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UM Began Friday Practice At 5:30 A.M.

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The Tampa Tribune

Published: August 22, 2008

CORAL GABLES Less than a week away from its season opener, the University of Miami football team held practice under the lights at Cobb Stadium early Friday morning, completing its second straight day of Charleston Southern game preparation.

With the start of UM's fall semester just five days away, the Hurricanes began practice at 5:30 a.m. to allow players the opportunity to attend orientation and other academic meetings the remainder of the day Friday.

"It was a fun practice," Coach Randy Shannon said. "It wasn't too hot, the players were enthused and they flew around. We got a lot of things done on Charleston Southern so we are going in the right direction."

For the second time in as many days, the Hurricanes spent time on running and stopping the blitz in a number of different game situations. The team also continued working both offensively and defensively against opponent scout teams.

Not only did the early practice allow for cooler conditions, but also it gave the team another opportunity to work under the lights with a pair of night games on the Hurricanes' schedule the first two weeks of the season. Temperatures remained in the mid- to upper-70s throughout most of practice, before reaching 82 degrees as the team wrapped up just after 8 a.m.

On next week's opponent, Shannon said, "They run a spread offense and they do a lot of zone blitzing and things like that, which most people around the country do. We can't take them lightly. We have to make sure we are doing all of the things we need to do on defense and picking up the blitzes on offense."

UM, which opens Thursday against the Buccaneers at Dolphin Stadium at 7:30, will return to practice Sunday night at 6.

Tribune wires

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