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Game Day Blog: Miami vs Duke

Nobody ever told us it was going to be this hard.  No one ever thought that winning in the ACC conference was going to take this much effort.  Not a single Canes fan ever thought it would take this long.  But it is, it does and it has.

The Miami Hurricane baseball team accomplished this year what their football brethren have not been able to: win an ACC Title. 

The hard ballers led by freshman pitcher Eric "Not Craig" Erickson and senior slugger Alonso "Over" Yonder tore up the competition at the ACC championships in Jacksonville to take home the hardware. 

It was Jim Morris' proud team of hard ballers that won the first conference championship for the Canes in the ACC in a major sport.

Now the boys wearing The U on their helmets and chase the ball with pointy ends are trying once again to do the same.  That strategy, as has been the case since the Canes joined the ACC, is not going according to plan so far in 2008. The Canes, who are 2-8 in their last 10 ACC games find themselves at 0-2 in the conference after dropping two straight games at home to UNC and FSU.  Butch's and Bobby's teams beat Randy's squad to send the Canes to 3-3 on the season and into the ACC cellar in the Coastal division.

Today Miami faces the Duke Blue Devils in what has become a MUST win for the Canes.  Now when most people see Miami vs Duke, they would of course think: "This is an automatic win."  While Duke is widely recognized for their outstanding basketball team and Coach K, they are NOT known for their football prowess.

Problem is, these aren't your father's Blue Devils.  These Dukies have a new Coach in David Cutcliff, an excellent QB in Thaddeus Lewis, a solid receiver in Eron Riley and a better ACC record at 1-1 than the Canes.

The Canes offense remains in the critical care unit after an extremely poor performance against lowly UCF last week, a game in which QB Robert Marve threw three interceptions and UM managed to squeak out a 20-14 win. The Canes defense played extremely well against UCF and actually shut them out with the Golden Knights points coming on kickoff and interception returns for scores.

As far as today's game goes, the Canes simply, absolutely, MUST win this game.  It doesn't matter if they win it by 20 points going away behind Marve's best game yet as a Cane or by 3 points with a Matt Bosher field goal in O/T.  They just have to win today to keep their season alive.  They have to play today as if losing is NOT an option. 

If they don't, tomorrow will be very, very difficult to face for this young and fragile team and it's small but dedicated fan base.  Just win baby, just win...

The Short List To South Beach: Week 8

The upsets of last week have rearranged the Shortlist to South Beach as the defending champion gets humbled and a new team rises to top of the remaining 31 teams which I rank as follows:

Texas, Alabama, Penn State, Oklahoma State, Texas Tech,, BYU, Utah, Boise State, Tulsa, Ball State, Florida, Oklahoma, Georgia, Cincinnati, Kansas, Kentucky, North Carolina, Georgia Tech, South Florida, Florida State, Michigan State, Boston College, LSU, Missouri, California, Southern Cal, Ohio St., Vanderbilt, UConn, Minnesota, Northwestern.

Only ten unbeaten teams remain on the inside track to the top of the Shortlist while two teams from the Big 10 make my predictions of their demise look extremely premature last week:

1) Minnesota outpaces Illinois in Champagne as Tim Brewster shows Ron Zook what a real game-day coach does on Saturdays.  After the Rose Bowl reaching last year in order to keep it's nose in the air at the college football public, the Zooker finds himself coming back to earth the hard way as his team is landing with a thud.  I would say he landed with a sick smack of mud, but he's still not welcome in the Swamp, for good reason of course.

2) Michigan State gets out of the gate quickly and holds on to beat Northwestern on the road to justify their top 25 ranking.  The Big 10 is wide open this year and without a round robin schedule it could get contentious at the end of the year if the breaks fall correctly in conference play.  The Spartans are a solid dark-horse contender to crash the Rose Bowl this year but you still won't be able to pay me to care about which Pac-10 fraud they would be matched up with on New Year's Day.

The Shortlist had no fatal upsets removing teams from it last week but this week I expect the following programs to find their way off to compensate:

BYU, Boston College, Georgia Tech, Vanderbilt, Michigan State, Kansas, Missouri.

