The Hurricanes entered the game with goals of winning their 10th game of the season and a chance to finish in the top 10 in the country in the final polls. As fast as Miami is and as slow as the Big Ten is it seemed to be a forgone conclusion to most Hurricane fans that Miami would speed right past the Badgers and win big. The opening kickoff was a reverse to the fastest player on the team, Sam Shields, and set a record for the longest kick return in Miami’s bowl history. Then Graig Cooper blew right past the Badgers on the opening play from scrimmage. The stadium felt like the old Orange Bowl from the creaking metal stadium to the raucous end zone crowd – too bad the team didn’t play like it.
For the next 58 minutes the Hurricanes put on one of the most embarrassing performances in recent history. They played a Big Ten team and lost. It seemed as if no one ever accounted for the Tight End. Both the Offensive Line and Defensive Line were dominated. Jacory Harris never had any time at all to set up in the pocket. If they had been playing a better team it could have been a major blowout. But the Badger,s thank goodness, don’t have the speed and talent to capitalize on all the opportunities Miami gave them. In fact the Badgers are so slow that Miami still had a chance to win at the end. Miami woke up with just two minutes left in the game, drove down the field, scored, pulled within 6, recovered an onside kick and had a chance to win a bowl game after sleep walking for the past 56 minutes or so of regulation. But when the pass intended for Thearon Collier fell incomplete on 4th down the thought of a bizarre comeback came to an end.
The Badgers finished 10-3, but don’t let the record fool you. This is the only game all year that they beat a ranked opponent (other than Alabama no one beat more ranked opponents than Miami). They have a cupcake schedule in the Big Ten to go along with non-conference games against: Northern Illinois, Fresno State, Wofford and Hawaii. They racked up wins against a bunch of nobodies and built a house of cards. That’s what the Big Ten does every year, and then every year they go to bowl games and have their house of cards blown down and get exposed and stripped. Not this time. Miami let a bunch of frauds beat them.
Miami threw deep twice - once to James who couldn't catch up with the ball and once to Byrd which was overthrown. Both times the receiver had clearly beaten the defender. With such a speed advantage it was clear that Miami could of thrown deep every play and won this game. If Travis Benjamin runs as fast as he can to the end zone and Jacory Harris throws the ball as hard as he can into said endzone every play this game is a blowout. Jacory would of been sacked 10 times but he also would of had 500 passing yards.
Although its only a 6 point loss to a team with a 10-3 record, this is as embarrassing a loss as Miami has experienced in a while. It will be interesting to see how this team bounces back next year. They have youth and talent but can they play consistently next year?
Brandon Linder, the Left Tackle of St. Thomas Aquinas, committed to the Miami Hurricanes this weekend after taking an official visit to see the campus. Linder has been a devastating run blocker and a rock solid pass protector at St. Thomas Aquinas. Almost all of his run blocking highlights result in the Defensive Lineman on his backside and he usually stops pass rushers right at the line of scrimmage. He is a part of a St. Thomas Aquinas squad that has played on National TV a couple times this year and looked pretty solid. In a game up in Ohio the entire O-Line bullied Ohio’s Defensive front for 60 minutes. Later this year St. Thomas played #2 ranked Byrnes High School from South Carolina where Linder was matched up against Defensive End Corey Miller, one of the most highly regarded Defensive Ends in the nation. Although he kept Miller in check the majority of the time, Miller was getting up field and got in the backfield a couple times. This was a great match up of two great recruits and was a good barometer of where they are at. Linder is very big at 6’6 280. A lot of times when a High School player is this big they rely to much on sheer strength while sacrificing technique. That doesn’t seem to be the case with Linder. He bends his knees well and keeps his shoulders square. St. Thomas Aquinas is always well coached and has produced some top notch college players over the years including: Leonard Hankerson, Tavares Gooden, Sam Young, Duron Carter, Major Wright and of course the great Michael Irvin among many others. Linder should be no different as he looks very well coached in technique. He is a dominating force when run blocking, especially down blocking (when an Offensive Lineman blocks a Defensive player inside towards the middle of the field). When he blocks aggressively like this the Defender is either driven completely out of the play or simply put on his back. Because of his versatility (he has the potential to play any of the Offensive Line positions) he compares well to former Hurricane Chris Myers.
