Hurricanes Blow Through Orlando

Several of us Canespacers attended the Spring Game at the Camping World Stadium in Orlando on Saturday as the Miami Hurricanes blew through "O-town" to display their new talent, coaches, schemes and skills.

We were not disappointed by their performance on a magnificient, sun-splashed day in Central Florida. In a place usually populated by fans of the Gators, Knights and even Seminoles, Hurricanes fans took over the 407 for a day.

Most in the large turnout of over 10,000 UM fans saw the much talked about new offensive scheme for the first time and liked what we saw. The scheme, play calling, motion and prodcutivity was a refereshing and much welcomed change from the last couple of years version of "offense" which basically consisted of run, run, pass, punt.

The hotly contested starting QB battle saw all three contenders take their shots at the helm of the offense and also down the field. After a horrid start on the first series of the game, the unit settled down and moved the ball successfuly on several drives. While it could easily be said that the defense dominated the day overall, there were several long TD passes (read: exciting!) thrown by the three quarterbacks during the scimmage that balanced things out nicely.

Martell hit wide receiver K.J. Osborn for an 80-yard touchdown, Williams lofted a gorgeous pass to tight end Will Mallory for an impressive 15-yard score, and Perry found freshman sensation Jeremiah Payton for a late first-half TD.

The Canespacers in attendance generally agreed that N'Kosi (Joe Not Katy) Perry (blogger Go Canes candidate) performed best of the three. He was followed by transfer and newcomer Tate (Tater Tots) Martell (many fans top choice), and Jarren (Ted Not Ricky) Williams (my candidate) was a clear third. There is still a lot of practice time and long way to go before the starter is announced in the Fall. Only time will tell how this battle shakes out in the end.

The offensive line continued to struggle against the deepest and most talented part of the team: the vaunted and very agressive UM defensive line. But those struggles were not as often or aggregious as last year and they opened enough holes for the running backs to gain some yardage while protecting the passer better than we can recall in recent years.

It appears that while admittedly the OL is still "a work in progress", at least some progress is being made even as players have been shuffled around at various positions and depth is still not where it needs to be.

Special teams were not really on display as kickoffs and punts were not returned or defended. We are still anxiously awaiting "The Australian Dream" at punter as Captain Jack Spicer continues to be consistently inconsistent. Kickoffs were much better with several going out of the end zone (when intended) and the only negative was the one short FG that was missed by Bubba Gump Baxta.

Coaching wise new Offensive Coordinator Dan Enos was very invested and involved in coaching up his side of the ball and specifically his QBs. He was not afraid to get in their face when he felt it was warranted.

We like that, yeah, we like that a lot.

In summary, we all left the Spring Game encouraged by the overall performance of the team on both sides of the ball. Even though the glorified scrimmage meant nothing and did not end 34-13 as I had predicted, we left the stadium in Orlando feeling pretty high and mighty in our newly purchased monster truck.

It was quite a ride! 

Comments

[Go Canes!!]

Posted by: solarcane | April 28, 2019 at 08:50 AM

Your argument continually leaves out the most important point. The players ARE THE REASON everyone cares. They’re Tom Cruise, Formula One driver and Bruno Mars.

All of those people make money based on the product they put out while college players get a free ride and nothing else while Clemson makes millions selling Trevor Lawrence jerseys and Coach K makes $10 mill a year while Zion is forced into aking illegal payments.

[solarcane]

Go I understand your reasoning perfectly.

When Elvis,Bruce,Ali, were singing on talent shows and fighting in YMCA they weren't getting paid but the shows were making money off them.
They understood that getting exposure was how they would in time make a fortune.

College football was the only way you knew Ray Lewis was a beast. You could read all you wanted but you had to see him to know.

He understood the Hurricanes were paving his way to be a millionaire, he didn't need to be paid to play hard.

The more this discussion goes the more convinced I am that people are really pissed that successful owners coaches and stockholders make disgraceful amounts of money.We should be.

They don't bring up the fact that Richard Russel will more than make up for what NC State would have paid him on top of a free education.

College football is a showcase, It is an open mike appearance, it can make you rich or at worst give you a degree.
Don't feel sorry for college football players, just stay pissed at how we were conned into paying coaches and owners the money we fork out.

