Canespace

A Cavalier Attitude Can Cost U

Your Miami Hurricanes waltzed into Hard Rock Stadium in their ACC game against Virginia with so much swagger and confidence that you could see it in their step and sense it in the aura around them. They were dancing on air.

Then they got punched in the mouth by the Cavaliers and trailed by the score of 10-3 at the half. Their play was putrid and the game ugly. As a result, their swagger took a wobbly walk and their confidence looked lost or shaky at best. 

UM QB Tyler Van Dyke was hurt, humbled and horrible throughout the game.

The Miami offense looked misguided and misdirected for most of the game. They couldn't their act together and turned the ball over too many times.

The Hurricane defense gave up too many yards and too may points too early in the game. They couldn't stop the run or the pass and gave up play after play.

And they gave up 23 points during regular time and only three in overtime.

In the end, it was our Hurricanes that won in the game overtime 29 to 26.

Me and my good friend Rob enjoyed that part of the game very much.

A Moving Target Is Harder To Hit

On Saturday your Miami Hurricanes will host the Virginia Cavaliers at Hard Rock Stadium at 3:30 pm.

For the first time in a few years I will be attending the game in person with long time Canespacer KY Cane (Rob). While Rob is a true hard core Hurricane fan and has been so for many years, he was born in Kentucky and attended college at Western Kentucky University. Hence the blog name KY Cane.

Like many people here on the Canespace blog, Rob and I became friends several years ago and we have attended many UM events together including:

Many football home games at Hard Rock Stadium and an away football game.

Several baseball games at Alex Rodriguez Park at Mark Light Stadium.

A few basketball games at the Watsco Center on the beautiful UM campus.

And a couple of UM women's tennis matches at the Neil Schiff Tennis Center.

As for the title of the blog, Rob and others often tease me about my regular habit of buying a ticket for one seat, but almost never sitting there. With open seats usually scattered all around the stadium in the upper deck (except maybe for FSU) you will find me on the move far and wide and often.

To be honest, I'm usually good for two or sometimes even three laps around the stadium during most games. The way I see it, a moving target is harder to hit!

So for this week's game against UVA, we want to let Canespacers know that we have been training for several weeks, if not years, for our specifically assigned roles. Rob will be the offical designated driver, and I will be the official designated drinker. We are committed on focusing on the fundamentals and most importantly to executing our game plan exactly as designed.

We hope the Miami Hurricanes are too, and are hoping for a positive outcome.

Something like Miami 58 - UVA 0 would be kind of nice.

Game Day: Miami Vs Clemson

I have been told that there is a college football game tonight.

Apparently it is at the modernized Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens.

The Miami Hurricanes will host the Clemson Tigers in another ACC match up.

I predict that your Miami Hurricanes will dominate the game and win easily.

Why I predict has nothing to do with my cracked crystal ball, but it has everything to do with my consumption of very large amounts of tequila.

Well that and the fact that this time I feel that the force is with me.

Canespace Prediction: Miami 34 - Clemson 20.

The Truth According To Terrance

One unknown fact is that during the UM football games a few of us long time Canespacers who have attended several games together and even completed a few "Four Play" events (where we have attended four Miami Hurricanes sports events in just three days) often have some crazy text chats to discuss the game and the current state of affairs at UM.

One of those who frequently participates in these undisclosed chats is Terrance Sullivan who lives in Alabama but has always bled orange and green. Like most Hurricane fans, TSully (as I refer to him) was practically oozing confidence just a couple of short weeks ago. Oh how times have changed!

The confidence ended when UM head coach Mario Cristobal had a momentary lapse of reason and crapped the bed by running the ball instead of taking a knee against lowly Georgia Tech costing Miami the game and most likely the entire season all at the same time. Apparently, all hope was gone.

Well after last night's loss to UNC, TSully was having none of it and let loose his anger and frustration. He ripped into the Hurricanes after their second consecutive ACC loss, this one to the hated Tar Heels, a team coached by Mack Brown that has beaten Miami five straight times.

One thing during our chat that he made perfectly clear to me is that my "Crystal Ball" is clearly not working properly. Well that's not how he put it exactly, but I can't repeat here exactly what he said. After he let loose, TSully asked me "How could anybody in his right mind predict that Miami would beat UNC?"

Yes, it is true that both NativeCane (Wally) and I had predicted that Miami would show up strong and beat the Tar Heels convincingly. I had to tell Terrance that "We were not in our right mind, we were just hoping and dreaming of good things to come" and there was no harm in giving the Canes the beneift of the doubt. Sure, we wound up being wrong, but our intentions were good, right?

