Safety Mishael Powell sees a Miami Hurricanes secondary doing well, praises Jaden Harris

If the Miami Hurricanes have a question mark area on defense, the general perception is that it’s a secondary that lost four starters.

But that group has had some bright moments in fall practices, and with CB Daryl Porter, Jr. and nickel Damari Brown starting games last year, plus the additions of Marshall starting CB D’yoni Hill and Washington starting S Mishael Powell , if that group can become playmakers that could make this Miami defense formidable.

For his part, Powell says heading into today’s second fall scrimmage that “I’d say we’re doing really well, are just gelling more and more every single day, getting all the small details ironed out. Overall we’re having fun, flying around, playing confident – that’s the most important. … We have a little trash talking too, and making plays.”

Powell made plenty of plays prior to arriving at Miami in January – he played for his hometown Huskies for four seasons. That included the team’s run to the national title game last year, of course.

He has a unique background, beginning as a walkon at Washington after he was a no-star prospect out of Seattle (Wash.) O’Dea High School in the Class of 2019. His father went to Harvard, his mother Columbia, and he had mostly Ivy League offers out of high school. His parents thought heading to an Ivy League school might be a good decision; Powell had other thoughts.

At Washington he rode the bench in 2019 and 2020, then in 2021 got his first action in games as a backup. He started nine games in 2022, then was an every-game starter this past season. He ended with 38 tackles, 2.5 for losses, and three interceptions – one of those was an 89-yard return for a TD with 8:11 remaining and the Huskies trailing by one point to Arizona State. Washington won that game, 15-7. He also added nine pass breakups.

As for his Pro Football Focus grades?

In 876 reps this past season, he had a 69.0 overall grade and 73.9 cover grade with opponents completing 49 of 66 passes when targeting him for 432 yards. He also was noted with 14 missed tackles (he had a low 39.6 tackle grade). in 2022 he graded out at 61.4 percent with a 62.6 cover grade (52.1 tackle grade with 10 missed tackles). That year he was targeted 42 times and opponents completed 35 of those for 331 yards.

While he’s experienced, the guy opposite him won’t be.

That’s Jaden Harris, who is expected to get his first full-time starting role.

Powell had high praise for him.

“That’s my brother, a guy that is back there with me in the back end since the start of fall camp, has been playing exceptional,” Powell said. “I’ve been very impressed by him, his ability to adjust to different formations. There are so many calls you have too make at that safety position, and he’s handling it very well.

“He hits, he’s physical. Some people think of strong safeties, they think big – he comes down you’d think he’s (bigger) the way he hits. He’s confident, smart, getting better every day. It’s great playing alongside him.”

A final thought from Powell?

He says off scrimmage No. 1 last weekend that “I’d say what I learned from the defense is how competitive we are, how we’re never going to back down no matter what situation we’re in. Coach (Mario) Cristobal put us in some situations where the offense had the upper hand, we were able to respond, be resilient. A guy like Cam Ward, he scores on us we have to be able to bounce back. That’s what we did Saturday.”

*Powell was asked about the opener at Florida and said the team is treating all its games the same way. “It’s a bigtime game, teams have to be fully dialed in,” he said. “Our mindset here, we treat every game like it’s a big game.

“We are going into it with the mindset of dominating. … A bigtime game, big test for us. We’re ready.”

The post Safety Mishael Powell sees a Miami Hurricanes secondary doing well, praises Jaden Harris appeared first on On3 .