The University of Miami began the 2007 college football season with renewed energy and high
expectations. Long time Hurricane and new Head Coach Randy Shannon brought in a new assistant coaches, a new attitude and a new theme of accountability to the team. He took the names off of the players jerseys and promoted team unity by forcing players from the offense and defense to interact and share dormitory rooms and space in the locker room.
Coach Shannon promised that the Canes would compete hard in practice, be accountable on and off the field and made it clear on several occasions that he expected to win every game this year. Little did he know that the 2007 season would be a long and winding road.
At the beginning of the 2007 football season it seemed at least possible, even likely, to many back then during Spring and Fall practice. There
was a chance at least that the U would field a team capable of winning most if not all of their games, and maybe, just maybe even the ACC for the first time. There were even a few secret whispers in dark corners by some about a potential National Championship if the Canes got lucky and the ball with the pointy ends bounced their way.
After all, the 2007 Canes were returning 17 starters and players in key positions. Shannon had managed
to hold together the latest recruiting class that on paper looked great and included several late surprises like Allen Bailey and Demarcus Van Dyke. Patrick Nix, the newest of the new offensive coordinators had studied under offensive minded Chan Gailey at Georgia Tech and was sure to help the Canes score more points than in the previous few years.
Many fans believed that just a few more points was going to be all it would take to turn the corner of respectability again and win more games, even big games in 2007, right? Especially with Walton and Hurtt and Barrow coaching the strength of the team, its defense.
Yes, it seemed back in August and into early September that everywhere you turned at the Hecht
Athletic Center in Coral Gables there was hope in the air. Heck, on a good day the hope was so thick that you could see it, smell it, even taste it.
The fans felt it too. Hope was good thing and we had it in bunches. The fans bought into the culture of change brought about by having a "real Miami Hurricane" at the helm of their beloved team. The fans jumped on board the Shannon Express bandwagon just as surely as they thought victories would jump into his lap.
Old school was in again. Some fans even claimed that there was an Orange Revolution afoot. Yes indeed, hope was everywhere!
There was the obligatory season opening win against Marshall at home followed by that fateful Saturday
in September against the Oklahoma Sooners when the fans dreams were dampened and their team exposed as not quite on the elite status again. But still hope was alive and well, especially after wins against crosstown rival FIU and an impressive victory over Texas A&M on a magical Thursday night in the OB. Duke was up next and was handled according to fashion before the wheels started to come off the Shannon Express.
Shannon's former boss, former UM and current UNC Head Coach Butch Davis, out-coached Randy and the Tar Heel players outplayed Randy's troops in Chapel Hill by taking a big early lead and holding on for the victory. Then the Canes were called for a "technical foul" for losing to Nix's former boss Chan Gailey and his Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets at home in the OB.
Hope was lost for some but TECHnically still on life support for most Canes fans with arch rival FSU and coach Bobby Bowden next on the horizon. All the Canes had to do was "win one for the Randy" and break the streak of consecutive losses to the Noles to get back on the ACC map and salvage their season.
The Canes rolled into Tallahassee and out of Doak Campbell Stadium with a huge win on late fourth quarter heroics that included a Kirby Freeman TD pass and a Colin McCarthy scope and score to seal the game. Hope and her best friend Luck, who clearly had left South Bend by this time, were now both smiling over the Canes once again.
Then after a week off and several key losses by ACC teams, the Canes and their once again full bucket-
o-hope actually had a chance to win the ACC! That's right, even after the early season losses, all they had to do was beat NC State and Virginia at home in their final game ever at the Orange Bowl and then take their show (and now overflowing bucket-o-hope) on the road to Blacksburg and Chestnut Hill and it was all theirs. Their first ACC title was ripe for the taking and right there in their hands.
Hope was happy. She was everywhere you looked and she was really happy.
Then on Saturday November 3, 2007, Hope died. The North Carolina State University football team killed her with their bare hands in broad daylight, right there in front of over 36,000 witnesses on the Orange Bowl field during the Canes homecoming game with the ACC championship on the line.
The newspapers all said that Hope (1983-2007) died a slow, agonizing and painful death to the
humiliating boos of many in attendance to watch the inevitable and final execution. The autopsy revealed that Hope never really had a chance in 2007. An unproductive offense, a porous defense, just plain poor special teams play and new coaches that appear to be learning their way led to her demise and never really gave Hope a chance for the Canes this year.
Hope was finally gone. Her best friend Luck was not present when she died, but later when asked she sadly said, "It certainly will not be the same around here with out her."
The only good news from this whole depressing saga is that Hope will return again, maybe even bigger,
better and stronger than ever, in 2008. She will be ushered in by a whole new group of highly rated and "can't miss" recruits, more experienced coaches and a bright, shiny state-of-the-art stadium named for another team and not actually located in Miami, but in Northern Dade County.
The University of Miami is confident that Canes fans will find it, and some much needed hope, in 2008. After all, it's all we have to hope for now, isn't it?