That Smell

This blog feature was written by Original Ten (OT) Canespacer SolarCane as part of "SolarWeek" here at Canespace.  A special tribute to the OT is scheduled for our one year anniversary on June 16, 2008.

Skynyrd sang about it.

The Rock cooked it up.

Kilgore may have said it best in Apocalypse Now: “The smell…you know that gasoline smell, the whole hill. Smelled like...victory.”

For many, many years and through 58 straight victories at the Orange Bowl, teams would lineup against the Canes and inhale that smell.  What it smelled like was fear. The Canes wore it like fine cologne. During warm-ups you could see the resigned look in opponents eyes as the pungent odor of impending doom swept over them.

The swagger, the confidence, the cockiness, and the in your face Cane attitude was intimidating enough. Then you had that smell hanging over the opponents huddle. Sometimes the smell was apprehension, sometimes it was just soiled underwear.

More than one quarterback lost their lunch on the Orange Bowl turf.  They may have tried to blame it on the flu, butterflies, bad burritos, whatever, but we all knew that it was really just that smell.

In a blindfold test on game day Gators, Noles, and Irish couldn’t tell the difference between their team's huddle and a portable toilet.

When you think of what stimulates your senses at a game, the action and the sounds would surly be at the top of your list. All the while you are hardly aware you are being bombarded with aromas from invigorating to sublime.

That tropical Miami air, that distinctive smell of smeared sun block, the intoxicating perfume of lady Canes, the refreshing aroma of ice cold beer, the sweat of shirtless fans in the September heat, the odor of arepas, pinchos and hot dogs, that pungent whiff every once in a while of nature's finest, all are part of the game day experience.

After two consecutive sub-par seasons some Canes fans are wondering out loud: "Have the cleaner, more politically correct Canes lost the ability to cast that smell over opponents?"

Well, after the recently landing the 2008 recruiting class dominated by the ballers from the 305, many fans feel that Canes head coach Randy Shannon has taken the first big step forward to restoring the proud Canes tradition of instilling fear into their opponents.  Fearing The U is "in" again.

In fact, the way the future is looking, as far as opposing teams are concerned, well they can just spin a little Lynyrd Skynyrd tune that once again will fit the exact moment they step onto the field:

Ooh, ooh that smell
Can't you smell that smell?
Ooh, ooh that smell
The smell of death surrounds you.

Comments

[solarcane]

sniff this
peace

[SOUP]

Scratch and sniff

[SOUP]

Solar...check the FeedJit map now!

[solarcane]

soup,
I was looking at that map a couple times this weekend.
that is an amazing feat to have pulled off!

You can't see Hogshead's blip cause Oz is under the banner.

nice pic, the porta potty cracked me up.

I'm home working on blueprints Monday/today i'll be on the blog a couple hours now and then
peace

[SOUP]

Roger that!

See you tomorrow on The 'Space...

[Loco]

I smell dancin' in arkansas

[orange 'n green in the vein]

I unfortunately smell the struggling basketball teams' game right now. It smells squalid. Deadeye better find somebody to come correct with him to the heart of Clinton-land or else it's going to be a short time on the dance floor. Heard Haith focusing on the point guard as a matchup of importance on the radio. Hurdle will have to step up to the task and outplay him.

[HearAcane]

Anyone who wants to go dancing at a site that brings its game:

www.thebiggestdance.com

[Calvin]

I wonder why people keep sleeping on steve spurrier, they think he's all about throwing the football, but when you look thru the years, spurrier almost always had a good running back, emmitt, ernest graham(never had break away speed but averaged overr 5 yards a carry even in the pro's at one point), fred taylor. Don't get fooled into thinking spurrier is just a passing coach.

As far as "thee incompetent one" goes, i don't see or to many highschools lining up to hire him, he can forget about headcoaching again. You know if he was honest, i can careless if's he's honest to me or not, but when someone is not even honest to their own self, they got problems. i'd have respect for him if he came out and said, you know what, beng a headcoach is tuff work, somepeople are made for it, i'm not, i'm better suited as an assistant, he would be hired by now, but no, this idiot wants to try and persuade people to look at a 60 & 15 record that if he's honest. knows the majority of those wins were handed to him.

Wen it comes to recruiting, i can careless about who we get or don't get from here on out, as long as we have the guys in place that we have now, we'll be solid, especially once we start winning again. The the thing you got to feel good about shannon is, you know he's not a punk at headcoach, he's going to go and try to win everytime, so we know, if the offense is inside the 3 yard line, that's 4 down territory, phuck 3 points.

