The Hurricanes finished Day No. 10 of preseason camp on Friday at Greentree Field.

Some notes:

*** Defensive end Al-Quadin Muhammad and linebacker Jermaine Grace both were at practice. 

*** Behind Brad Kaaya at quarterback during our 15 minutes of media viewing were redshirt sophomore Malik Rosier, followed by redshirt freshman Evan Shirreffs, true freshman Jack Allison and redshirt freshman Vincent Testaverde. 

  Mark Richt said he still hasn’t decided on a backup.

“That’s kind of where it’s at,” said Richt’s son, Jon, the quarterbacks coach. “All those guys are competing. They’re working hard. They’re trying to get better every day. But right now there’s no clear No. 2 or No. 3.”

    Here’s Jon’s assessment of last year’s backup Malik Rosier: “Some of it is him getting used to our system. It’s a completely different feel, a completely different way to go. But he’s doing a good job right now of coming up. He’s got to be more consistent. That’s our big thing with him. He’s got to come in play in and play out. We’re putting a lot on our quarterbacks and they’ve got to know what they’re supposed to do and what not to do.” 

*** Mark Richt on the team’s first-year receivers: “Dayall [Harris] is farther ahead. Ahmmon [Richards] is in pretty decent shape, and there’s [Sam] Bruce, by virtue of the fact that he got here later than everybody else… We have some first-year tight ends, too, that have a ways to go, just learning what to do. There’s so much to master as a tight end in this system. They’re struggling a little bit mentally. When you’re not sure, it’s hard to be physical. The young guys in general are struggling, but Dayall and Ahmmon are a little bit further ahead at receiver.”

***On the absence of tight end Stan Dobard, S Robert Knowles and FB Gage Batten from practice: “Stan had an ankle thing. I think Stan’s was an ankle. Knowles, it could have been a hand. He had something to do with his finger — it got jacked up a little bit. [Batten’s surgery] went well, but it will be a little while before he can practice.”

*** Running back great Edgerrin James attended practice Friday. James’ nephew Jeff James is a freshman safety out of Orlando Olympia High…By the way, Richt said there will not be just one featured back this season.

*** CanesFest is from 5 to 7 p.m. Saturday at the BankUnited Center. Football players and coaches will sign autographs from 5:30 to 6:30 in the multipurpose room. A voucher is required for autographs, and will be distributed beginning at 4:30 on a first-come, first-served basis.

   Jon, Jadyn and Seantrel Henderson

Miami Hurricanes quarterbacks coach Jon Richt, if you didn’t know by now, is the son of head coach Mark Richt, who told us in the spring that “I think most people are calling him Coach Jon. It’s CMR on my underwear and CJR on his.”

Jon Richt spoke to reporters Friday about his quarterbacks, his dad and his daughter, 2-year-old Jadyn, who is progressing in her battle with Crohn’s Disease. (Here’s my story I posted Friday afternoon)

According to the Crohn’s & Colitis Foundation of America, Crohn’s Disease belongs to a group of conditions known as Inflammatory Bowel Diseases (IBD). Crohn’s disease is a chronic inflammatory condition of the gastrointestinal tract.

The young Richt, 26, is as pleasant and upbeat as they come, and it’s nice to see him and CMR and their families together again.

“It was great to know that he had the faith in me at such an early age to get the job done,” Jon said of his dad. “His trust means a lot to me.”

Jon, on whether he knew that he wanted to be a quarterbacks coach:

“At first, yes. I thought I was going to do that. once I got older — I actually got married as a sophomore in college — I kind of got the picture that once I got older, I wasn’t going to be around as much [if I were a coach], so I tried to do something else first and that lasted about five months. I was in the mortgage business for about five months and then very soon after that I was back on the field coaching and working with some guys from the NFL Combine — so it wasn’t long.

“I knew what I wanted to do. I love it. The hours don’t matter when you are doing something that you love to do, so that’s what it is all about.”

Jon acknowledged that little Jadyn has helped rejuvenate her grandfather, who was fired from Georgia late last year after one of the most illustrious coaching tenures in the nation.

SUSAN MILLER DEGNAN 

Pitt is looking for some help to replace the production of former wide receiver Tyler Boyd, now in the NFL. While Jester Weah and Quadree Henderson have gotten some early publicity, one player hoping to get onto the field is true freshman Aaron Mathews.