Linder will be joined by St. Thomas Aquinas teammate Jermaine Barton who also committed this weekend. Landing these two commitments is huge for the Canes for several reasons. They are both great players, they address a need for the Hurricanes at the Offensive Line, they are local talent and they come from a powerhouse High School in South Florida. Brandon Linder is rated the #1 Center in the country (where he started as a Sophomore) by Scout.com, the #2 Center by ESPN and the #3 Tackle by Rivals.com. And teammate Jermaine Barton who measures in at 6’6 and 275 is rated as a 3* Tackle by all three recruiting services.
Brandon Willis, the Tennessee commit who was expected to switch to the Hurricanes this weekend remains a Tennessee commit. He says that he is no longer considering Miami and sites Miami’s deep depth chart at Defensive Line as his reason for not going to Miami.
“Nobody wants to sit around on the bench,” Willis said. “I want to have that opportunity and I’m not saying I’m scared to compete, but I want the chance to play early. I’ll have to compete no matter where I am, but the chance to play early is the biggest thing for me.”
Although Willis is a heck of a player, competition is what makes Miami great. If he is afraid of our depth chart that means two things: we have a great Defensive Line right now and Willis is not a real Miami player. You have to be hungry and have no fear of competition. Great player, but no loss for the Canes here.
Todd Chandler is one of Miami Northwestern’s most highly touted seniors of this year’s recruiting class. For almost a year Todd had been committed to the University of Miami, however he is now committed to the University of South Florida. This is a team that we clearly dominated just a few weeks ago. This is a team that has done absolutely nothing in their history. And it is a team that claimed we would be budding rivals just as we merely shoved them aside. This past February a Hurricane commit (Kayvon Webster) switched and signed with USF. It was a tremendous accomplishment to beat UM Football at something, then the teams played and well you know the rest.
This is the school that Northwestern Defensive Tackle Todd Chandler has opted to join instead of The U. He said that Hurricane coaches stopped recruiting him and stopped calling him as the USF coaches were laying out the red carpet for him and telling him how much he would mean to their team. He admitted that he planned to announce the switch on Signing Day but that word got out and has since confirmed the switch.
This recent recruiting development tells us some things about Miami and about Todd. Miami cutting off their communication with Todd could have happened for a number of reasons. One could be Miami took the commitment for granted. This would be very unlikely considering Randy Shannon’s strong emphasis on building a fence around South Florida and getting all the players he wants. The more likely situation would be that after Miami’s coaches watched more film on the kid they realized that he may have not been as good as they hoped. Coaches know a stoppage in recruiting of the player could lead to a commitment switch and free up a scholarship opportunity for a player they covet more, which is something that happens quite often in recruiting. What this commitment switch tells me about Todd is that he wants to be the big fish in a small pond. Playing in Miami you need to be hungry, compete and fight for every inch and earn every play. If having other coaches (by the way their head coach is currently being investigated for punching a walk-on player) tell you how great you are and that they like you more makes you switch to USF from UM, you probably don’t have what it takes to compete at Miami.
It’s a disappointment for a couple of reasons. It would have been a great thing to get another Northwestern Bull to come to Miami. It would have been a great thing to see Todd line back up next to Marcus Forston, his mentor, and join The U. And it is certainly disappointing to see USF get anyone (whether we want them or not) from Dade County. However we are hearing a rumor that Chandler never even got a scholarship offer and that he committed without an offer to up his star rating and hope that since he was from Miami Northwestern and wanted to be a Cane that he would eventually get an offer. We are not sure that’s accurate but it’s been said the reason he didn’t get an offer and that Miami stopped talking to him was strictly for character purposes.