This week features a number of games that amount to Shortlist Elimination Showdowns where the winner stays on the list and the loser starts planning a run on the title for next year.  Always an exciting time for me and always enjoyable football as well as desperation on every snap leads to teams leaving it all on the field in hopes of keeping their dreams of glory alive. 

The Shortlist should be whittled down to a manageable 24 teams next week if things go according to my vision but they so rarely do that a lower number of teams next week wouldn't be surprising. 

Try to find a way to enjoy the games this week, especially if you consider yourself a Hurricane fan as a win is always a reason to celebrate, despite some peoples inability to do so, and I'll see you back here next week as the upheaval on the Shortlist to South Beach is sorted out.

Copyright 2008 by Christopher Whelpton for Canespace.com.

Here's The Truth: Talent Matters

Recently here on The Space Canes fans have debated the age old argument of "is it coaching, or is it talent" that really determines the outcomes of games, makes or breaks seasons and win championships.  Well, after all of the back and forth, name calling and hurt feelings on both sides, we think we have finally found the truth: It's the talent stupid!

While many here on the blog seemed absolutely convinced that coaching is the key to victory and success it now has became clear that these few poor delusional dolts were missing the target altogether.  After all, how can you explain an unherealded coach like Jimmy Johnson arriving from Oklahoma State and winning a National Championship just a few years later?  Look at those 1896, '87 and '88 UM rosters.  Talent baby! 

JJ would leave his perch atop college football carried off the Orange Bowl field on the shoulders of his players only to go 1-15 in his first year with the Dallas Cowboys.  Sure he would then go on to win two Super Bowls with The 'Boys, but later would come back and fail miserably with the Miami Dolphins later in his career.  Same coach, different teams and most of all, different talent.

Dennis Erickson would follow Coach Johnson in Coral Gables and remarked upon seeing his first practice at Greetree Field: "I've never been around this much talent in my life".  After Erickson won two rings in 1989 and 1991 he was ushered out partly due to issues related to some scandalous activities that almost sunk the program.

Butch Davis would spend the next several tough years recruiting players while UM was on probation from Erickson's shenanigans.  Davis wound up assembling such a collection of talent that his successor Larry Coker was given a team that coached themselves to a National Championship in 2001. 

Butch left to coach the Cleveland Browns and was shown the door there after a few years of mediocre teams, a lack of talent and less than desirable results.

Your University of Miami Hurricanes find themselves in the same predicament now after the most recent head coach in absentia, one Larry Coker, forgot how to recruit in "The Bottom".  Talent rich South Florida, including the boys from the 561, 954 and most of all the 305, is what had always been the Canes target zone, their bread and butter when it came to landing the talent of tomorrow.

Now, current Head Coach Randy Shannon has returned the Canes to their rightful ownership of the talent welling up in Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties.  Coach Shannon understands the master plan of how and where to assemble the next group of talented players to restore the pride to the team in the orange and green and return The U to it's proper place among the college football elite.

Through all this one thing has remained absolutely true:  good coaching helps, a nice stadium doesn't hurt, but more than anything else, it's the talent on the field that wins games. It is a simple truth really: "It's the talent stupid!"

Technical Difficulties

Typepad has implemented a new blog formatting process where only 50 comments can be displayed at a time.  Obviouly this has totally screwed up the blog format as we know it. 

I have repeatedly attempted to contact them about the issue but as you can imagine they are swamped with complaints.  Last night when the issue first arose I emailed them and they responded today by saying that all of their blogs are being gradually rolled into the new format and evenetually all will be this way so get used to it.

I informed them in no uncertain terms that this is unacceptable and that they must change it back to the old format.  I have not heard back from them at this time.  I will continue to complain and try to get this issue resolved ASAP.  Please be patient!

Coaching Doesn't Matter

Paul Brown, Vince Lombardi, Bear Bryant, Don Shula, Joe Paterno, Tom Landry, Howard Schnellenberger, Bill Walsh, Chuck Noll, Jimmy Johnson, Bill Bellichek ...all of these names conjur up images of great minds, great coaches.

These men transcended their sport and their professsion by making their teams better than they ever dreamed or hoped they could be.  They built toughness, faith, endurance, trust and confidence in their teams. They were leaders, confident in their own ability to lead their teams through good times and bad, victory and defeat, and then to the promised land of a championship season.

