How The Scandal Was Exposed

It’s very simple a man running a Ponzi scheme that bilked people out of almost a billion dollars, who used that money to buy access to young football players between the ages of 18 – 23 years old was finally caught.  When he did get caught his assets were frozen by the government, and he reached out to those same players he tried to buy friendships with and they told him they would not give him money for his legal defense.  So, as a result he decides to blow the whistle to “take down” the Miami Hurricanes football program purely for the purpose of revenge.  He stated all of this as much that this quest has nothing to do with “doing the right thing”, but a vindictive play designed to punish the people he sucked into his dealings using stolen money.

The Allegations and or Facts

This article could go on all day talking about his allegations, but here is a quote from Shapiro taken from the Yahoo article written by Charles Robinson:

“Hell yeah, I recruited a lot of kids for Miami,” Shapiro said. “With access to the clubs, access to the strip joints. My house. My boat. We’re talking about high school football players. Not anybody can just get into the clubs or strip joints. Who is going to pay for it and make it happen? That was me.”

The truth is Miami Football players already get into a lot of clubs and parties for free, just because they play at a big time college football program.  Any player over 21 can get into a strip club, and if you are known around town generally for free.  High school football players are always wooed by players from the schools they visit.  At an unnamed school that plays in a major conference I remember a quarterback recruit coming in and his host on the team took him to the strip club and got him a few lap dances.  It happens all over the place, so what Shapiro did is not anything new.

If you look at the body of what Shapiro is claiming, he does not have many hard facts to backup his sensational claims.

• Reported Abortion – Does not name player, and said he did it on his own without player’s knowledge.  (No Proof)

• Various Lunches & Dinners – Only has credit card statements and witness testimony, but no pictures or a paper trail proving who was at these lunches and dinners with him.  (No hard proof)

• Hotel Floors Full Of Hookers – If a guy rented the entire floor of a hotel and stocked it with prostitutes someone would notice, and from the players perspective if you go to a party and a young woman offers herself, is there knowledge that someone paid for her services?  The players probably did not even know the women were hookers (if it even happened), there are a lot of women who throw themselves at football players all the time.  If the players did not pay the hookers and had no knowledge that they were “working girls” how can this be considered a violation?  Most football players don’t have to go out and give prostitutes money to have sex, they live on a college campus and the reality is playing college sports yields certain benefits in that environment. (No hard proof, and if that were the case how do you even begin to asses the value of what was given?)

• $50,000 payment to Vince Wilfork – No hard evidence of this has yet to be produced, as in no bank statements or transactions showing Wilfork spending large amounts of cash.

Most of Shapiro’s claims consist of players hanging out at his mansion and on his Yacht playing pool, and swimming.  If Shapiro provided lunch and drinks for the players then yes that is a violation, but nowhere near the blatant abuse tales he is spinning from jail.  How much is a game of pool at a persons house worth as an actual extra benefit?

Current Events

The NCAA came out with a ruling on the status of 12 Miami football players as the first game of the season against Maryland approaches.  Miami ruled those 12 player ineligible, and asked the NCAA to begin the process of reinstating the players.  The NCAA came out with their ruling, and eight of those players will miss games.

• Jacory Harris – One Game Suspension, $140 In restitution
• Olivier Vernon – Six Game Suspension, $1200 in restitution
• Ray Ray Armstrong – Four Game Suspension, $788 in restitution
• Dyron Dye – Four Game Suspension, $738 in restitution
• Travis Benjamin – One Game Suspension, $150 In restitution
• Sean Spence – One Game Suspension, $275 In restitution
• Marcus Forston – One Game Suspension, $400 In restitution
• Adewale Ojomo – One Game Suspension, $240 In restitution

These amounts are a far cry from what Shapiro is claiming, and the reason people need to stop jumping to conclusions.  A few hundred bucks for most players, with one getting over $1000 is nowhere near justification for the death penalty people are talking about.  These are the real numbers that can be proven, and for all we know these players only hung out with Shapiro a few times.

If you remember Miami graduates over 85% of it’s football players, and all of the players listed are in good academic standing with the school.  Between practice, games, school, and film study it would have been difficult to roll around town with Shapiro as often as he claims they did.