[solarcane]

Russel Wilson lol,
sorry just got back from Gatlinburg and Richard Russel hiway must be on my mind, plus I'm losing my mind

[AfriCane]

Solar, I understand your argument and point and while it makes sense, it does not say the current system could not be improved. To me, it’s akin to the argument about minimum wage. Do we say because someone is going to make more money in the future after amassing more experience, then it’s ok to pay them $8/hr now? Or should we just say they should be happy to have a job because there r people without a job, so they should be happy with $8/hr? I would say no to that. U can find an arguement for any point of view, it doesn’t make it right. Also, how many percentage of CF players make it into the league anyway, 10%? So the other 90 would have given free labor without a chance to capitalize on making money from it.

[solarcane]

Afri,
Good points, and fair.
As for the guys that didn't make the league, wasn't getting a college education and a chance to play college football pretty good compensation?

Remember I am an old fart that went through a four year apprenticeship on a construction site and worked my way up to head Forman, then spent 45 years building churches,
malls, football stadiums and houses for other companies and for myself.
Did masonry for Wayne H. Dan M. Ted Turner.
Never occurred to me to hate them because they had more money than I did.
I did feel satisfaction knowing they complemented me for my workmanship.

Like a lot of other 60 year plus folks on here I might be out of touch with today's economic reality.

Then again there are folks on here that are pretty young to be out of touch with reality, yourself not included in that group.

[AfriCane]

I’m not young solar, lol! Just my mind is young. But I hear you. Hard work and perseverance died with Gen X. Millennials or Miscellaneous, like I like to call them, want to snap their fingers like Thanos and get everything.

[NativeCane]

I found the picture of the "foxes" guarding the hen house:

https://canespace.typepad.com/.a/6a00e008c672588834022ad38dcdc8200c-pi

Posted by: 86Cane | April 27, 2019 at 11:5

Ribs and beer?

[NativeCane]

Canes going for the V Tech sweep today, good pitching, scoreless at top of the 3rd.

[JCane]

3 innings in the books still scoreless. Bigger concern is not only a 3rd straight game of cold bats, but so far VT has no-no going. Fortunately they have 6 more innings left and the U pitching and D have been good enough so far.

[NativeCane]

Del Castillo with 2 run Homer in bottom of 4th. 2-0 Canes

[NativeCane]

Nothing could be finer than sweeping old Virgina!

Federman closes last 3 innings to seal the win and sweep.

Canes 2-0

Go Canes!!!

[Terrance Sullivan]

Canes Sweep those Castrated Turkeys my Weekend is made. Go Canes!

[solarcane]

Ok I never realized we have sunk to ESPN actually broadcasting Pro Corn hole.

They even have logo shirts like bass Fishermen covet.

The commentary is pretty bizarre

1st commentator
"Well there it is Carl, Brisco has left himself hanging at the edge of the hole just begging for Smith to drop him in.

2nd Commentator
Yea Bennie, it looks like Brisco's bag is jammed tight to that hole alright"

My wife just looked at the TV then at me and said "really?"

[TruCane81]

The Willis situation is the most perplexing thing I have ever seen in all my years watching the draft.

Teams were throwing away late round picks to all kinds of trash this weekend. Woman beating, burglary, bad athletic testing, poor production and so on, were considered forgivable offenses. However, Willis’ baggage was too major to warrant a flyer with a pick that almost never makes the team as a top 100 talent projection.

We have heard all kinds of leaks about player misbehavior on the team. We still have ZERO idea why Willis sat the 2017 season. THAT IS AMAZING in this day and age. He dealt with the suspension and outplayed two teammates who got drafted in practice. Came out as a senior and was ALL AMERICAN AND A TEAM CAPTAIN, under PASTOR RICHT no less. No talk of him being a distraction and his production showed at least an average work ethic.

There is something going on here.

I can only think of three things.

1. His representation was terrible and gave him bad advice which is why he made so many pre draft evaluation mishaps (sitting out, missing meetings and so on).

2. He was black balled because of WHO he had the confrontation at uf with.

3. He has a serious mental illness/ disorder that no one feels comfortable talking about. This could explain his bizarre ( in retrospect) decisions pre draft and the fact his suspension is being kept secret better than a black ops mission in a soviet territory. Wikileaks can’t even figure it out.

