Canespace

Forget Football, Think Tennis

For the first time since November 2019, the University of Miami women’s tennis team is headed to a fall tournament.

Due to the cancelation of the 2020 fall campaign because of COVID-19, it has been nearly two years since the Hurricanes competed in this portion of their season.

In fact, only two of Miami’s eight players have previously played in any fall tournaments as a Hurricane: Nada Dimovska and Daevenia Achong. Each did so only in 2019.

Achong is one of five Hurricanes set to visit Cary, N.C., for this weekend’s season-opening Fall Ranked Spotlight, hosted by NC State, Thursday through Sunday at Cary Tennis Park.

 

Two players—third-year sophomore Diana Khodan and sophomore Isabella Pfennig—will be making their collegiate fall debuts. Two others—sophomore Audrey Boch-Collins and fifth-year senior Eden Richardson—played in fall tournaments at their prior colleges, but are in their first year at The U.

Given the group’s lack of experience on the fall circuit, 21st-year head coach Paige Yaroshuk-Tews addressed what it will be like for them.

“The fall season for them is just like having all freshmen, but at the end of the day, tennis is tennis,” she said. “You have to find your motivation a little bit more, in the fall, for yourself. It comes a little bit less for your team because the only person you’re going to let down if you don’t show up is yourself. So, motivation is a little different. Focuses are going to remain the same. But all these kids love tennis, so nobody wants to lose. Nobody wants to let themselves down.

“It’s like going to a junior tournament with a coach is how I would look at it,” Yaroshuk-Tews continued. “It’s like, ‘We’re going to play and you have a great coach with you. Let’s go get better.’ We’ve got great opportunities. They way they’ve set up this tournament is [that it features] the best players from all these teams. So, hopefully we’ll have some really good opportunities against ranked opponents and we’ll see what happens.”

It will indeed be a loaded field full of talent in the Tar Heel State. Miami’s five competitors will be joined by individuals from some of the nation’s finest programs: UCF, Duke, Michigan, North Carolina, NC State, Ohio State, Oklahoma, Princeton, USC, South Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia.

The singles draw will feature 32 players in a compass draw, while the doubles pairs—Boch-Collins/Khodan and Achong/Pfennig are Miami’s duos—will be split into four-team round-robin groupings.

Action is scheduled to begin Thursday at 3:30 p.m., with each doubles pair playing two matches that day. Every player will then play two singles matches on both Friday and Saturday, followed by one singles match and one doubles match on Sunday. Competition begins at 9 a.m. on each of the final three days of the tournament.

This is the second iteration of the Fall Ranked Spotlight, the first of which came in September 2019 at the USTA National Campus in Orlando, Fla. Estela Perez-Somarriba, then the reigning national champion in her fourth year at Miami, claimed the singles crown.

The attention this weekend, however, will not be on results. Rather, it will be the way in which the Hurricanes compete on the court.

“Outcome is definitely not the focus for us right now in the fall. Winning is simply icing,” Yaroshuk-Tews shared. “I think it’s, like, what type of tennis are we playing? What type of tennis are we bringing up to North Carolina? We’ve been focusing on being a little bit more aggressive, taking some more risks, taking some more chances. We know what we can do well and we know what we need to improve upon. So, what we’re looking to see in a pressure situation is making some adjustments, improving on some things. That’s going to solely be the focus. If we win, that’s great. If we lose, as long as we lose the right away, nobody really cares [in the fall].”

While a coach can ever be sure exactly what his/her team will be like until it begins a season, Yaroshuk-Tews is encouraged by what she has seen from her roster thus far in practice.

The Hurricanes have been on the court at the Neil Schiff Tennis Center for quite some time getting ready for this moment, the start of the fall season. Now it is here.

Game Day: Miami vs Michigan State

Today at Hard Rock Stadium your Miami Hurricanes face the Michigan State Spartans in a critical early season matchup.

If Miami is to make something special of the 2021 college football season it starts today at noon.

We think they can and they will.

That is all we have to say about that.

Canespace Prediction: Hurricanes 34 - Spartans 13

Pro Canes: NFL(U) Weekly Leaders

There was a day not to long ago when former University of Miami football players who previously played on Saturdays ruled the NFL fields on Sundays. First round draft picks from UM were so commonplace they set many records.

It seemed every game you watched there was another Miami Hurricane "Legend of the Fall" running, catching and scoring or intercepting, blocking or tackling the other team. In fact, the league was often referred to as NFLU.