Recently, some fans have doubted the responsibility that is placed on the coaching of their team.  They claim that it is only the players that control the game and it's outcome.  It is the talent on the field that determines the results.  They believe that talent will always overcome bad coaching. 

I say bull.  That is as far from the truth that can ever be imagined. All coaches are dealt their hand.  They must make from the players that they have the best plan of attack.  Those that do succeeed.  Those that dont perish.  That is the nature of college and professional sports.  Just ask Tommy Bowden.

Bowden was given many years, two excellent NFL caliber running backs, an ACC all conference QB and an ACC top 5 receiver to work with.  Then he lost two games and got fired.

So now, if coaching doesn't matter then why would the University of Miami fire Larry Coker?  The players loved him and lobbied for him.  He won a national championship in his first year!  He averaged 10 wins a season while at UM. By that standard he was a great coach, right? 

What could have led to his dismissal?  Did he all of a sudden forget how to coach?  No, he allegedly forgot how and/or where to recruit, and that is what led to the permanent and final demise of one Larry Coker.

And now, what about the current UM Head Coach, one Randy Shannon?  Hurricane player, hero, former star defensive coordinator?  Randy has warmed the hearts of Hurricane fans nationwide, yet the results since he took over are mediocre at best.  He hasn't (yet) turned it around.  He hasn't made his mark or laid his stamp on college football.

Will his fate be that he says: "I never had enough talent on the field to win?"  Or will his legacy be that he took the UM program from the depths of the Coker regime and built the program back up to where it should be.  Will he be able to say at the end of his tenure: "I came, I saw, and I conquered"!

Only time will tell what Shannon's fate will bring.  Until then, all Canes fans hope that Randy will be a winner at life, coaching and winning football games and championships for his beloved Canes.  The alternative is just too hard to swallow...

This Week On The Space

Canes win, Canes win: Your University of Miami Hurricanes beat the Golden Knights of the University of Central Florida like a drum by a score of 72 to 14.  Well, not exactly, but they did win the game, and history will only record it as a "W".  And isn't that all that really matters anyway?  Yes it is!  Al Davis says: Just win Baby!

Devil In A Blue Dress: Next up for the Canes are the Blue Devils of Duke University.  Word on the street is that these Dukies have improved their game and their results.  The Canes go on the road in the ACC for their first taste of road dog (-5).  These Canes led by Marve, Forston, Spence and Benjamin ain't having none of that.  It says here that the Canes will beat the Devils with a whip hard and leave marks.

Hampton Inn/Plantation: If U haven't stayed at the Hampton Inn in Plantation yet this year U should.  The week of the FSU game we had over 25 UM fans and 10 FSU fans on site.  At night, out on the patio by the pool, we played Hurricane trivia for T-shirts, drank beer and tequila, ate pizza, and had a wet T-shirt contest!  Well all that is true except the wet T-shirt contest.  This is a family show after all. The next home game is Wake on 10/25 at noon.  Stay Friday night and party like Canes fan!

Daniel Stein:  Tuesday night (tomorrow) at 8 PM Danny Boy from the Miami Hurricane will show up to answer your questions on our LIVE chat feature.  Show up at 7:30, post your questions and get your answers in real time.  Plus we may have a special guest or two, too!

Just Win Baby

Al Davis, of Oakland Raider fame, made this saying famous back in the 1970's.  It didn't matter how, or where, or why, the mantra was always the same: "just win baby".  That is just what Randy Shannon and the Miami Hurricanes did on Saturday against in-State rival Central Florida at TNP Stadium in front of an announced crowd of 40,000 (not likely). 

The Canes beat the Golden Knights 20-14 in an unimpressive performance that comes on the heels of two straight ACC losses at home to UNC and FSU.  Nonetheless, a win is a win and it still goes in the "W" column, evening the Canes record at 3-3 for the 2008 season.

Robert Marve simply was not Glenn (Sharpe) on this second Saturday in October.  Against the Knights solid and experienced secondary, Marve looked anything but marvelous and was ineffective for most of the game.  As a result, Miami's offense struggled to generate points against UCF. 

