Former Dallas Cowboys head coach Jimmy Johnson will appear on the CBS reality show "Survivor: Nicaragua" this fall, according to a source.

The 67-year-old Johnson, who was unavailable for comment, joins the show's 21st season this summer. The series has been taped in various exotic locations, including Panama, the Fiji Islands, Kenya and Brazil since it started in 2000. This year's show will tape in San Juan del Sur, Nicaragua.

Johnson, who won two Super Bowl titles with the Cowboys in the 1990s, will be grouped with strangers in an isolated area where contestants must complete challenges to win awards or immunity from getting kicked out of the game show.

Since retiring from the NFL as a head coach, Johnson has worked for Fox Sports as a pregame show analyst. The taping of Survivor is not expected to conflict with Johnson's job on Fox.

Several former Cowboys figures have been involved in popular television shows in retirement. Emmitt Smith and Michael Irvin, part of "The Triplets" along with Troy Aikman who played for Johnson, competed in the ABC series "Dancing with the Stars."

Smith won the ballroom dance show in 2006. Irvin appeared on the show in 2009, but didn't win.

Former Cowboys quarterback Gary Hogeboom was a contestant on "Survivor: Guatemala," in 2005 and finished in seventh place.

In nine NFL seasons, with the Cowboys and Miami Dolphins, Johnson compiled an 80-64 record, which places him 49th on the all-time win list.



(espn.com)

From the company that invented “The U Invented Swagger” shirt, this app is the ultimate mobile experience for the great fans of the great University of Miami Hurricanes. Unofficial, raw and layered with attitude, you simply can’t call yourself a fan if this App isn’t on your iPhone or iPod Touch.

When Dave and Billy began editing The U in Spring 2009, they knew it would be a monumental task to sandwich 20 years of football history into a 90 minute documentary.  Compromises would have to be made.

Like we do with all our projects, the film was storyboarded and assembled in scenes.  Then the scenes get laid out together, transitions are massaged, refinements are made, and ultimately entire scenes get cut. 

Scenes get cut for a variety of reasons: repetitiveness, length, deviation from pushing the story forward, etc. One of my favorite scenes that didn't make the final cut was the QB competition between Kosar and Testaverde in 1983, but there simply wasn't enough time for it.
So when The U dvd comes out August 17th, it will include a dozen deleted scenes:

The Locker Room
Schnellenberger's Pipe
QB Contest
Joe Namath 1984 Orange Bowl
Michael Irvin in the Cafeteria
Locker Room Speech
Tim Brown 1987
Discipline & Education
Tad Foote at the White House
Lamar and Irvin on the Phone
Ibis Arrest
Depth & Competition

We're also including all the player intros and three additional featurettes:
the World Premiere at the Lyric Theater Miami City Hall screening Randal Hill's Q&A from the University of Miami campus screening

On top of that, we cut an additional six scenes that didn't make it as bonus features on the DVD.  Starting next Tuesday and every Tuesday until the release on August 17th, we'll be posting those scenes on rakontur.com and on The U Facebook fan page.



(rakontur.com)

On Saturday proCanes.com had the opportunity to atttend the Annual Hurricane Football Reunion Party at Miami Prime Grill in North Miami. The event was attended by over 50 former Hurricane greats including the likes of Warren Sapp, Clinton Portis, Dan Morgan, Edgerrin James, Kenard Lang and many more.

Gerard Daphnis of Canes4Life organized the event which also honored the 1989 National Championship team. All the former players then headed out to the 2010 Spring Game where the University of Miami offenses put on a show. Click here to view our full photo gallery of over 400 pictures from the Hurricane Reunion Party and Spring Game. Enjoy!

On Saturday proCanes.com had the opportunity to atttend the Annual Hurricane Football Reunion Party at Miami Prime Grill in North Miami. The event was attended by over 50 former Hurricane greats including the likes of Warren Sapp, Clinton Portis, Dan Morgan, Edgerrin James, Kenard Lang and many more.

Gerard Daphnis of Canes4Life organized the event which also honored the 1989 National Championship team. All the former players then headed out to the 2010 Spring Game where the University of Miami offenses put on a show. Click here to view our full photo gallery of over 400 pictures from the Hurricane Reunion Party and Spring Game. Enjoy!

