Miami football starts spring practice ahead of the 2025 regular season

The Miami University RedHawks football team began spring practice on March 15 in preparation for the 2025 season.

With nearly a third of the roster consisting of new faces, head coach Chuck Martin has his work set out for him before the season-opener on Aug. 28.

“We lost 11 starters on offense, lost over half our defense: [It’s] a lot,” Martin said. “25 of our 80 kids out here weren’t even here at the bowl game. Welcome to the portal era.”

The team displayed several key notes about the RedHawks early on.

New quarterback room

Miami recruited 14 players in the transfer portal, including Baylor University quarterback Dequan Finn, who played one season with the Bears in 2024 after spending five years with the University of Toledo Rockets.

Through his first three games last season, Finn threw 307 yards, three touchdowns and two interceptions. In the third game against Texas Tech University, Finn exited the game with an injury. Backup quarterback Sawyer Robertson replaced him for the game and started the rest of the season.

Now as a RedHawk, Finn looks to fill the role left behind by Brett Gabbert, who brought Miami to three Mid-American Conference (MAC) championship appearances and five bowl games.

Finn is no stranger to Martin or the MAC. During his five seasons with Toledo, he brought the team to back-to-back MAC championships, winning the 2022 title against the Ohio University Bobcats by throwing 154 yards and one touchdown.

The Rockets returned to the MAC championship in 2023 against Miami. During the regular season, Finn won the Vern Smith Leadership Award, making him the conference’s most valuable player. However, the RedHawks took the conference title, and Finn finished the game with 273 passing yards, one touchdown and one interception.

After a year away from the MAC, Finn returns to the conference with his former rival. Martin said his determination and work ethic has already shown that the RedHawks can build their offense around him.

“[Finn] wants to come in and learn the offense,” Martin said. “[He’s] always trying to spend extra time, so right away, he fits in here because all our guys do extra. We’re learning him just as much as he’s learning us because we’re going to piece this thing together around whoever our quarterback is.”

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Beyond his passing talents, Finn has proven to be talented on the ground. He rushed for 1,840 yards and 25 touchdowns as a Rocket. In 2023, he rushed for seven touchdowns, the 10th-most in the MAC.

Miami plays without Gabbert for the first time since 2019, but with Finn’s experience in the MAC, and having already played against Martin twice in 2023, he feels that he fits right in.

“You see the hunger for sure within everybody,” Finn said. “You can just sense that everyone has something to prove here. That’s one thing I love about this team, that everyone is hungry and everyone is not complacent.”

The quarterback-receiver connection

Along with a new quarterback, Miami’s roster features eight new wide receivers, five of whom arriving as transfers.

All five of the transfers arrived in Oxford after playing at a Power Five program: Deion Colzie from the University of Notre Dame, Keith Reynolds from the University of Washington, Cordale Russell from the University of Colorado, Brady Simmons from Indiana University and Darion Williamson from Florida State University.

Colzie and Williamson saw the most action at their programs, with Colzie catching 345 yards and three touchdowns after four years with the Fighting Irish and Williamson catching 454 yards and one touchdown after five years with the Seminoles.

Three first-year receivers will start their collegiate careers at Miami next August: Wilson Roberts, Paulo Papalia and Antwon Thomas.

Finn won’t just be throwing to new RedHawk receivers. Miami returns six players from last season, including Kam Perry and Cole Weaver, who combined for 204 yards and one touchdown in 2024.

For Martin, getting the quarterback and receivers to work well together is difficult early in spring practice.

“It’s hard getting on the same page,” Martin said. “The timing is everything in the pass game. You got a new quarterback [and] new receivers, [so] the timing is a disaster. It takes a ton of reps, and they just got to stay with it, and we got to be patient.”

Defensive returners

Miami fielded one of the best defenses in the conference in 2024. The RedHawks allowed opponents to score 18.8 points per game, the third-lowest in the MAC. They also boasted four players in the top 20 for picks, with Corban Hondru’s three interceptions leading the roster.

Next season, the RedHawks will be missing over half of their defensive starters from 2024. Notably, defensive back Raion Strader transferred to Texas Tech, and defensive linemen Savio Frazier, Corey Suttle and Brian Ugwu all graduated, along with linebackers Matt Salopek and Ty Wise.

However, Miami still retains key pieces to its dominant defense. Redshirt senior linebacker Corban Hondru, redshirt junior linebacker Adam Trick and redshirt senior defensive back Silas Walters will all don the Red and White once again.

Hondru intercepted the ball three times last season, while Trick caught one pick against the Colorado State University Rams in the Arizona Bowl. Walters ranked second on the team with 95 tackles, including 43 solo tackles and 2.5 tackles for losses, as well as 12 breakups and two fumble recoveries.

For Martin, losing his starters on defense opens a window for the young players to get more involved, especially the ones who played in Tucson.

“We got a bunch of young [defensive backs] that we like,” Martin said. “They played in the bowl game, [and] they did really well. We got a slew of linebackers [that] are all battling. We lost our two starting backers, so there’s a lot of reps to go there. We lost a bunch of guys up front. We have a little more experience on defense, but it’s pretty much a new group.”

Coaching changes

In addition to roster changes for the players, Martin announced an updated coaching staff on April 1.

Johnny Aylward will fill the role of special teams coordinator after Kyle Blocker joined Kennesaw State University in December. Aylward previously served as an offensive line graduate assistant for the RedHawks in 2023 and coached wide receivers at Merrimack College before returning to Oxford.

Martin brought in other Miami graduates in Chris Hudson and Zane Ries to coach running backs and safeties, respectively. Pat Welsh also moved from coaching running backs to coaching tight ends and will remain as offensive coordinator. Andy Cruse will move from coaching tight ends to coaching wide receivers.

The RedHawks will keep James Patton as the offensive lineman coach and Bill Brechin as defensive coordinator.

Similar to last season, Martin emphasized the importance of coaching with a high turnover in players.

“I told our [coaches]: ‘If you like to coach, 2025 is a good time to be coaching because you’re gonna have turnover every year,” Martin said. “You have new faces. You’re gonna have to start [over] and teach them your program, your system [and] how you do things.”

Looking ahead

The RedHawks practice 11 times in April and will hold a spring showcase at the end of the month. With less than five months until the start of the season, Martin is working now to push his players to the next level and get them ready for back-to-back Big Ten opponents.

“This group has been awesome since January,” Martin said. “There’s a lot of energy and a lot of work ethic. We’re going to push the envelope and try to get them to understand the sense of urgency. We go Big Ten right out of the chute. We can go in there not prepared and get our brains kicked in, or we can really work hard and get ready to go compete.”

@thekethan04

babukc2@miamioh.edu