Mathews was once a Penn State commit, but flipped to the Panthers last year before National Signing Day. Despite being a true freshman, he’s already making an impact, according to head coach Pat Narduzzi.

When you look at Aaron Mathews, he’s a big, tall guy that can run. He goes up and gets the ball. He has been impressive. Maurice Ffrench has been impressive. Ruben Flowers III has done some good things. I would say Aaron Mathews has probably shown the most as far as being a deep ball threat. Maurice Ffrench is catching the ball out of the backfield well. Everyone matures at different levels, so I’m impressed with all of them. You look at [Tre] Tipton and Rafael Araujo-Lopes, those guys are just puppies; they’ve redshirted. They have a little bit further to go.”

…

“Go take a picture of him (Mathews). Just go and look at what he looks like down there. He’s a specimen, and we’re excited to work with him.”

So far, Tipton and Araujo-Lopes, are being beaten out by a trio of true freshmen, it seems, with Mathews leading the pack.

One thing to keep in mind here is that Narduzzi was speaking specifically to the newer guys that didn’t play last year. This doesn’t mean that Mathews is in line to beat out Henderson or Weah right now, but among the new guys, he is standing out and based on this, appears to be in for playing time right away.

Another thing worth pointing out is that wide receivers coach Kevin Sherman didn’t really mention Mathews as a leader in the clubhouse among those guys; instead, saying that he, Flowers, and Ffrench are all making plays.

“I think they are working very hard right now. We are working with all three of them. Aaron Mathews, Ruben Flowers III, and Maurice Ffrench are making plays. They are doing it at different times, which is a good thing to see. They are stepping up and making plays that count when we need to make plays. They are all willing and able. Ruben [Flowers] made a big-time catch today. Aaron [Mathews] has made some plays and is a physical presence on the football field. Maurice is a guy that is very explosive and stepping up as well.”

In other words, even assuming Mathews does hold some sort of a lead between these guys, it’s still very early in the process with the first week of camp just wrapping up. Still, if you take the comments of Narduzzi, it sounds as if he is in good shape to play this year as a true freshman.

Be sure to join Cardiac Hill’s Facebook page and follow us on Twitter@PittPantherBlog for our regular updates on Pitt athletics. Follow the author and founder/editor @AnsonWhaley.

Six wins is very much in reach for these Kentucky Wildcats.

Kim Klement-USA TODAY Sports

The salaries for the 2016 Florida State football coaching staff were released on Friday.

Let’s try and make an educated guess.

Sports Illustrated came out with its Top 25 yesterday, and while WSU being ranked No. 18 is fun (try not to laugh too much at No. 7), much more interesting to me is something embedded within the team preview: An opposing coach’s take on the Cougs.

SI has been doing this kind of stuff for years, giving people anonymity in exchange for candid thoughts, and I find it fascinating because nobody else is able to get this kind of stuff on the record.

I suppose people talk to SI because the publication has a great reputation of protecting sources, and it’s generally futile to try and figure out who said what, given that it’s often anonymous players, scouts or executives who are being quoted, and they are either too numerous or too obscure to pin down.

However, in this case, I think we can make some educated guesses about who might be the one offering his opinion on WSU. (Because, why not?)

Before we read what he said, here’s my working assumption: It’s someone who either played WSU last season or who will play WSU this season — given the specific nature of the comments, you figure it’s someone who has taken a close look at them, and generally only people who have played or are going to play you are going to do that.

Now, let’s take a look at the comments:

“It’s the same pass-happy, Air Raid offense that coach Mike Leach has always run. He’s all about leverage of the defenders. He’s going to run his spacing routes and then his crossing routes. He puts a lot in the receivers’ hands—they have to read the leverage of the guys covering them. They do a damn good job and the quarterback knows exactly where to throw it.

“[Junior] Luke Falk is probably more talented than some of Leach’s past signal-callers …”

OK, here’s our first clue. This sounds like someone who has some context for Mike Leach and his offense throughout the years, which means it’s probably someone who’s been around college football for a while.

“… but it’s hard to know because he doesn’t read anything, he just runs through progressions.”

Clue No. 2: This person doesn’t have a lot of respect for the Air Raid — calling the offense “pass-happy” seems a bit like a pejorative, and saying “(Falk) doesn’t read anything, he just runs through progressions” implies that what Falk does is somehow inferior. Perhaps this coach is more of a pro-style advocate?