On Saturday proCanes.com had the opportunity to atttend the Annual Hurricane Football Reunion Party at Miami Prime Grill in North Miami. The event was attended by over 50 former Hurricane greats including the likes of Warren Sapp, Clinton Portis, Dan Morgan, Edgerrin James, Kenard Lang and many more.

Gerard Daphnis of Canes4Life organized the event which also honored the 1989 National Championship team. All the former players then headed out to the 2010 Spring Game where the University of Miami offenses put on a show. Click here to view our full photo gallery of over 400 pictures from the Hurricane Reunion Party and Spring Game. Enjoy!

On Saturday proCanes.com had the opportunity to atttend the Annual Hurricane Football Reunion Party at Miami Prime Grill in North Miami. The event was attended by over 50 former Hurricane greats including the likes of Warren Sapp, Clinton Portis, Dan Morgan, Edgerrin James, Kenard Lang and many more.

Gerard Daphnis of Canes4Life organized the event which also honored the 1989 National Championship team. All the former players then headed out to the 2010 Spring Game where the University of Miami offenses put on a show. Click here to view our full photo gallery of over 400 pictures from the Hurricane Reunion Party and Spring Game. Enjoy!

On Saturday proCanes.com had the opportunity to atttend the Annual Hurricane Football Reunion Party at Miami Prime Grill in North Miami. The event was attended by over 50 former Hurricane greats including the likes of Warren Sapp, Clinton Portis, Dan Morgan, Edgerrin James, Kenard Lang and many more. Gerard Daphnis of Canes4Life organized the event which also honored the 1989 National Championship team. All the former players then headed out to the 2010 Spring Game where the University of Miami offenses put on a show. Click here to view our full photo gallery of over 400 pictures from the Hurricane Reunion Party and Spring Game. Enjoy!

Rocky McIntosh dropped by my [Redskins.com] desk today wearing a green and orange 305 shirt, claiming to be on a cereal box. When I expressed my skepticism, he left and returned an hour later with an actual box of the Miami Hurricanes "Pipeline To The Pros" cereal.

It took a few minutes to find all the Redskins on the box -- a few minutes during which McIntosh noted that, with the signing of Antrel Rolle, the Giants now have more active Miami players than the Redskins -- but eventually they all turned up. (The most elusive was Clinton Portis, wearing a difficult-to-see #28 and with his face obscured by a visor. "Guess he didn't donate enough last year," McIntosh mused, moments before we finally noticed Portis disappearing into a bowl of cereal and berries.)

When I wrote about the Redskins Breakfast Blitz cereal last September, I noted that

Because it would probably be unwise to associate an NFL team with a cereal with zero nutritional content, this tastes much closer to Honey Nut Cheerios than anything else.

Well, The U doesn't play by those rules: this is straight-up generic Frosted Flakes, twelve grams of sugar and all. For all that, though, McIntosh seems pretty enthused by it, although he was quick to shoot down my suggestion that this was the highest honor of his career.

"That would be actually getting to the pros," he said. Then he promised to conduct a taste test tomorrow between Pipeline To The Pros, Breakfast Blitz, and "some General Mills thing". Which is something to look forward to, I guess, if there's still no free agency news.

(blog.redskins.com)

proCanes.com: The cereal is sold at your local Publix Supermarket. We've got our own unopened box. It's a great collectible.

Not only have proCanes scored the most touchdowns in Super Bowl History (see below), but they also have 44, that's right, 44 Super Bowl Rings to their names. Now that's impressive.

The University of Miami has also produced the most players who have scored Super Bowl touchdowns. Miami has had eight players; Notre Dame is second with six.

Miami's Eight are: Bill Miller, Oakland (scored 2) Pete Banaszak, Oakland Ottis Anderson, New York Giants (2) Michael Irvin, Dallas (2) Jimmie Jones, Dallas Duane Starks, Baltimore Ravens Devin Hester, Chicago Reggie Wayne, Indianapolis.