The Reality Going Forward

People are making a bigger deal out of this than it really is because everyone loves to hate Miami Hurricanes football.  People still can’t get over the fact that the Hurricanes revolutionized how college football was played, and has had one of the quickest ascensions to the elite status in college football as any school in recent memory.  The Hurricanes will not get the death penalty, but they will get sanctions which will cripple the program for several years.

If Al Golden stays in place then the Hurricanes will bounce back quickly assuming the scholarship losses will only last for about three years.  The odd thing is the message the NCAA is sending basically says it’s okay to commit real crimes and have players arrested, but taking a few hundred dollars is one of the worst things you can do.  We are referencing the University of Florida arrest situations over the past few years.  This is all about Shapiro trying to buy 20 year old friends, and when he needed help they turned their back on him.  It’s all sour grapes and a man who is in prison for 20 years after tricking people out of $930 million dollars, he has an axe to grind and the NCAA will have to make sure they take that into account.

Players at the University of Miami did break the NCAA rules as crazy as those rules might  be, and they will pay the price for breaking those rules.  The amount of scandals the NCAA has dealt with over the past two season, shows that there is a problem with the system and punishing the schools and players does not really solve anything.  Harsher penalties will not solve the issue as the dealings will just go further underground, and for the NCAA to expect a school to control what a kid is doing 24 hours a day speaks to a new age form of indentured servitude.

Here is a list of the top 10 rising players in the ACC for the 2011 season, there were a lot of players who could have made this list.  Anytime you have to cut it down 10 it is never easy.

Andre Ellington, Running Back - Clemson

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Height: 5-10 Weight: 180 lbs. Class: Sophomore 2010 Stats Rushing Yards - 686 Rushing Attempts - 118 TD’s – 10 Andre Ellington was having a great season before a toe injury abruptly ended his season. If you look at all of the stats he put up for only playing in eight games you can see just how talented of a player he is. Ellington averaged 7.2 yards per carry in 2009 with limited work, and averaged 5.8 yards per carry this year which is the type of production you want out of your running back. If you throw in his 109 yard receiving and 12 receptions you can see why there is a cause for excitement when he comes back healthy next year for the Tigers.

Fans were clamoring for Johnson to see more playing time, and claimed Randy Shannon was a fool for no playing him as he was one of the “best” players on the roster.  Johnson showed a flash of greatness by busting out for a 71 yard touchdown run late in the game against South Florida when the Hurricanes offense was really struggling.  That made fans even more adamant that Storm Johnson needed to see the field sooner rather than later.

When Al Golden took over he instilled some new rules and some new ways of doing things and at the end of Spring Practice Storm Johnson was third on the depth chart behind Lamar Miller and Mike James.  Now Johnson has asked for his release from the university of Miami for reasons his father states is because UM’s backfield is too crowded.  He also mentioned that Storm has a desire to play closer to his mother in Georgia as another deciding factor.  Coach Al Golden indicated that Johnson was not doing the things required of him as a Miami Hurricanes Football player, and that it was a mutual decision to let him go.

The Hurricanes are loaded at running back anyway, as they have players you already know in Lamar Miller and Mike James.  They also have several players Darion Hall, Maurice Hagens, and Kevin Grooms who are waiting in the wings who are more than willing to step in and make an impact at the Miami.  You have to wonder about Johnson though, he knew how loaded the Hurricanes were at running back when he signed, and he knew how far it was from his mother.  This is more than a simple case of someone getting homesick, but only people inside the program can really say what the real issue was.  The Hurricanes aren’t going to miss a step at running back, but what school will Storm Johnson end up at?

There is a large debate at the University of Miami about whether Shannon was as good of a recruiter as he was reported to be.  There is no denying that Shannon left some talent on this team, but some of the players did not pan out to be as good as once touted which is one of the reasons Shannon is not here anymore.  Since Al Golden has taken over the Hurricanes have been in scramble mode trying to put a staff together, prepare for a bowl game, and fill out the recruiting class.

At the under Armor All Star game in St. Petersburg, Florida the University of Miami was only represented by one player Anthony Chickillo who was one of the best players on the field at the right defensive end position.  Al Golden and his staff getting a late start did something innovative, they had a letter addressed to every player at the game waiting for them at Check-In.  Here is an excerpt of what the letter said:

At the top it read “From: MIAMI HURRICANE FOOTBALL STAFF”.

Below that: “U Put In The Work, U Paid The Price, U Earned It All”.