“Falk took way too many hits last year, and I’m sure he will again this season, but protection has always been a huge issue for Leach’s quarterbacks. Falk and his receivers are so quick throwing the ball that it talks you out of blitzing them a lot.”

I’m not sure there’s much of a clue here … but the juxtaposition of these two statements is pretty humorous. The interesting thing is that WSU was middle of the road last season in sacks per pass attempt — 51st nationally — and actually finished 31st in 2014. Of course, the raw number of hits on the QB is higher just because of the volume of pass attempts, which I suppose would potentially put this in the category of “more of a pro-style advocate.”

“The teams that hit Falk the most last season did it using three-man rushes and dropping eight in coverage, which made him hold the ball longer. [Senior wide receiver] Gabe Marks is dangerous outside, and their inside possession receivers do exactly what’s expected: catch the ball, get whacked and carry on.

Three statements here, all of which are fair and two of which are not particularly revealing. However, maybe there’s something to the comment about Marks being dangerous.

Defensively, their strength has always been their big linemen, and they’ve got another budding star in [sophomore] end Hercules Mata’afa. Senior safety Shalom Luani isn’t great in coverage, so you want to attack him, but he’s a sure-tackling, heavy hitter.

OK, this might be our best clue yet: The observation about Luani might be revealing if we think about which teams appeared to try and isolate Luani in coverage.

If you can run and make them pack the box, I’d take matchups all day against their corners in man coverage, which they don’t play much.

It’s true that WSU mostly played zone last season — a major factor in drastically reducing explosive plays, which was the main driving factor behind the defensive improvement. That said, I find it interesting that he’s not projecting improvement there with what was a really young set of corners.

More revealing? The idea of trying to establish the run to make WSU bring guys into the box in order to create favorable passing matchups.

They went 9–4 last season but I thought the whole Pac-12 was down, so I’m not sure they were much better than when they went 3–9 in 2014. This year they might be an even better team, but they might not have as good a record.”

Well that’s certainly dismissive.

When you put it all together, you know who it sounds a lot like to me?

UCLA coach Jim Mora.

Consider:

• Coached against WSU last year or is going to this year? Check.
• Doesn’t think much of the Air Raid, or Falk? A guy who spent most of his time coaching in the NFL would seem to be more likely to see the Air Raid as gimmicky. The only question mark here would be the inclination to think the person has been around the college game for a while, but Mora’s been at UCLA for four years, so that might be explain the initial comment — he’s seen three WSU QBs in that time. Additionally, Falk got hit a bunch against the Bruins (obviously), and the Bruins have hit all of WSU’s QBs repeatedly over the years. Also, despite the game-winning TD throw, Falk didn’t put up great numbers against UCLA — 331 yards on 53 attempts.
• Is a pro-style offense advocate? Guess who is switching to a power-based pro-style offense this season?
• Thinks Marks is dangerous? Marks had 92 yards and a pair of TDs — including the game winner — Against UCLA. The coach also essentially said in that same part that the inside receivers weren’t anything special; none of the inside receivers had a particularly strong game against the Bruins, and River Cracraft was out with an injury.
• Doesn’t think much of Luani’s coverage ability, but respects his ability to hit and tackle? UCLA seemed to target Luani in coverage, and given how much he preaches physicality, Mora seems like the type of guy who would love a safety’s ability to light up a ball-carrier.
• Prefers running the ball to set up the pass? See above.
• Is skeptical of WSU’s success last year? Given all his whining after losing to the Cougs, would it shock you if Mora believed he got beat by an inferior team that wasn’t as good as its record?

There were some other coaches who came to mind for me. David Shaw was one, but the tone just doesn’t strike me as him. One dark horse candidates I thought of? Idaho coach Paul Petrino.

Point: Petrino likely has done a lot of studying of WSU this offseason in preparation for their week three matchup in September.

Counterpoint: I’m not sure he’d have thought much about the strength of the Pac-12 overall.

Another guy I thought of is Dennis Erickson, who is noted for studying anyone and everything for ideas, would certainly have a historical handle on Leach, and is known to speak in the type of candid tone in which this coach spoke.

Those are my ideas. You got a better one?

Why the sophomore could make an impact at wide receiver quickly and what he’ll have to overcome.

Now on a depth chart featuring quite a bit of speed and athleticism, Texas Longhorns sophomore Jerrod Heard is already standing out at his new position of wide receiver only several practices in, as evidenced by some praise from teammates on Wednesday and an incredible shot taken by the school:

That’s levitation, holmes.