If you aren't a Colts fan, then you should be like proCanes.com and root for the team that will get the most proCane rings. In this case we're pulling for the Saints because Jeremy Shockey, Glenn Sharpe and Jon Vilma will all get rings including former Hurricane WR coach Curtis Johnson. The Colts only have one proCane, Reggie Wayne, and he already has a Super Bowl Ring to his name. Let's go Saints!

We had been hearing all week that Coach Sean PAyton of the NEw Orleans Saints had been wearing a University of Miami shirt and visor during their practices at "The U." The Saints used the UM lockerroom at Hecht Athletic Center and practiced on the Greentree Practice Fields. Here is photographic evidence that Payton did indeed wear UM gear. Maybe proCanes Shockey, Sharpe and Vilma convinced him to, or maybe former Hurricane WR Coach and Current Saints WR coach, Curtis Johnson, lent him some of old Hurricane clothes.

Did you see what they did? The very moment that the world's largest football party officially began in South Florida for the week? Here they were, at the Pro Bowl, the NFL all-star game, about to start player introductions in a sold-out stadium. This was a celebration. Of football. Of accomplishment. Of themselves. And, one by one, as they emerged from the tunnel to have the moment to themselves, to hear their family names echo at the top of their workplace before a national audience, the 11 University of Miami Hurricanes in the game -- 11! -- did something a bit unusual.

They didn't point to the emblem of their NFL employer on a patch, the way Oakland Raiders cornerback Nnamdi Asomugha did. They didn't raise a thumb and jack-hammer it toward the me-me-me name on the back of their jersey, the way Jacksonville running back Maurice Jones-Drew does after touchdowns. No, one by one, as they were introduced and guaranteed all the cameras in the place for perhaps the only time, the Hurricanes put their hands in front of their bodies, thumbs together, and formed a ``U'' to genuflect before their alma mater. Rather literally, they placed their school ahead of themselves.

ROLL CALL
This symbol, as much as football itself, is what connects them, hands together, thumbs together, with the kind of bond unlike any in this sport. And here's one reason it was interesting: Ray Lewis has accomplished some huge things in football. Defensive Player Of The Year, twice. Pro Bowler, 11 times. He has been Most Valuable Player of the Super Bowl. He is, it can be argued, the best middle linebacker ever. And he is also very good at celebrating himself, his joyful entrances before games the most famous and emotional in the sport. And here he was, somehow feeling the need to remind everyone where he went to school a full 15 years after attending it.

Why?

Allow Jimmy Johnson to explain.

``Happiest time of my life,'' he says.

Tommy Tuberville likes to tell the story of driving Johnson to the Miami airport the day Johnson would fly off to become a legend with the Dallas Cowboys. Tuberville was a graduate assistant at UM then, and Johnson was in the back seat, having just accepted maybe the most glamorous job in pro football. As they made their way over I-95 to leave Miami, sun sparkling on the water, Johnson suddenly stopped talking and began taking in all he was leaving. And when Tuberville readjusted his rearview mirror, he noticed the car had gone so quiet because his hardened boss was weeping.

``Such a special, special time,'' Johnson said Monday night.

He was the master of ceremonies at a banquet to celebrate UM's greatness and raise money for a program that doesn't have enough of it. It was at the billion-dollar Fontainebleau hotel, and there was something glowing in the middle of the big ballroom like the contents of that briefcase in Pulp Fiction. There, amid the prime rib carving stations and Kobe beef sliders and a suit-wearing Sebastian the Ibis, five championship rings were encased in glass. That little treasure chest contained the single greatest thing we have in South Florida sports, now or ever, and Edgerrin James and Michael Irvin and Andre Johnson and Steve Walsh and Russell Maryland and Greg Olsen and Antrel Rolle and Santana Moss and Ed Reed and Jon Beason and Clinton Portis and Bennie Blades milled around it misty with nostalgia.

It is quite uncommon, this kind of assembly of talent in one place that isn't a football field -- this kind of talent, period, actually -- but it isn't uncommon in these parts at all. It was like a 20-year high school reunion just for champions, a forever fraternity, that glowing box of jewelry the soul at the center of a big local football celebration that was at the center of our biggest national one. The ripples from inside that box can be felt throughout America's most popular sport. It isn't just that a Hurricane has scored a touchdown every NFL week since 2002 -- a ridiculous record of 122 consecutive weeks. It's that South Florida pulsates in this sport like no other area in the country, our ravaged and hungry streets a pipeline of escape that travels straight from our poverty and violence to the kind of football violence that produces NFL wealth.

