Canes Need To Let Action Speak, Not Words

It was a short little throwaway piece in the Sun-Sentinel the Tuesday, leading up to  Saturday’s kickoff at Boston College.

Beat writer Michael Casagrande got a few minutes with wideout Rashawn Scott and the focus was Miami losing it’s mojo, being pegged as the fifth-best team, not in the ACC, but in the Coastal Division.

Scott’s reaction, “I feel like it’s going to be shocking,” Scott said. “They think, because we lost everyone, that we’re not going to be a good team. I feel like we’re going to come out and shock everybody. It’s going to look like we’re an experienced team.”

Teammate and fellow receiver Allen Hurns also chimed in.

“I grade our offense real high right now,” Hurns said. “There’s a lot of people doing a lot of good things. With [offensive coordinator Jedd] Fisch, he lets a lot of people touch the ball and things like that so we can spread it around and our quarterbacks can get us the ball. So I’m really excited about our offense this season.”

From there, standard talk about silencing the ‘haters’, using the disrespect as motivation and proving everyone wrong.

Yawn.

Seriously. Double yawn.

On one hand, you realize these are kids with a microphone in their face and when asked the question, something has to give. It’s 2012. Social media dominates. Hell, Southern Cal even started promoting their players’ Twitter handles on depth charts and bio pages.

Still, even with technology taking over and today’s college athletes living in the spotlight in a way that NFLers didn’t sniff a few decades back, you wish that someone with a secret could do a better job keeping it.

There’s nothing wrong with Scott or Hurns believing this team could do something special. As fans, it’s refreshing to know that these starters have higher aspirations than the ones the media has predicted. That said, why “go there”, though?

What happened to walking softly and carrying a big stick? Brush off the media’s rankings. Why do football players care what guys behind a desk or with a notepad think? Opinions don’t matter; facts do.

By season’s end, the Canes will have had twelve to fourteen chances to ‘silence the haters’ – with their actions, not opinions.

If players really want to ‘shock’ everyone, blow off questions of this nature. Smile wryly, like they know something no one else does and come December feel free to play the I-told-you-so game.

Every years there’s a lot of big talk coming out of Coral Gables, and other major programs, as well. Talk is cheap and actions speak louder than words.

Miami flew in under the radar in 2009 and opened the season with unexpected wins over Florida State and Georgia Tech and from there Miami was quickly on the map. A loss to Virginia Tech ensued, forcing many off the bandwagon, but soon thereafter UM took out eighth-ranked Oklahoma and was a hot topic again.

Winning is the only cure-all and way to earn respect. Miami is 13-12 the past two seasons so the low ACC prediction isn’t ‘disrespect’, nor are outsiders ‘hating’. They simply won’t believe it until they see it.

Worry about winning games, Hurricanes – not meaningless, fabricated media debates.

Comments

comments

10 thoughts on “Canes Need To Let Action Speak, Not Words

  1. While I get the point of proving it on the field I enjoy two things about these comments:

    1. These kids have the confidence to say they are better than people are saying, media or otherwise.

    2. Golden has put enough faith in this team that he is letting them speak!

    Time will tell if Mr Hurns and Mr Scott get their point across on the gridiron. For now, I’ll take a little enthusiasm for once.

    1. Good points Mike. I like the confidence as well as the coaching staff trusting the kids to talk. Much more refreshing than the gag order from the Shannon era.

      I guess I would just like to see things change culturally a bit. Big talk is sort of pointless. Just go do it. Especially this program has been in a lurch so long.

      I am personally scarred by the big chatter as I fell for Kevin Beard’s words in summer 2003. Miami lost to Ohio State in the Fiasco and that off-season there was SO much chatter out of Coral Gables where ours kids talked of being hungry, focused, ready to go out and get what was stolen the year before, etc. Beard said something about not just being “hungry” but “famished” and how Miami was going to make up for 2002 with a 2003 title.

      Contrast that to faceplants at Virginia Tech and against Tennessee and it proved to be a lot of big talk with no follow through. That 31-7 ass beating at Virginia Tech was the worst loss Miami had seen since losing in Blacksburg in 1999.

      Talk less, win more. I wish that’d be the mantra this season.

  2. Big fan of the blog, but disagree on the points brought up here. We’ve always been trash talkers, it makes us the U. I never want to lose that aspect of our “tradition.” that being said, it means nothing if we can’t put up the W, this much is true.

    1. Respect your take, Alex. I like the trash talk when it’s justified and backed up.

      This isn’t really even trash talk, though. It’d be one thing if Scott / Hurns came out and said Miami is headed up to Boston College to kick the ass off the Eagles, threw up double middle fingers, walked out and then rolled, 45-3 on Saturday.

      Saying that they’re going to surprise a lot of people, that the media are ‘haters’ for not ranking them higher, that they’ll be a better team than expected this year — that’s just pointless.

      Talk some REAL trash or just save it for the field. Refuting the fact that the media “didn’t give Miami enough love” this pre-season is lame. You think old school, trash-talking Canes would give two shits about that? C’mon now.

      In 1988 Florida State was pre-season number one, made a rap video, talked smack and came south to play the 1987 defending national champs and Miami said nothing — just rolled heads and beat that ass 31-0, saving the chatter for AFTER the game.

      1. Swayed me; notion that media have been “haters” is a little far-fetched. Keep up the good work. Go Canes!

  3. I disagree……we’re going to talk smack and kick ass……that’s how we have always been……that’s how it should be.

    1. Joe, respect the stance … but is it really “talking smack” to talk about the media being “haters”?

      Legitimately “talking smack” is Jerome Brown, Winston Moss and Alonzo Highsmith standing midfield telling Oklahoma to shove it up their ass before the 1986 game.

      Saying Miami will “shock the world” this year because the media ranked them fifth and saying “we’re going to look like an experienced team” is a far cry from, “I ain’t scared of you, bitch” and “we’re the boss”, two minutes before kickoff.

      If you’re gonna talk shit, talk shit and go beat that ass 45-3 on Saturday. Don’t cry about media disrespect when this program is coming off 13-12 the past two years.

      1. Let me rephrase…..they should be able to express themselves and articulate thier thoughts….even if it comes across as talking “smack”. As a fan I never want to see the shenanigans we pulled back in the day as in backflips, dancing or the pee wee Herman al la Randal Hill. I now understand your point and agree….we should have a bigger fish to fry then the media….and yes….actions speak louder then words.

        1. Joe – All for articulating thoughts. Never want our kids muzzled … just sort of tired of this ‘disrespected’ and ‘hater’ mindset. Same thing when kids in the recruiting process talk about a school ‘not showing enough love’, or bullshit like that.

          Like you, I loved Randal Hill running up the tunnel when he did it back at the Cotton Bowl … but don’t need to see that nonsense again. It was part of that era and it worked then, but file stuff like that under ‘ancient history’ as far as I’m concerned.

          I just don’t get our current kids giving a damn what media members have to say about where they’ll finish in the ACC — nor do I see how it’s “hating” when this program is 13-12 the past few years and hasn’t sniffed top of the pack in the ACC in eight seasons.

          Go out there, play hard, win games, kick ass and then chest-thump AFTER the fact and bitch about the supposed “disrespect”.

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