Today there are far fewer former 'Canes in the NFL, but still, there is a solid representation across the league and on TV. This past week these were the leaders in performance, productivity and stats in the NFL (from ProCanes).

There Is An App For That

We all know that Alabama showed The University of Miami football team what it looks like to play the game we call "football" in Atlanta.

Sure, we all saw that "Roll Tide" demonstrated how to be aggressive and how to execute the fundamentals of the game such as blocking, tackling, running, passing and scoring. Apparently, they call it football.

Miami demonstrated how not to play the game. They played scared, confused and conservative in the game and never competed. They missed tackles, they dropped passes and got worn down like an old tire.

What we saw was Advantage Alabama.

Now, your Miami Hurricanes face off against Appalachian State in a home game at Hard Rock Stadium. So if there is a rebound game for the Bama loss, App State may be the cure for that. Or, maybe not, we do not know.

We say Miami wins 34-13.

Here We Go: Canes vs Tide

Are you ready for some football?

OK, that's a dumb question, of course you are!

Well for your entertainment pleasure we have a great start to the 2021 college football season when your Miami Hurricanes meet the Alabama Crimson Tide in Atlanta on Saturday at 3:30.

Can Miami compete with Alabama? Well, Vegas says no.

They have the Hurricanes as 20 point underdogs. They sat Miami will score less than 21 points. We say bulls#%@!

Miami fans remember times when they were huge underdogs to Nebraska in 1983. How did that turn out?

In our humble opinion, this game will come down to the fact of IF Miami can outscore the very talented "roll tide" crew.

UM QB King will need to rule the game, and the stadium, for the Canes to win.

We think he will and Miami will win easily.

Canespace Prediction: Miami 34 - Bama 13.

Second Scrimmage Belongs To The Defense

It was, for the Miami Hurricanes, one last preseason test of sorts.

With two weeks of practice and one scrimmage already behind them, the Hurricanes took the field Saturday for their final scrimmage of camp – one players know coaches will study closely as Miami shifts gears and begins game preparations for its Sept. 4 opener against Alabama.

As one might expect, several Hurricanes found ways to deliver, whether they made a key play to extend an eventual scoring drive or whether they got behind the line of scrimmage to stop a quarterback in his tracks.

For head coach Manny Diaz, though, one group clearly had the edge.

“I saw improvement from scrimmage one, which is what you would’ve expected,” Diaz said. “[Quarterback] D’Eriq [King] got us going again offensively [with] an explosive play and a touchdown drive to get things going. But the night belonged to the defense. From start to finish, the [No.] 1 defense was pretty dominant tonight.”

Here, some additional notes on how Miami’s defense performed Saturday and other things the Hurricanes can take from their final scrimmage of camp.

1. The defensive line was disruptive

More than a few members of Miami’s defensive line made their presence known Saturday.

For the second straight scrimmage, linebacker-turned-defensive-end Zach McCloud recorded a sack, as did fellow ends Elijah Roberts and Deandre Johnson. Defensive tackle Nesta Jade Silvera notched a sack, too.

The group – and the rest of the defensive front – kept a steady pressure on Miami’s trio of quarterbacks and, in Diaz’s opinion, showed improvement from last week’s scrimmage.

“I thought our defensive line was excellent. Very disruptive,” Diaz said. “Silvera had a sack. McCloud had a sack, Elijah Roberts had a sack. Deandre Johnson had a sack. I thought [linebacker] Corey Flagg had a great scrimmage. [Linebacker] Keontra Smith [had] a PBU and a bunch of tackles. [Linebacker] Waynmon Steed had four tackles. [They] did some really good things. They made themselves hard to run the ball…[and] put the offense in some long yard situations where you could get in some pressure situations.”

2. Miami’s tackling overall was improved

It wasn’t just the defensive front that earned praise from Diaz.

Several of Miami’s strikers and defensive backs recorded multiple tackles on Saturday and that, the coach said, was also key after last week’s scrimmage.

“Our tackling was night and day from last week. We tackled much, much better,” Diaz noted. “Very little run after the catch. A lot of guys swarming around the ball. A lot of confidence. Big strides from where we were a week ago.”

 

Click here to read more on the performance of the QBs and Wide receivers:

https://miamihurricanes.com/news/2021/08/22/football-takeaways-from-miamis-final-scrimmage-of-camp/

First Scrimmage Is In The Books

After a little more than a week of workouts on Greentree, Sunday marked one of the first significant tests of preseason camp for the Hurricanes: a scrimmage.

Full pads were donned. Big plays were made. And, Miami head coach Manny Diaz said, his players had an opportunity to compete in an environment a bit more similar to the ones they’ll face on Saturdays this fall.