No other colleges did that, and it received a positive response from all of the players.  It does not seem to have initially swayed any players to change their commitment, but what it did do was let players know that the University of Miami is still a top dog in college football and is not quietly sitting in the corner satisfied with mediocrity.

Golden in his short time has solidified the commitment of Anthony Chickillo, and although he lost recruits Teddy Bridgewater and Eli Rogers to Louisville it has not affected what he is building at Miami.  Golden has received five commitments since he has taken over the head coaching position, and Miami is now in the mix for about 5 – 10 players who are committed to other programs.  Whatever Golden is doing on the recruiting trail it seems to be working as you are starting to hear kids putting Miami in their top five again.

Here are the commitments Golden has picked up so far:

Olsen Pierre 3 stars DE

Fork Union, VA Fork Union Military Academy

6’6″  280 lbs.

Dalton Botts 3 stars K

Moorpark, CA Moorpark C.C.

6’3″ 200 lbs.

Thomas Finnie 3 stars DB

Miami, FL Miami Central

5’10″ 170 lbs.

Taylor Gadbois 3 stars OL

Dallas, GA East Paulding

6’8″ 295 lbs.

Ricardo Williams 3 stars DE

Homestead, FL Homestead

6’5″ 210 lbs.

In the case of Thomas Finnie he was scheduled to fly to South Carolina to finalize his commitment to the Gamecocks, but Al Golden and staff never let him board that plane and by the end of the day he was a Hurricane commit.  Ricardo Williams was leaning heavy to sign with the North Carolina Tar Heels as he was not being recruited by Randy Shannon, but Al Golden locked up this commit who says he wanted to be a Hurricane all along.

Golden has targeted three QB’s in this class one who he has offered a scholarship already, but he is currently committed to Wake Forest.  The other two targets are waiting on an offer from the University of Miami and said they would commit if offered.  This could be one of the best salvage jobs of a recruiting class when it is all finished because Golden is getting players to de-commit form other schools to come to Miami.  That is not an easy thing to do, and one thing is for sure every living room that Al Golden and his staff sit in the parents and players have been impressed with how Golden conducts business.

The Miami Hurricanes have a new leader at the helm named Al Golden, he comes in with a 27–34 record as a head coach, which has many fans skeptical as to whether this was really an upgrade over Randy Shannon.  Golden can tout that he has taken one of the worst football programs in the country from 1–11 to records of 9–4 and 8–4 respectively over the five years he has been at Temple.  There are a lot of positives with Golden coming into Miami as the new head coach, but many will consider it hardly the “home run” hire they were looking for.  Golden delivered a passionate, confident, and strong press conference on Monday to kick off his tenure as the Hurricanes head coach.

What does the hiring of Golden say about the attractiveness of the job at the University of Miami?  The last few coaching searches turned up Coker, Shannon and now Golden—hardly the murderer’s row of coaching hires that would make people take notice.

The truth is Miami made the hard press at a lot of coaches over the past 10 years, and this time they went after Jon Gruden and struck out.  Then allegedly offered Boise State’s Chris Petersen the job and he backed out of it as well.  Miami never seemed to be in the running for Harbaugh or Petrino, and the entire song and dance with Dan Mullen seemed like he was never really interested in coming to coach the Hurricanes.

It took Miami several weeks to find a coach and close the deal, and Florida lost Urban Meyer and hired Will Muschamp from Texas within a few days after allegedly being rejected by the likes of Bob Stoops and Bobby Petrino.  Florida claims that Muschamp was their guy all along, and Muschamp says he would not have left for any other job, those statements are nice and politically correct.  We know that Muschamp would have left for a lot of jobs if the price and situation were right.  Miami wanted someone with head-coaching experience as stated from the beginning, and it seems Florida was rejected just as many times as the Hurricanes were.

What this says about the Miami job is that it’s not necessarily undesirable, but it is a very unique job like no other in college football.  There are positives and negatives to that, and in reality Miami has never went and hired big-name coaches in the past.  The University of Miami has always made coaches into legends and vaulted them into their next job because of the success they found in Coral Gables.  It would seem that this hire is right in line with what Miami did in the past when it was winning national and conference titles.