Then my good friend Mr. Sullivan came up with a new name for Miami's head coach: "Mario Cristofraud". I told him surely he must be kidding. He told me "Don't call me Shirley, and no, I am not kidding. 

So that is a summary of the Miami vs North Carolina game from a Canespace perspective. No we didn't quote the stats, we didn't say why we won or lost and hell no we didn't even report the score of the game.

The facts are as follows:

1. Miami lost to North Carolina.
2. That's two losses in a row to ACC teams.
3. Miam's head coach is now named Mario Cristofraud.

Crystal Ball

Today, after much angst, agonizing and searching, I finally found my Canespace crystal ball.

That was only after Miami Head Coach Mario Cristobal recently broke his after last Saturday's heart breaking loss against Georgia Tech in Miami. Apparently his days of looking forward and predicting the future are over and justifiably so.

And thankfully I got mine back just in time for Miami's big ACC showdown against North Carolina in Chapel Hill on Saturday at 7:30 (ABC).

The popular 80's rock band Styx had the original crystal ball long before I inherited it at Canespace.

Their song went like this:

Well, tell me, tell me where I'm going
I don't know where I've been
Tell me, tell me, won't you tell me
And then tell me again

My heart is breaking, my body's aching
And I don't know where to go
So tell me, tell me, won't you tell me
I've just gotta know

So I looked long and deep into my newly found Canespace crystal ball and I am here to tell you that your Miami Hurricanes will win and win big over the Tar Heels. And I say that without hesitation and with the utmost confidence.

Canespace Prediction: Miami 41 - UNC 24.

Stupid Is As Stupid Does

But at least their uniforms looked really cool.

Your 15th ranked University of Miami Hurricanes came into last Saturday's game as a 20 point favorite at home over Georgia Tech. The previous week the Yellow Jackets had given up 438 yards and lost to Bowling Green by the score of 38-27. This game was certain to be a rout.

Yet Miami, as is their recent tradition coming off of a bye week with everybody healthy and two weeks to prepare, came out listless, lazy and lackadaisical and led at the half by the unimpressive score of only 3-0. Tyler Van Dyke looked lost and unprepared like he left his game back in his dorm on the Coral Gables campus. Surely, Hurricane fans thought that some major halftime adjsutments would be made by the $8 million a year head coach and Miami would come out and dominate the scond half for an easy win at Hard Rock.

You would have thought wrong. The second half would not look much better as the Hurricanes would wind up turning the ball over 5 times on the night. Three of the turnovers were interceptions thrown by Van Dyke who had his worst game of the year. However, it was the final turnover, a fumble by RB Don Chaney, that was the final dagger of death for Miami.

In what turned out to be one of, if not THE worst play call by a head coach in the history of college football, Mario Cristobal, with just 30 seconds remaining in the game and Miami leading 20-17, and only needing his QB to kneel down to run out the clock, inexplicably called a run play instead of going into the victory formation and taking a knee to seal the deal.

Then Chaney proceeded to fumble the ball (questionable call) and Georgia Tech recovered. A couple of plays and an incredibly unlikely Hail Mary pass into the end zone later, the Yellow Jackets had beaten the Hurricanes in the most disgusting, disappointing, heartbreaking (for Canes fans) yet most remarkable fashion possible.

It truly was an epic failure of historical proportions. 

And it was Mario Cristobal's to own by proving that stupid is as stupid does.

But at least their uniforms looked really cool.

Canes Receive Recognition For Their Efforts

The Miami Hurricanes continued their upward climb in both major college football polls released Sunday.

Despite not playing a game with their bye week scheduled for Week 5, the Hurricanes – who have been ranked in each of the last four sets of polls – jumped one spot to No. 17 in both the Associated Press Top 25 and US LBM Coaches Poll released Oct. 1.

The Hurricanes (4-0, 0-0 ACC) were ranked No. 18 in both polls last week. Miami returns home to Hard Rock Stadium on Oct. 7 for their first conference clash of the fall against Georgia Tech (2-3, 1-1 ACC). Kickoff is set for 8 p.m. on ACC Network.

“Certainly you want to use the bye week to get healthy, but you want to use the bye week to get better. There’s a balance there,” head coach Mario Cristobal said following Miami’s 41-7 win over Temple on Sept. 23. “You want to self-scout to see what you’re doing, where your tendencies are, make sure you can evolve as an offense and defense and find the things you need to work on.”