Tip to the 7th Floor, because I sure as shit don’t look at the Bradenton Herald for any Hurricane news. Ken Dorsey, our prodigal son, has finally accepted his limitations of a playing career and taken his next inevitable step, coaching. We can all look forward to:
2012: Grad Assistant
2013: Offensive Assistant
2015: QBs Coach
2017: Offensive Coordinator
2019: Assistant Head Coach/Offensive Coordinator
And when Randy finally decides to hang ‘em up after 15 years on the job, 3 national titles, and a platinum statue outside Hecht to boot, good ole Kracker Dorsey will be groomed and ready. Somebody start the parade.
Well, that was quick. Taylor Cook has chosen Rice University as his next collegiate destination. Considering his high school was named Rice Consolidated, 80 miles west of Houston, this one seems a simple decision. With multiple datasources proving high school recruits site their location to a school as their biggest deciding factor, I think it might be time for Miami to stop recruiting the podunk non-Florida towns. Randy did state this past recruiting season that Miami has adopted an “one hour” rule. Meaning, if a recruit does not live within one hour of a major airport, so family can hop on a plane to Miami and watch their kids, just say no. Taylor Cook would not be recruited this season under this principle.
The irony? This Herald article on Cook from last Monday. His nickname is Cookie, and he dropped this great quote that won’t play very well after his subsequent departure:
Last spring, Cook said he needed to work on getting rid of the ball quicker. He said he loves competition — “my drive is insane” — and accepts his role as being one injury away from taking over.
Seems the summer makes all the difference from spring. I’m slightly disappointed in his transfer, as I have had positive day dreams of Harris being temporarily injured, for say two games, nothing big, and Cook enters in without skipping a beat. His size, his arm, under Whipple’s direction, all had me thinking pleasant backup thoughts. Alas.
Regardless, Rice is looking prettay strong in a few years. With Sam McGuffie transferring from Michigan last year, both him and Taylor Cook will be eligible in 2010. Rice should stop recruiting high school players, and just start poaching the homesick Texans residing within two hours of Houston. Conference USA, 10-3 season in 2008, transferring four star Texan recruits who can’t beat out local talent? Burgeoning powerhouse!
Here is my official pre-season BlogPoll. Having been out of pocket for the past week due to an extensive move, I was unable to post any preliminary rankings.
I’m feeling great with Miami at #20 after seeing many others with the Canes in their top 15. Oklahoma State has four losses written all over them, and Ole Miss is screaming 2005 Michigan in my ears all night long. Penn State is a sleeping Big Ten giant waiting to demolish the Buckeyes at home, Pat Devlin be damned.
I’m looking forward to week 4 when I finally have enough info to resume rank these teams. Comments welcomed.
Great read as usual over at Heather Dinich’s ACC blog. She has a two parter on Mark Whipple, here and here.
Whipple doesn’t hit as hard this interview with the great quotes, maybe he was keeping it clean for the ladies. One excerpt:
Heather Dinich: Well, I guess that’s my way of asking how complicated is it? How much are you asking these guys to learn right away?
Mark Whipple: Well, I’m asking them to learn a lot. To me it’s not like if you walk into class and Albert Einstein was your teacher and he has the theory of relativity and you can’t understand it. Then it’s not a very good class. People going into class coming out say I understand that, I get that. That’s what’s more important. I can write a 15-page paper, and while that might be impressive, the five-page paper was a lot better. The systems have worked. They worked at Pittsburgh, they worked in Philadelphia, they worked at the University of Massachusetts, at Brown University. There’s things out of all of them. What I told our guys is, this is the Miami offense. You try things and continue to try different things and hope they work. You plan for them and try to explain why, and we want feedback from the players on certain things. That’s always been beneficial because then they have ownership of what they’re doing.
Diaaaamn Gina! I picked a hell of a week to move across the country! Both backup QBs decide to transfer at the same time? Seriously? Why even come to Miami in the first place? I keed, I keed.
In actuality, one of them should have transferred last spring. Taylor Cook, Cannon Smith, and Jacory Harris are all in the same class. Neither of those crackers are ever beating out Harris for the starting job, and if he does leave after his junior season, which is highly unlikely given his size, Randy probably at that point goes with some 4-star Redshirt Sophomore over two lame duck Seniors. This really was a no-brainer for these guys.
See Randy’s reaction to Cook and Smith’s transfers here. They can go anywhere but an ACC school. They came into his office at separate times, spoke of completely different reasoning. In the end, who cares? These guys are the backups. Neither of them could distinguish themselves from a true freshman. It’s not like this is mid-90s Michigan here, with a Scott Dreisbach as the starter, Brian Griese #2, and Tom Brady #3. Cook and Smith will most likely go to D-1AA and potentially thrive, and more power to them.