Being that Golden does not have a big name and Miami has what are considered good facilities, but not ones that can stack up with some of the other power programs in college football, it will be interesting to see how Golden is able to recruit and compete against the best in the country.  The program’s history and success of sending players to the NFL are where the advantages are.  If it comes down to fan support or facilities those are issues that have to be resolved at some point, but will take time to fix.  Some believe the issue of fan support will never be fixed due to the history of Southern Florida sports fans, and there are others who say, “Just win and it will take care of itself.”

Miami is a good job, but not a great one.  It’s not as bad as Mark May made it out to be a few weeks ago when he was discussing the job on ESPN.  There is sporadic fan support, and it’s a hot seat almost the minute you take the job.  The ink from Golden’s signature is hardly dry on the contract and you already have a subset of the fan base discussing renting planes and not being happy with the hire.  Many fans think Miami deserves to pluck coaches from schools like Georgia, Arkansas and even Oklahoma and are upset that the coaching search was narrowed to coaches from Temple, UConn and the CFL.

The truth is some of those coaches have been at those schools for over six years, and although they may get on the hot seat at times, they manage to keep their job.  Miami has jettisoned coaches two times during the same period some of these coaches were employed in their current jobs, so why would they leave stability for the unknown?  For instance, coach Randy Edsall would have been a significant upgrade, but he is now a god at UConn and the expectations are low.

Taking the job at Miami is not something everyone can do, and the fact that Golden is willing to come in and take a shot at it means the fans should give him the benefit of the doubt before passing judgment.  During his press conference Golden said that the standard at Miami is winning championships and that is the only standard he will be judged by.  There were a lot of politically correct statements in Golden’s press conference which is to be expected, but he gave the impression that he knows what he is getting into and what is going to be expecting of him from the fans and administration.  The fact that he understands that concept will serve him well as he will have a limited amount of time to get things going in the right direction.

Shocking news today is the fact that Urban Meyer has stepped down as head coach at the University of Florida.  Meyer in his resignation cited that he wants to focus on his family and life away from the football field, if you remember last season Meyer briefly stepped down due to health concerns after he had been hospitalized.  It is no doubt that the strain of a 7 – 5 season coupled with high expectations got to the coach who had to temper his work ethic in order to meet the medical requirements to keep coaching.

Meyer is more than likely resigning because he knows what it will take to get the Gators back on top, and losing Dan Mullen to Mississippi State a few years ago has made that task much harder.  When Meyer looked in the mirror it simply came down to the fact that he could not force himself to put out the effort needed to get this program where it needs to be without possibly killing himself.  He realized that he has two national titles a good amount of money in the bank, so why not just walk away now.

I don’t blame Meyer as he has dedicated most of his life to coaching, and it’s a thankless job at times.  Florida fans were already clamoring for some sort of change after the 7 – 5 season did they forget he recently led them to two national titles?  It’s no doubt that Dan Mullen will get a hard look from Florida to fill the spot now left vacant by Urban Meyer, and with the Miami Hurricanes already looking for a new coach this coaching search could get interesting.

Meyer has a successful coaching record, but many will always wonder how successful he would have been had he not been the beneficiary of Ron Zook’s recruits and a guy named Tim Tebow.  This was the first year that Meyer had neither one of those advantages and the team looked abysmal at times, while their currently quarterback did not seem to fit the system Meyer was running.

After Florida State broke the losing streak to the Gators defeating them 31 – 7 Meyer had this to say, “I can assure you we are going to rebuild this thing and build it up the right way and do it right,” Meyer said. “Obviously we are down a little bit. I didn’t believe we’d be that far down, but we are. How do you build a program up? You build it up with tough players, tough coaches and you have got to play better.”

When Meyer took stock of just how far ahead Florida State was as well as the other teams in the SEC, he realized he would not be able to accomplish that task without a lot of luck going his way.  After an off season where Meyer took a trip to Hawaii and went to Rome with his family for the first time in a long time, he thought of how tranquil that life was compared to the meat grinder that is college football.  It will take a strong man to build the Florida football program back up, but it took an even stronger one to walk away from something he worked his whole life to build.

With Miami and Florida now looking for coaches and coming off of mediocre seasons, that means the Florida State Seminoles are the leaders of the state.  It is imperative that the Gators get a new head coach in as soon as possible, as Jimbo Fisher will be in recruits living rooms talking about stability and that his school is the only one that has a plan going forward.  Football in the state of Florida is about to change if Florida and Miami do not get their coaching hires right, and could keep Florida State as the dominant program for years to come.

