Quick thoughts on the game: difficult to come into Trailerhassee, even when Free Shoes U is down, make as many mistakes as Miami did, and come out with a win.
Both teams have a long, long way to go if they want to make some BCS noise.
Love Kyle Wright, however. He looks like he'll be a fabulous player.
Nice little article on the training that goes on in the NFL offseason at The U. The fact that so many (excellent) NFL players and Cane alumni return to the U to train in the offseason also helps the current Cane players, in a variety of different ways (builds camaraderie, keeps the connection between the NFL players and the U college players, motivates the current Canes, etc.)
Can't wait for college football. It's coming. FSU game is about 10 weeks away.
This is the copy of an email I sent to Pa TP and Dr. Brother TP regarding my sense of what's going on at the Hurricanes' spring practices:
For the record, let me just say that, given what I’ve been reading and hearing about dem Canes’ spring practices, I am absolutely terrified regarding our OL play, which has steadily gotten worse over the last few years. Either our DL is the best ever (unlikely), or our OL simply sucks right now. Even Clappy Coker admitted the offense has been inept.
We don’t have a center. This is not a joke. The two we had pegged, Pou and Wollschlager, have, quite frankly, sucked @ss. They’ve moved our backup LT to C, Tyrone Byrd (from Houston, actually), but he’s struggling, too (mostly because he’s never played C). our guards either aren’t very good (tella) or are horrible pass blockers (mcmeans, who some have nicknamed mcturnstyles for his difficulties in pass protection, and morse, who has a cast on one arm, have been awful), and our RT, who we really depend on to seal off the outside in our patented power 46 run play, is a great pass blocker but a weak run blocker at best (rashad butler, who in spite of his deficiencies is still our best lineman right now, which should tell you something about the state of our OL).
I’m beginning to lose some faith in Kehoe (the OL coach), and I’m really concerned. What if Winston doesn’t come back entirely healthy? UGH.
TP is concerned.
Unlike the past 5 years, when the University of Miami broke all draft records for 1st-round draft picks, there is only one lock 1st-round pick from the U for the 2005 draft, Antrel Rolle, who is probably the best CB in college football (yes, you can make a case for Carlos Rogers).
But the next few years . . . loaded, as this insanely early 2005 college preview demonstrates.
In particular, one of the most exciting players in college football this past season was Devin Hester, CB/KR/PR/TB/WR.
He has returned one kickoff and three punts for touchdowns and rushed for another. He has intercepted three passes and blocked one field goal attempt, a crucial one in Miami's opening victory against Florida State.
What you notice immediately if you watch tape of Debo, as he is nicknamed, is not how fast he is --the U is chock-a-block with speed merchants-- but how quickly he reaches full speed. This breathtaking display was legendary in high school, at Riveria Beach Suncoast in Palm Beach County, and was glimpsed in CFB the very first time he got his hands on the ball, as a true freshman last year, 2003, against Florida.
Opening kickoff. Boom. Gone. 97 yards.
The same incredible pace enabled Devin Hester to get the game-saving FG block against FSU this season. Most naive observers of the game thought Miami got lucky again. Bull*it. Miami made their own luck. They blocked the kick; FSU didn't kick wide this time.
But recall the play: Hester lines up outside, his teammate takes a sharp angle from the inside, forcing the one defender to make a choice on whom to block. Thing is, coaches always teach the defender to block the inside rusher--he's got a straighter line to the point of the kick. The wide rusher is generally too wide, has to take to far an angle to reach the kick.
But Devin Hester is no normal player. He got to full speed almost immediately, ran around the end, and blocked it. The amount of players who can make that play are few.
As one player put it,
"What he brings to the game is instant offense, the possibility of instant points," Miami center Joel Rodriguez said. "It isn't so much his speed -- there are probably 10 guys on our team who can run a 4.3 (seconds in the 40-yard dash) or better. The thing with him is how quickly he gets to top speed. He gets from stationary to full speed in like five yards."
He's also obviously a threat anytime he can get both hands on the ball, too, as he notes:
Once I get the ball in my hands, I have that mentality that I cannot be stopped," said Hester, who stands 5 feet 11 and weighs 185 pounds.
He has comfortably moved into a rule as the 3rd CB. With the spread offenses in the ACC, he has received enough playing time this year to begin to "get" the CB position. Oddly, you don't hear too much of him on defense . . . UvA and Wake Forest are not passing teams, to be sure, but it is often a compliment to a college CB when passes are not thrown his way.
I cannot wait to see him start next year. One more year to hone his trade and help his team; than he is gone. Barring injury, guaranteed 1st round draft pick. (BTW, Deion Sanders likes him).
Other nominees for the First Annual TP Shocker Award, given to the Most Electrifying Player in college football: Reggie Bush, USC, and Ted Ginn, Ohio State University.
I'm going to hand out more TP College Football Awards as we approach the end of the season. Kind of like a college football nut's Just Because, Soup.
