The University of Miami posted some skits to be entered into the National Broadcasting Society Competition on their Facebook page a couple days ago. You can vote on which one you like the best at their Facebook page.

I yanked the good ones off their page and uploaded them here.

Good


Better


Allen Bailey trump card automatic best

These ads are so much better than the one they use during football broadcasts. More like this please.

Chris Hayes wants you to get your Tivos and DVRs set for Saturday morning.

“And after they did what they did for my son and for our family, don’t anybody ever tell me anything negative ever again about a football player or coach at the University of Miami.”

Check out the story:
Canes Get a Real Life Rudy
Canes rallied around walk-on Chris Hayes when father died

That’s from Jacory at today’s press conference. I would happen to agree, unless he means Bailey (my wife’s dog) in which case this loss was way worse.

I thought we would lose another game this season and Clemson looked to be the most talented team Miami would play after the first four so I’m not overly surprised by this loss…just the way they lost it really tears at you. Usually we’re on the winning side of these nail-biters.

The blame can’t be focused on one person as there were so many mistakes made. Hopefully this will be a learning experience for the team – yes an unranked team can come into your stadium and outplay/beat you. ACC games are always going to be tough and you have to get as hyped for them as you do for Oklahoma and Florida State.

The first drive looked good for the Canes highlighted by Leonard Hankerson’s amazing one-handed catch. Then the interception came off a deflection and the drive ended there. No big deal – offense looked good and it was a lucky bounce of the ball.

The very next drive Clemson was plagued with penalties and had a 3rd and 49 situation. What do you call on 3rd and 40+? A touchdown? Have a Wide Receiver streak down the sideline and get a first down? They aren’t UM so they ran it up the middle and ended up in 4th and 45. Not something you see very often.

On Clemson’s first scoring drive QB Kyle Parker had 6 completions for an average of 11.5 yards. Miami simply could not put any pressure on this kid. With so many defensive lineman out the front four could not do it alone. The rare times Miami did dial up a blitz it was successful but it was too uncommon to really help the defense. Too many injuries and too few blitzes is how Kyle Parker completed 25 of 37 passes for 326 yards and 3 touchdowns.

Miami was able to respond with a touchdown drive of their own and the offense looked sharp once again. The kickoff however…not so sharp. C.J. Spiller did what we figured he would do – return a kick for a touchdown. After this play we wouldn’t see Alex Uribe again as Bosher would take over all the kicking duties and damn did he do a hell of a job. Bosh was the MVP of the game for Miami. He rocketed all his punts sky high so that there was never a return, the kickoffs were all kicked so they were easily coverable and he nailed 2 long field goals of 49 and 51 yards. I’m pretty sure if he had kicked off for the Spiller return Bosh would of tackled Spiller (possibly injuring him and taking him out of the game) and we would of won – hell if they had just put Bosh in at safety in overtime he would of made a play on a Jacoby Ford and we would of won the game – MORE BOSH!


Make long field goals…Like a Bosh
Awesome hangtime…Like a Bosh
15 yard penalties…Like a Bosh

Near the end of the half Miami had a promising drive going when Whipple called a questionable timeout with 19 seconds left. Could Whipple really not have known that in College Football a first down stops the clock? Miami was not able to come up with points when it looked like they should have.

Let’s skip ahead to the 4th quarter. It’s 24 – 24, crunch time, time for the clutch players to step up. This game went pretty much how I expected it and at this point I’m thinking the ball is in Jacory’s hands we are golden. Let’s just take a look here at the plays in the 4th quarter where Mr. Cool, Jacory Harris, actually did have the ball in his hands:

3rd and 14 at MIA 16 – Jacory Harris pass complete to LaRon Byrd for 15 yards to the MiaFl 31 for a 1ST down.

3rd and 10 at CLEM 25 Jacory Harris sacked by Ricky Sapp for a loss of 9 yards to the Clem 34.

Bosher kicks the 51 yard field goal.

Run, run, Jacory bail us out was apparently the plan for the first drive of the 4th quarter.

Canes are up by 3 and force a Clemson punt, time to take over the game.

1st and 10 at MIA 15 – Jacory Harris pass intercepted by DeAndre McDaniel at the MiaFl 23, returned for 23 yards for a TOUCHDOWN.

There is really no defending Jacory on this one, just an awful pass good thing nothing fazes this guy because on the very next play from scrimmage…

1st and 10 at MIA 31 – Jacory Harris pass complete to Travis Benjamin for 69 yards for a TOUCHDOWN.