Really? Any bowl aficionado from last year will remember the 2008 Sun Bowl had one remarkable occurrence–a pathetic 3-0 win for Oregon State over Pittsburgh. I watched this one live rooting for the score to stay at one field goal and make the game worth watching, on at least some interest level. Well, that pathetic bowl game is now part of the ACC lineup.
The Sun Bowl has an odd contract with the ACC, as they take either the No. 5 team, or the runner-up. What? It will increase the conference bowl revenue by 2 million, and despite what some people say, Miami joined the ACC for that exact reason. Bigger splits of the bowl pie.
As a fan, going to a bowl game for a possible 10-2 ACC runner-up Canes team in El Paso does not seem too exciting. Middle of nowhere, not a major airport, and only a 50,000 seat stadium. However, average temps in December are low 50s, so that would be nice. All in all, I think I’d rather make the trek to Jacksonville to watch a runner-up ACC team, as would most other ACC fans. Until they start establishing some great northern bowl games, all these second tiers will never be that exciting.
Your own fickle fan base is prematurely calling for your head. Rumors swirl in the national media that your own athletic director declined to talk extension. Randy Shannon’s response?
Pound that shot of whiskey, double down on himself, and flip over those cards after being called by some bitches from the Old Southern States Conference. Randy stands with quiet confidence, in his new OC Mark Whipple, his new unquestioned starting QB Jacory Harris, and his youthful defense maturing enough to stop a simple triple option.
Everything depends on the FSU game. With the following week off, a quiet momentum could be established with a solid showing and a win versus the ‘Noles. As I’ve said all along, a 2-2 start will suffice for 2009 to still be a great season. Throw those two wins against ACC opponents and it’s just gravy.
The college football off-season is notorious for its lack of brevity. The longest break of any major sport, where May rolls along, and we are still only half way home. In lieu of reporting on every trivial news item, I will start this (hopefully) four part series on past great Miami Hurricane teams.
We all know of the recent illustrious history of the 5 national title winning teams. What many outside the superfandom do not know is how many times Miami was in the title game on the losing side. This fact is what I believe separates Miami from any other program of the last 25 years. Today’s focus: the 1986 Fiesta Bowl losing edition.
Originally I was going to do this post and one more about the 1994 Orange Bowl losing team, but then I remembered that even if Miami won that game, Penn State would have won the ‘94 title. Plus, these posts take a long fucking time to research. I’m taking a slightly different approach for this one, since research on individual games has been near impossible to come by. For now, the season is fast approaching, so……last one here we come!
After stomping South Carolina on the road to open the season, Testaverde and Co. flew to Gainesville and beat the Gators on their home turf. After pounding Texas Tech at the Orange Bowl by 50 points, Oklahoma came to town.
Game 4: @Miami 28, Oklahoma 16
The build up for this one was probably on comparison to the 2005 USC/Texas tilt. The #1 and #2 teams never meet in the post season, let alone the regular season. Why is the 1971 OU/Nebraska game considered the best ever? A pessimist could easily claim it is because the top two teams never meet in season, and if the game was close, you have an automatic “best ever” criterion attached. After beating #1 OU in this game, it sent Testaverde on his Heisman winning campaign.
Seven straight wins the finish the season, including a 41-23 victory over Florida State, and Miami was ranked #1 and with no automatic bowl invitation.
Game 12: Fiesta Bowl: Penn State 14, Miami 10
Little known fact about the Fiesta Bowl? They bought this de facto title game between Miami and Penn State. Back in the mid-80s, the four major bowl games (Rose, Sugar, Cotton, Orange) all had conference tie-ins. Miami and Penn State were both independent, so the Fiesta and Citrus Bowls did a massive campaign to attract this fantastic matchup. The Fiesta Bowl won, and the rest is history. Two years later Notre Dame played West Virginia for the title game, and when the Bowl Coalition was established in 1992, the Fiesta Bowl was included. It’s fun to think about how college football was one failed sales job away from having the title game in Orlando every four years instead of out in Arizona.
The 1986 Hurricanes were the team that established the entire “Thug U” era for Miami football. The 1983 title winning team was thought of as an upstart South Florida regime, nothing to be worried about, Oklahoma and Nebraska will still rule the land with their Wishbones and Triple Options. Canes fans can thank Ara Parseghian for starting the national hatred towards Miami. During the pounding (58-7) Miami put on Notre Dame in the OB to finish the ‘85 season, Parseghian called out Jimmy Johnson for running up the score. That was all Middle White Bread America needed to hear. Once Miami showed up to the pre-game press conference in those military fatigues, it was all over in terms of their national reputation.