The days of being conservative are over. Just like in the oklahoma game, shannon made sure that we started the game off being aggressive, that play action pass to lance leggett in one on one coverage, that was a perfect play call, if you get 1 on 1 coverage you are suppose to 1make the throw, and 2, beat your man, lance didn't kill his man, but he had him beat enuff if the ball was on the money it would have put oklahoma on their heels.

As far as bball goes, i just can't get excited about it myself.

[aqua]

so I guess Billy Rolle didn't win any of those games at the west this year either... all those wins were 'handed' to him...

[aqua]

lets say WVU wins the title this year. did bill stewart do something rich rodriguez couldn't do, or was the title 'handed' to him?

[Esteban]

billy rolle had won a title before and proven he's a good coach so its not a fair comparison. but when he left central at the last minute to join the west people knew it was because that was a championship team. Rolle's no dummy he wasn't going to change anything cause he knows the cliche is right - if it ain't broke... so would anyone say that Rolle led that team to a title this year? not many. but they'll give him credit for keeping things running smoothly especially considering the situation surrounding the season.

coker was smart enough not to mess with a good thing. he was handed a championship team and didn't mess it up. there have been other coaches in that same situation and they messed it up so coker deserves credit for that. Coker will never be winning a title again as a Head Coach or be given a head coaching job at a football power. Rolle on the other hand has been known to be one of the top coaches in dade for a long time.

[aqua]

so coker hiring chud and randy, keeping commits like sean taylor antrell rolle frank gore, mean nothing?

not only that, it belittles the competition we played against. it was every teams superbowl against us.

not only that it, disrespects the hard working guys that didn't make it to the pros from that team. Sands, Geathers, Payton, Carl Walker, etc. those guys ran through brick walls.

to say all thoses wins were 'handed' to us is just plain dumb.

[SOUP]

I again somehow forgot to mention that this feature was written by SolarCane for Canespace as the second installment of SolarWeek at The Space. Proper credits at the top of the blog are forthcoming.

Aqua...I follow your line of reasoning and you certainly are good at asking a lot of questions for others to defend their position on the Coker bashing.

But I haven't heard U make your full and detailed arguement FOR Coker yet. Or is it just underlying sarcasm and cynicism where U are just trying to stir up the pot here?

Surely U can't really be a Coker apologist can U?

[SOUP]

to say all thoses wins were 'handed' to us is just plain dumb.

Posted by: aqua | March 17, 2008 at 10:34 AM

Aqua...I don't think the arguement here is that the wins were handed to "US" as a team, but that they were handed to the head coach by the PLAYERS.

The players deserve most (80-90%) of the credit just like at MNW this year. They did the work, they had the talent, they won the games. The coach was really just along for the ride.

Would U argue that without Coker NO WAY the Canes would have won the championship in 2001? Or that it is ONLY because of Coker's great coaching that they won?

Because I would certainly make the arguement that without those players NO WAY does Coker win one and the ONLY WAY he does is with them!

[caneranus]

So the Canes are the 7 seed facing off against St. Marys.. Bracketbusters show me how deep you got the CANES going.. LOL! I got them going to the ELITE 8 in my bracket. Upsetting Texas, then Stanford. I'm sorry I suck at this...hehe

[Zakkee]

If only we could get Jack's heart and focus into the body of Collins, I'd be confident even against Texas. Jack and a focused/pumped Collins can make a run.

Esteban, go see Funny Games. Its a change of pace from movies we're used to seeing. Its wicked.

[caneranus]

EXACTLY ZAKKEE.. I posted it here after the NC State game. The tournament would depend upon Collins, Hurdle and Graham. If Collins steps up we have a chance. Hurdle and Graham just have to show poise and intensity on D. Collins= Hurricanes X factor.

[Loco]

Personally I see us falling to Texas... but if we somehow pull off the upset over them, I think we make it through to the elite 8

[Zakkee]

I agree caner, Hurdle and Graham can be trusted to provide energy and defense (also some scoring). We need to TEAM REBOUND (especially DEFENSIVELY)! If Graham, Collins, King, and Asbury could help hold teams to one shot opportunity a possession...we could beat anybody.

ENERGY
DEFENSIVE REBOUNDING
DEFENSE

Establish these keys..everything else will take care of itself.

