Randy, please don’t tear down your sand castles. Remember Jimmy, Randy. Remember Jimmy.

As usual with all this fantastic documentary footage, hit to Rak on tur.

Howard Schnellenberger, in my mind, is the most underrated coach in the history of college football. Jimmy Johnson is undoubtedly a better overall coach, as he did win both in the NFL and college. However, you cannot overvalue what Schnellenberger did with the Miami program. Bobby Bowden, back when he was still lucid, has said on multiple occasions Schnellenberger would have the all time wins if he had just stayed put in Coral Gables.

Unfortunately for all Hurricane fans, he is just one of those personalities who always are on the move. They establish a goal, and once it is attained, need to start over from zero with a new goal (Louisville), instead of creating new loftier goals within the current framework (staying at Miami for 25 years). In a way, when Schnellenberger left a national title wake at Miami to leave for the USFL, he started the tradition of coaches using Miami as their springboard into the NFL.

Yet another hilarious anecdote was uncovered from all this great documentary talk going round:

Schnellenberger explains how he would intentionally leave his pipe in the home of some recruits so he would have an excuse to come back. Excited, Melvin Bratton took the pipe with him to Miami Northwestern High.

The man always is giving, more than we ever know.

Miami Hurricanes

Coral Gables, Florida

Est. 1925

Last Year’s Record: 7-6 (4-4)

2008 vs. Miami: Let Marve beat them multiple times

2009 Prediction: 2nd in Coastal Division

Take Howard, Jimmy

Dennis, Butch, Larry, now tell

Me who doesn’t fit?

ESPN should just shut down its college football site after signing day. Conserve salaries and hosting space, like GM getting rid of all their clocks. That way, they wouldn’t feel the need to do an arbitrary selection like this for every team in the country.

That said, the final list from Heather Dinich over at the ACC blog, was the following: Howard Schnellenberger, Michael Irvin, Vinny Testaverde, and Ken Dorsey.

Ok, Howard and Irvin are the obvious no brainers. The man who literally built the program, and the most recognizable Cane of all time. However, Testaverde and Dorsey are stretches for me, and Dorsey shouldn’t be in there at all.

My list, if succombing to this, would be Schnellenberger, Irvin, Ed Reed, and Jerome Brown. Vinny never won a national title, I believe the only name brand QB at Miami to never do so. Dorsey was not the real leader on those teams, Reed was. As much as I loved Kenny boy, and boy did I love him, especially once Brock took the helm, he could’ve arguably been replaced by any QB in the country who had great smarts. He was surrounded by the most talented offense in the country for three years, and also had a fantastic defense for short fields, playing with early leads, etc.

As for Jerome, anyone who can lay claim to the two best ever Miami anecdotes will always make it on my list. (“Ja-may-al, come out and paaa-lay-yay,” Brown taunted, “Come on out, Ja-may-al!”  and “Did the Japanese go sit down and have dinner with Pearl Harbor before they bombed them?” Muwahahahaha.)

Apologies to Ted Hendricks, who was notably awesome (3 time All American, considered one of the best defensive players ever), but I just don’t know enough about him to add him to the list. The Mad Stork was past my time.

The Judge

The man who started it all. Reminiscing on the 1983 national title team, with yet another great quote in a nice piece from today’s Herald:

”I like to say that the University of Miami taught the other schools in Florida how to win the national championship,” Schnellenberger said. “I just didn’t realize the others were so hard-headed that Miami had to do it four times before they learned how to do it themselves.”

His feet are light and nimble. He never sleeps. He says that he will never die. He dances in light and in shadow and he is a great favorite. He never sleeps, Howard. He is dancing, dancing. He says that he will never die.