It could be his documented past issues and history of suspension but with two years without incident, it still doesn’t make sense given what teams were willing to overlook from other guys.

No one ever lost their job over seventh round pick. I just can’t wrap my head around a team that needs defensive line help not taking a chance on a guy who can make splash plays on third down even if inconsistent in the run game.

[Go Canes!!]

Posted by: TruCane81 | April 28, 2019 at 04:49 PM

He indisputably had the most dominant defensive season by any Cane in the last decade.

Beyond shocked he wasn’t drafted.

[solarcane]

Dan Morgan talking Mike Smith into trying out for the Bills

[thirstybuzzardcane]

I don't go to college games because of specific player. I go to support the university. I can assure you that ever single one of you would say the same thing. Paying college STUDENT athletes is insane! I have no problem if a player wants to make money selling their jersey or autograph though. The NCAA should at least tweak that.

[86Cane]

The players ARE THE REASON everyone cares. They’re Tom Cruise, Formula One driver and Bruno Mars.

Posted by: Go Canes!! | April 28, 2019 at 10:18 AM

No, you have it wrong, again.

WE GO TO SEE OUR TEAM WIN.

And I am way cooler and more hip than Bruno Mars.

I'm like Michelle Pfieffer that white gold...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michelle_Pfeiffer

[86Cane]

Director Brian De Palma, having seen Grease 2, refused to audition Pfeiffer for Scarface (1983), but relented at the insistence of Martin Bregman, the film's producer.

She was cast as cocaine-addicted trophy wife Elvira Hancock.[18] The film was considered excessively violent by most critics, but became a commercial hit and gained a large cult following in subsequent years.[19] Pfeiffer received positive reviews for her supporting turn; Richard Corliss of Time Magazine wrote, "most of the large cast is fine: Michelle Pfeiffer is better

..."[20] while Dominick Dunne, in an article for Vanity Fair titled "Blonde Ambition", wrote, "[s]he is on the verge of stardom. In the parlance of the industry, she is hot."[21]

[HillviewCane]

Posted by: 86Cane | April 27, 2019 at 05:18 PM

I am legit curious. Why don't you want to see the players get paid? You mention benefits they receive. But s I can't recall you saying why you think they shouldn't be paid. Which is a different statement than the benefits they receive.

So to be clear, why do you not want to see them receive monetary compensation if the market can bear it?

[HillviewCane]

Posted by: thirstybuzzardcane | April 27, 2019 at 02:54 PM

Or they got paid enough under the table to hold then over until they got to the league. The kids will stay if they get enough to be content. If you are young you often have very few desires, if you can meet them you will stay.

Pros will tell you college is a lot more fun than the league. You will get more students staying the 4 years if they get paid.

[HillviewCane]

I hope it works out for Willis

[Galagos]

Question: Am I forgetting about someone or were Michael Jackson and Joe Jackson the first Canes drafted by the Cowboys since Kevin Williams and Darrin Smith in 1993?

[TonyCane]

Wrong on Malik...saw a fake posting that he had been drafted by the 49ers in the 6th.

[solarcane]

HillviewCane
I hope it works out for Willis

Posted by: HillviewCane | April 28, 2019 at 07:11 PM

No kidding, I thought we were gonna have to talk you down off the ledge last night.

[thirstybuzzardcane]

Pros will tell you college is a lot more fun than the league. You will get more students staying the 4 years if they get paid.

Posted by: HillviewCane | April 28, 2019 at 07:10 PM

True, but no way they are staying if they are getting paid year by year. I think it was Soups idea that I liked. Put the money in an investment account for 4 years. They don't get that money till they graduate college....now you would have more kids staying.

[86Cane]

I think it was Soups idea that I liked. Put the money in an investment account for 4 years. They don't get that money till they graduate college....now you would have more kids staying.

Posted by: thirstybuzzardcane | April 28, 2019 at 08:44 PM

It was Go Canes idea, but I liked it also.

[solarcane]

It was Go Canes idea, but I liked it also.

Posted by: 86Cane | April 28, 2019 at 09

Things you seldom see posted here

[86Cane]

1. I am legit curious. Why don't you want to see the players get paid? You mention benefits they receive. But I can't recall you saying why you think they shouldn't be paid. Which is a different statement than the benefits they receive.