Consider this: According to the most recent study done by USA Football, Miami has more players in the NFL (34) than any city anywhere. The only other city even in the 20s is Houston. That's not Fort Lauderdale or West Palm Beach or Belle Glade or Immokalee. That doesn't include Dillard High School. No school in the country had more NFLers than Fort Lauderdale Dillard's six in 2008. Los Angeles, Chicago and Dallas are big cities. None of them has produced as many current NFL players as even Fort Lauderdale's 12.

``So many great players made it easy by paving the way,'' Beason said.

Look around this ballroom. Irvin, Fort Lauderdale St. Thomas Aquinas. Moss, Carol City High. James, Immokalee High. Rolle, South Dade. Johnson, Miami Senior. Beason, Hollywood Chaminade-Madonna. Darrin Smith, Miami Norland. Blades, Sunrise Piper. McGahee, Miami Central. Gore, Coral Gables. They learn in our high schools, grow into men at our college and then graduate to unleash unholy hell upon the pros once they leave home. There is so much pride in that, for them and for us, and they always seem to return here to share it.

Seeing Irvin and Blades hug and smile and whisper to each other, you see brothers bonded the way only shared, shaping experiences can bond two men. If you think about it, that UM huddle never really breaks. Sometimes you will see it on the sidelines of important UM games. Sometimes it'll watch ``The U'' documentary -- the most-watched documentary in the history of ESPN -- at a historic theater in Overtown. Sometimes it gathers around Sean Taylor's casket. Sometimes it will be at the strip club. And sometimes it will be around that glass case on nights like Monday.

``U, take a bow,'' radio voice Don Bailey Jr. said while introducing NFL player after NFL player to the audience.

It is hard to get Jimmy Johnson off that boat in Islamorada, away from the fishing and retirement. His agent can't get him to make speeches for $45,000 a pop. But Johnson will still do just about anything for this school for free. The man despises small talk, but here he was interviewing former players for the audience. And he gave voice to what so many of the players in the room felt. They don't forget. Ever. They talk about their school the way men talk about the first girl they loved. The pros, they say, are frigid. Different. A job. It makes them wealthier, yes, but only in the ways the bank tabulates. It is the difference between business and love. Ask enough of the guys who left after their junior year and they will tell you almost by consensus that a senior season would have been more valuable than even the immediate need to get paid and take care of family and friends.

Andre Johnson, maybe the best wide receiver in the sport, is extraordinarily quiet. Asked why he doesn't celebrate his touchdowns with flash like a true Cane, Johnson laughs and says, ``Dance? You won't see that out of me.'' Three 100-catch seasons? Two 1,500-yard seasons? A shrug of those sculpted shoulders. But ask him about Miami, and his time there, and he won't shut up. He has returned to school to take classes now and says he badly misses the feeling he had while playing at Miami. He shows zero joy while torching NFL opponents, but you should see him watching a UM football game on TV. He'll sprint right out of his house screaming, arms over his head.

Rolle was talking about his Arizona Cardinals when he said, ``We had a long history of no history,'' and the same could be said of UM before 1983. Everything that happened since -- a record 58 straight home victories; a record 14 straight years with a first-round selection; eight national championship games -- produced what was in that glass case. Its value? That's hard to say. In fans and dollars, UM certainly doesn't get the kind of support it would just about anywhere else in the country.

WINNING PAYS
Consider that the University of Texas won for the first time since 1970 in 2006 -- not five championships, just one -- and the result was an avalanche of cash. The $87 million in revenue last year, $65 million of it in profit, was more than a college program had ever made. Even in a recession, Texas has made more money annually since the championship than any school in the country because of that one championship. The Wall Street Journal reported that Texas athletic director DeLoss Dodds recently asked a young booster for a $4 million donation. The booster didn't flinch even though he thought he was being asked for $40 million. The money was wired the next day.