Randy Shannon won’t have much to be thankful about during Thanksgiving dinner, despite what he said about him “receiving support” from the university he has to be worried about his job.  From Shannon’s history though he is not worried about himself as much as he will be about his players, who have staunchly supported their coach several times.

Football at the University of Miami is at a cross roads, going into the final game against USF the Hurricanes have turmoil swirling around the entire program.  The Virginia Tech game seems to be the straw that broke the Camel’s back even though the Canes played well for most of the game, the fourth quarter left a bad taste in the mouth of a large number of fans.  Long time Shannon supporters are starting to jump ship, and former players are coming out in droves and firing pot shots and the head coach.

It's Cold In Coral Gables For Randy Shannon Right Now.

You can tell Shannon is feeling the heat because he has named Stephen Morris the starter for the game against South Florida even though Jacory Harris is healthy enough to play.  Morris has looked good in the games he has played save one quarter against Virginia Tech, and Shannon has decided that he needs to move some of his investments to the Stephen Morris portfolio.   Shannon seems to imply it will be good to have a true quarterback competition going into the spring, and Jacory Harris will have to earn the starting job back.

Shannon has already started locking up recruits for the 2012 class, and commenting on the difficulty of the schedule being the only team in the ACC that plays FSU and VT every year.  Shannon is waging political warfare like he never has before in an attempt to stem the tide rising against him.  Some of these are great moves by Shannon for self-preservation,  but there is one problem it may already be too late to save his job.

There is virtually nothing Shannon can do to save his job at this point if that decision has already been made, but if there is a spirited discussion going on behind closed doors he has only one option available to him.  Miami has to go out and beat USF 56 – 7 or something along those lines, the type of beating we have not seen at Miami over an FBS opponent in a long time.  Then if he makes it past Monday whomever the Canes play in a bowl game better get blown out as well, that is the only way to buy back some sort of confidence that things might be able to change.  That still would not be enough to get back any good will from the critics.

With the chatter of John Gruden being interested in coming to Miami seeming to gain steam very quickly, one has to wonder if his interest is true or not.  It’s all rumor at this point, but it has desperate Hurricanes fans clinging to the idea because they have lost hope.  Over at allcanes.com/blog an article was written recently about the Gruden situation, and there were a lot of good points made.  Shalala and Hocutt have not gotten where they are by being stupid and reactionary, if they listened to emotional fans they would make knee jerk reactions and that would not be good.

They are not going to make a change for the sake of making a change to appease fans whining on message boards and blog posts, whatever they decide to do will surely be calculated and planned properly.  Sure we don’t know how much money Miami has in the coffers to spend on a head coach, but a private school with no state funding and a smaller student population is at a disadvantage financially in some areas compared to public universities.    The John Gruden discussion could have an extremely positive effect on the program, or plummet it to a point that it may be hard to recover from.

Gruden won a Super Bowl in his first year with Tampa Bay (some would say with Tony Dungy’s team), and some consider him the Larry Coker of the NFL.  Gruden only had one other double digit win season after the Super Bowl year, and he had a continuous carousel of quarterbacks he collected and messed around with.  Gruden is a big name, but there is not enough there to say he is a sure thing to lead the Hurricanes back to glory.  These are the things Hocutt and Shalala have to look at when they make a decision on the coaching situation.

It is not an easy decision on what to do next, and the decision to fire Shannon is going to be based on what coaches are available to take the job and want to come here.  Gary Patterson, Chris Petersen are two names Canes fans would love to have in Coral Gables, but who says they would leave the god like situations they are in right now?  Firing Shannon for another young coach or an unproven assistant has a lot of risk as well.

Regardless of what decision is made Hurricanes fans will be waiting anxiously on Sunday to see if there is movement in Coral Gables.  The fan base is split by those who want Shannon gone, and those who want to give him one more year.  If the Hurricanes convincingly win the last two games of this season, then some of that bad taste won’t taste as bitter.

The University of Miami Football Team is kicking off their 2010 campaign by taking on the Rattlers of Florida A&M.  The Hurricanes released their depth chart and starting lineup for the game, and it contained what some might consider several surprises.

With several players returning from injury like Marcus Forston and Adewale Ojomo, the Hurricanes have developed depth at much needed positions.  This depth chart in a lot of areas had players listed with or next to their name, which means the competition was fierce at that particular position.  It also means there are a lot of players who are backups that will be seeing significant playing time during the season.

