A few hours before kickoff and nothing resembling a preview coming from the allCanesBlog. A thousand apologies. Make the trek back to Miami for this one and been hunkered down in the Grove getting ‘game ready’. Old friends. Familiar stomping grounds. Same passion for the program I grew up loving during my twenty-five years in the three o’ five.
A few thoughts before heading to Land Shark:
… I already miss the Orange Bowl. Watching on TV, it’s a stadium. This marks my first trek back for a home game since 48-0 against Virginia.
I miss the game day experience. I miss my friends and their house where we used to party on 6th Street. I miss seeing rowdy fans stumbling around in the street hours before kickoff. Hell, I even miss hearing ‘no blokee’ and coming out postgame seeing my ride four cars deep in someone’s driveway.
It’s Miami/Oklahoma tonight and Land Shark has hosted it’s share of Super Bowls… but I’d prefer Canes/Sooners at the OB, just like every other fan.
… Sam Bradford isn’t starting, as expected. Still can’t believe the emails I received from OU fans after calling that shot weeks back – Sooners buying into the hype this week because the Heisman-winner ‘practiced’ earlier this week. This is a ‘Grade 3’ shoulder separation to a quarterback’s throwing arm, people. No way Bradford could be game ready a month after sustaining an injury of this nature.
Landry Jones will come to play, but the freshman is no Bradford. The newbie did a great job lighting up a few ‘nobodies’ these past few weeks, but Idaho and Tulsa are no Miami defensively. Neither is BYU, for that matter. Jones couldn’t move the ball late against the Cougars; the same BYU squad Florida State shredded for 512 total yards.
… All that said, nothing is more important than Miami protecting Jacory Harris. If there’s on reason the Canes got spanked by the Hokies, it was the constant pressure on the sophomore quarterback.
Although they’ve played nobody, the Sooners still field the top-ranked scoring defense in the nation and Bob Stoops knows D. Virginia Tech gave the nation the blueprint how to shut down the Canes. What does Mark Whipple do to thwart the onslaught and more importantly, can The U finally establish a running game tonight?
… Other than that, what is there really to say? Miami was predicted by some to go 0-4 out the gate and instead made it to 2-0 before losing at Virginia Tech. 2-1 going into the Oklahoma game was an absolute dream at the beginning of the season… yet one loss later, the ‘doom and gloom’ has returned regarding the fanbase.
A win against Oklahoma absolutely puts Miami back on the map, while a loss drops things to 2-2 — which was hardly an ‘end of the world’ scenario when the season started.
This is still year three in the rebuilding project and the schedule lightens up a bit over the next month (Florida A&M, Central Florida, Clemson and Wake Forest). 7-1 isn’t out of reach and 6-2 shouldn’t put a damper on what many thought would be a three to five-loss season.
Oklahoma is beatable… if the Canes come to play. Home night game at The Shark. Miami under the radar after some early-season hype. A sidelined Heisman-winning quarterback. A rowdy fan base on a Saturday night, in prime time.
Headed up 95 North to play my part. Have a feeling the Canes pull out a close one:
The Call: Miami 20, Oklahoma 16