***The UM football team returned to the practice field on Saturday as the bye week reached its conclusion.

Ray Lewis III was not at practice Saturday after he wasn’t present for the Cincinnati game last Saturday.

“He didn’t practice, but his status on this team has not changed,” coach Al Golden said. “There’s nothing wrong. His status hasn’t changed, and that’s it.”

Lewis, a redshirt freshman cornerback, has not played in a college game.

***The Hurricanes' offensive line is still undermanned going into a Thursday-night game at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg.

Former starting right tackle Taylor Gadbois, who hurt his knee (along with his backup Kc McDermott) against Duke, was seen participating in warm-up drills at Saturday’s practice with a brace on his left knee. But that wasn’t indicative of the state of his recovery.

“Looks like it’s going to be season-ending,” Golden said of Gadbois. “That’s the way it looks right now.”

The news on McDermott was slightly better.

“He’s not ready for this week, but it’s not season-ending at this point, so hopefully he’ll continue to make progress,” Golden said.

Kicker Matt Goudis (back) will have surgery on Monday. He hadn’t played since the second game of the season against Florida A&M. Goudis has already used one medical redshirt with UM, but Golden will pursue a second one and thinks he would qualify.

Also having season-ending surgery on Monday will be long snapper Ronald Regula (knee). The surgery finalizes the career for the senior.

Frank Gabriel will take over long-snapping duties.

“He’s been doing it all along. He does it for us all the time,” Golden said of Gabriel. “He’ll just step into that role.”

Golden also says he has Dallas Crawford and Corn Elder ready to take care of long snaps behind Gabriel, with Nick Linder, Shane McDermott and Joe Brown at short snapper.

On what the bye week did for his team, Golden said, “I think the guys got rested up. We needed that. Guys got caught up on their schoolwork and everything and came out and had a good practice.”

DAVID FURONES