More specifically, it's all about Ed Reed right now, the Defensive Player of the Year if the season ended today. It's not too hard to understand why Miami won the NC in 2001 with this guy on the team. He's clearly outplayed RayRay this year.
Great article on him in the USA Today.
In other Cane obnoxiousness, while they won't be competing for the NC this year (and honestly, anyone who thought they really would before the season was dreaming--only six seniors on the team who actually play, terrible injuries all year long do not add up to NC, generally speaking), they remain the Triple A team for the NFL.
Anyone catch Monday night football? Najeh Davenport, a highly, highly touted HS player from Miami Central HS, looked completely unstoppable against an admittedly overmatched Rams defense. Dude rushed for 180 yds on 19 carries, averaging round about 8 YPC. EIGHT!! After the game, he admitted that he was only running in 3rd or 4th gear, because he has two bad hamstrings, and he injured his ribs on the third play. Scary, as Brett Favre noted. Nor is this an isolated occurrence. He lead the league in YPC last year, at 6.1. The guy is a freak; he weighs 245 lbs, and he has legitimate 4.4 speed. Not joking.
The talent at the U is just embarrassing. Najeh couldn't bust into the TB rotation in 2001 because that spot was held down by some guy named Clinton Portis. (As an aside, what's going on in Washington is hardly his fault. Outside of the Dolphins, that's the worst OL in the NFL, and with absolutely ZERO threat of a passing game, there's 8 or 9 in the box on most plays. Superman couldn't do much with that. In any case, as some experts have correctly noted, Champ Bailey has not nearly played up to the hype recently.)
So Davenport played out of position all year at FB. Prior to the Rose Bowl, Davenport broke his foot, so Miami needed a fullback for the game. They plugged in a redshirt freshman named Willis McGahee and won the NC. I am so, so, so happy for McGahee. He's one of my favorite Canes of all time, and far more devastating than the Fiasco Bowl loss in 2002 was McGahee's knee injury. I am so happy that he is playing and excelling in the NFL. Even scarier is that he's not completely healed yet; it takes two full seasons to completely recover from an ACL tear, IMO. He's only going to get better.
ACL tears brings us to the RB who is probably having the best season of any RB in the NFL, but who barely makes any headlines, because he is overshadowed by a certain QB shredding the record books. I'm talking, of course, about Edgerrin James. This is his second full season after returning from an ACL tear, and he looks absolutely unstoppable. The power, the speed, the balance, the amazing feet and lateral glide of a 6'1, 220 RB. It's a joy to watch him play. I know having Peyton Manning on your team helps with the running game, but the Indy OL has been ravaged by injuries, and Edge is still second in the league in rushing (trailing Shaun Alexander by 4 yds), and is among the league leaders in total yards from scrimmage.
Speaking of Peyton Manning, he's got some pretty talented players to throw to. One of them is named Reggie Wayne, and he's no slouch himself. He's playing superbly--some would say (not me), on a level with Marvin Harrison himself (the #s, aside from TD catches, and Harrison just had a 3-TD game last week, are not all that far off). For the season, Wayne has 50 catches for 776 yds, averaging 15.1 YPC, and has 9 TDs.
Speaking of Reggie Wayne, his WR counterpart at UM, Santana Moss, also had an excellent game last week for the Jets, including a 69-yd TD catch from Quincy Carter. Moss is pretty good himself, huh?
Speaking of the Jets, anyone catch how Jon Vilma is playing? If there was any no-doubter among NFL-U's latest batch of draft picks, it was Vilma. He's only playing both MLB and OLB for the Jets (it's absurd that he can come in and play the Mike as well as he is as a rookie, b/c the Mike makes all of the defensive calls). In the game against Arizona, he had 8 tackles, 5 of them solo, a fumble recovery, and the game-clinching interception. He's just amazing.
Speaking of Vilma, anyone catch how his OLB mate from the U is playing for the Broncos? He's been all over the field, has earned frequent praise from both his teammates and coaches, and is among the leaders on the team with 65 tackles. He's also a leading candidate for AFC Defensive Rookie of the Year. Along with Al Wilson, he helps to comprise one of the scarier LB corps in the NFL.
Speaking of the Broncos, anyone catch the nice interception Philip Buchanon had in the game against the Raiders? Buchanon plainly outplayed Champ Bailey, who had an atrocious game, giving up two TDs to Jerry Porter.
Speaking of . . .
On and on and on and on. And there's a bunch of players I'm not even mentioning (local hero Andre Johnson, for one). Though they won't be playing for the NC this year, no team anywhere identifies and develops talent like NFL U. Period.
Yes yes, I know Miami almost lost to Louisville, a team I knew was good, but did not realize was quite so good.
Still, couldn't resist posting this little nugget:
New York Jets assistant head coach Mike Westhoff said one of the big musts around the NFL now is to have University of Miami players on the roster. ''Look around at all the guys who make the big plays in this league,'' he said. ``They all come from UM. That program is the closest thing there is to an NFL program at the college level. . . . The University of Miami is the NFL's 33rd team.'"