Canes fans desperate to erase the memory of former QBs Kirby Freeman and Kyle Wright were reminded of what happens when your QB makes costly mistakes.  Looking average at best, Marve did his best Kylby Wrightman imitation, throwing three interceptions against the Knights, one that was retuned for a touchdown.

Miami's defense held the Knights offense in check most of the game and played well holding UCF scoreless on offense.  The Knights two scores came on the previously mentioned INT return by Johnell Neal and a 91 yard kick off return by Joe Burnett. 

Sean Spence, Marcus Forston (seen here at left) and Allen Bailey all had good games for the Canes defense.  True freshman cornerback Brandon Harris also redeemed himself after a poor showing the week before against the Seminoles.  All in all, it was a solid showing for Bill Young's group.

Bottom line? The Canes played well enough to win the game, which according to Al Davis is all that matters.

Next up is ACC powerhouse Duke at their place.  See U there and Go Canes! 

Game Day Blog: UCF

Today your University of Miami Hurricanes host the University of Central Florida Golden Knights at The New Place (TNP) in a first time ever meeting between these in-State rivals. The game, Miami's third straight at home, is scheduled for a 3:45 PM kickoff and will be shown to a (semi) national audience on ESPNU. 

The Canes are favored by 15 points at home and an estimated crowd of 55,000 is expected to be on hand to witness the game.  This new rivalry could eventually wind up impacting recruiting in Florida so more is at stake than just the outcome.

UM Head Coach Coach Randy Shannon will look to get the Hurricanes back on track and snap a two game losing streak after back-to-back ACC conference losses at home to Butch "Slap" Davis and his UNC Tarheels and Bobby "I'm not done yet" Bowden and his FSU Seminoles.

Shannon will need help from a ton of freshmen contributors and two UM coordinators, Patrick "The Fix" Nix and Bill "Forever" Young, to get things right against the Knights.

UCF Head Coach George "Liar" O'Leary looks to move the UCF program into the state if not national spotlight with a signature win against the Canes.  Obviously, a win today against the Canes at home would be huge for the Golden Knights program.  However, for this to happen the Knights' players would have to be on horesback to have a chance against the more talented Hurricanes.   

The UCF defense ranks near the bottom of the NCAA in almost every possible statistical category.  So look for the Canes offense, behind QB Robert Marve and true freshman sensations Aldarius Johnson and Travis Benjamin, to light up the Knight(s) in an explosive offensive showing. 

Starting RB Javaris James remains sidelined by a high ankle sprain so Craig "Super" Cooper will continue to carry the load for Canes running game with occasional support from Derron Thomas and Shawnbrey McNeal.  It is possible that backups Lee Chambers and Damian Berry could also see some action in the Canes backfield if the Canes can manage to jump out to an early lead.

On defense look for the Canes to come out swarming and angry after last weeks debacle against FSU.  Speaking of Angry, pictured at left is Canespace blogger AngryCane on campus at UCF proudly sporting his UM gear.  Sure, he may currently attend UCF, but he bleeds Orange and Green! 

Defensive pressure is essential if Miami is going to protect their swiss cheese defensive backfield from giving up key third downs and big plays in the passing game. The Canes defense ranks last in the ACC in third down conversion rates and has to learn how to get off the field and give the Canes offense good starting field position for a change. We think they will against the Golden Knights.

PREDICTION: MIAMI 41, UCF 13

Short List To South Beach: Week 7

The midpoint of the season approaches and 32 teams find themselves ranked as follows on the Shortlist to South Beach while in the thick of the national championship hunt:

LSU, Alabama, Oklahoma, Texas, Penn State, Missouri, Oklahoma State, Texas Tech, Northwestern, Vanderbilt, BYU, Utah, Boise State, Tulsa, Ball State, Florida, Georgia, Cincinnati, Kansas, Kentucky, North Carolina, Georgia Tech, South Florida, Notre Dame, Florida State, Michigan State, Boston College, California, Southern Cal, Ohio St., UConn, Minnesota.

There is a minimum amount of shuffling on the Shortlist this week outside of a few upsets but this weekend figures to change the configuration near the top at the very least as both the SEC and the Big 12 begin to wear themselves down in conference play hi-lighted by the Red River Shootout, a game that very rarely lives up to it's often over the top billing despite being one of the last great neutral site attractions in the sport.