Three years ago, Heard posted a 33.1-inch vertical leap at a Nike event leading into his senior year of high school, but he looks a bit higher on this particular catch, which shows off leaping ability that combines with his listed height of 6’3 to form an impressive combination.

“Yeah, he’s actually been doing pretty well,” receiver John Burt said on Wednesday. “He’s already been making some pretty good catches. I feel like this is a good spot for him now.”

Senior safety Kevin Vaccaro concurred.

“It’s good seeing him on the field,” he said. “He’s switching from quarterback to wide receiver. He’s an athlete, as everyone knows. He’s really fast and has the size. Today, he went at receiver a little bit and did pretty good. It’s good seeing us use him in a good way. I don’t know how exactly coach wants to use him. He might still be a QB depending on what we do each game.

However, it might be wise to temper expectations — at least immediate expectations — as the transition of Ohio State’s Braxton Miller from quarterback to wide receiver was sometimes rocky last season. Simply put, the third-round draft pick didn’t have a big impact during a lot of games.

After totaling 140 yards from scrimmage against Virginia Tech in the opener, Miller had five games with 12 or fewer yards, including 20 total yards in the last three regular-season games, despite the added of advantage over Heard of receiving 42 carries.

When Miller did get the ball in space instead of in predictable Wildcat situations behind center, he was able to showcase his athleticism. Unfortunately for the Buckeyes, the drop off from Tom Herman to Tim Beck was significant at offensive coordinator, resulting in some misuse of the former quarterback in his new role.

So Longhorns offensive coordinator Sterlin Gilbert will have to find ways to use Heard that maximize his ability in space and keep defenses from keying too heavily on him when he’s in the game.

Instability at quarterback played a role in Miller’s relative dearth of production, too, as did a lack of other threats at wide receiver to open up space, but Miller also struggled as a blocker, which could present a similar problem for Heard, who doesn’t have experience in that area and still possesses a relatively slender build.

Two solutions for that issue are using Heard as a decoy by targeting the other side of the field in four-wide receiver sets on run-pass options and throwing bubble screens to Heard instead of slips screens to the outside wide receiver, but in all likelihood, he will be something of a liability as a blocker this year.

Still, a look at his 2015 highlights provides a refresher on why the idea of moving Heard is so intriguing:

The sophomore was absolutely electric in the open field in gaining 163 rushing yards against Cal and 115 rushing yards against Oklahoma, while the offense run by Sterlin Gilbert won’t require Heard to master a complete route tree, just hitches, outs, posts, and go routes.

With the emphasis on vertical routes that take advantage of Heard’s quickness off the ball, the potential for making an impact is even greater.

One area where playing wide receiver could really benefit Heard is in playing quickly. His processing speed in the pocket as a quarterback made it difficult for him to get the ball out on time and the need to avoid hits often caused indecision, which often became painfully obvious when Heard would run out of bounds before the first-down marker or get caught between picking up extra yardage and getting down.

Nothing about preserving his body seemed natural for a guy who put his head down and ran over four defenders in a state championship game at Denton Guyer as a junior.

“That was the first time I’ve run someone over like that to get into the end zone,” Heard told the Denton Record-Chronicle. “I always talk about doing it, but to actually do it at Cowboys Stadium and get in there, that was really exciting.”

Now Heard can generate a little more excitement at Texas with similar plays without worrying about the risk of suffering a game-changing or season-changing injury as the starting quarterback.

As a result, he should be able to play fast and instinctively in a way that he wasn’t able to last season.

And, according to 247Sports, Heard worked out as a wide receiver this summer in 7-on-7 drills and on pass-catching drills on his own, so the fact that he was wearing gloves in that infamous backflip video wasn’t just for passing purposes.

The takeaway there is that Heard has already had time to acclimate to the position and understands the scheme from a wide receiver’s perspective, which increases his odds of early playing time.

The hamstring injury to junior Lorenzo Joe and indefinite suspension of sophomore DeAndre McNeal also open up opportunities for Heard because he’s so much more quick than other big inside receivers like juniors Dorian Leonard and Jake Oliver and has better size than freshmen Devin Duvernay and Davion Curtis.

In a worst-case scenario, Heard could serve as a decoy and open up space for his teammates because of his playmaking ability and potential to run trick plays.

In a best-case scenario, he finds some of that magic from the Cal and Oklahoma games at a new position.

