The Latest at The U…

Nine days until kickoff and the scent of Miami Hurricanes football is officially in the air Regarding “The State of Miami”, let’s dive right in:

Thearon Collier is officially in Los Angeles and has joined the Southern Cal family. There’s been some ink on it, but none better than a little blurb on NBC Miami yesterday, as it really complimented UM’s depth at the wideout position.

UM is eight-deep at wide receiver and while Collier had a nice run last two years (44 receptions, 574 receiving yards, three touchdowns – as well as housing two punt returns), but according to the report a “variety of problems” caused Collier to miss spring ball. (Collier reported refused to regularly attend class, even after being given time to grieve while dealing with family issues.)

Obviously you wish a kid like Thearon the best. He’s a Miami guy, things didn’t work out with the hometown team and he’s starting anew. Good on him.

That said, it’ll take more than a fresh start to clear the slate and here’s hoping he grows up, learns from these setbacks and becomes a responsible young man. As the article stated, Lane Kiffin isn’t known for being a hard-ass and it’s not in Collier’s best interest to simply trek three time zones west where he can run amok for a coach who turns a blind eye.

Under a coach like Kiffin, kids have to police themselves. Can Thearon do that? Will he focus on his academics or is this strictly a football decision? He’ll sit out the 2010 season and will have 2011-2012 to ball. Here’s hoping he shines both on the field and in the classroom as we all know football is only part of the game of life.

Some good ink on former Miami safety Randy Phillips a few days back. The oft-injured Phillips landed in Detroit as a free agent after spring’s NFL Draft and his leadership played a big part in the signing.

For those who forgot, Phillips decided to forgo shoulder surgery at the beginning of the 2009 season, which would’ve had him healthy for the draft, though he’d have missed his senior year. Citing that he didn’t want to let his teammates down, he played through the pain, wanting to lead last season.

For those who never knew, Phillips and his father raised 19 siblings (without a mother) and he made a point of being a role model to all his brothers and sisters.

Injuries amongst the Lions’ secondary got Phillips a call-back and an opportunity to shine – which he did. His knowledge of the game, work ethic and attitude shone. A week ago he trekked from Michigan to Florida to be by his fiance’s side while she gave birth to their daughter. He flew back to Detroit on Monday night, made it to practice on Tuesday, battled dehydration all day, got sick, headed to the locker room but came back out that afternoon and picked off two passes.

Regarding his football know-how, defensive coordinator Gunther Cunningham praised Phillips.

“It’s funny, I asked him a couple of questions (about the defensive system) while he was stretching (before his first practice) and I almost fell over,” Cunningham said. “He knew the answers to every question and they weren’t easy questions. You knew right then that he was a smart kid and he’d been coached really well.”

For all the anti-Randy folk who refuse to put a precedence on character guys and quality kids, here’s further proof that Randy Shannon is right and you’re dead wrong.

Miami recently made ESPN’s “20 Teams With A Title Shot” list, coming in at #14 – based on their road to Glendale (not best teams). As expected, the non-conference schedule was cited as a roadblock, but the meat of the ACC schedule is at home — Florida State, North Carolina and Virginia Tech. (Road games at Clemson and Georgia Tech are tough, though.)

It’ll be interesting to look back at this poll come December to see where the chips fall. It’s understandable that ESPN has ads to sell, so concepts like this are drummed up to keep viewers logged on … but what’s the point? On paper, sure, this all sounds good – but intangibles aren’t taken into consideration. Injuries. Elements. Momentum. Teams that are hot versus not, as the season rolls on.

Miami has as good a shot at the national championship as a handful of teams out there – barring the Canes win and teams ahead of them lose. That’s the recipe every year and won’t change next week. Take care of your business and hope others take care of theirs.

The team and coaches have their ‘one at a time’ mentality in place, which is good – but benchmarks need to be set, most importantly; finishing. Miami has gotten better each November under Shannon, but has still lost it’s share of must-win games.

You can forgive a loss to North Carolina, where an injured Jacory Harris tossed four interceptions (two pick sixes were the difference-maker), but the overtime loss to Clemson is still inexcusable. Special Teams breakdowns. Looking lackadaisical at times. Not to mention piss poor attendance for what at the time was a top ten team in the middle of a solid run.

Win the games you’re supposed to win, stay focused, bring it harder than the other guys in games where you’re an underdog and hope the football gods are looking down on you as the season closes out.

It’s the same recipe for everyone, so how much weight can you really put into these opinion-based lists?

ESPN analyst Desmond Howard chimed in on Miami v. 2010 today, having seen more practices and scrimmages than the local media are allowed to take in.

No earth shattering news, but some good commentary: Linebacker is still a weakness in his eyes and will come down to the health of Colin McCarthy, the ability of Sean Spence to break out of a sophomore slump and the ‘if’ factor regarding back ups stepping up. Howard feels the lack of depth / proven talent at linebacker is Miami’s Achilles’ heel and this team goes where the linebackers take them.