Two teams from the ACC survived upset bids last week after I called for their elimination from the Shortlist, both in very different fashions:

1) Boston College goes on the road and takes a shootout win away from former coach Tom O'Brien by scoring the winning touchdown with less than 30 seconds on the clock at NC State.  The Eagles are in a rebuilding year but ten wins is not out of the question again if they continue at this pace.  They still have some large hills to climb in conference play but so far the early part of the schedule has proceeded almost exactly to plan as they continue to show there is magic left in the tank up in Chestnut Hill.

2) Florida State puts the Miami Hurricanes in a 24 point hole that Robert Marve and company simply cannot comeback from in their annual rivalry showdown.  Despite doing their best to give away the game in the second half the Hurricanes cannot capitalize or tackle down the stretch and now find their backs to the wall with two losses in conference play.  With no wide field goals to be nudged no-good at the hands of the ghosts of the Orange Bowl by the special teams from Tallahassee, Miami squanders a chance to really put a notice to the rest of the league that this team is one to be reckoned with, youth be damned.  Now they will need some help while running the table in conference to have any hope of representing the Costal Division for the ACC crown but don't sound the funeral march just yet for Randy Shannon's squad.

Only one team falls from the Shortlist to South Beach this week that I wasn't smart enough to see coming, but my shock is nothing compared to this fan-base's outrage at the turn of events:

Auburn gets outplayed for three quarters by Vanderbilt and Tony Franklin watches his DVD sales plummet as a result as the Tigers fall by the wayside.  Five years ago an excellent Auburn team was robbed of a split National Championship as the pollsters flocked to pay homage to a team that played nobody by comparison.  Now Tommy Tuberville finds himself in familiar territory, with the wolves creeping around his door looking for goat.  The much-ballyhooed spread offense installed this year has been a bust so far but the question remains, is it lack of reps or is the scheme itself exposed by the superior defensive speed found in the SEC?  If Vandy can run fast enough to throw a wrench into the works I have to lean to the latter, then again maybe Tubbs should just copy Urban Meyer's playbook instead.  It seems to work well enough for that guy in the Eastern Division after all.

I only expect three teams to fall off the Shortlist this week, two Big 10 teams and another often mentioned as a possible 12th member of that conference, however that math is supposed to work.  For me it's easy, just get rid of Indiana and Northwestern while adding the Catholics and there's your Big 10.  Anyhow, the teams are as follows:

Minnesota, Michigan State, Notre Dame.

Only Michigan State is ranked amongst those programs and while loosing to Northwestern isn't the sign of program apocalypse that it was just 15 years ago, the Spartans are competing in a dangerous game this weekend with the potential to either make or break their season.  MSU's history says they find a way to lose games like this, but the Spartans pulling this one out wouldn't be a total shocker.

Enjoy the games this week and join me back here next week as things look to become more jumbled than they have all year so far here on The Shortlist to South Beach.

Copyright 2008 by Christopher Whelpton for Canespace.com

The Long And Winding Road: Part II

This blog was written by original Canespacer SolarCane...

The giddy Christmas Eve anticipation from this year’s recruiting class has long since settled.

The plan was out with the old, in with the new. Problem is, the bag of new toys from Santa Randy wasn’t quite as big as we thought it would be. That brand new bike’s spokes are broken, the batteries for the new toy were NOT included and you never got THAT game for your Xbox.

The constant barrage of “We can’t lose we are like the Three Hundred” has been slowly but steadily replaced with “We can’t win we are like the Three Stooges!”  Somewhere in between both of those extreme viewpoints is the current state of the Miami Hurricanes.

Now, five games into the 2008 football season, with black and white evidence before us taking the place of orange and green speculation, it’s your turn to make yet even more predictions:

How long before the Canes win ten games in one season?

How long before the Canes win the ACC?

How long before the Canes win another National Championship?

Will Robert Marve leave Miami considered one of the best ever, or only "Brock Berlin" average?

Will Travis Benjamin make you say, before it's all over, Hester who?

Will Sean Spence be the best LB to ever wear the orange and green, Ray Lewis included?