[Zakkee]

One and done and we'll move on!

-refering to our oppositions offensive possessions.

[Esteban]

the wins weren't handed to the team - a championship team was handled to the coach. its not belittling the players or competition to say that.

[SOUP]

March 16, 2008

The Hurricanes are going to the Big Dance! The seventh-seeded University of Miami men's basketball team will open NCAA Tournament play versus 10th-seeded St. Mary's on Friday at Alltel Arena in North Little Rock, Ark., at 11:30 a.m. (CT).

The winner advances to Sunday's second round to face the winner of the No. 2 Texas/No. 15 Austin Peay game.

It marks the 14th postseason appearance for the Hurricanes and the sixth trip to the NCAA Tournament. It is the third postseason appearance for Miami under fourth-year head coach Frank Haith, whose squad put together a 10-game turnaround from last season to head into the Big Dance with a 22-10 record and a program-best fifth-place finish in the ACC, the nation's top-ranked conference.

Although it marks a debut for Haith's Hurricanes in the NCAA Tournament, he has previously advanced as an associate head coach or assistant coach five times -- including three appearances in the Sweet Sixteen, one appearance in the Elite Eight and one trip to the Final Four.

Miami has advanced as far as the Sweet Sixteen, in 1999-2000, and last advanced to the NCAA Tournament in 2001-02.

[RayChanCaneFan]

Why on God's Green Earth are yall talkn bout Coker...He's gone moving right along...So whtz goin on wit the Spring Break who stayed to get better???Who is still injured???

12% time is almost here...
C
A
N
E
S
CANES

[caneranus]

What does everybody got for the Oklahima vs St. Joseph's game? It is the 6 seed vs 11 in the EAST bracket. I've never seen either play. I just know the the BIG 12 might be a tad overrated. Any info would be great.

[SOUP]

RCCF...vice prez of the 12% club shows up! Who knows why we talk about CKer? Aqua brought it up and you know how that goes. U are correct, it is an old tired argument and we should really move on.

Canes Basketball and Baseball is where it's at!

[SOUP]

From AOL and not a single mention of Miami!

http://sports.aol.com/ncaabb/story/_a/road-to-final-four-starts-with-heels/20080316180909990001

[JC]

Wouldn't get worked up about it there soup, the Canes are a trendy pick to be one and done, or else they just aren't mentioned. The obsession is about how top heavy this bracket is and with the top teams. The Canes have no trademark name or star power to excite people.

All it takes is two wins and we're the talk of the tournament. Until then, it's put up or shut up for Haith and the boys.

Actually we'll get some press if we beat St. Marys.

All I want is 1 NCAA win. The rest is gravy.

[Aquiessence]

I don't need to defend Coker, some of ya are very naive.

Just remember:

When you're ready to cross the street, I'm already on the other side.

[Cane Since 1982]

Aquiessence,

Diminishing returns evry single year he was head coach. There is no defense. In the line of coaches since Schnellenberger, Coker is 2nd form the bottom. Right above you guessed it Dennis Erickson.

[lapa]

Coimbra, April 23, 1975.
"A few days ago, during the homily of Sunday Mass in a parish church in rural surroundings, the priest spoke to his parishioners about the forthcoming elections for the Constituent Assembly. Launched hand of the parabola to be better understood and told them:

-- "My dear brothers in Christ: suppose that one of you is owner of a dairy cow; if socialism wins, the brother takes the cow, but will have to give the milk to the party, if the communism wins, we will stand without the milk and without. cow. .." "

[Mcginns Ale]

Keep the faith---AQUA

[Aquahol]

Diminishing returns evry single year he was head coach. There is no defense.

Amazing responses I get. "There is no defense" I love the finality of it.

Did it occur to you that he was perfect his first year? That anything except being perfect is going to diminsh that record?

[Cane Since 1982]

Yes that occured to me. (12-0)
It also occured to me he lost one in his second. (12-1)

Now his recruits start to play
11-2

[Aquahol]

Coker was apart of recruiting kids from 96-06. Don't understand your logic...