Clemson gets the ball back down 3 with 9:20 left in the game drives all the way down the field when Randy Phillips makes a huge defensive play by intercepting Kyle Parker in the end zone with 5:37 left on the clock. So that’s what? Two first downs for the Canes and we escape with a win even though we played bad all day?

1st and 10 at MIA 20 – Javarris James rush for 1 yard to the MiaFl 21.

2nd and 9 at MIA 21 – Javarris James rush for 6 yards to the MiaFl 27.

Ok but surely not on 3rd down…

3rd and 3 at MIA 27 Javarris James rush for 1 yard to the MiaFl 28.

So Dwyane Wade doesn’t get the ball with 10 seconds on the clock with the game tied able to take the lead. Jacory Harris is our clutch player he needs to at least be given the chance to get the first down. Run a roll out with and throw a short pass to the Tight End, that hasn’t been stopped all year!

The defense is able to hold Clemson to a field goal (although if Clemson hadn’t mismanaged the clock almost as bad as Nix against Cal at the end of that game there’s a good chance Miami loses in regulation) and we’re headed to overtime. Surely Jacory will have a chance to win the game then.

Cooper busts off a 19 yard run. Wow a nice play action pass to a Tight End and we’re feeling good right about now.

1st and Goal at CLEM 6 Javarris James rush for 1 yard to the Clem 5.

2nd and Goal at CLEM 5 Graig Cooper rush for no gain to the Clem 5.

Back to this run, run, Jacory bail us out plan again eh?

3rd and Goal at CLEM 5 Jacory Harris pass incomplete. That’s 10 runs to 5 passes in the 4th quarter and overtime. I mentioned a couple posts back that in the 4th quarter of Miami’s double digit wins over Georgia Tech, FAMU and UCF Miami has run the ball 48 times and only attempted passes 4 times. Well for the season as a total the Canes have ran 84 run plays vs. 37 pass plays in the 4th quarter. The only game Miami didn’t run more than pass in the 4th quarter was against FSU – where they had to pass because they were behind the whole time. Granted in 4 of those games (the three mentioned plus Va. Tech) the game was over and they were running out the clock. But could this run first habit affect the aggressiveness of the play calling in the 4th quarter? I know it’s a bit absurd to be picking at an offense that just scored 37 points on one of the best defenses in the conference but there were plenty of opportunities to score more. The defense, however, was the reason we lost this game.

On another note Jacory Harris has been named to the O’Brien semifinalist list for the country’s best Quarterback. Somehow Tim Tebow is on the list yet he doesn’t pass. I would of thought Christian Ponder would of made the list – he does have better stats than Jacory does. I guess winning games matters.

This video shows the first 19 of C.J. Spiller’s 20 50+ yard plays. It actually gets pretty boring after a while watching the same guy run uncontested down the field after he breaks 2 or 3 tackles and turns on his track team speed. As you can see in the video Spiller doesn’t just do it on offense (629 rushing/receiving yards in 2009), he’s a beast when it comes to returns (516 return yards in 2009) – he has 6 return touchdowns for his career – 3 of which took place during the current season. With Miami’s special teams woes there’s a good reason for concern when it comes to kickoffs against Clemson. Add Jacoby Ford’s 440 offensive yards to Spiller’s and Clemon’s two best offensive players make up 1069 of Clemson’s 1965 yards on the year; it should be perfectly clear who the defense needs to be focusing on come Saturday.

This team isn’t just about Spiller and Ford though, the defense is one of the best in the conference. Clemson has allowed the least points per game (15.3), the second least yards per game (270.2), the least pass yards per game (887) and leads the conference in interceptions (10).

The last time Miami played Clemson was the 2005 triple overtime 36-30 win for the Hurricanes that left Tommy Bowden in tears.



Clemson played great against Wake Forest last week but the week before they lost to Maryland. Their only other losses came to Georgia Tech and TCU, both of which were ranked #15 at the time. This will be the first test for Miami after the tough four game stretched they opened the season with. Miami is currently a 4.5 point favorite on the site I use. Yes UCF sacked Jacory 6 times last week but it didn’t really affect the game. The offense adjusted and Jacory started rolling out and finding the open (or not so open but still completed it) receivers. Clemson plays man to man coverage and and yes they have good starting cornerbacks. However, they don’t have players that can match up with Jimmy Graham and Dedrick Epps and they don’t have enough good corners to match up with all our talented receivers. Miami should win this game but it might be close at the end. And who do you trust more to win the game in the 4th quarter? Justscory Harris or 1 touchdown and 3 picks in his last 4 games Kyle Parker?

We should be seeing plenty of this on Saturday:



Sports Illustrated has named Brandon Harris to it’s mid-season All-American list with Jason Fox making second team.

