CORAL GABLES - After Jimmy Johnson cautioned Miami’s players last week to not have regrets like his 1987 Fiesta Bowl loss to Penn State, he asked if any player had a question.One hand went up.
“Did your great teams have anything in common?” Malachi Toney asked.
“The best players worked the hardest,’’ Jimmy said.
Toney had arrived at the facility just before 6 a.m. that morning, same as always, to catch balls off the automated jugs machine. He then went into a personal workout, as he has this camp, before the larger team workout. He regularly stays after to catch with his new quarterback, Darian Mensah, the Duke transfer.
Yep, the best player is still all about working the hardest on this team. That’s how he’s always done it, right his first step on a football field at age 7. His mom, Toni Toney, didn’t want him playing then because he was so small. But the youth team needed a quarterback.
“I’ll play it,’’ Malachi said.
It needed a defensive back.
“I’ll play it,’’ Malachi said.
When that park closed, she found Washington Park in Hollywood for her two sons. Malachi gave a couple of youth clinics there this summer. That’s part of his story, giving back to the park his mom dropped him off at age 9 with the same message she did at Miami last summer.
“My philosophy was, to be blunt, ‘Go take someone’s spot,’’ Toni told me this summer. “I said, ‘Outwork him.’ That’s what he did, too.”
Nothing changes because he was the Hurricanes’ best offensive best weapon as a 17-turning-18-year-old freshman.
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