Anyone catch Devin Hester Thursday night? Is he amazing or what? I don't think anyone is going to kick him the ball ever again.
Sean Taylor is good. Really, really effin' good. In less than three full games, he has intercepted two passes, scored a TD, forced 2 fumbles, scored some vicious hits, recovered a fumble, and has generally been everywhere.
Nor are his plays made against only scrubs. Each of his forced fumbles came on serious tackles, and one came on DeShaun Foster, and the other, this past weekend, was on Chris Chambers, neither of whom are slouches.
Notwithstanding some of his odd behavior earlier, SeanTay is actually a really down-to-earth, likeable fellow, by all accounts:
"He means well," Portis said. "Reading the headlines you'd think he's a jerk and unappreciative. But that man is appreciative of everything. His teammates love being around him."He's in a new environment and he's shied away from some people. He doesn't know what people are around for. He's just learning. He's never been away from Miami, and now all of a sudden he moved to Washington, D.C., and he's a millionaire. He's just feeling his way through."
Redskins teammates and coaches say that Taylor is an amiable person who works hard in practice. "He's quiet, but he's also fun-loving behind the scenes," Williams said. "Guys like talking to him. But he's quiet and rookies should be quiet. He's got to prove himself before he talks."
[. . .]
When I came from Miami, I was never a person where they always had a microphone in front of my face but nonetheless I gave interviews," Taylor said. "And just coming to a new city, I don't want to be the one that's in the media every day saying I'm the best player and I can do this and I can do that."
Barring injury, inside of 2 years, he'll be the best safety in the NFL, and it won't even be close.
Sean Taylor, who's been going through some off-the-field tribulations (he fired his agent twice and gave the Washington media the silent treatment for a while), probably silenced most of his critics with his on-the-field performance.
He has yet to even work out with the first unit, but he intercepted (former LSU) QB Matt Mauck twice, and scored a TD on one of them. Hee hee, how I would have loved to have seen Dem Canes play the Tigers last year. Given Berlin's terrible penchant for costly interceptions, LSU probably had the stronger team overall, but SeanTay still would have been the best player on the field, by a long shot.
I still don't know how Derrick Strait won the Jim Thorpe Award over Taylor last year. Strait was and is a nice player, but he simply wasn't anywhere near as good as Taylor last year, both in terms of talent and in terms of on-field performance. Just another product of the media lovefest for OU (sorry Kevin, but it's true).
MNF was fun last night. Madden was talking about the Hurricanes at one point, mentioning how good their players are, and what excellent pros dem Canes make. Even the Denver press stated that "Sean Taylor was the best player on the field."
The Washington Post's opinion:
On an evening in which veterans on both teams bogged down with penalties, mistakes and sloppy plays, Taylor was sharp, aggressive and spirited.Taylor picked off quarterback Matt Mauck shortly after entering the contest midway through the second quarter. Taylor read Mauck's pass to wide receiver Darius Watts, broke on the ball, spun around and caught it in the end zone in the second quarter with the Redskins trailing 6-3.
Taylor's instincts proved correct again early in the third quarter, when Mauck was under pressure in his end zone and had only Putzier as an outlet. Taylor was sprinting over to Putzier before the ball was thrown, and he hauled it in with ease.
"I told him, 'You've got to show me something today,' " linebacker LaVar Arrington said. "And he said, 'Don't even worry about it.' But I didn't know he was going to do something like that. Man, he made it look easy."
That's because he's good, LaVar, better than you, in fact. The great ones always make it look easy.
Joe Gibbs, who knows a thing or two about football, said that
"Sean had a real good week in practice, too." "I'd say he was pretty impressive."
Alright alright, I'm getting a little overexcited. This is only the first preseason game. Still, Taylor looked amazing. I've said it before and I will say it again: barring injury, Sean Taylor will be the best safety in the NFL. Far better than Roy Williams, and better, even, than Ed Reed.
DJ Williams, another 1st-round pick from This U, had a nice game for Denver, too. He dropped an INT, but did lead Denver with six tackles, five of them solo, and was extremely active around the ball. He also displayed great closing speed, and good tackling form. He's going to be good.
It's great to be a Miami Hurricane (fan).
Willis McGahee saw his first full-contact scrimmage with an opposing team today, and scored four touchdowns (in one game).
He carried the ball 10 times for 40 yards, and had one reception for 8 yards.
Willie Mac is my favorite running back from all time at Miami, and I truly hope he is able to play at a level similar to his play at Miami, or, dare I say, even better?
Go on Willis, make us proud.
David Cordingly: Under the Black Flag: The Romance and the Reality of Life among the Pirates
Charles Homer Haskins: The Renaissance of the Twelfth Century
R. A. Fletcher: Bloodfeud: Murder and Revenge in Anglo-Saxon England
Bruce Feldman: 'Cane Mutiny: How the Miami Hurricanes Overturned the Football Establishment