2. So to be clear, why do you not want to see them receive monetary compensation if the market can bear it?

Posted by: HillviewCane | April 28, 2019 at 07:03 PM

1. I am legit curious. Why don't you want the players to get benefits of their scholarship if they are getting paid? You mention the players being paid. But I can't recall you saying why you think they shouldn't be getting benefits of around $400,000 that no other student gets. Which is a different statement than them getting paid.

2. So to be clear why don't you want to see them getting benefits if they are getting paid? Then they will not need scholarships because if they really wanted one (most don't) then they could pay for it and it would be just like the NFL?

And you know that why don't we pay all students in all sports? The one and done rule in college basketball is a joke. The skipping college baseball to join the minor leagues in baseball is also a joke. Only 10% can follow this path.

How many wind up in the MLB or NBA? And the ones that don't in basketball and baseball have NO DEGREE to speak of and yet you don't care at all, now do you? And when the 90% don't make it what do they have to fall back on? NOTHING!

[86Cane]

Things you seldom see posted here

Posted by: solarcane | April 28, 2019 at 09:46 PM

Fair is fair.

Give credit where credit is due and it will come back to you.

[86Cane]

So on another point, I agree with Solar's earlier post. Pay them like employees ($400K over 4 years) or give them benefits of full ride scholarships like college athletes. One or the other, not both. They can't be both.

If you give $100K a year to ALL college athletes with no strings attached how many of them are going to spend it on tuition, and books and tutors and other things like that versus cars and houses and, well, you know?

Then what you have is a mini NFL with the same greed and corruption but much less maturity. Sounds fool proof right!

[solarcane]

Georgia Tech qbs 324 yds passing in spring game, most spring game passing yds in 10 years. The players are stoked on tv here. New coach says they bought into new offense day one.

[86Cane]

About 1.6% of college players make it to the NFL.

Note that these are players who were actually drafted, but a handful of others eventually make it to a pro team as undrafted free agents. However, that’s so uncommon that these outliers would have a negligible affect on these percentages.

[86Cane]

Approximately half of the players in the National Football League have college degrees. This is a better ratio than any other major sports league and is partially due to the drafting process.

The NFL does not have a minor-league system like other major league sports do. The NFL only recruits players from college through a draft, so many players have finished their college education before they ever play for an NFL team.

[86Cane]

"The graduation rates of players in the Football Bowl Subdivision are still twenty points below their male campus peers and worsened in the past three years," Moran wrote in a Facebook post.

We’ve already fact-checked two Moran statements about big-time college sports but we thought this was worth a look, too. We gave Moran a True rating for to his claim that only 20 colleges athletic departments generate bottom-line profits. We gave him a Mostly True for his claim that a college coaches is the highest- paid public employee in 40 states.

We’ll start our look at Moran’s statement about graduation rates with a definition of Football Bowl Subdivision -- the term the congressman used to qualify his statement.

There are 1,083 colleges and universities competing in sports that fall under the NCAA’s governance. The Football Bowl subdivision is the top tier of college sports competition, comprised of 123 schools that are eligible to compete in bowl games and have average attendance of at least 15,000 at their home games.

Moran’s spokesman, Thomas Scanlon, said the congressman’s statement was based on 2011 and 2014 reports from the College Sport Research Institute at the University of South Carolina. The institute has published reports on the graduation rates of students and athletes since 2010-11.

The institute analyzes two sets of graduation data -- one from the federal government for all students and one from the NCAA for college athletes -- and adjusts them into comparable statistics. The greatest difference is that the federal graduation rate tracks part-time as well as full-time students. All school athletes are required to carry a full-time load. The institute computes the percentage of athletes and regular students who complete their undergraduate degrees in six years.

The 2011 report compares football players to other male students who started college from 2000 to 2003. The study focused on FBS schools that belong to Power 5 conferences -- the Big XII, Southeastern Conference, Atlantic Coast Conference, Big Ten and Pac-12.

FBS football players graduated at a rate 17.8 percentage points below other male students -- 55.1 percent for the players compared to 72.9 percent for the others.