Some of Cokers mistakes were:

Hiring Dan Werner, Todd Berry, Mosley, Walton
Promoting Werner
Recruiting Brock Berlin

[Cane Since 1982]

Yes that occured to me. (12-0)
It also occured to me he lost one in his second. (12-1)

Now his recruits start to play
11-2
9-3
9-3
7-6

Shannon takes over with Larry's recruits
5-7

Year - Points For - Point against
2001 - 512 - 117
2002 - 527 - 248
2003 - 361 - 196
2004 - 380 - 204
2005 - 325 - 171
2006 - 255 - 201

2007 - 247 - 312

He fired most of his coaches (Good Coaches, some who had been with the program for over 10 years) the year before he was fired. At the time I believed and still believe this was a last ditch effort to save his job.

Numbers don't lie.

[Esteban]

coker was the perfect coach for the 2001 team.

and thankfully he's no longer the coach.

[Naive Cane Fan According to Aqua]

Aqua...last year 9 D-I coaches were hired. This year 11 D-I Head Coaches were hired. That's 20 in two years.

Not ONE was named Coker.

I rest my case.

[Calvin]

soup said along time ago you'd be surprised who visits CANEspace, well i think it's safe to say we know who aqua is. It's also insane to say or suggest somehow "thee incompetent one" somehow is a better coach than butch davis because davis didn't get a ring, lol, that's funny, when in fact, the bcs was changed because they cheated davis out of getting his ring as a headcoach. So the team had to wait one more year to get it.

davis gets credit for building UM back from the ground up, the buzzard imposter headcoach that just left gets credit for running UM back into the ground, the evidence is clear, regardless of what butch does at unc, his legacy is clear, most of the same coaches were in place that butch had, in fact, shannon was an upgrade over schiano, and cristobal left, chud brought back a lil more creativity to the offense, maybe people have amnesia, but our offense was exactly a powerhouse offense when elmer was running, in fact it was one of the most basic and easy to predict/read offenses in college football.

The problem was, back than it was like playing the houston rockets now on their streak, just alot of the right pieces in place at almost every position. similar to the team being assembled now. So the statement that wins were handed over, any coach who would have come in was handed wins without doing anything, why for the most part, when ou got guys like soldinger, kehoe, vernon, and curtis, how much work really got done by elmer.

I keep hearing all this credit being giving to him when he was oc, maybe i was looking at different games because all i can rememeber being called was run right and run lefts with edgerring james regardless of down and distance. Hell we were down 21 points to ucla and it was something like 3rd and 8, we ran the damyum ball, luckily, the o-line(coached by kehoe) and edgerrin james made it happen, but the play calling was ridiculous. That wasn't the only game where the play calling was was pathetic.

So again, somebody show me a sign besides the fact that a few players wanted fudd as the headcoach, what has he really done.

[Aqua]

Definetly going in circles here, how bout answering this: That anything except being perfect is going to diminsh that record?

Yes that occured to me. (12-0)
It also occured to me he lost one in his second. (12-1)

Now his recruits start to play
11-2

Still no answer to this: Coker was apart of recruiting kids from 96-06. Don't understand your logic...

Numbers don't lie.

You're right numbers don't lie.

Coker 1 title

[Aqua]

So again, somebody show me a sign besides the fact that a few players wanted fudd as the headcoach, what has he really done

Just guys like Ken Dorsey and Ed Reed. Who are they?

[Aqua]

regardless of what butch does at unc, his legacy is clear

Loosing to ECU is always a great way to pad the legacy...

[CanesgirlNC]

Sorry to break up the Coker *ishfest going on here but amazingly (or not) when I clicked on Foxsports and the UM bracket against St. Mary's it directs to the Miami of Ohio page. I mean what is THAT???

[Aqua]

Aqua...last year 9 D-I coaches were hired. This year 11 D-I Head Coaches were hired. That's 20 in two years.

Not ONE was named Coker.

I rest my case.

I guess Coker not being hired takes away from that 01 title. It really dimishes those wins vs. FSU and Nebraska.

Now I rest my case

[CanesgirlNC]

Aqua = The Real Miami Heat (again)

[Cane Since 1982]

Aqua quit using my half post where I hit the post button to early. Use the full post that shows the numbers continuing to decline.

Aqua I think the 2001 team (A team most experts consider the best team ever in college football) would have won the national championship with NO head coach. Now that I look at it. Imagine how good they could of been with out Coker holding them back.

[Aqua]

U meeting me on the other side of the street, CG?

[Cane Since 1982]

What did Coker do to make Dorsey and Reed who they are?

[CanesgirlNC]

As long as you look both ways first absolutely ;-D

[FREAK DADDY G]

SO are the Canes in the big dance or Miami (OH)???