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OXFORD, Ohio— Miami Football is about the ‘relentless pursuit of victory.’ In fact, even the concession stand graphics on the west side of Yager Stadium display that mantra.
What does ‘relentless pursuit of victory’ entail and require?
Well, at fall camp this morning, it seemed to involve relentless pursuit – literally.
One theme from today’s practice: Relentless pursuit
The Miami defense spent one specific period of today’s practice working against ‘air’ (without any offense on the other side) on making sure that all 11 players in the unit are flying to the ball. Staffers simulated a quarterback getting the ball out toward the sideline quickly on a toss sweep or swing pass and the RedHawk defenders converged from every level on the ‘receiver’ to make the play.
(We’ll admit it has to be a little scary for the assistant in a T-shirt and shorts who’s responsible for catching and running the ball with 11 massive red-clad human beings sprinting his direction at full speed!)
“That’s just a big pursuit drill: We’re trying to get to our drops, snap vision to the receiver or ballcarrier, take good angles and then pursue as fast as we can to the football,” said linebacker Jackson Kuwatch. “It’s something that we want to hang our hats on as a defense: Being relentless in our pursuit to the ball and gang tackling.”
“The biggest thing we have to do on defense is tackle and get to the football,” defensive coordinator Bill Brechin told us later. “To me, it’s getting 11 hats to the football in the appropriate way and knowing who your leverage is and snapping vision to receivers…
“On Saturday in our scrimmage, we kind of just floated over there and were [giving up] cutbacks, so it’s something we’re focusing on: Getting to the ball with the right angles and the right speed.”
The phrase ‘snap vision’ has popped up on multiple occasions throughout the last few weeks of Miami practices. The main idea of that teaching point is for the nearby defensive players to watch the receiver, not the football.
“It’s snapping your eyes in an aggressive manner to the person that’s catching the ball,” Kuwatch summarized. “If you’re watching the ball float in the air, you’re not seeing where the guy is…so snap your eyes to the guy getting the ball so you can take the right angle and pursue him.”
Brechin and head coach Chuck Martin both seemed pleased with the RedHawks’ approach to practice today, as Miami began to transition toward early preparation for Wisconsin on both offense and defense. In the post-practice team huddle, Martin praised the RedHawks’ crispness and focus.
“Every minute matters,” Martin reminded the Red and White with the opening kickoff only 15,000 minutes away (and counting). “Every single second of every day.”
Brechin
“You could tell everybody was trying to really hone in and clean up all the little details,” Martin elaborated in an interview later. “They could feel that game week’s coming…
“You can tell just in how someone gets lined up: Their stance and their start are explosive when they’re locked in…and the communication was really good today [too]. A lot of talking on both sides of the ball pre-snap…we’re getting lined up fast and we’re doing all the little things that we harp on all the time that we know are important.”
“I thought it was an awesome day,” Brechin agreed. “The way we came out to practice was the best we’ve had all fall camp. Our guys had the right intent and the right mindset…I thought they were really locked in.
“If you show up with the right attitude, you’re going to have a good practice. Whether you screw up a play or not, if you have the right attitude to get better, you’re eventually going to do that.”
Miami is scheduled to wrap up camp on Tuesday morning, Aug. 19 in Oxford.
INSIDE SLANT: As mentioned above, Brechin is always emphasizing tackling to his group. “You’re not always in a position where you can get a typical form tackle [from the front],” he said while breaking down the pursuit drill for us after practice concluded. “I’d say that probably 80 percent of tackles in any level of football aren’t frontal.”
“We always have to work on our tackling…things that
are going to help you win games,” said DC Bill Brechin
So what happens on the other 80 percent? The RedHawks use the term ‘gator’ to describe how they want to get the ballcarrier to the ground, based on a Pete Carroll instructional video about ‘roll tackles’ that Brechin said he still uses and watches (even though it’s from the now-Raiders head coach’s Seattle Seahawks days).
“It’s working your angles to the football, trying to dive at their legs, wrapping your body around like an alligator does when he eats, and ripping your body down trying to force them to the ground with your momentum,” Brechin explained.
LOUD NOISES: After practice ended, Martin pulled quarterback Dequan Finn aside to compliment how loud the quarterback was. “I like the vocalness,” Martin concluded at the end of the brief conversation.