Speaking of defensive line recruits, Brandon Willis of Byrnes High School from South Carolina is taking an official visit to the University of Miami this weekend. Byrnes High School was ranked the #2 High School Football team in the nation this year and came down to South Florida to play #1 power house St. Thomas Aquinas. Typically South Florida teams dominate other teams from around the nation but that was not the case this time around. It was a close game that Aquinas barely won and the reason it was so close was because of two stud players from Byrnes. One was Lattimo their running back and the other was their Defensive star #88 at Defensive End Brandon Willis.
Willis is currently a commit to the University of Tennessee. Tennessee is facing some possible recruiting violations that directly involve Byrnes High School. And although he is committed to Tennessee as of this moment, 3rd and 43 can basically guarantee that he will be a Hurricane. This would be (and should be baring any problems during his upcoming visit this weekend) a huge commit for Miami. This kid went up against the best team South Florida has to offer and changed the dynamics of the game. I had personally heard of Lattimor the star Running Back but Willis was a complete surprise to me during this game. He is incredibly explosive off the ball and gets in the backfield on a consistent basis. He uses his hands well, controls the perimeter and closes on the Quarterback in passing situations. He would easily be the best Defensive End commit for Miami in several years. We look forward to getting this weekend visit wrapped up and officially receiving word of the commit switch.
The recruiting stories, commitments, switches, rumors and everything else are really heating up this time of year. From everything we are hearing the Canes and Randy are looking to storm the recruiting world and close stronger than ever with some very shocking commitments. This week we will break down the state of recruiting breaking down each position, priorities, prospects, visits, and everything else to get you caught up before the bowl game and ready as we close in on Signing Day in February.
Every Canes fan needs to listen to Randy Shannon on Joe Rose today. Go to their Interviews page and click on Randy Shannon with Big Dog to hear it. Shannon talks a whole lot about the recruiting process at UM and how they go about doing things.
By now you should know. Billy Corben’s “The U” airs Saturday night after Tim Tebow loses the Heisman to Alabama’s Mark Ingram. It’s 2 hours long with limited commercial breaks. There will be a DVD release of it as well which will have a ton of interview and game footage that didn’t make the cut. After it’s over ESPN Classic will air the 1984, 1990 and 1992 National Championships.
Lamar Thomas was on the radio today and made it a point to mention that the only thing that made him cringe from the film was when Randy Shannon was said to be involved in the Play for Pay scandal. Thomas said that all Randy Shannon did was hold the money. He went on to praise Shannon on what he has done coaching-wise at Miami. You can listen to the interview at 560 WQAM. They also have some interviews with Billy Corben up.
ProCanes has photos from last night’s Orange carpet Premier. You can check out Canespace’s interview with Billy Corben for some good information. Or you can just go to Corben’s blog which is full of great stuff. One of the best posts is about why University of Miami officials wanted nothing to do with the film even going as far as calling former players and coaches and advising them not to cooperate. Corben says they advised him not to make the film when he initially met with them and asked him for a script…for a documentary. In the post Corben posts his emails with said officials as well as a Treatment on the film that Corben provided them with. Other transgressions University of Miami officials have committed: knocking down the Orange Bowl and now I hear they aren’t even going to bus the players to Orlando. The players may have to find their own way to their bowl game. Awesome.
If you’re not following the site on twitter you should start. We go to a ton of Hurricanes events and will occasionally get some inside information like last night. We had Miami in the Champs Bowl before anyone and while I wasn’t able to post about it I was able to shoot out a ‘tweet’ as they say. Miami will play Wisconsin which has tons of Big 10 speed. #24 Wisconsin matches Miami’s 9-3 record with their losses coming in the last 7 weeks of the season after starting 5-0. The Badgers lost to the only ranked opponents they played: Iowa and Ohio State. They also lost their last conference game to Northwestern before beating Hawaii to finish the regular season. A win in Orlando will give Miami it’s first 10 win season since 2003 (as well as a 9-1 record in Florida) and set the stage for a top 10 ranking to close out the season. The Champs Bowl has been Big 10 vs. ACC since 2006 with the ACC winning all 3 games.
