OXFORD, Ohio— If you watch Miami Football practice, you'll notice Eli Blakey.
 
No. 1 in red is usually somewhere around the ball, and more often than not, the redshirt senior safety from Louisville, Ky. is someone that can be not only seen, but heard.
 
Red-zone one-on-ones? Team period? It doesn't matter. If Blakey makes the play, he'll have something to say.
 
Most of the time, that phrase is: "All day!"
 
"I think [being] the safety here is really just being vocal," said Blakey after this morning's practice. "Every time I bring the guys in, I remind them: Not one period. Not one play. It's all day.
 
"It's very important to understand that one bad play can't shape your whole outcome. Early in my career, I allowed myself to do that sometimes. Now that I'm older, I understand it's about being 'all day.' Not one play or one mistake, because you can catch a pick-six the very next play…
 
"I think that's spread throughout the team, because now I hear everybody saying it. Every time we step on the field, everybody's saying, 'All day. All day.'"

 

Blakey, an All-MAC honoree a year ago, is part of a position group that has the most returning experience of any unit on Miami's 2025 team. The RedHawks welcome back junior Mychal Yharbrough (who's split time at safety and cornerback) from injury to go along with Blakey, redshirt senior Silas Walters and a crop of younger players that have displayed plenty of potential.
 
"Those guys have been great leaders," said Miami safeties coach Zane Ries of his trio of veterans. "It's a good mix between the older, veteran guys who typically do things the right way and some young, talented guys that can look up to those guys and are trying to make their mark as well."
 
Blakey and Walters have a comfort level from playing alongside each other for so many snaps on the back end of the Miami defense over the past few seasons. "We always call each other 'yin and yang,' like a dynamic duo," Blakey smiled. "It's a trust thing. I know that Si can handle one half of the field and I can handle the other, so whatever he says, I'm going with it…there are a lot of plays where we're talking to each other and just making sure we're good.
 
"We have each other's back."
 
As fall camp unfolds and the season opener at Wisconsin looms, the main goal for Blakey and the RedHawks remains front and center: To return to Ford Field and play in a third consecutive MAC Championship Game for the first time in program history. To do that, he'll keep working, keep leading, and most of all – keep talking.
 
"At times, we've almost got to be tough toward each other – [it's] tough love…when you have to meet a certain standard," said Blakey.
 
"I've been there. I know what it's like to win a championship and I know what it's like to lose a championship, so I know what it takes. We have a lot of guys that haven't been there, so the focal point is one play at a time. All day. It's an important standard that we're meeting.
 
"Like Coach Martin says all the time, 'What's going to happen when the lights turn on?' We really don't know how a lot of guys are going to perform when the lights come on, so we're trying to figure that out now."
 
Miami is scheduled to practice again on Thursday morning, August 14 in Oxford.
 
 
CHECK, PLEASE: Underscoring the idea of communication being crucial…After one of the final 11-on-11 periods of the day, Chuck Martin made a point to huddle up with the safeties and discuss the importance of ensuring that every defensive player on the field gets the message when a play call is changed.
 
"We had made a check and it didn't get spread out through everybody," Blakey said. "Especially with the young guys, they're so focused on their job, but jobs can change at any point. Coach just told us, 'Pay attention to everybody around you. Sometimes you can help a guy out and make sure they know what they're doing before the ball's snapped.'"
 
"They had a good check, but [one guy] didn't run the check," said Martin. "It worked out okay because they got a stop anyways, but that could be disastrous…If you looked at him, you knew he didn't get it because he was aligned in the old call. So when you make those checks, look around [and help your teammate out]!"
 
 

CATCHES BY COMMITTEE: The Miami offense impressed this morning, racking up quite a few touchdowns and field goals in the team periods. "We had a little early success, got it rolling, and then the offense obviously had a huge day," Martin summarized. "I don't know how many different guys caught a touchdown pass…it's good to have a lot of people contributing."
 
Deion Colzie, Braylon Isom, Lynel Billups-Williams, Brady Simmons and Brian Shane found the end zone, just to name a few. Colzie and Simmons might have had the most impressive catches of the session, with Colzie pulling in a pass from Dequan Finn in the left corner of the end zone and Simmons later reeling in a score from Henry Hesson that left the Indiana transfer wideout sprawled on his chest in celebration.
 
 
PLAY OF THE DAY: With apologies to the previously mentioned touchdown grabs, one of our favorite highlights of practice today was safety Jermaine Agee pulling in a one-handed interception/catch in an all-defensive backs drill. Of course, Agee only had one hand to use; his right arm is currently wrapped in a club with a cast underneath it.  
 
You won't catch the redshirt freshman complaining or asking out of drills, though; he's participating and succeeding even in the reps that are focused on developing players' hands, such as swatting away a block or tackling a ballcarrier in space.
 
"I don't like sitting out of practice," Agee said later. "I feel like if my brothers work, I should be out there working. If I can physically move my legs, I should be finding a way to still do it.

 
"I was just trying to be a playmaker [on that rep]. That's what I do: Try to go on the field and make plays any way I can. The coaches said I should have batted the ball down to be safe, but I saw the ball, I wanted the ball, and so I picked it: One hand!"
 
 
INSIDE SLANT: Another defensive drill this morning involved a cornerback, a safety and a linebacker working together on one side of the field to converge on a receiver. Three staffers stood in for wideouts at various spots in the defensive backfield, and once the ball went to one of those targets, the trio of defenders each had to get a touch on the receiver before the play ended. "We're trying to get all eyes to the ball and snap vision where the ball is thrown so we can set our angles," Ries explained. "I think too many times this fall we get caught drifting and we don't snap vision where the ball is being thrown, so we may over-run or under-run it.
 
"That's a drill that really emphasizes snapping vision, setting a line and taking a good angle," he continued. "We want to take a good angle to the back hip so we can eliminate cutbacks."
 
 
RIES' ROAD: Ries is in his first year as Miami's safeties coach after serving as a defensive graduate assistant for the past two seasons. The 26-year-old began his college career as a quarterback at Ashland (Ohio) and then graduated from Ohio Wesleyan (where he played both football and basketball for the Battling Bishops) before finally joining the RedHawks in 2022 as a preferred walk-on QB.
 

"I came to a junior day at Miami when I was in high school and…fell in love with it," Ries recalled. "I always thought, 'Man, if I could go to Miami I'd love that.' After I graduated, I had another year, so I put my name in the portal, and while I still don't know how it happened, Miami called me..."
 
"It was a no-brainer for me: To achieve my dream of playing Division I football, and I knew I wanted to get into coaching, so what better place than Miami?

"I played that year, went to the Bahamas Bowl, and then basically just started showing up every day as an intern. Then Coach Martin pulled me aside and said, 'We have a defensive GA spot open and I want you to take it: I think it'll be good for your career.' And I've been here ever since…
 
"It's a dream come true for me and there's no place I'd rather be. Miami has become home for me, and this staff is truly like family to me."
 
Ries said the biggest thing he's learned from Martin (and the rest of his mentors on the defensive staff) is the idea of 'no days off.'
 
"He holds the standard every single day," Ries said. "For coaches and players, he's going to demand the best out of you every single day, and he demands the best out of himself every single day…that mindset and approach to everything he does is why our coaching staffs have been successful and why our teams have been successful."
 
 
Season tickets and single-game tickets are on sale now! Call (513) 529-4295 for more information. Miami Football will host its annual Kickoff with the Community on Saturday, Aug. 16 at Yager Stadium. Gates open at 10 a.m.; more information is available here.

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