- 7 hours ago
Joe Zagacki, voice of the Miami Hurricanes, discusses the challenges of replacing much of the offensive line and evaluating the Hurricanes’ pass-rushers, comparing them to last year’s stars Bain and Mesidor, who are now heading to the NFL. Zagacki shares insights on key players like Darian Mensah and Malachi Toney, including Toney’s leadership and relentless work ethic. He also breaks down Mark Fletcher’s development and the impact of early-enrolled recruits, setting the stage for another strong season.
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00:00All right, Woody, thank you so much.
00:01Always fun.
00:02I see him walking over in Davie from time to time.
00:05The voice of the Miami Hurricanes, Joe Z, joins us this morning.
00:10Joe, listen, man, I want to let you know that I'm always happy
00:14when I see announcers and their teams playing well.
00:1713 wins in football, playing the national championship game,
00:2126 wins with a brand-new basketball coach,
00:24into the tournament, get a win.
00:26What a nice start for you, huh?
00:28Yeah.
00:30It was good.
00:31It was a lot of fun.
00:34Football was a lot of fun.
00:36Basketball was, you know, a couple years ago you go to the Final Four
00:40and Woody was with me and you have this exhilaration.
00:44And then the last two years after that, you kind of went down in the valley.
00:48And this year it was just for basketball just even all the way across.
00:54Just, you know, not a lot of highs, not a lot of lows.
00:58Beat the teams you were supposed to beat, really didn't lose anybody
01:01that you weren't supposed to lose to, no terrible losses.
01:04And then football, what an amazing journey that was.
01:07I'm still reliving that one every single day.
01:09That was hard for – to go through it, not for a broadcaster,
01:15but to watch the players and the organization to see what it takes to win a championship
01:19and to get that close was both exhilarating and excruciating.
01:24I got to tell you, Joe, it was – that month of football was from –
01:30even going back to the Pittsburgh game and then waiting to see in the debate
01:34about whether we would get in or Notre Dame, one or the other, and you get in.
01:39And then they go out and a lot of people, well, I don't know if they should have been in.
01:42They had a bad loss in there.
01:44And then they beat up some – they beat some really good teams in Ohio State and Texas A&M.
01:50And then, by the way, played – they were the two best teams, no question about it,
01:54because they played Indiana that second half.
01:55I actually outplayed them, and so it was just – I'm with you.
02:00It was so much fun to go back on.
02:02But, hey, let's talk about Cane's football, spring football.
02:06I went out there the one day, and I came away with they're really frigging talented,
02:10although I do know they got some positions that have to be filled in.
02:15Four new starters on that offensive line.
02:17Are you concerned with that, or is there just so much talent you can just –
02:22and a really good offensive line coach, you're not worried about it?
02:26Okay, I would say I am concerned, not because of lack of talent or coaching
02:35or any of those things.
02:36They're in great hands with Coach Mirabal and Shannon Dawson talking with him yesterday.
02:42He feels good about it.
02:43My concern would be the guys that left were playing at such an elite level.
02:48Oh, man.
02:49And now you have players coming in.
02:54Cantwell could start at left tackle.
02:56He's never played a college game.
02:59And, you know, you're replacing Markel Bell on one side
03:03and Maui Noah on the other side.
03:06I mean, Maui Noah was great right from this first snap as a freshman.
03:10I don't think Cantwell is where Maui Noah was as a freshman.
03:13Clearly, he's not where he was when Maui Noah played his last game.
03:19Their strategy at center – I talked with Don about this yesterday.
03:23Their strategy at center the last couple years was brilliant.
03:26It was, we're going to go to the portal and get a center
03:29because that's the guy that touches the ball in every play.
03:31We don't have somebody that can handle that responsibility.
03:35Now they think they do in Rodriguez,
03:37but he hasn't really played since the Gator game of two years ago, right?
03:41And he wasn't the center in that game.
03:44I watched him yesterday.
03:46He's big and he's strong and, you know, he brings up a great presence.
03:50But I guess what I'm saying is the players that left were playing at the best level
03:56that they played at in their entire careers.
03:59And now these new guys have to come in and quickly get up to speed.
04:02And they're not going to get to that same level, but they've got a ways to go.
04:07Boy, it's funny.
04:09You were talking about all those guys, and I was thinking,
04:12because that offensive line ended up just being so dominant,
04:15especially in those playoff games against Ohio State.
04:19Those last drives they were able to put together.
04:21The other position, of course, we kind of called it the heart and soul of the team
04:25was those two pass rushers on the outside.
04:28But, you know, it's funny, Joe.