Enjoy looking at the depth chart for the 2010 Hurricanes as they get ready to take on Florida A&M, and a prediction of the outcome of the game as well.

Quarterback

This was the position least in doubt coming into the season, and the race was for the backup position.  Jacory Harris seems to be fully recovered from the thumb injury he suffered last season, and his work in the off season should be evident this year.  The only question for Harris is if he is going to be able to limit the amount of interceptions this year since he led the nation in that category last year.

Alonzo Highsmith and Spencer Whipple just need to be ready in case something catastrophic happens.  Harris has a few areas he is expected to improve in outside of the interceptions, for example taking what the defense gives him rather than going deep every play.  Also, many fans are hoping to see Harris scramble for yardage more when he has the opportunity, but it is unclear if the coaching staff shares the same sentiment.

Depth Chart:

Jacory Harris

Alonzo Highsmith

Spencer Whipple

Running Backs

This is probably the deepest position on the Hurricanes Football team, and many speculated that Lamar Miller or Storm Johnson would break into the top two on the depth chart.  Well despite both players having a strong showing in spring, it seems that the depth chart is keeping the status quo as the incumbents kept their spots.

That does not mean we will not see players like Lamar Miller and Graig Cooper (provided he is healthy), but early in the season Berry and Mike James will have to carry the load because of the murderers  row of games the Hurricanes have to play early in the season.  With all the explosive playmakers at this position the Hurricanes should be able to keep players fresh, and allow them to be able to keep pressure on the defense.

Depth Chart:

Half Back

Damien Berry

Mike James

Full Back

Patrick Hill

Maurice Hagens

Wide Receivers

This is another deep and talented group on this team; the Hurricanes can make an argument for having the fastest receiving group in the nation.  On the depth chart all of these players are listed as starters because a lot of them are interchangeable.  The main focus for these players is to get open and read the blitz’s from the defense so Harris will have a hot route to throw the football to.  The Hurricanes really cannot go wrong with any combination of this group, although Leonard Hankerson is considered the go to receiver for Jacory Harris.

The tight end position is filled with talent as well although a lot of the players do not have much game experience; Richard Gordon is the elder statesmen of the group.  Chase Ford is a transfer, and the other two players are true freshmen.  Gordon is talented, but a comfort level will have to develop with him and Jacory Harris.  It is widely accepted that Gordon will be better than Jimmy Graham, which means this is an upgrade at the position.

Depth Chart:

Leonard Hankerson

Aldarius Johnson

Travis Benjamin

LaRon Byrd

Tight Ends

Richard Gordon

Chase Ford

Asante Cleveland

Billy Sanders

Offensive Line

This has been the most scrutinized and criticized group on the team, many people are talking about how suspect the offensive line is.  Most people are focusing on one game, and they forget that this team averaged over 30 points a game last season.  You don’t score that many points if your offensive line is suspect, they had some injuries in the bowl game and performed badly.  In the offseason the offensive line took it personal that they were considered the weak link on the team, and I expect them to come out and make a statement this season.

Depth Chart:

Left Tackle

Orlando Franklin

Ben Jones

Left Guard

Harland Gunn

Jared Wheeler

Center

Tyler Horn

Brandon Linder

Right Guard

Brandon Washington

Malcolm Bunche

Right Tackle

Joel Figueroa

Jermaine Johnson

Defensive Line

This should also be a position of strength for the Hurricanes with Marcus Forston returning from a season long injury.  Forston is not listed as the starter; it says that he or Josh Holmes could get the start at Left Defensive Tackle.  Either way Forston will see significant playing time, or if he can be a force in the middle this defense will be hard to score on.  Adewale Ojomo is also in the same situation, list as one of three possible starters at defensive end after missing last season with a broken jaw.  With all the players back and playmaker Allen Bailey back to playing defensive end, the front four should be solid this season.  Definitely more than enough to handle Florida A&M.