That's not quite how it is at Miami, of course. So Monday's auction escalated until that glass case was finally up for bid. It got as high as $20,000, with four fans bidding, so school officials happily stopped it there and promised each fan a collection of rings for that amount. In true U fashion, everyone around the huddle got to feel like a winner. And $20,000 must feel like a bargain when what you get to feel in your hands is priceless.



(miamiherald.com)

Did you know that a proCane has gone to the Pro Bowl every season but one (1984) since 1959? Ever wonder what proCane went to the Pro Bowl in 1975, or 1983? Click on the link below and we've go the entire proCane Pro Bowl History in one PDF.

Click Here To See the Entire proCanes ProBowl History

I had coaching great Jimmy Johnson on the show Wednesday. Man is he a great interview. Anyway, here's a transcript of the key questions I asked him.

Q: How well do you know new Dolphins defensive coordinator Mike Nolan and should Dolphins fans be happy with him?
A: "I've got tremendous respect for Mike Nolan. I've known him for a long time. I think he's done a quality job every place he's been. I think he's really, really going to help the Dolphins."

Q: What is your take on high-maintenance NFL receivers like Brandon Marshall? Do you take a chance on a guy that's a good player on Sunday but he's a pain in the ass?
A: "It's got to concern you. Jerry Jones and I had this conversation at the Super Bowl last year because he was aking me whether or not to keep Terrell Owens. It depends a lot on your head coach. These receivers that come in with a lot of baggage . . . what that does is it takes away from your head coach's time because you're continually putting out fires. That's part of the job and as a head coach you've got to do that. But there's only so much you can put up with. You have to weigh everything and say, 'Is he that good that it's worth it?' Obviously, everybody wants to have Andre Johnson. He's the best in the league as a player and as a person. But there's not that many Andre Johnsons out there. There's a lot of Braylon Edwards, Terrell Owens and Ochocincos."

Q: What kind of a year do you think Randy Shannon had with the Hurricanes?
A: "Randy Shannon had a really good year. When you consider all the injuries they had and how young the team was . . . I thought he had a good year. Now, you'd like the team to finish on a winning note against Wisconsin. But I think they'll be much better next year."

Q: With National Signing Day less than a week away, are all those recruiting lists overrated as far as where UM ranks?
A: "I think Randy and his staff have zeroed in on what they need to improve as a team. Look at some of the great classes that we had. Jimmie Jones did not have a single offer. Russell Maryland had one offfer. Rob Chudzinski . . . Villanova was the only offer. So we took a lot of players that we wanted, but weren't highly recruited. I think Randy is doing the same thing. He has proven in the last few years that he knows talent and he knows how to recruit."

Q: Were you happy with the way "The U" documentary came out?
A: "I liked a lot of things about it. I was disappointed they didn't emphasize the graduation rate as much as what they should have. When I went to Miami the graduation rate was 33 percent. When I left it was 88 percent. They graduated everybody last year. They talked a lot about us taking guys from the inner-city. But it was almost like, 'We took them from the inner-city, and we went out there and beat everybody, but then left it hanging after that.' Those guys got their degrees, and that's something I'm very proud of. So I was disappointed in that.
"Michael Strahan told me he loved it. He said he watched five minutes of "The U" and said, 'Man, I wish I would have played for you.' He said it looked like y'all had a ball. . . . Some of the stuff was funny. I know it was controversial and I wasn't there when it happened, but when Miami played Texas and Randall Hill coming down that ramp shooting those guns -- I was cracking up."

Q: Who do you like in the Super Bowl?
"I like the Colts because they have Peyton Manning and are consistent on defense. The Saints are going to have a problem because they have lived by the blitz. I just ddon't think that you can blitz Peyton Manning because he'll catch up with you. You may hurry him, but eventually he's going to make big plays on you. And the Saints have had so many holes in their defense."


(sun-sentinel.com)

Who's in and Who's Out?
After the Conference Championship Round of NFL U playoffs we know that both the AFC and NFC teams will be repreented by proCanes in the Super Bowl. Who are they? See below.