We all know the history of this game. Vinny throws Dorsey BC-esque amounts of picks, most to Shane Conlan, including one on the potential game winning drive from Penn State’s 7 yard line with :18 seconds left. Heartbreaking. If this game happened today, and Miami was playing a clearly inferior talented oppopent, your team has turned the ball over 5 times, and you still are only down four points? I would be thinking it was only a matter of time before Miami blew this one open. Or at least won it on the final drive when they were so close.
The place in Miami’s all time history (#2) for this ‘86 squad would easily be #1 if they won title. Not the most talented (2001) or the most celebrated (1983), this team is what fully established Miami as a new powerhouse. The 1983 team was most certainly considered a fluke of minor proportions. After Miami came back with two multiple loss seasons in ‘84 and ‘85, I’m sure the national media was bestowing a retroactive title to Tom Osborne, stating if he only would’ve kicked that extra point the media wouldn’t even know who Miami was. I reckon many in the college football world were writing off Miami as a one and done. This ‘86 team’s absolute dominance prior to the Fiesta Bowl changed everything. Their arrogance leading up to the game cemented the program’s still burgeoning legacy.
We think today in terms of USC being this unstoppable juggernaut, only capable of beating themselves with sub-par Pac 10 teams able to trip them up. But look at this run for Miami:
1983: 11-1 (National title)
1984: 8-5
1985: 10-2 (Lost to Tennessee for national title)
1986: 11-1 (Lost to Penn State for national title)
1987: 12-0 (National title)
1988: 11-1
1989: 11-1 (National title)
1990: 10-2
1991: 12-0 (National title)
1992: 11-1 (Lost to Alabama for national title)
A ten year run of excellence. Overall record: 107-14. An .884 winning percentage. Three coaches. Four national titles, three more potential titles lost. One way or another, they played for the national title in the post season 7 out of 10 years. And this doesn’t count the game they lost against Notre Dame in ‘88 and ended up #2 to the Golden Domers. This run will never be repeated in my opinion. Sure Florida State had what, 14 straight years of finishing in the top 5? Doesn’t even compare. Most of those years were in the watered down ACC. They played two difficult games a year, Miami and Florida, and after 1994 Miami was in such disarray they didn’t put up a fight. USC’s record under Carroll? 88-15 for a .854 winning percentage. Played for the national title three times in his eight seasons. Already they cannot match Miami’s run (for now at least). And again, USC plays in a joke of a conference. The Pac 10 has one other quality team each year, who never shows up against the Trojans. You do have to give Carroll credit for his out of conference scheduling, but it pales in comparison to the Independent days of yesteryear.
There is no such thing as revisionist history. Miami won the years they won, lost the years the lost. I believe, however, that I have shown the long time Hurricanes fans, including college football fans across the country, just how unique the University of Miami program really was, and will continue to be.
I gave up my season tickets this year, fantastic seats by the way, Alumni section is no joke. However, a special practice is being held today for season ticket holders only. Alas. It’s hot as balls out there today anyway. Lets throw out some linkage!!
Herald piece on Whipple. Seems I will always have the upper hand with my interview about Whipple, instead of with him. You can always get more info from a friend than the direct party.
Manny Navarro on Camp Shannon opening. Says he doesn’t like the nickname Jascory, but doesn’t offer up a new one. Dems da rules Manny! Step it up.
Shandel Richardson on the first four grueling games. They suck, ACC schedulers should be shot, if Miami goes 3-1 they have shot at national title. The end. Oh wait, that’s my summary.
A few half dozen pics over at The 7th Floor already, and it’s only 1pm. Now those are some hard working die-hards! They stole them. My favorite is Matt Bosher saying “Hi Mom! Yeah, I don’t have to run, sweat, or really do anything until Labor Day. Olive Garden for dinner?”
To finish it off, the Bleacher Report has a few great recent articles, from asking the inevitable “Is it Randy’s Do or Die Season?” (um, no sorry), to the inevitable talk about the schedule. My favorite though is a nice mini-tribute The Swagger Report did for the unheralded Canes of the past ten years. It even has a slideshow!
Now be honest and tell me how many of those you actually clicked, and I can confirm why I’m never a fan of posts with a shit load of links.
Normally this would not be a topic around these parts, but considering Miami plays @ UCF this year, I figured why not.
UCF administration has cut back the hours fans can arrive in the stadium parking lot to tailgate. I am planning on making the short trek to Orlando to see the Canes whoop on some in-state wannabe rivals, and no, this will not change my mind. Who this rule really hurts are the oldies, the ones who show up at 6am, not to get wasted like idiot collegians, but to share a great time with fellow alums. You know the type. Set up their 4 wheel F-150, drop the tailgate, wrap a huge tent around the bed, and plug in the 19” plasma tv that we cheapos stick around a little too long to catch some Gameday as we walk by. You act mature enough and you’ll probably get some meat and a great southern style salad of some sort.