“We know Wisconsin’s going to be loud as heck,” Martin said later. “We can’t start [preparing for that on game week]; we have to start it now. We know it’s going to be loud and raucous on third down, and you’re not going to be able to hear yourself think. It’s a great environment there: Everybody knows Camp Randall is a great homefield advantage…
“Whether it’s verbal communication or clap or whatever we’re doing…we just want to be crisp and vocal in everything we do, so everybody’s over-communicating, listening better, talking better, or whatever it is.”
Finn seems well on his way to epitomizing that approach, with his clapping for the center’s snap often echoing so loudly through Yager Stadium that the goalposts reverberate with the sound.
In one early period today, Miami’s calls weren’t coming through the headsets properly, which provided yet another auditory opportunity for Martin to use as a teaching moment.
“Stuff’s going to happen,” he said afterward. “So then you’ve got to go to hand signals, and that’s fine! Everybody’s got to be able to be calm and handle it.”
MARK YOUR CALENDARS: The RedHawks’ Family Weekend clash against Western Michigan on Saturday, Oct. 25 will kick off at 3:30 p.m. in Yager Stadium. It’s only the Broncos’ third visit to Oxford since 2014, and fans can purchase the ‘Friends and Family’ ticket package here to get four or more seats (with an accompanying special gift for each ticket) for the game against WMU at a discounted rate.
EYEBALL EMOJI: Mychal Yharbrough came up with back-to-back deflections in today’s red zone one-on-one reps, knocking away a pass from Braylon Isom at the last second in the end zone and then matching up with Andrew Bjorson to get his hand on a slant route near the goal line.
Yharbrough
Yharbrough played in seven games in 2024, starting four, before missing the second half of the season due to injury.
“He was just starting to hit his stride a year ago,” Martin said. “He’s one of many guys that we know can play; he just needs experience…he’s a guy that’s going to have to play a lot of football for us this year.”
CHECK, CHECK, ONE-TWO, CHECK: Up to this point in camp, when the RedHawks split in half to walk through plays at both ends of the field, the ‘young guys’ have been at one end for offense-vs.-defense reps while the veterans match up against each other on the far side. Today, it was a different look, with Miami’s first-team offense facing the second-team defense on the north end of the stadium and the second-team offense going up against the first-team defense in the south portion.
Watching the pre-snap activity on several plays almost seemed to be a case of ‘anything you can do, I can do better.’ The defense would check to a different call based on how the offense was lined up, with the offense then checking in reaction to the defense’s look. And on and on it went in an apparent real-life version of ‘Chess, not checkers.’
“Obviously it’s great to see the kind of stuff that Wisconsin’s going to be doing and working on the communication to those looks,” said Kuwatch. “We’re all one team, and we want to help the offense as much as we can too [by] giving them a good look.”
JACKSON’S JOURNEY: Kuwatch, a redshirt senior from Cincinnati, is in his third season with the Red and White after beginning his college career at Ohio State (2021-22). When the former Buckeye was looking for his next destination in the transfer portal, Miami was the first school to contact him. “It’s close to home, it’s a super-appealing program and university, and I knew a lot of people that went here,” said Kuwatch. He also reached out to Silas Walters, his high school teammate at Lakota West, to talk about the RedHawks before committing to Martin’s program. After that conversation and multiple talks with the Miami coaches, “I knew this is where I wanted to come,” Kuwatch said.
Kuwatch
Kuwatch, who made 20 appearances in a predominantly special teams-based role over the past two years, is looking forward to his opportunity to make more of an impact at linebacker this fall. “Taking to the coaching, being a sponge, and taking in all of the information has improved my understanding of the defense and helped me to play more confidently,” he said.
“He was playing a mixture of linebacker and defensive end when he was at Ohio State, and focusing on the [LB] position the last two years here, he’s really grown and gotten more comfortable,” said Brechin.
“He had a great spring and a great fall; he just keeps building,” Martin added. “The game is slowing down…he’s comfortable in our defense and flying around, and he’s going to play a ton for us this year.”
Season tickets and single-game tickets are on sale now! Call (513) 529-4295 for more information. Miami Football will kick off its home schedule with a clash against UNLV on Saturday, Sept. 20 at Yager Stadium.
Miss a RedHawk Report? Catch up on fall camp with our daily MiamiRedHawks.com notebooks: Aug. 16 | Aug. 14 | Aug. 13 | Aug. 12 | Aug. 9 | Aug. 7 | Aug. 6 | Aug. 5 | Aug. 2 | July 31 | July 30 | July 29