The 2014 report compared male students and football players who started college between 2003 and 2006 and found the numbers had not changed dramatically. The athletes graduated at a rate 17.5 percentage points below other male students -- 57.4 percent for the athletes compared to 74.9 percent for the others.

[AfriCane]

And the fact that everyone is tight lipped about the GWIII situation is crazy. There r always leaks. But on this one, nothing. Did he kill someone?
Please share info when anyone finds out.

[AfriCane]

!

[raizecane]

Someone may have said this....someone may disagree but if you want to stop the rise of salaries (coaches, professional sports, etc) there is a way to control it and we have the power. STOP GOING / WATCHING games.

We are paying for these salaries and we can stop this madness if we all band together.

If everyone can go just one day without buying a vehicle, the car industry would take a huge hit and possibly....just possibly, rethink charging what they do for a car and make it more affordable to the consumer. Power to the people is spot on.....

Just my Monday morning "take it for what its worth" moment.

[raizecane]

Don't piss off Avengers fans......

‘Avengers’ fans rough up man who ‘loudly’ spoiled the ending

[solarcane]

soup,
good catch on the article.

Raize,
A lot of fans enjoy the pageantry and vibe if being around other college football fans. To me nothing was as exhilarating as a night game in the Orange Bowl. I would pay double the ticket price to be truthful.
TV couldn't come close to that "something in the air tonight feeling."

Millions of guys like Terrence live for a chance to be with their friends and enjoy that game day environment. It is good for the soul.

There are other fake fans that go through life with the FOMO addiction.
That is why according to sports blogs there were around 600,000 people in the Orange Bowl when Flurry unleashed the dagger in the heart hail Mary.
Jmo

[solarcane]

Flutey,
dam you auto korrect

[NativeCane]

As one who never took the easy path I can relate but the path Gerald Willis III is taking to greatness is a tough one.
I predict he will arrive at the quarterback with bad intent and make TSully very happy.
The Ravens may even become my second.....

[86Cane]

TV couldn't come close to that "something in the air tonight feeling."

Posted by: solarcane | April 29, 2019 at 09:55 AM

U got that right!

I wasn't until last year that Hard Rock felt anything at all like the OB. The stadium modifications and the fans made it feel like something special was happening once again.

The turnover chain would come out and the place would go crazy! Then our offense would come out and the QB would clap his hands a few times, then throw the ball incomplete to nobody in particular and instantly kill any momentum we may have created.

Then I would have to go get another $10 beer I swore I would never pay for...

[Terrance Sullivan]

Preach Solar, Native, and Soupster!

[Go Canes!!]

Fan attendance is just a small part of the revenue in college football.

TV money is what makes it rain in shamateurism.

[solarcane]

How about TV gives each player that dresses for a televised game a
realistic graduation gift at graduation based on how many times they played on that network and the profit margins for those games? And the school matches it?

[86Cane]

How about we win all of our games this year and have an offense that can score 30PPG?

Or how about we all have a peanut butter and jelly sandwhich with a nice cold glass of milk and call it a day? IJS

[solarcane]

A different perspective on G Willis

Pro Football Talk

So Willis was a one-year starter, was kicked off his first college team, missed a full season on his second college team with personal issues, missed time with injuries in his only season as a starter, and didn’t work out at the Combine because of injuries. The story should probably be less that it’s a surprise Willis went undrafted than that it’s a surprise Kiper thought Willis would be drafted in the first three rounds.

[raizcane]

You guys totally missed the point..... just saying.

[Go Canes!!]

Posted by: raizcane | April 29, 2019 at 01:11 PM

It’s what we do here.

[86Cane]

Oh, was there a point? I must have missed it?

[Go Canes!!]

Comparing 4/5⭐️ commits (2013-2015) vs. NFL Draft Picks (2017-2019)

These programs were best at player development:

+40 Utah (#14 Picks, #54 Recruiting)
+35 Boston College
+32 Iowa
+26 NC State
+24 Wisconsin
+17 Colorado
+16 Washington
+15 Miami
+14 TCU
+9 Florida
+8 OU

[Old Skool]

Say hello to our new QB Tyler Van Dyke

[NativeCane]

He's also a punter Skool, can never have too many of those guys.

[86Cane]

NEW BLOG IS UP!