For the Miami game, the gates will open at noon since it is a 7:30 pm start. On a side note, I found this awesome UCF specific beer bar that I will have to hit up on the weekend; Tailgaters, Smokehouse and Spirits. I linked the beer menu, but the whole place sounds delish. Good thing they don’t show calorie count like those bastards in NYC. If I want to be fat, don’t remind me!
I love this guy. First he tells the defense, in the middle of a game, on the last drive, to “Give us a fucking look!” Now, he puts it straight to the potentially lazy offensive players who don’t want to learn the playbook.
“If you want something easy, you should’ve gone Division III,” Whipple said. “You would’ve been a star, but no one would’ve cared.”
If Whipple produces results, as his bravado and resume suggest, he will forever become a folk hero in Hurricane fans’ eyes. Of course he does get the benefit of the reverse Spurrier scenario, what with him coming after Patrick “Spread Em Out” Nix.
“What I said to the guys is that if you’re here at the University of Miami, then your expectations are to play in the National Football League,” Whipple said. “And here’s what we do in the National Football League. And here’s what’s been successful. We’ve played in three (league) championship games and won a Super Bowl. If you can’t do it here now, don’t think you’re going to learn it five years from now.”
Now that is the type of NFLU I believe in. Prepare the players for the League, get them to come to Miami for this same reason, instead of just being lazy for 3 years then bolting on the reputation of the program.
This guy even has a sense of situational humor.
“It’s more of a language barrier,” Whipple said. “It’s like no habla Ingles with them. What’s “Two Jet Zebra Drive?” They never heard that, but here’s what it means.”
And my favorite quote of them all? His take on the WR rotation:
Others may not be a fan of the NY Times Quad blog, but I enjoy their opinions. Especially these college football previews that are a mile long. The Quad’s Miami preview holds back zero details. I suggest you read it, but here are some excerpts I found interesting:
Tidbit (return edition): For all those who undervalue the importance of the special teams, consider this. From 2000-4, a period that saw Miami post a 55-7 record, the Hurricanes scored 48 touchdowns via returns (punt, kickoff, interception, fumble, blocked kick or punt, etc.). In the four years since – a 28-22 mark – Miami has scored only nine touchdowns via returns.
That is crazy! 1/4 the turnovers in 80% of the time. Where da playmakas at??
Top five N.F.L. players from Miami:
1. LB Ray Lewis (Baltimore; 1996-present)
2. C Jim Otto (Oakland; 1960-74)
3. QB Jim Kelly (Buffalo; 1986-96)
4. LB Ted Hendricks (Baltimore, G.B., Oakland; 1969-83)
5. WR Michael Irvin (Dallas; 1988-99)
I’d love to argue this but I just don’t have any mental history of those old players NFL careers. I’ll take them at their NY Times quality researched word.
No unit on this team has me more excited than the U.M. defensive line, which is as deep and talented as it has been since the great teams of the early 2000s. The only problem? Getting the plethora of talent onto the field. That’s not a bad problem to have, right?
I agree with their prediction that the best season Miami has in them this year is a 3-1 start with another ACC loss thrown in there. However, I vehemently disagree that a 6-6 finish would get Randy fired. Kirby Holcutt is not that dumb. And please no Tommy Tuberville.
Yours truly has been made. Stars on my shoulders, stars on my knees. Never again will I kneel before another college football blog. Anton Azucar has officially joined the illustrious BlogPoll.
Started by Brian over at MGoBlog a few years back, the BlogPoll “attempts to rank teams in order of season quality.” Here is a link to the philosophy of the creator. I am of the mind of the resume style voting. It is obviously tricky the first 4-5 weeks of the season, but I’ll make do. The BlogPoll goes up on CBS Sportsline every week, so this isn’t just some run of the mill “Bloggers unite and fight back!” poll here. This here is bonafide!
So far, I’m the only Miami Hurricanes voter, so I will represent accordingly. Lets hope the Canes give me reason to rank them high after those first four games, and argue as such. Each week I will post my ballot right here. First poll comes out on August 24th. Until that day.
Quick hitter, on Wednesday’s practice in 
Game 12: Fiesta Bowl: Penn State 14, Miami 10
I gave up my season tickets this year, fantastic seats by the way, Alumni section is no joke. However, a special practice is being held today for season ticket holders only. Alas. It’s hot as balls out there today anyway. Lets throw out some linkage!!
Normally this would not be a topic around these parts, but considering Miami plays @ UCF this year, I figured why not.
I love this guy. First he tells the defense, in the middle of a game, on the last drive, to 