Who's in?
Jeremy Shockey: The Saints Defeated the Vikings and Play the Colts in the Super Bowl
Jonathan Vilma: The Saints Defeated the Vikings and Play the Colts in the Super Bowl
Reggie Wayne: The Colts Defeated the Jets and Play the Saints in the Super Bowl

Who's Out?
Bryant McKinnie: The Vikings were eliminated by the Saints
Calais Campbell: The Cardinals were Eliminated by the Saints
Antrel Rolle: The Cardinals were Eliminated by the Saints
Willis McGahee: The Ravens were Eliminated by the Colts
Ray Lewis: The Ravens were Eliminated by the Colts
Ed Reed: The Ravens were Eliminated by the Colts
Tavares Gooden: The Ravens were Eliminated by the Colts
Antonio Dixon: The Eagles were Eliminated by the Cowboys last week
Orien Harris: The Bengals were Eliminated by the Jets last week
Vince Wilfork: The Patriots were Eliminated by the Ravens last week
Brandon Meriweather: The Patriots were Eliminated by the Ravens last week

Who's in and Who's Out?
After the second round of NFL U playoffs some proCanes were eliminated and other made it to the next round. It is guaranteed that at least one proCane will be representing the NFC in the Super Bowl in Miami.

Who's in?
Jeremy Shockey: The Saints Defeated the Cardinals and Play the Vikings Next
Jonathan Vilma: The Saints Defeated the Cardinals and Play the Vikings Next
Reggie Wayne: The Colts Defeated the Ravens and Play the Jets Next
Bryant McKinnie: The Vikings Defeated the Cowboys and Play the Saints Next

Who's Out?
Calais Campbell: The Cardinals were Eliminated by the Saints
Antrel Rolle: The Cardinals were Eliminated by the Saints
Willis McGahee: The Ravens were Eliminated by the Colts
Ray Lewis: The Ravens were Eliminated by the Colts
Ed Reed: The Ravens were Eliminated by the Colts
Tavares Gooden: The Ravens were Eliminated by the Colts
Antonio Dixon: The Eagles were Eliminated by the Cowboys last week
Orien Harris: The Bengals were Eliminated by the Jets last week
Vince Wilfork: The Patriots were Eliminated by the Ravens last week
Brandon Meriweather: The Patriots were Eliminated by the Ravens last week

OWINGS MILLS, Md. - Matt Birk had just wrapped up his question-and-answer session with the media Wednesday at the Baltimore Ravens’ indoor practice facility. Glancing behind him, Birk saw that teammate Ray Lewis was next in line to take the microphone.

“Heeeere’s Ray Lewis,’’ Birk said, giving the Pro Bowl linebacker a showman’s introduction.

Then, raising his hands and connecting them at the thumbs so that they formed a large letter “U,’’ Birk reminded everyone where Lewis played college football.

“He’s from ‘The U,’ ’’ said Birk, the veteran center.

Leave it to a Harvard man to spell it out.

“I’m still trying to get an ‘H,’ but I can’t figure out how you do that with your hands,’’ Birk joked.

The ubiquitous “U’’ hand signal has become a calling card of sorts for those NFL players who hail from the University of Miami. But it represents more than just a show of school spirit. It is a legacy of pride and passion upheld by those who have toiled - and still toil - in the South Florida heat and humidity, playing for the Hurricanes.

“Oh yeah, it’s just a history, man,’’ Lewis said. “It’s just a legacy of great players. These guys have been around a long time. Hurricanes come and they go.’’

Said Birk, “They’re a tight-knit group, all those guys, you know? They’re proud of where they went, and rightfully so.’’

Today, when the Patriots host the Ravens in a wild-card playoff matchup at Gillette Stadium, there will be six members of “The U’’ on hand, with nose tackle Vince Wilfork and safety Brandon Meriweather dressing for New England and linebackers Tavares Gooden and Lewis, safety Ed Reed, and running back Willis McGahee for Baltimore. They are among 14 Miami players listed on NFL playoff rosters this year, 10 of whom are starters, seven headed to the Pro Bowl.

“You’ll see a young Vince Wilfork over there and you’ll see a Meriweather over there,’’ said Lewis. “Anytime I’m on the field, I’m ‘Pops.’ But these are babies that you watched pretty much your whole career.’’

No matter what side of an NFL field they find themselves on, Hurricanes share a bond, a respect for one another, and pride in where they’re from.

