going head-to-head in one-on-one, or “Big Cane” drills as Josh White of The Miami Hurricane and WVUM called it.

The only clear winners I saw from that drill were defensive end Jonathan Garvin and Jarren Williams, who apparently beat N’Kosi Perry in the drill. Williams was mobbed by both offensive and defensive players after his victory. The “Big Cane” drill is just another way that Manny Diaz is creating competition in his practices.

— After they broke off from the 50, we saw the offensive and defensive line go toe-to-toe for the first time this spring. I couldn't tell what the first-team offensive line looked like, but the defensive line went:

DE Scott Patchan

DT Jon Ford

DT Pat Bethel

DE Jonathan Garvin

Jon Ford stuck out to me the most on the line. Early in the drills, but busted right through the left side of the offensive line and made an easy tackle for loss. Then he did it again, this time on the right side of the line that would have been a huge hit had he intended to destroy somebody.

Nesta Silvera also garnered some love from Manny Diaz after a great play made in the backfield. He ran with the second-team.

Jordan Miller looks, physically, like a completely different person than he did when he was recruited to Miami out of Jacksonville. He was just too big and it was understood that he had to lose some unhealthy weight to become a factor in this defense. It looks like he has been putting in the work to change his body.

Overall, the defensive line looked ahead of the offensive line, which shouldn't come as a surprise.

— Cam Davis and Deejay Dallas also made some good runs in the offensive-defensive line work. While Lorenzo Lingard continues to sit out due to injury, Davis is making strong impressions daily.

Thats all I got for day three.