Miami Hurricanes: The Latest At “The U”…

Basketball is winding down, baseball is ramping up, football practices are underway, while heavy recruitment for future classes continues. Just another week in the life of the Miami Hurricanes. Let’s dive in with the latest at The U.

Miami held on for an 81-77 win over Florida State on Wednesday night at The BUC, surviving an all-time late-game performance from the Noles’ Xavier Rathan-Mayes. The freshman scored 30 points in the game’s final 4:38, including six 3-pointers and cutting deep into the Canes’ 18-point lead.

Despite Rathan-Mayes scoring 26 consecutive Florida State points and pulling to within three, Miami earned a much-needed victory, made possible by a career-high 25-point outing from Angel Rodriguez.

The Hurricanes are now 18-10 overall and 8-7 in conference play with three games remaining. Regarding the NCAA Tournament, UM currently falls somewhere between “first four out” and “others considered”—meaning that every game right now is must-win.

The Canes are now 6-5 in their last eleven ACC games, coming off a 55-53 loss to Louisville before Wednesday win over Florida State. Next up, a home showdown on Saturday against North Carolina followed by back-to-back road games to close out the regular season; Wednesday at Pittsburgh and next Saturday Virginia Tech.

Inconsistency has plagued the Hurricanes all season. Early wins over Florida and Illinois were countered with inexplicable losses to Green Bay, Eastern Kentucky and Providence. Miami also had some narrow losses to Virginia, Notre Dame and Florida State that will most-likely come back to haunt.

Yes, this was a rebuilding year for the Hurricanes as some first-year talent was plugged in and asked to carry a heavy load. Still, when knocking on the door of ‘The Big Dance’ and what will be a spirited conference tournament, just win, Miami.

Baseball responded to a series loss at Florida with a Wednesday night home win over Barry.  Danny Garcia went 7.2 innings giving up six hits and two runs in the, 5-3 victory but Miami bats remained ice cold with only five hits on the night. The Canes also tallied three errors and left 11 men on base.

Miami got on the board early with two in the first and three in the third, but went scoreless the final seven innings. Carl Chester was hit by a pitch to open the game, while Ricky Eusebio drew a walk. The Canes pulled off the double-steal and a batter later Zack Collins drive Chester home with a ground out, while a single from David Thompson brought in Eusebio.

In the second, RBI doubles from Brandon Lopez and Eusebio gave the Canes a 4-0 lead, before Barry reliever Daniel Broeseker walked Collins to load the bases and Thompson to bring in the Canes’ final run on the night.

Another too-close-for comfort midweek game on the heels of last Wednesday’s loss to Florida Atlantic. Next up, a three-game home series against Wright State where bats simply need to come alive.

Spring football is underway for Miami football and the first scrimmage is around the corner. The Hurricanes are sending a solid crop of talent to the NFL Draft in a few weeks, which has put the focus on all the underachieving that surrounded a 6-7 season and four-game losing streak.

The standard position-battle stories are starting to trickle out, as well as the youth movement, guys growing up, learning their position and stories of guys putting on man-weight, which always spark tales of spring time heroes (who always seem to inevitably fade by fall.)

In short, it’s a lot of fluff and while there’s an audience who cares to hang on every word of paid sites who dish out the daily reports, no real love for that around here. Talk is cheap. Time for this program to deliver and you almost wish Miami would sort of fold up the media tent a bit, go internal and truly take on that us-against-the-world approach.

Not to sound callous, but does anyone really care if offensive lineman KC McDermott is upping his muscle mass, defensive end Chad Thomas is seen as an every-down player next year or Anthony Moten “made big strides” during bowl practices? Deliver the goods when the season kicks off, gentlemen.

One thing truly matters this off-season at the University of Miami; a lightbulb going off with fifth-year head coach Al Golden. Lots of chatter with some recent hirings—most-recently, Josh Darrow coming on board as the new assistant director of football operations.

Darrow launched SFHSSports.com (South Florida High School Sports), has reported on Canes’ football games and has been heavily involved with the local prep football scene for over a decade.

Darrow is replacing Kevin Beard, the former Miami wideout promoted to coaching up wide receivers this season.

On the surface, it appears that Golden is making moves to lock down local talent and reemphasize the State Of Miami mantra that former coach Howard Schnellenberger coined and lived by three decades back.

Golden stuck to his guns regarding coaching staff changes this off-season, only replacing those who took jobs elsewhere and firing no one. The unspoken message; he believes in his guys and his process, but knows he must secure top talent to implement his scheme and process.

Will it work? Time will tell. An upside? Should it not work, the talent level is on the rise and the stage will be set for whoever takes over next.

To that last point, a lot of hype regarding classes being assembled for 2016 and 2017. Both a million miles away, but some solace to be taken from the fact that big name kids from the next generation is on board with the Miami program and believes in the direction things are going.

Over the past three weeks, the Canes have added six names to the ’16 class—including 4-star athlete Tyler Byrd and 3-star Pahokee running back McArthur Burnett. Last month, 4-star Gulliver defensive end Joseph Jackson got on board.

Regarding the ’17 bunch, three verbal commitments this month, including Dillard linebacker Tyler Dunning and a pair of running backs—Killian’s Bentavious Thompson and Gulliver’s Robert Burns.

The hashtag #Swag16 has been popping up for next year’s crew—18 players deep after defensive tackle Keyshon Camp recently decommitted (a reminder that verbal pledges mean nada)—and while the energy surrounding some future Canes is palpable, such an obvious push by UM to get this fan base focused on the future, more than the present.

Golden spent much of today’s post-practice interview time hyping facilities—part of a sales pitch for those who will get on board next, explaining that UM has little to apologize for these days in regards to recent additions and upgrades.

Part of that pitch were the monster upgrades being made to Sun Life Stadium; while “The U” continues figuring out how to package and sell these upgrades in a way to not rub longtime fans and supports the wrong way as seat prices are inevitably going up.

Miami has even offered Al Blades Jr. of the 2018 class, with articles written days back by Canes-themed sites about the legendary Miami family and the impact the Son-Of-Al could have on the program … three years from now; almost two decades after his late father last suited up, let alone his legendary uncles in the Decade Of Dominance.

Curious to see how all this forward-thinking plays out for UM. It certainly makes sense to hype the future, but generating hype and interest for September needs to be equally as important … or there’s gonna be a ton of brand-new-blue empty seats on game day this fall.

Lastly, some back-and-forth on allCanes’ social media today regarding our upcoming in-store signing session with Billy Corben and watch party for “The U Part 2” on Tuesday March 3rd.

Things were a go until mid-day when the distributor of the soon-to-be-released Blu-Ray let us know there might be a hiccup in the shipping process. As a result, the event was temporarily postponed, but the fine folks at ESPN assured us that the DVDs will be in-stock prior-to and the party is back on.

In-store signing session takes place from 7:00-8:30 p.m. ET, while the watch party at the Titanic Brewery goes from 7:00-10:00 p.m., with some old school Canes expected in the house and a rowdy little might for the U Family.

Pre-orders for “The U Part 2” are shutting down in the next day, so get on board while you can. The documentary is currently streaming on Netflix, but this set comes with both The U and The U Part 2 on Blu-Ray, as well as 28 extra minutes of deleted footage regarding the latest film, as well as director’s commentary. Certainly a must-have for the diehard.

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