Player pictures later? I think so.

The Miami Hurricanes blew through UCF’s stadium and sent the majority of the record crowd of over 60,000 home before the game ended. There was a moment in the game when UCF fans may have felt excited, enthusiastic, hopeful and maybe some delusional fans even confident or cocky. This occurred after Miami snapped the ball over Punter Matt Bosher’s head giving the Knights the ball on the two yard line down 10 points with a chance to make it a 3 point game. UCF had a great opportunity to steal momentum and hope for the best. Those hopes and dreams were shattered in three plays by a fierce and determined Miami Defense. On first down UCF ran the ball to the right resulting in DeMarcus Van Dyke blowing the play up for a loss. On second down they attacked Van Dyke again through the air; this time he knocked the ball down for an incompletion. Finally on third down as UCF Quarterback Brett Hodges dropped back to pass Jared Campbell fired off the edge on a blitz, Campbell nailed him (which knocked him out of the game) just as he was releasing the balland Linebacker Colin McCarthy came down with his second career interception. UCF fans may have believed they had a chance, but in the end, they never really did.

Jacory Harris was nearly perfect on the game completing 20 out of 26 for 293 yards and 1 touchdown. Harris started out hot by completing his first 7 attempts including a 23 yard touchdown to Leonard Hankerson. Harris was sacked six times which is a concern for an Offensive Line that started out the season so well but have struggled in recent games. Javarris James surpassed the 2,000 yard mark for his career and ran in for a 5 yard score in the third quarter. Damien Berry was again impressive with 60 rushing yards on the night and a TD run in the final quarter. Graig Cooper, who was listed as probable on the official injury report, came in for only one play – a running back pass that fell incomplete. Sean Spence also had a good game with two crucial sacks.

Miami’s 27-7 victory may not be as impressive as some expected, but there is one thing to keep in mind – UM has a lot of injuries. Cooper only came in for one play, starting Fullback Pat Hill was out, starting Guard Joel Figueroa was out, starting Defensive End Eric Moncur was out, starting Defensive Tackle Marcus Forston is now out for the year, starting Safety Randy Phillips was out, Ryan Hill was out, Jordan Futch is out for the year and the list continues. Miami is banged up right now and there will be several players called upon that need to step up big. Tommy Streeter has done well in place of Aldarius Johnson, Mike James has done a phenomenal job in place of Pat Hill and everyone has noticed Ray Ray Armstrong’s presence on the field.

The Canes went up to Central Florida (0-20 vs. ranked teams) and did what they were supposed to do – play 60 minutes and walk out with a solid victory. Now it will be back to ACC play with Clemson coming to town for a 3:30 kickoff Saturday. Things are much more interesting now with Georgia Tech’s upset over Virginia Tech. The Canes are now in a three way tie with the two Techs in the ACC Coastal.



Miami has climbed one spot in the AP Poll now coming in at #8. And the BCS poll was revealed for the first time this season with Miami coming in at #10. The computers have the Hurricanes at #13 hurting their overall ranking. Starting at #10 isn’t so bad for the first week of the BCS and there is still a lot of football to be played. Many of the ESPN experts seem to believe it is inevitable that the winner of the probable SEC Championship of Alabama vs. Florida will play Texas in the BCS Championship. They don’t give anyone outside of the top 3 much of a chance. Miami is #10 in the first BCS rankings this season. Who was #10 in last year’s first BCS rankings? Florida, who ended the season #1. UF played several ranked opponents at the end of last year and had more opportunities to jump teams ahead of them which Miami might not have the chance to do. But this is College Football and there are upsets every week. Miami just needs to win one game at a time and hope for the best. A BCS game is probable and a possible BCS Championship appearance, although a long shot, is still possible.



I’m a huge supporter of Randy Shannon. I believe the number one thing a coach needs to do at Miami is recruit the area well. Shannon has done that remarkably well. Miami makes the coach the coach doesn’t make Miami, that’s how it’s always been. Shannon has tons of class and doesn’t like to run up the score on anyone. This could become a problem for Miami in the BCS system. The BCS does not care about class, when you’re a kid you are taught not to run up the score – it’s good sportsmanship to run the clock out at the end of a game. Shannon respects and believes in this idea so don’t expect him to run up the score on inferior opponents like UCF and FAMU. In the 4th quarter of Miami’s double digit wins over Georgia Tech, FAMU and UCF Miami has run the ball 48 times and only attempted passes 4 times. Compare that to a team with substantially less class, Florida. Florida had 3 passes vs. 8 runs in the 4th quarter of a 55-3 contest vs. Charleston Southern. Against Troy the Gators continued to throw when they were up 49-6 as well as 56-6 in the 4th, the tally: 11 passes, 10 runs. Against Kentucky the Gators threw the ball 6 times and ran it 13 times. In Florida’s three blowout wins this season they have thrown the ball 20 times and ran the ball 31 times in the 4th quarter. I don’t want the team to be completely classless and disrespectful like Florida. However, if the goal is the national championship, because of the BCS system, Miami may need to start scoring some more points in garbage time.

