CORAL GABLES – Usually, having speed on the field is an advantage.
What happens when your players have too much speed?
Miami Hurricanes wide receivers coach Kevin Beard talked recently about how explosive his receivers are and how they are working to use it appropriately.
Beard confirms that Alabama transfer Tyler Harrell is as fast as you think he is.
“Tyler Harrell has come here with eight months to invest into his career, and his first month and a half, he’s done an excellent job, really developing, catching the football, running routes, understanding that he is really fast and he doesn’t have to run really fast all the time,” Beard stated. “He is working on learning how to control his speed and give himself effective not only in the deep balls, but the intermediate and short game.”
Another speed-developing receiver is Nathaniel “Ray Ray” Joseph. A freshman that made a lot of explosive plays in the Canes spring game, Ray Ray plans on continuing with excitement this year, but says controlling his speed is something he has to work on.
“I’m just learning to control my speed, and I can still look fast by doing it at a slower pace,” Ray Ray stated. “So just learning how to control my speed, and just taking advantage of the job machine and doing that every day.”
Beard speaks highly of Ray Ray’s improvement thus far on his skill set.
“Since January to now, he’s done a really good job transforming himself into a wide receiver instead of an athlete, uh, catching the ball more consistently, catching the difficult balls and, and
using his hands more than his body,” Beard stated.
The Canes have a plethora of speed divided between their running back and receivers. New offensive coordinator Shannon Dawson is looking to implement speed by getting the ball out of quarterback Tyler Van Dyke’s hand as fast as possible.
“It’s all intermediate or all, you know, there are ways to get the ball and play to those guys quickly where they can use their athletic ability after they catch the ball, you know?” Dawson stated. “And so I think that, you know, a little bit of patience on my part, to be honest with you, to get the ball and play quickly is important.”
There will be explosive plays made, but Dawson wants to work more on efficiency.
“We wanna be physical and whenever those shots present themselves, we gotta take advantage of them,” Dawson stated. “But if people are playing off of us, we gotta be able to move the ball efficiently and grind it out because that’s what defenses are doing today.”
The players are showing a great attitude about learning a new offense. Dawson is optimistic about the players’ development through fall camp.
COVER PHOTO CREDIT: Chuck Bethel