04:29It's just me, but you've got Blunt and Lightfoot.
04:32They've got a lot of playing time.
04:33You go out in the transfer portal.
04:35I haven't seen them play that much.
04:37Damon Wilson, Hayden Lowe's coming back.
04:41I feel pretty good about that position.
04:43I know they don't have the experience, and I'm not saying they're first-round picks.
04:47But, boy, I feel like I saw enough that those guys are –
04:52and Jason Taylor will get them in the right mental approach to really be good players.
04:56You know, yesterday I went right to Jason Taylor when practice was over.
05:01I went to him and Shannon Dawson.
05:03And so there are stories lining up.
05:06Shannon Dawson said, well, I can tell you this.
05:09We can still rush the passer.
05:10You know, we're early in spring.
05:12We can still rush the passer.
05:14I go over to Jason Taylor, and he says, yeah, we can still rush the passer.
05:18So I think they feel pretty good about that.
05:21Jason loves Lightfoot.
05:22He thinks he's going to be one of the best in the country at defensive end.
05:25And, again, at the end of the season, Lightfoot was a terror.
05:28I mean, you watch that Indiana game.
05:30He picks up one of their offensive linemen and just tosses them like a ragdoll.
05:34He did the same in Ohio State, Ole Miss games.
05:36He was a factor in every game down the stretch.
05:40So I think he's ready to go, and I think he'll pick up.
05:44Maybe, again, you got Mesdor and Bain who were playing at these incredible levels.
05:50Can Lightfoot and the new guy get to that level in Blunt?
05:54I don't know, but Lightfoot's going to be hard to block.
05:56But I also think inside, I think Justin Scott played really well for them at the end of last season,
06:02played like a five-star player.
06:04And Moten was really good.
06:07To be quite honest with you, I didn't see that coming.
06:10I thought, I don't know if Moten's going to make it, but he was really good.
06:15So I saw the new kid from Ohio State.
06:18I think he'll probably be in behind Moten and Scott at defensive tackle.
06:23So I think their defensive line's going to be good.
06:25I think they'll be solid there.
06:27All right.
06:27Let's talk about number one position.
06:29I never, very seldom do that.
06:31It's usually the first thing we always talk about.
06:33It's quarterback, Darian Minsaw.
06:34Boy, the day I was out there, he was dropping them beautiful deep passes
06:38and obviously coming from a great year with Duke.
06:42What's your take?
06:42And a lot thicker guy than I thought.
06:44He's a physical-looking guy there.
06:46It's funny that you say that.
06:48I would agree with that.
06:49And then I was also flashing to the kid behind him, the freshman, Coleman,
06:56who's not quite as big.
06:58If I was that kid, I would go, look, I'm playing the long game.
07:03He's got an arm.
07:05He's got a rocket for an arm.
07:07He's got to get bigger.
07:08I mean, he's got kind of like stick legs.
07:11But my eyes flashed over to him.
07:13But to answer your question, Minsaw is really accurate.
07:19That's where it starts with me.
07:20His throws are right on the mind.
07:22He threw a deep ball yesterday into the left corner of the end zone
07:27and just put it right where it had to be, like a 60-yard pass
07:30that just dropped right in there beautifully.
07:33So he got great touch, great feel for the receivers,
07:37was hooking up with his teammate from Duke, Barcate.
07:40But those new wide receivers, of course, he's got Tony out there.
07:45But Wingo and the other kid coming in from South Carolina, they can fly.
07:50They've got some talent at wide receiver.
07:53They got a guy.
07:54That was the one thing missing last year.
07:56Everybody's kind of quietly saying, we need a more speed at wide receiver.
08:00And they went out and got it.
08:01But they throw a ton of takeoffs.
08:03And they want to get that passing game going for sure.
08:06So I think, by the way, there's so many different things I wanted to talk to.
08:10I haven't talked to you for a while.
08:12Malachi Tony is clearly, when I was there day one, like, oh, this is Malachi Tony's team.
08:17He had them out first.
08:19He's running them out.
08:20He got out early.
08:21He had the receivers together.
08:22They were going over assignments.
08:24And I was like, 18-year-old leader of the frigging team.
08:29I never thought I'd see that at the University of Miami.
08:33And it's pretty clear to everybody.
08:37Well, he's contagious.
08:38His enthusiasm, his excitement, his love for football.
08:43You know, how many times have you heard a coach say, well, when we evaluate a player,
08:48the first thing we want to know is, does he love football?
08:50And some people will look at that and go, of course they love football.
08:53What does that mean, love football?
08:55Not everybody loves football.