Get ready for another blowout this weekend as the Hurricanes face an instate opponent with inferior talent. Last year Miami beat UCF 20-14. But UCF’s Offense produced zero points in the game. Robert Marve threw them a pick six and their other touchdown came on a kick return late in the game by Joe Burnett who afterward showed the Miami crowd the U only he did it with just his middle fingers up. UCF’s Offense had a grand total of 4 rushing yards on 27 attempts and only 74 passing yards on the day. It was one of Miami’s most impressive Defensive efforts in years. The problem was that the Canes were Offensively weak last year with horrendous play calling and a lack of leadership at the Quarterback position. They limped into the game with a 2-3 record having lost two straight games in Dolphin Stadium and seemed to be totally lost Offensively and had no identity (other than the wide receiver screen over, and over, and over).

This is not the case this year. Miami has a dangerous passing attack this time around and a terrific Offensive Coordinator who keeps teams off balance and constantly guessing. The Canes’ most dangerous weapons have matured a year and are now starting to become the play-makers that Miami’s Offense has lacked for years. The UCF Knights enter the game 3-2 against mediocre teams at best and rank 100th on Offense and 51st on Defense. They are 0-19 all-time against ranked opponents. It would be a dream scenario for them to knock off the U and put themselves on the map. Keep dreaming…

Beating Oklahoma wasn’t enough for Miami to get back in the top 10 but after beating the powerhouse that is FAMU the Canes are back at number 9. All it took was a half of football that looked a lot like the spring game – right down to Damien Berry stealing the show. Only instead of gaining 114 yards versus the UM backups Berry gained 162 yards against FAMU – both games he had 14 carries. Jimmy Graham caught a pass so chalk up another TD for the Power Forward. That’s now 3 catches on the season all for touchdowns and all in Landshark stadium. Tommy Streeter also played a nice game, not just at WR either, he had a monster block on the punt return touchdown by Thearon Collier.




lestat1124 has the post game interviews but they aren’t all that interesting, at least not after last week’s.




Make sure to check out The Miami Hurricane’s great article on the barber who’s been cutting the players’ hair. And don’t miss the fantastic photos on the bottom of the page.

Everyone in the country is well aware that Miami is going to blow Florida A&M out on Saturday, but apparently FAMU players didn’t get the memo:

Rattlers believe they can top Miami

“This year we have more of a mind-set that we can beat them. We know we can beat them,” said Running Back Demitric Henry.

“They are just another team on the schedule that’s in our way of greatness,” said senior Linebacker Gregory Boler. “Don’t let the hype distract you because I know that does it for a lot of people. I’ve played against them already and it’s nothing major.”

That “nothing major” was a game that Miami won 51-10 back in 2006 when Miami was a very mediocre team.

Miami is once again an elite team with as much talent as any team in the nation and are expected to flex their muscles against the Rattlers and eventually get the backups in the game to build depth. It will be an opportunity to hopefully see true freshman Quarterback A.J. Highsmith get some playing time. It will also be the first time that fans get to see Tommy Streeter if he is able to get on the field. Streeter is a 6’5 Wide Receiver with 4.4 speed from Miami Northwestern and will no doubt be a major mismatch against any Cornerback on FAMU’s roster. Miami’s Offensive Line has been extremely impressive so far this year but with three seniors on that starting line it will be interesting to see how the back ups hold up when they are called upon. Second stringers include former Northwestern Bulls Brandon Washington and Ben Jones. The young linebackers could get their opportunity, it is a speedy unit that includes Ramon Buchanon and C.J. Holton (former Safeties who made the switch to Linebacker) as well as former blue-chipper Arthur Brown. The highly recruited true freshman Cornerback Brandon McGee will also be getting his first major playing time of the year.

FAMU is much better than usual this year. They have a big, fast, athletic Quarterback in Curtis Pulley who has thrown for 7 touchdowns this year and only 1 interception. He is also the team’s leading rusher including a 196 yard rushing performance the opening week against Delaware State. They have possibly the most dangerous Punt Returner in LeRoy Vann who has already returned 4 touchdowns so far this year giving him a total of ten for his career. He is quickly closing in on the all-time NCAA record. FAMU is 4-0 on the year and is outscoring opponents by and average of 33.5 to 11 so far this season.