Left Defensive End

Allen Bailey

Marcus Robinson

Dyron Dye

Left Defensive Tackle

Josh Holmes

Marcus Forston

Right Defensive Tackle

Micanor Regis

Luther Robinson

Right Defensive End

Olivier Vemon

Adewale Ojomo

Andrew Smith

Linebackers

The linebacker position has not been particularly strong over the past few seasons for the Hurricanes, and the middle linebacker position was the biggest question coming into the year.  Sean Spence is back and healthy again, but still undersized at 220 lbs. playing the weak side linebacker position.  They decided to move Colin McCarthy to the middle linebacker spot, and Kylan Robinson seems to have beaten out Ramon Buchanan for the starting Strong side linebacker position.  Overall this group has to play better; McCarthy was good but not overwhelmingly impressive last year.  This group had better use Florida A&M as a game to get the kinks worked out because Ohio State will be much less forgiving.

Strong Linebacker

Kylan Robinson

Ramon Buchanan

Middle Linebacker

Colin McCarthy

Kelvin Cain

Weak Linebacker

Sean Spence

James Gaines

Jordan Futch

Defensive Secondary

The defensive backfield is very strong and could be one of the best in the country if this group plays up to their potential.  It all starts with Brandon Harris who is one of the best cornerbacks in the country, but will have a challenge against bigger receivers because of his size.  DeMarcus Van Dyke has gotten better every season, and seems poised to have a breakout season across from Harris.  He must be ready as teams throw away from Harris and challenge him to see if he holds up, if he can then the DVD moniker will be a feared this season.

Prized Miami recruit Ray Ray Armstrong will finally be a starter and have to live up to the hype he received during his recruitment.  In the spring he was not the starter and this fall he worked his way back into the position and has the physical attributes to be one of the best safeties in the country.  That group rounds out with Vaughn Telemaque who was a surprise contributor last season, and the same can be expected from him this year.  If this group plays to their talent level then Miami will boast one of the top passing defenses in the nation.

Left Cornerback

DeMarcus Van Dyke

Ryan Hill

Right Cornerback

Brandon Harris

Brandon McGee

Strong Safety

Ray Ray Armstrong

JoJo Nicolas

Free Safety

Vaughn Telemaque

Kacy Rodgers

Jared Campbell

The Game

The Miami Hurricanes come into this game with the challenge of staying focused and executing the game plan despite playing an inferior opponent.  There is no way FAMU wins this game, of course some will say on any given day any team can win.  This will not be one of those days, the Hurricanes have to avoid injury and not let the Rattlers hang around.

In last season’s meeting the Hurricanes defeated Florida A&M 48 – 16, and the Rattlers hung around for a little bit in the first half.  Miami can ill afford to let that happen this year, they need to make a statement and crush this opponent from the start.  What many may now know is FAMU beat Miami in their first meeting in 1979, but Miami has reeled off 7 straight wins against the Rattlers.  Miami leads the all-time series 7–1; expect it to go to 8–1 after this game.

With that being said, this is an important game for the Hurricanes, as it is a tune up for their game the next week against Ohio State.  The Hurricanes struggled last year with play consistently at a high level for the entire season, and will need to display they can play mistake free football.

Florida A&M barely missed the playoffs last season, and are a very capable FCS subdivision football team.  The Rattlers averaged 28 points per game last season and combined for over 2200 yards rushing as a team.  The Rattlers offensive production will be hurting with the graduation of Dual threat quarterback Curtis Pulley, and his replacement Eddie Battle has big shoes to fill.  We all know that Florida A&M will win one battle, at halftime their band “The Marching 100” is second to none.

Miami wins this game in convincing fashion 45 – 13.

Beason played his college football at the University of Miami. He began his career at fullback but shifted to linebacker as a red shirt freshman. During his career he collected 187 tackles, three-and-a-half sacks, and one interception. He majored in sports administration.  Beason also garnered the nickname “The Beast” from his playing days at Miami, and his exploits as a part of the “7th Floor Crew” who were best known for taking in the full college experience on the 7th floor of Mahoney Hall at the University of Miami.

He was drafted by the Carolina Panthers in the 1st round of the 2007 NFL Draft with the 25th pick. He still plays for the panthers today and has accumulated over 400 tackles during his NFL Career.  In 2008 Beason was selected to his first pro-bowl and was also an NFL All-Pro selection; he recorded 138 tackles and three interception during that season.

Here are a few excerpts taken from (www.beason52.com):

The 25 most hated teams in sports list was recently released.  Many I agreed with and some I did not understand why they were even on the list, then I came to the team ranked at #11 which was the 1990 University of Miami Football team. I obviously was not surprised that Miami was on the list because that is all you ever hear from people who THINK they know about college football.

