Defensive tackle Jordan Miller is entering year five as a Miami Hurricane.

So he has a pretty good sense of what a past spring practice at UM looks like vs. the ones Miami is having now under a new coaching staff.

“It’s more discipline, but it’s good for us,” Miller said. “If you’re not on time you get disciplined, mess up they aren’t going to sugarcoat it. They get in there and get you right.”

Today at one point Mario Cristobal halted practice when he didn’t like what he was seeing from the energy and performance.

Miller says it wasn’t a surprise to him when practice was halted, with Cristobal getting on the team to perform at a higher level, because “I kind of felt it in practice, `It’s not going right,’” Miller said.

“That’s the standard,” Miller adds. “It’s been for weeks now it’s a certain standard.”

The result of holding the team to a consistently high standard?

“Day in and day out we see the physicality getting better,” Miller said. “Tackling, running, disengaging, engaging, every little part of football we’ve noticed.”

As for Miller himself?

Well, he has yet to make a real splash at Miami, never finishing with more than 19 tackles, which he had last year in a backup role (along with 4.5 TFL and 1.5 sacks).

With a new coaching staff, it is in a sense a new start for Miller this spring. And he’s been getting his share of first team reps, although Jared Harrison-Hunte has been banged up and Leonard Taylor is working with the twos but is widely expected to be a starter. Plus DT transfer Antonio Moultrie is out injured, and UM didn’t bring him in to sit on the bench, and fellow DL transfer Jacob Lichtenstein is working mainly at tackle as the other first-teamer this spring.

Still, this spring is Miller’s chance to prove himself to coaches given he’s healthy … and others at the position are not.

His take on his progress?

“My technique and overall I’ve gotten better,” Miller said, adding that the “pace” of practice is the biggest difference this spring vs. last year.

If he doesn’t prove himself, Miller's in danger of being squeezed out of the rotation in the middle of the line.

So this really is a make-or-break spring for him to show coaches he belongs in the two-deep coming out of spring ball. Otherwise he'll be facing an uphill battle in the fall when Ahmad Moten will also be added to the equation as a talented freshman.

“I’ve just been working hard,” Miller said. “This being my last year I’m taking it way more serious. I’m locked in.”

* Miller said that DT Leonard Taylor is “getting more detailed in his work, more hands,” and says DL transfer Jacob Lichtenstein “fell in line perfectly” here.