Now lets compare their four games to our for games:

1 Florida State                  1 Delaware State

2 Georgia Tech                2 Winston-Salem

3 Virginia Tech                 3 Howard

4 Oklahoma                      4 Tennessee State

They are having a good season so far in their division of football and they will likely have a good season with the exception of this Saturday. But the bottom line is that they are not on our level and should not be competitive unless we allow them to. And I highly doubt the Canes will be in a generous mood on Saturday. Let’s wrap this one up early in the game and see what the young guys can do. The only chance FAMU has of impressing anyone is with their band.

If you can’t make it out to the game it will be shown on ESPN360 and reportedly on the FAMU athletic Web site.

October 7, 2000 the Miami Hurricanes played a home game against a national power house and pulled off an upset that left the country with no choice but to admit that Miami was indeed back. It happened again Saturday night. In 2000 it was defending National Champions Florida State that came into the Orange Bowl facing a one loss Miami team. This time around it was Oklahoma who played in the National Championship the previous year and was now heading into Landshark Stadium facing a one loss Miami team. Both in 2000 and now in 2009 Miami was lead by a tall, skinny, sophomore Quarterback who always seemed to win and play his best in big moments. The country doubted a young Miami squad back then, and they did it again now. Whether it be the similarities in the young talent on the team, the comparisons of Jacory Harris and Ken Dorsey or simply the vibe and feeling that the swagger was once again back…it is clear that this young Miami team has sent a Hurricane warning out to the country. Miami won that won that game against Florida State 27-24 back in 2000 and they won the big game against the Sooners 21-20. Jacory looked as calm, cool and collected as Dorsey did years ago. Washington and Virginia Tech have proved that we were too young in 2000 and too young in 2009 to go through the season undefeated. But after colossal wins the focus will catch up with the talent and suddenly the Canes will begin to mow down opponents every Saturday the way they did for three years at the beginning of this decade. If we finish the season 11-1 will the BCS keep us out of the Championship the way it did in 2000? Maybe. But if they do, just remember that 2001 is just around the corner. Oops, I mean 2010.

The 4 game stretch that so many said would have Miami climbing uphill this season has ended and the team is standing tall with a 3-1 record. Saturday night’s game opened ugly but the Canes withstood the first half mistakes and were able to hold Oklahoma to 10 points early. In retrospect the two interceptions really weren’t a bad thing. Throwing deep early really opened the middle and allowed the running game to get going which allowed the play action to get on track, hence why we saw so many tight ends with a step on their defenders catching passes. (Speaking of tight ends, both Dedrick Epps and Jimmy Graham have 2 touchdowns a piece on the season. The senior, Epps had 3 touchdowns total in his career under Nix. Jimmy Graham has 2 catches this year, both for touchdowns, and 2 drops that weren’t going to be touchdowns. So just throw it to him around the goal line and we should be good.)



The running game was working wonderfully and at the end of the game with the ball in Jacory’s hand was there ever really a doubt? Leave it to Bob Stoops (16-14 in his last 30 road games including 0-3 in Landshark) to kick a field goal with minutes to go in the game and hand the ball over to the Miami offense who seemingly could of easily scored on that last drive. Realistically, Oklahoma needed a three and out against the Hurricanes in order to get the ball back and have enough time to score. Most coaches go for the 4th and 4 in that situation, but hey I’m not complaining.

I can’t write about this game without mentioning the penalties, those horrible yellow pieces of cloth that littered the field Saturday night. The worst of them was the 15 yard roughing the kicker penalty on Joe Joseph that gave Oklahoma an easy scoring opportunity. Take 7 points off that final score as that was a totally blown call. But hey when has Miami ever caught a break from officials? It’s very fitting that the program has ‘reemerged’ after beating one of the decades best programs despite an incredible amount of penalties. That’s how we do.



On another note, how about Jacory’s shout out to Jay-Z’s record label Roc Nation? He showed the Roc symbol several times during the game and had Roc Nation written on his eye black. So the question is when exactly is Jacory going to pen his contract at the record label and start making some hits? If he does he’ll probably throw in a verse about Spongebob.

“The only thing that we’re going to watch on TV from now on is SpongeBob,” Miami Coach Randy Shannon recalled Harris saying about “SpongeBob SquarePants.” “We ain’t watching ESPN. We ain’t watching CBS. We ain’t watching ABC. If SpongeBob can tell you how good you are, then you deserve it.”

Everyone exhale. A look at the upcoming games:

In an interview earlier this week Jacory Harris said his barber had something planned. Indeed.