Originally we were going to make highlight videos of every Hurricane game but Rusty does such a good job it would just be useless extra work. We’re going to focus more on making highlight videos of a different nature, like our 2009 Season Highlight video:
Then there’s this:
Before the award ceremony last night we asked Jacory Harris if he would cry if they lost the bowl game, he laughed and sarcastically replied, “I’ll try to hold it in.” Tebow only lost 6 games as a starter but he cried after every one of them. Hopefully Cincinnati can make that 7 and send him off to obscurity with back to back losses. The only ranked team the Gators beat this year was LSU – who lost to every ranked opponent they played. Unlike Miami, Florida didn’t have the balls to schedule even a single good opponent during the regular season so when it came time to play a good team they were not prepared for what awaited them. Miami’s record versus ranked teams this year is 3-1 (all in the first four weeks of the season). Florida’s record versus ranked teams this year is 1-1. While Miami started the season against Florida State, Georgia Tech, Virginia Tech and Oklahoma, Florida did so against Charleston Southern, Troy, Tennessee and Kentucky. Just sayin…
Don Bailey Jr. emceed the award ceremony last night bringing the coach of the Miami Hurricanes “for a long long time” Randy Shannon to the Mic. Shannon got a standing ovation from the crowd of a couple hundred. With the audience seated Shannon thanked his players and assured them the gesture wouldn’t get them out of any 5:45 a.m. practices. He went on to talk about his continued message to the players: “If you do things right you will be rewarded.”
A season highlight video that was horrible in comparison to ours was played – when it started Aldarius Johnson said “I’m about to catch a nap.”
The seniors were recognized and the awards were handed out.
Mariutto Family Scholarship Award for Academic Excellence – Jake Byrne
Plumer Award for Leadership, Motivation and Spirit – Randy Phillips
Strength Training Athlete of the Year – Allen Bailey – When he was walking up to get his award Davon Johnson said “That ain’t fair he eats gators.” And when he was walking up the stage one of the lineman (Joel Figueroa I think?) told him to rip his shirt off and flex.
Jack Harding (MVP) – Jason Fox (O) and Darryl Sharpton (D)
Here’s are Darryl Sharpton’s awards up close.
The U was given for most of the awards while the other trophy was given out for MVP. Jacory Harris and Randy Phillips’ awards for Media “Good Guy” (which the media members who cover the team on a daily basis voted for) were pretty much the football part of the MVP trophy.
Earlier this year, after USF beat FSU at Doak Campbell, the school from Tampa that considers itself to be in South Florida put up a rather strange billboard.
Because beating a team while they are having a bad year definitely puts you in line with 3 schools who have won 10 championships when you have never won anything relevant.
No USF you are not part of the “Big 4″. You have won one completely irrelevant bowl game. No, you are no where near the good teams in the state of Florida. However, there is a class of teams you can identify with.
And your not even at the top of the list of those teams. At least FAU has two bowl victories.
It was brutally clear early in the game Saturday that South Florida was completely out-matched against Miami. Miami’s first four drives produced 233 yards and 3 touchdowns. The rest of the game didn’t really matter as it was over already.
Besides the actual football this was a painful game to watch – or listen to I should say. You could see it coming from the opening kickoff, which was called a fair catch – even though one was never called for. The announcers….the horrible, dreadful, moronic, pieces of crap we had for announcers – said there should of been a penalty for running after catching a fair catch. But that was only the beginning of the horrifying onslaught of B.S. we had to hear from them. My favorites – Jacory Harris can’t handle the pressure and that’s why he has thrown so many picks this season and Harris has spread the ball around because only Leonard Hankerson has stepped up at the wide receiver position. Seriously? Have you watched a Miami game this season? Did you prepare at all for this broadcast? It was obvious they hadn’t since the entire 4th quarter was devoted to Notre Dame coaching talk. Let’s not talk about the direction these programs are going, the amount of talent on the field from the state of Florida, or any of the other 20 things I could come up with off the top of my head. No let’s talk about what you saw on ESPN this morning when you should of been doing some research on the two teams you were going on television to do a game on…A game that has nothing to do with Notre Dame! Or he can just talk about Britney Spears some more. I give up.