And for one player in particular, the scrimmage was especially significant.

“Guys played hard, but the story is it’s great to see D’Eriq King,” Diaz said of Miami’s veteran quarterback, who continues working his way back from a knee injury suffered in last season’s finale. “I thought he was phenomenal running the offense…Guy’s a tough guy to defend.”

Here, some additional notes on King’s performance, along with some of what the Hurricanes can take from their first scrimmage of the 2021 season as they move into the second week of camp.

1. King takes another step forward

Since tearing his ACL last December, King – Miami’s unquestioned leader on and off the field – has made it clear he had every intention of being ready to play in the Hurricanes’ season opener against Alabama on Sept. 4.

After seven months of intense rehabilitative work, King led the Hurricanes through offensive drills when Miami opened camp earlier this month. Sunday, he took another step forward in his recovery, participating in his first scrimmage since getting hurt

The redshirt senior completed 12 of his 16 passes for 124 yards and two touchdowns. During one point in the scrimmage, he had nine straight completions.

It was a performance that, of course, energized teammates and coaches – and had the quarterback himself smiling.

“It was a good feeling to get back out there in like a real-game situation,” King said. “I felt pretty good…I was so happy driving here today to do the scrimmage, first time we were really live, guys were taken to the ground. We had referees out here. It was a real-game situation. Everything felt good and I felt comfortable again. It’s a really good feeling.”

2. The receivers stepped up

King and the rest of Miami’s quarterbacks had plenty of help Sunday from more than a few of their playmakers, including some of the newest faces in the Hurricanes receivers room.

Freshman Jacolby George had a big night, catching seven passes for 127 yards with a touchdown, while fellow freshman Romello Brinson had four catches for 73 yards.

Charleston Rambo, a transfer from Oklahoma, had one of the biggest plays of the night, a one-handed 27-yard touchdown grab that elicited plenty of cheering from the offense. He finished with 60 receiving yards on the night.

“It was spread out throughout a lot of numbers,” Diaz said of the receivers’ productivity. “Charleston Rambo had a touchdown catch, 60 yards receiving, a beautiful catch in the end zone. Jacolby George, [one of] the young guys, seven [catches] for 127 [yards] with a touchdown on a slant. Romello Brinson four [catches] for 73 [yards]. Good to see Pope, three [catches] for 56 [yards]. Brashard [Smith] had a couple catches for 30 [yards] as well and it wouldn’t be a scrimmage without [Xavier] Restrepo making five catches. The guy does it every time we scrimmage.”

Added King of the receivers, “I love those guys. They make plays every day in practice. To come out here in a real-game setting and see them make plays, it’s really encouraging. I’m proud of them. I’m happy for them.”

Read More Here: https://miamihurricanes.com/news/2021/08/16/football-takeaways-from-miamis-first-scrimmage-of-camp/

We Ready, We Ready!

There were moments, rare though they may have been, when D’Eriq King couldn’t help but wonder if he’d really, truly be ready for the start of Miami’s new season.

When the MRI revealed he’d torn his ACL in late December. When he was unable to walk after surgery. When he relied on crutches to help him move. When doctors and physical therapists told him it wasn’t time for him to run just yet.

But anytime the questions and doubt crept in, King did his best to refocus.

He’d gather his thoughts, put his head down and find a way to hit the next benchmark in his rehabilitation process. Now, less than eight months removed from a knee injury that left him devastated, the quarterback is ready to get back on Greentree.

He’ll have his opportunity Friday evening when the Hurricanes finally open preseason camp.

“I’ve been working my butt off all summer. I didn’t really have any weeks off. I’ve just been trying to rehab and do the best I can,” King said Wednesday. “I’m still taking it day-by-day. A lot of people don’t understand the rehab process isn’t going to end before camp starts. It’s literally going to be all year…It’s going to be a long process, but I feel awesome right now. I’m ready to go.”

That’s news teammates, coaches and Miami’s fans are, understandably, excited to hear.

“I want to see him get back to what he loves, but we’ve also seen, inside the program, the work he’s put in since his surgery and what he’s done in his rehab. You can’t forget that,” said Hurricanes head coach Manny Diaz. “When our fans get to watch him play, you’ll get to see the end product, but every step along the way, all he’s done to get back on the field, he’s been relentless. I couldn’t be more proud of him.”

Last fall, King – a transfer from Houston – wasted little time in emerging as one of Miami’s leaders on and off the field.