Howard touted the Canes’ wideouts as the best since the Santana Moss / Reggie Wayne / Andre Johnson era of 2000. He talked of their maturity (most are finally juniors this season) and expects a lot out of Aldarius Johnson and LaRon Byrd and wants to see this group get it done against some of the heavy hitters early this season. (“When you want to compare them against receivers in the past, in my estimation it’s not just what you do, but who you do it against and they’re going to have plenty opportunities to do it against big time teams,” said Howard.)

He called Storm Johnson “one of the most impressive true freshmen” he’s seen in a long time. Johnson has come on strong in scrimmage, albeit against the second and third team defenses. Mike James, Damien Berry and Lamar Miller are still the guys to beat and don’t count out the return of Graig Cooper. That said, Johnson sound like he’s ready should someone go down.

Howard also touted Brandon Harris (“a shutdown corner”) and Allen Bailey (will judge him based on how he plays at Ohio State and Pittsburgh), while mentioning that J12’s thumb isn’t yet 100%, but should be by week two.

Great to see an ‘outsider’ echoing the same sentiments as the close-to-the-program diehards. ESPN gets a lot of grief for an anti-Miami bias (which really is just good business as there are so many Cane-haters nationwide), but this isn’t a like / dislike thing. It’s some unfiltered commentary from a guy who knows football, analyzing nationally while living locally.

Much has been made about three straight road games so early in the year (as well as the fact they’re against three tough opponents in three tough venues – Ohio State, Pittsburgh and Clemson), but the upside is no dirt.

Outside of the season opener against Florida A&M next Thursday night, odds are the Canes won’t have to play another home game on the infield dirt, due to the three straight road trips. Miami’s next home game is October 9th against Florida State and by that point the Marlins – fourth in the NL East and ten games out of first – will be home for the holidays, their season ending Sunday October 3rd, against Pittsburgh.

Outside of FAMU, Miami won’t see any infield dirt this year as Shannon has made it clear he won’t even let his guys practice at Sun Life Stadium.

“One thing about playing on dirt is you can get real serious burns and those burns are hard to….you can get a lot of staph infections from those burns if you’re not careful so we don’t even go on it.

“You go up there and practice this time of year and a guy gets a dirt burn or a sand burn. Then now he can’t heal and now he misses the FAMU game and the next week is the Ohio State game and he misses that game. You don’t want to put yourself in that situation.”

Just this talk of disgusting infield dirt makes me miss the Orange Bowl that much more, but it is what is it. Get the Marlins out of there already and make this stadium football only.

Lastly, athletic director Kirby Hocutt came out swinging today regarding reports that Miami didn’t use up it’s allotment of tickets from Ohio State. “We have allocated each and every one of the 4,000 tickets in our allotment of the Ohio State [game] on Sept. 11,” Hocutt said in the statement. “Any reports that Miami returned unused game tickets to Ohio State are absolutely untrue.”

Hocutt made it clear that the outpouring of ticket requests from Hurricane Nation was more than UM could accommodate, which I can vouch for based on the amount of emails we’ve received at allCanes.com … via our Facebook page … my personal account. Not a day has gone by this summer where some fan didn’t ask what the story was with tickets and if we had any pull.

Unfortunately, we don’t … but we’ll be in Columbus front and center, partying from 7pm until midnight on Friday September 10th at the local Buffalo Wild Wings (2151 N. High Street – on OSU’s campus). A live DJ, special guests, private room with game day gear for sale.

Advance RSVP guarantees a spot at the party and the first 200 paid guests receive a FREE “No Excuses” wristband (like the team has been sporting all summer). Click here to reserve your spot today.

SHAMELESS PLUG ALERT: Make sure to tune into allCanes Radio on Wednesday night from 7pm to 9pm as both The Beast and his partner in crime Phil de Montmollin have another great show on deck. Tomorrow night former defensive lineman and assistant coach Greg Mark and former fullback / current boxer Quadtrine Hill are on board.

For those of you who can’t listen live, check the archive on Thursday morning or download the Podcast via iTunes.

To both Beast and Phil’s credit, they’ve put together a truly compelling show – one that the Sun Sentinel’s Steve Gorten has praised, as well as a handful of writers at the Herald.

This isn’t a standard, been there / done that / heard it all before type show. Weeks back Beast had Joaquin Gonzalez getting deep regarding Ed Reed’s speech at Doak in 2001. He had former linebacker great Rohan Marley talking about his off the field ventures (Marley Coffee) and dug deep, getting former cornerback Nate Brooks on board, discussing his involvement in the community, as well as how the murder of Marlin Barnes still haunts him (Brooks named his son Marlin, after his fallen friend).

Where a show like HBO’s “Real Sports” takes its game to a level that ESPN and their puff pieces don’t – that’s what allCanes Radio is doing regarding the coverage of UM football. Tune in and see for yourself this Wednesday night, live in-store from allCanes this week.

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