The college football season is set to start in four weeks, and the four teams that are going to play in Week 0 have begun to practice in preparation for the first games of the season. Florida and Miami will face off in the first game of the year, the Camping World Kickoff, in Orlando, Florida on August 24, and shortly before that game is over, Arizona and Hawaii will meet on the island.
Florida, Miami, Arizona and Hawaii have opened practice, and college football is basically here now https://t.co/u2rzV7BDuq
— ClevelandFootballTalk (@CFTalk) July 27, 2019
Florida and Miami will meet for the first time since 2013 in a game that is sure to be hyped. The Gators and the Hurricanes used to meet annually before Florida cancelled the series in the late 1980s, leading to calls of cowardice from Miami fans. Since they stopped playing annually, these two teams have met just six times, and two of those meetings came in bowl games. Miami won five of those six games.
Friday night lightning: UM driven indoors for first practice of Manny Diaz era, but energy, excitement remain high https://t.co/NKdB5PFkMf pic.twitter.com/LLtb8C3cBS
— South Florida Sun Sentinel (@SunSentinel) July 27, 2019
Miami’s first practice was moved inside due to the weather, but everyone is ready for Manny Diaz’s tenure to begin. Diaz was the defensive coordinator for Miami from 2016 to 2018, and he is the creator of the ‘Turnover Chain’ that has been a prominent feature on Miami’s sideline since 2017. He originally agreed to take over at Temple in December, but after Mark Richt retired at the end of the year, Diaz quickly came back to ‘The U’.
Khalil Tate and the other Arizona quarterbacks take the field for the first day of preseason training camp. pic.twitter.com/GMkUD6xUXo
— The Wildcaster (@TheWildcaster) July 27, 2019
There is excitement and optimism out in Arizona too as human highlight reel Khalil Tate is back for another season. Like Miami, Tate was phenomenal in 2017, and he was the most impressive player in the country for a full six weeks. From October 2017 to mid-November 2017, he ran for 1,207 yards and 11 touchdowns, leading Arizona to five wins in six games. Kevin Sumlin took away his legs last season and tried to force him to be a pocket passer, but the hope is that he will be allowed to run more this year.
H/T College Football Talk