Here is an excerpt of what was written about the 11th most hated team of all time in reference to their Cotton Bowl appearance.

“Seldom has a team been so undisciplined … and unstoppable. Miami had a Cotton Bowl record 132 yards in penalties. At halftime the ‘Canes finished with 202 yards in penalties, a bowl record that still stands. They also won 46-3. “If they aren’t the best,” ‘Horns coach David McWilliams said: “I don’t want to play the best.” — Austin Murphy (www.cnnsi.com )

I thought that was interesting that it seemed their entire basis for being ranked the 11th most hated team of all time was based on one game, a woodshed beating of the Texas Longhorns.

So I noted that and continued to scroll up the list wondering what teams were in the top ten. I look through the teams and I am passing the 2007 New England Patriots at the sixths spot (can’t argue with that one), the 1988-89 Detroit Pistons at the number two spot.

Then I get a look at who is picked as the MOST hated team of all time, and it is the 1986 Miami Hurricanes football team. Here is the entire passage that was written, so you can see their reasoning for ranking the Hurricanes in the top spot.

“His players were visionaries, early practitioners of an in-your-face brand of football that went out of its way to belittle and intimidate opponents. It was, in a lot of ways, the opposite of sportsmanship. It was a ‘Cane thing. To say that Jimmy Johnson (pictured, left, with Michael Irvin) gave his players free reign was an understatement.

The ’86 Hurricanes were caught up in “fights and fraud and alleged shoplifting and other unsavory shenanigans involving more than 40 players,” wrote SI ‘s Rick Reilly. “Miami may be the only squad in America that has its team picture taken from the front and from the side.”

It was also flat-out loaded, an NFL developmental squad, and not inclined toward modesty. The top-ranked ‘Canes showed up in Tempe, Ariz., for the national title game rocking military fatigues, in stark contrast to the coats and ties sported by the charges of “St. Joe ” Paterno, as Johnson dubbed his counterpart. In that famed Fiesta Bowl game, Heisman Trophy winner

Vinny Testaverde threw five picks and Miami turned the ball over seven times in a 14-10 Penn State upset that made a lot of people across the republic very, very happy.” — Austin Murphy (www.cnnsi.com)

First let’s point out the obvious Miami was the ONLY team to make this list twice, the Pistons, Yankees, and Chicago Black Sox were all on there even the 2005 USC Trojans.  None of them made this list more than once. The other constant with that list is that most of the teams on that list were very successful, or champions in their respective sports. What this says is that people don’t hate the Hurricanes just because of their Bravado; they hate the Hurricanes because they win championships with a chip on their shoulder.

If you look at the majority of the teams on that list the Pistons were known as the Bad Boys, even the Jimmy Johnson led 1992 Dallas Cowboys were on there. If you look at it all of these teams were highly successful, and people hated them because they won without being nice guys.

They went on the field and looked at the team across from them as an opponent not a group of friends who they were going to hang out with after the game.  Those Miami Hurricanes teams played football the way it should be played, with heart, emotion, and a general dislike of the team they are playing.

People always bring up all the “off the field” stories about those Miami teams, but what they do not talk about is hardly any of those players ever missed a game on Saturday because of an off field issue.  If Miami players were committing as many crimes blatantly as all the rumors say they would have surely been caught multiple times over a four year period.

The players at Miami just feed that stigma and over exaggerate all of it because they are proud that people were against them, and the succeeded despite people objections. Thinks of the genius in all of this, teams from 1986 and 1990 were so polarizing that they shaped the perception of an entire football program.

The perception remains today even though Miami has hardly had any players arrested over the past five seasons, which just proves all of the media hate is based off of personal bias more than fact.  Were those Miami teams in your face, cocky, and intense? You bet they were.

But Michael Jordan was just as bad, and if you believe the stories he was even worse and not one Chicago Bulls team made this list. Jordan is loved by millions, and he played the game of basketball much the same way as the Miami Hurricanes played football, but he gets nowhere near the same level of hate.

There was also a section talking about teams that barely missed the cut for making the top 25 most hated list, and the 2002 Ohio State Buckeyes were listed.  There were appropriately named “The Luckeyes” for that good fortune filled season they experienced which can only be described as something of a dream.  Well at least in South Florida the Gators and Buckeyes are fighting for the top spot of most hated team by Miami Hurricanes fans, maybe it will be a tie for first!