Xavier Restrepo blog: My gameday routine, WR play picking up and why we are picking up garbage around campus

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Miami Hurricanes WR Xavier Restrepo will have a weekly blog all season at CaneSport.com. In this edition, Restrepo looks ahead to game 1, talks about his gameday routine, the progress of the receivers, why players pick up garbage around campus, who he plays for and much more:

MY GAMEDAY ROUTINE … THROUGH THE NEXT DAY

Game Day.

First things first, I get up and thank the Man above. Without him none of this would be possible at all. Wake up, pray. After that it’s with the team, getting breakfast – in the morning I usually try to eat like a little light. Oatmeal with some fruit or something like that, a banana.

A lot of water, lot of lot of water. Meetings, watching film, turning up any last details. Then I just hang around till we leave the hotel on the bus. Go to the field. Have my music bumping, Lock in.

Music, listen to country music, some rap music, anything really.

Friday night is meant to mentally prepare, a mental workout. Saturday is all about execution.

There’s no playing video games. We can have our phones, but not in meetings, that’s one of the rules. The coaches built this little phone cubby thing we put our phones into, pick up our phones as we leave a meeting. There was one player when the rule was first enforced who brought it in, and the phone went off. Coach didn’t get too mad because it was one of the first days. After that? It didn’t happen again. The team is holding each other accountable.

We’re just preparing and all the distractions – we don’t go on Instagram and Twitter and all that on gameday. If you’re on the phone you are either texting a family member or something like that.

When the game itself comes, I’m playing for my guardian angels up top, my family. It was my little sister’s birthday on Tuesday, so I’ll try to do something for her on Saturday. She’s 3 years old, doesn’t really understand what I’m saying, but hopefully a touchdown for her.

At the end of the day, I’ve been playing football since I was 4 years old. The first play – as soon as you take that breath and relax – it’s football. It’s the thing I love most. When you say you love something, it’s not just you’re doing something. Love is a thing. It just comes down to loving football.

We play the game … and then on Sunday? The day after I want guys to be confident, not silly. Just ready to work, ready for the next week.

MY ROOMMATE IS ALSO MY QUARTERBACK

Tyler Van Dyke is my roommate, and we joke around, tell each other what we’re feeling. But it’s never about `You should have thrown me the ball!’ I know his job is just as tough if not way tougher than my job. I don’t really get on him like that, try to keep his confidence up because man, when his confidence is up, he’s unstoppable. So I try to keep his confidence up, finetune all the little details and just go from there.

I’ve roomed with him ever since I’ve been in college. We went to Paradise Camp, were talking to each other, just got that relationship going I guess. On the official visit we were hanging out the whole official visit. Then coach David Cooney asked us who you want to room with and me and Tyler just came to an agreement: `You want to room together? Yeah!’ We’ve built that trust, I feel he trusts me.

So I room with Tyler on campus. Games? Well, last year Tyler was a captain, captain’s got their own rooms last year. So I don’t know how it’ll work on Saturday, we’ll see how that goes. So far the captains this year on offense are just Tyler and Will Mallory. We just did a voting, so the votes should be in and coach Cristobal should be letting us know soon.

And inside the locker room, being a player-led team all starts with communication, getting guys together and just building that trust in your teammates. Me as a receiver leader, I have to make sure I’m on top of things because just one distraction can ruin an entire season.

For sure I’ll be saying things as needed during games, Tyler will obviously be saying things. We just have so many guys on offense that are picking up that leadership role.

RECEIVERS ARE WORKING OUR WAY TO THE MIAMI STANDARD

There’s a lot of inside stuff that came, a lot of inside stuff inside the receivers room that I can’t discuss. I’ll keep that in there. But definitely I had a talk with them and everyone stepped up. You can see the receivers have been doing better the last couple of days. We just have to stay consistent – that’s our problem, we have to stay consistent and just be our best us. Fine tune all the little details, that’s what coach Gattis wants us to do.

The standard in the receivers room is know your plays, give everything you have, be respectful to people inside and outside the building. You know how coach Cristobal says `How you do anything is how you do everything.’ That relates so much. It’s just giving your all, trusting the guy besides you. And obviously building trust with your quarterbacks, your offensive coordinator and most importantly building trust in your head coach.

I’ve definitely brought guys into the receivers room, watched film with them, sat down with them and talked football with them. But I also like to, before any period where we’re about to compete, I’ll bring the receivers up and tell them `Look, this is our field, this is our home, just dominate.’ I feel that’s really productive these last couple of days. See if we can carry that over, keep going.

THE STANDARD FOR THE TEAM? A CHAMPIONSHIP

The standard for the team – it’s never going to be at the standard till we win a championship, you know? I’m always going to push my teammates to go higher and higher and higher, work harder and harder. Once we win the championship, that’s the standard.

The only thing that’s separating us is that we don’t have the same blood, you know? I feel like everybody on the team is a brother, we’re just so bonded. The `how you do anything is how you do everything,’ it relates to everything. Even just around campus cleaning up trash, stuff we didn’t do in the past. That’s just kind of the standard of the Miami Hurricanes right now is when you see something that’s not the standard that we don’t want inside the locker room – take care of the whole University like it’s the locker room, you know? We keep the locker room very clean because how you do anything is how you do everything. So picking up trash when you’re walking to class is the same as picking up your dirty clothes in the locker room, the same as running the right route on the field. You know, stuff like that.

Coach Cristobal is leading us the right way. We’re just ready to take the field on Saturday.

JOSH GATTIS OFFENSE IN A WORD? “EXPLOSIVE”

Coach Gattis’ offense? Explosive. Just explosive and it’s all a mindset. However we want it to be, that’s how it’s going to be. Everybody has their unique play styles. Coach Gattis’ offense took a little more time for guys to learn, but if you really sit down and pay attention, it’s simple, like every other playbook. You just have to invest your time into it.

Every playbook is the same, just different names and maybe a different concept here or there.

I’M A BELIEVER

I am confident. If you ask me if I’m taking the over on 70 catches, I’m taking the over. You ask me if I’m taking the over on 900 yards, I’ll take the over. You ask me if I’m taking the over or under on 9.5 wins? I’m taking over 11 wins. 12 wins.

Clemson and Texas A&M? The guys are players just like us. They put on their underwear, socks, shirts, shorts the same way we do. They’re just other athletes. They have great athletes, a great coaching staff. But at the end of the day it all comes to the conclusion of who plays better that day, who executes better that day. With the coaching staff we have and the athletes, the line that we have. Man, we’re a very dangerous team.