There has never been a better conference championship game in the expansion era.

December 1, 2012 was one of the most important days in the modern history of the SEC.

On that day, America was treated to an instant classic between two blueblood programs; a battle of style, wits, will, execution in all three phases; a face-off between two of the game’s top coaches; a cornucopia of talent where over twenty of the participants would be future NFL draft picks; two top-five teams squaring off for the SEC Championship with a national title appearance versus Notre Dame at stake.

And, did the 20th anniversary of the SEC Championship ever live up to its hype.

The game started as an old-school slugfest between two pro-style coaches feeling one another out in a 0-0 first quarter, the first shutout first quarter in SECCG history. From there, things went completely off the rails.

The teams would combine for 906 yards, 60 points, 44 first downs, a blocked field goal that put the Tide into a late 21-10 hole, transcendent quarterback play from a Dawgs legend, transcendent power football from a legendary Alabama running game, a nail-biting late turnover, a hellacious individual effort on a final batted pass in a game where the team with the ball last looked to be the winner.

But, as Coach Mark Richt said, “we just ran out of time.”

The immediate fortunes of the two programs were shaped that day. And, fairly or not, the legacy of players and coaches would be cemented as well. For Alabama it would mean a chance to win a national title against the only program historically in its punching class. For Georgia, it would mean the diminution of Mark Richt’s excellent career and would forever (and wrongly) cement the “choking Dawgs” label that he had worn for a almost a decade. For Aaron Murray, the damage was worse: one of the SEC’s all-time great players, a quarterback who caught so much flak for other failings of the team, would practically vanish from the collective conscious of the conference.

A five-yard pass completion and Georgia takes home a conference and national title. Mark Richt is still Georgia’s head coach. Aaron Murray goes down in the pantheon of legendary SEC signal callers who came up big when it mattered most.

But, they just ran out of time.

Those accolades would instead pass to the nation’s premiere program. Because, with that last batted pass, on December 1st, 2012, in a game that the Tide won 32-28, the Alabama Crimson Tide won its 23rd SEC Championship.

23 days ‘til kickoff.

Roll Tide.

The 3-star DB is Iowa’s 16th commitment in their 2017 class, and fifth defensive back.

Hawkeye Football has landed a new recruit for the #Swarm17 phenomenon. Joshua Turner announced his commitment to Iowa today via his Twitter account, making him the 16th commitment in the 2017 recruitment class. The six foot tall, 175 lb. defensive back out of Delray Beach, FL is the 144th ranked defensive back in the 2017 class, per 247 Sports.

In case you’ve been living under a rock (or were actually working, whatever), Iowa’s super-recruiter/2017 running back commit Eno Benjamin took to Twitter yesterday afternoon to make an announcement on the Iowa Football Class of 2017:

After that, our boy Jonah did a write up on who he expected the Hawkeyes to land earlier today, and towards the end of the piece, talked about how Joshua Turner would be a stud that the Hawkeyes would love to have:

the one I’d be most excited about at this point (aside from those names above) would be Delray Beach, FL DB Joshua Turner. The 3-star sits at 6’ 175 pounds and we know the staff is looking to add defensive backs. Getting kids from Florida will always be OK with me. Iowa is one of his better offers and recent social media activity would lead me to believe this could be our guy.

The kid was a highly recruited defensive back, receiving offers from 21 schools other than Iowa, including Wisconsin, Purdue, Boston College, Army, and South Florida. So while he wasn’t being courted by the likes of Ohio State and Alabama, the kid had some serious offers from some pretty good schools.

Turner also took the time to interview with HawkeyeNation, where he talked about his decision to commit to Iowa. The best excerpt from that interview is probably where he talks about his ambition and tells Hawkeye fans what to expect from him in the future:

“You’re getting a dog, basically a relentless and hardworking kid who’s always going to give his all. A savage,” Turner said to tell Hawkeye fans.

This commitment basically eliminates the need for the Hawkeyes to further recruit players for the secondary, although in a landscape where players can switch their verbal commitments at any time, anything is possible. Russ Yeast and Kobe Boyce were two defensive backs that Iowa was looking at, although with five commitments from DBs in this class already most likely means that they’re going elsewhere. If either of the two ends up at Iowa, it would probably be Yeast, who could potentially play on the other side of the ball.

But until then, welcome to Iowa, Joshua Turner. We think you’ll like it here, as long as you bring a coat.