08:56But Malachi Tony loves football.
08:58And if you watch Malachi in practice and you watch his habits, and I watch, you know,
09:03what I like to do, Joe, is when practice is over, I like to stay out on the field to
09:09see
09:10who else stays out on the field.
09:12And so I can become a little spy.
09:14And Malachi is always on the field.
09:17Last year, it was CJ Daniels and Marion helping him.
09:22Now this year is the other way around.
09:25So I think that's really exciting.
09:27I like to tell my Malachi Tony story of the last month, which is during the basketball season,
09:34our dear friend Katie Meyer had a fundraiser on campus.
09:39So she asked me if I would participate in her fundraiser, which was to make 10 free throws.
09:45And I said, sure, I'll go out.
09:46They'll take me, you know, I don't know how many shots, but I'll go make 10 eventually.
09:51Maybe by the time the sun goes down.
09:54And you're in the middle of campus and people are watching.
09:56The guy in front of me goes 10 for 10.
09:59I said, is there anything you can't do?
10:01And it was Malachi Tony.
10:0310 for 10.
10:04He made all 10?
10:05He made all 10.
10:06He stepped up.
10:07He laughed.
10:08He made 10 in a row.
10:09Then he walked away.
10:11Yeah.
10:11Wow.
10:13Also, I did want to point out what I was talking to Shannon Dawson yesterday.
10:17And I do think this is interesting.
10:19They have the new quarterback, got the new offensive line.
10:22But what they don't have that's new is a running back room that's really good.
10:26Except they do have Mallory that came in.
10:29And he's, I watched him.
10:30He's a real deal also.
10:33Fletcher, you know, Fletcher's right there with Tony and his love for football.
10:38And I just marvel at Mark Fletcher's personality and how infectious that is and the demands that he has for
10:47the guys around him.
10:48Yeah.
10:49And just talking to him after practice, you walk away from Mark Fletcher and you're like, man, that kid.
10:54Right.
10:54You just root for him.
10:55And what he did in the playoffs last year, I said to Don, do you realize he ran for 500,
11:01over 500 yards in the playoffs?
11:03He was unstoppable and I think he's going to pick up right where he left off.
11:08And I think Shannon Dawson's mindset is we got to run the ball.
11:13Let's make this pretty simple here.
11:15We got great running backs.
11:16We're going to feed them the football.
11:18And that's where they're going to start, I think, with the identity of their offense.
11:22Not bad for two guys we just spent about five minutes talking about from American Heritage Plantation up there in
11:28Broward County, man.
11:29So, Mike Smith and you guys up there, I'm sure they're pretty proud guys there.
11:35Yeah, keep sending them.
11:36Good for business.
11:37Yeah, keep sending them our way, would you?
11:38You got some more on the way, we'd really appreciate it.
11:41Hey, Joe, you know what's crazy?
11:43And we got a zillion positions that we could talk about.
11:47I didn't realize.
11:48I mean, it's a different world in college football now.
11:52Now, I didn't know, and if you knew this, I wasn't listening, I apologize, that their whole recruiting class, most
11:59of them were here during the playoff run
12:01and actually practiced with the team on scout team to get a feel for it, and were going against these
12:07guys before spring football.
12:09I thought spring was the first time.
12:11Now I find out they were all here.
12:13I did not know that.
12:1531 of the 32 or 30 of the 30, they were on the airplane.
12:19I mean, they took up a lot of space on the airplane, on our plane.
12:22Yeah, I just know.
12:23I was like, hey, who are these guys?
12:24Yeah, our recruiting class are already in.
12:27Nobody goes to their junior prom and senior ball anymore, man.
12:30What the hell happened?
12:31It did.
12:32It was a crash course for those players, and I did see Cantwell and these other guys, and I do
12:38think at that time of the year, it was a good help, a little bit of a help.
12:42First of all, they had to get up to speed on what was going on.
12:46But I do think any time you can expose young players to that situation, that this is not an entitlement.
12:55I always felt that one of the demises of the University of Miami was after a lot of these great
13:01players left,
13:03and all the guys have been chirping for years and years, that when that other wave came in, they thought,
13:08oh, yeah, I'm going to put on Ed Reed's jersey, and I'm going to play just like him.
13:11I'm going to put on John Taylor's jersey, I'm going to be just like him.
13:14I'm going to be just like Andre Johnson because I'm a hurricane.
13:17Well, these guys found out it doesn't work that way.
13:20They got exposed to high-level coaching.
13:24They got exposed to – this wasn't bowl game fun, these playoff practices.
13:31This was serious business.