He helped engineer comeback wins against both North Carolina State and Virginia Tech. He dazzled in both Miami’s 52-10 win over rival Florida State and the Hurricanes’ top-20 road win at Louisville.

King finished the year completing 64 percent of his passes, throwing for 2,686 yards and 23 touchdowns, while rushing for another 538 yards and four more scores.

He announced just before Miami’s Cheez-it Bowl matchup against Oklahoma State that he would take advantage of the extra year of eligibility granted to student-athletes because of the COVID-19 pandemic and excitement for the 2021 season began brewing quickly.

But with 4:06 left in the first half of that game, everything changed.

Read more here:

https://miamihurricanes.com/news/2021/08/04/football-king-ready-to-start/

Two Tickets To Paradise

On one field, Michael Irvin and Lamar Thomas demonstrated how to run routes. On another, Joaquin Gonzalez and Brett Romberg led offensive linemen through drills. Clearly, these current and former UM players were in paradise.

And at one point in the evening, as young football players milled about, Calais Campbell pulled Greg Rousseau to the side and showed him some of the moves that helped him earn the NFL’s Defensive Player of the Year award in 2017. Soon after, Jaelan Phillips joined the conversation.

On Saturday night, nearly two dozen former Hurricanes football stars returned to the Carol Soffer Indoor Practice Facility and the Greentree Practice Fields to participate in one of the more well-known events hosted by the Miami program: Paradise Camp.

For many of them, whether they are an NFL Hall of Famer or a alum still playing in the league, the opportunity to be part of Paradise Camp was a no-brainer, their chance to give back to the program they believe changed their lives.

“You come to The U and you’ll always have support. It’s a deep thing. You will always have support,” Irvin said. “All of us showing up all the time, it’s important to show whatever kid is thinking about coming here…we want them to know, right here, buddy, you will always have that support and I think that’s very important…It’s not like a family. We are a family.”

Added Gonzalez, “Any excuse to come back to Coral Gables, even though I live in Miami, is always welcome. It’s always awesome. To do it under these circumstances, such a beautiful backdrop, all about football and talk to the younger generations, to me, I thoroughly enjoy it, maybe more than the kids do. It’s an opportunity.”

Irvin, the Hall of Fame receiver who has been at several past Paradise Camps, helped kick off the evening’s festivities by addressing a large crowd that included approximately 300 campers, their families and high school coaches.

Behind him, Miami head coach Manny Diaz smiled and an awe-inspiring group of Hurricanes nodded along as Irvin spoke. Among them were Edgerrin James, Lamar Thomas, David Njoku, Calais Campbell, Trent Harris, Ufomba Kamalu, Jon Beason, Sean Spence, Antrel Rolle, Duane Starks, Deon Bush, Kenny Phillips, Sheldrick Redwine, Brian Monroe, Javarris James, Lamar Miller and K.J. Osborn.

Also there were the three newest members of the Hurricanes’ NFL fraternity, Jaelan Phillips and Greg Rousseau, who were both first-round picks in this year’s draft and kicker Jose Borregales, who signed a free agent contract with the Super Bowl champion Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

While past Paradise Camp events have primarily featured Miami greats who have already completed their careers, Diaz felt it was important to make sure Hurricanes currently still playing in the NFL could share their perspective with the campers in attendance.

“It’s really neat. It’s fun to have them share the stories of their first minicamps and things like that,” Diaz said. “The alumni that were here in the 80s, 90s and early 2000s are awesome. But I do think it’s important that our recent alumni feel that you don’t have to be 20 years removed to have the pride of the program. To see guys like K.J. Osborn, [Sheldrick] Redwine, Trent Harris here…the more we can do that, the better we all are.”

The Legend That Is Harry Miller

During my time running this crazy blog I have met some pretty interesting and serious people. And one of those people is my friend Harry Miller.

He recently visited Central Florida where we reunited to celebrate our Canespace friendship. Needless to say a good time was had by all. 

Of all the bloggers I have met, and there are many, few are more impressive, experienced or well traveled as my good friend Harry Miller. This guy has been there and done that many, many times. He is the Clint Eastwood of Canespace.

If you could spend four hours with Miller he could spin you some stories that would impress. From growing strawberries in South Florida to supervising crews laying tons of iron to building new homes this all around guy has got it done.

We had lunch on the lake in Clermont and he told me some stories that would make your head spin. Tales of fist fights, flame outs and the success of the american dream come to life. All true and an amazing history to experience.

Harry Miller, I appreciate your friendship and our shared moments together.

You are an American icon, a patriot and a Canespace Legend to the end.