13:33I mean, every rep in practice was life and death, as was every play in the game.
13:39So they were tossed into a very tense situation, and I think that was good for them to understand that,
13:47hey, you've got to make a big jump from high school into where we are and what our demands are
13:52and what we're playing for.
13:54These are – this isn't, you know, backyard football or whatever.
14:00We are playing for the ultimate prize, and we all have to sacrifice for this ultimate prize.
14:05This is, you know, blood and guts right now.
14:09So they have a good lesson in that.
14:11Yeah, no, no, I agree with you.
14:12And by the way, I love the competition thing, and it is true.
14:16So Jackson Cantwell, he's one of the top recruits they've ever had to get a guy
14:21that was that highly recruited at the top of the five-star chain there.
14:26Jackson Cantwell, they're saying it's been slow development.
14:29And obviously, he did not play against guys like this in high school.
14:32And I – they didn't have guys in his high school wherever it was in Missouri that he played.
14:36And now he's playing against, you know, two guys who were first-round picks,
14:39and now they've got more guys that have been playing a lot of college football.
14:43I still expect him to start, don't you, Joe, when it's all said and done at left or right tackle?
14:48Yeah, I always go back to every time a new offensive lineman come in.
14:52And so I'll date myself, and you know this one with Richmond Webb and Keith Sims, right,
14:57when Coach Shula just put him right out there.
14:59I date day one.
15:00Tackle left guard, right?
15:01And I feel the same thing.
15:04They did that with Maui Noah, put him out there, and it was his job for three years.
15:10And I think the same with Cantwell, unless there's a complete meltdown along the way.
15:15He's going to be fed an awful lot.
15:17But his sheer size and strength and his ability to dominate,
15:23I think he probably has to understand that because of his size,
15:28the amount of space he takes up, if he is applying his proper technique
15:34as he's getting coached from Mirabal,
15:37then he's got a chance on every play to dominate the other guy,
15:41which is a pretty rare feeling to have, right?
15:44Boy, they'd like to get that done for sure.
15:46Hey, always one guy, and I want you to give me one.
15:49I want to give you the one guy that I'm like, okay, year two, man.
15:53You've got so much talent.
15:54I hope the brain catches or the body and the brain finally connect,
15:59and he plays at the level of talent that he has.
16:02His name is Josh Moore, the big 6'4 receiver.
16:07He's got stupid, stupid, ridiculous talent that you can't teach that size,
16:11and to be able to run and catch a ball like that, that's my guy.
16:15Do you have one of those guys for you that if he puts it together
16:19is going to make a splash this year?
16:21Well, I love your choice of Moore because I love big receivers.
16:26I just think you can't defend them, and in college football,
16:29when you have a receiver that is that size,
16:32it puts an awful lot of pressure on most defenses.
16:35You're not going to run into a lot of teams that have guys that can match up.
16:39Now, you're going to run into a couple games where the other team has equal talent,
16:44but most of the time when you have somebody like Moore, you can't.
16:50It's impossible for the defense to find somebody to cover him consistently,
16:53so he would be on my list.
16:56He's back at practice.
16:57I thought he had an okay season last year.
17:00I thought he got better as the season went on,
17:02and they missed him in the championship game,
17:04and that would be Lofton, the tight end.
17:06Yeah, that's a good one.
17:07He made some great plays.
17:09I mean, the catch he made in the game that he got hurt against Ole Miss
17:13was a deep square in, and he took a hell of a shot,
17:17and we haven't seen him since.
17:19Well, now we do, but they missed him in the championship game,
17:22but he was supposed to be that Swiss Army knife line up in the backfield,
17:26flex him out, inline tight end, bring him in close, blocker, the whole package,
17:31and we only saw flashes of it, and probably not enough.
17:34I think he battled through some injuries and, I don't know, maybe some other things,
17:38but Bauman seemed to always get more reps,
17:43but I thought Lofton was the more dangerous player,
17:46and clearly in the championship game they could have used him.
17:49Yeah, glad he's back, by the way.
17:51That was the good news here.
17:52Hey, Josie, thank you, man.
17:53I appreciate it for coming on and spending some time.
17:56We got to do this more.
17:58All right, Joe, you look good, and by the way,
17:59yesterday I thought you did a good job as matchmaker.
18:05We'll find out.
18:06I didn't know so many people want to go out with that good-looking Julie guy, man.
18:10Yeah, so we'll get on that.
18:12Thanks, Joe.
18:13All right, take care.
18:14All right, Josie.
18:15Voice of the Miami Hurricanes, man, got to tell you about that.
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