“When we play against those players, we’re not out to hurt those guys,’’ McGahee said. “We’re out to beat ’em, but we’re not out to hurt ’em. Now, if we’re playing against somebody from Florida State? Aw, man, we don’t care anything about you.

“But I remember playing against Ray when I was in Buffalo and he tackled me and he was like, ‘C’mon young ’Cane, get up young ’Cane!’ ’’ McGahee recalled. “When I play against [Jonathan] Vilma [of the Saints], me and Vilma played together in school but we had this rivalry. It’s not like we hated each other, but it was like, ‘I’m gonna outdo you today,’ or he was trying to get a big hit on me.

“But at the end of the day, we always come back and it’s, ‘Good job, I’ll getcha next time.’ ’’

When the Patriots beat the Ravens, 27-21, Oct. 4 at Gillette Stadium, Meriweather was the best safety from “The U’’ on the field that day, better even than his mentor, Reed.

“He’s like my big brother, man,’’ Meriweather said. “Whenever I need advice or whenever I’m playing bad and I need someone to talk to, he’s always the one I call. He’s always been there with good advice.

“It’s like family playing against family - whenever you get a chance to play against family, you always want to win, so when you go home you have something to talk about.’’

In the mid-to-late ’80s, the Hurricanes were a force. Back then, it seemed, winning national championships was strictly “A ’Cane Thing,’’ with Miami capturing three of its five titles in 1987, 1989, and 1991. That dominance reflected Miami’s impressive assemblage of talent, which at first was culled largely from the stocked talent pools in South Florida.

“It’s a football program that’s had a lot of success and turned out a lot of good players,’’ Birk noted. “A lot of good pros.’’

Four went on to be immortalized in the Pro Football Hall of Fame, beginning with Jim Otto in 1980. He was followed by Ted Hendricks in 1990, Jim Kelly in 2002, and Michael Irvin in 2007.

“I don’t know who the Godfather of The U was, because you had a lot of them,’’ McGahee said. “You had Jerome Brown, you got Cortez Kennedy, you got Warren Sapp, you got Ray Lewis, and Michael Irvin, people like that. There’s a lot of great players. Bernie Kosar . . . Jim Kelly . . . Vinny Testaverde.

“You just can’t single any one person out at The U. That’s why we say it’s The U.

“When we hold up that ‘U,’ everybody knows what time it is: ‘Oh, he went to the University of Miami. You can’t say that anywhere else. It’s all about The U.

“At one point in life, everybody wanted to go to the University of Miami. I don’t care if it was even for a day or two. It was because of the colors we were, or the visors I wore - everybody wanted to be a part of it at one point.’’

For those who were, and still are, a part of that football fraternity, there remains a strong need to uphold their school’s reputation.

“It’s an honor,’’ Lewis said. “That’s why when the game is over - win, lose, or draw on each side - you got to go over and congratulate the other one, because that’s the way we’re built.

“It’s just like back when we were on the schoolyard in college, when we competed against each other. We’d do whatever we had to do to win, but after the day is over, then it’s over, and we’re back to being brothers.’’



(boston.com)

Surfing the channels the other night, I wiped out on “The U,” the ESPN documentary about the g(l)ory days of football at the University of Miami. My favorite moment was the footage of Randal “Thrill” Hill scoring a touchdown during the 1991 Cotton Bowl, running halfway up the tunnel, then drawing mock six-shooters and gunning down the Texas players as the Hurricanes strutted, preened, high-stepped and crotch-grabbed their way to a 46-3 pantsing of the Longhorns.

I know I should condemn that kind of behavior. I know. But I can’t. That’ll be me at the next meeting of Trashtalkers Anonymous admitting that I have a problem. “I miss The U.” There, I said it.

As a sportswriter I miss the color, the nerve, the soap opera script created by the Hurricanes of that era. The U was a rap video on grass with Luther Campbell of 2 Live Crew, the team’s most ubiquitous celebrity fan, at the mike. Those Canes were a collection of self-proclaimed thugs from the toughest ‘hoods in Miami. They gathered as one at a school nicknamed Suntan U. in bucolic Coral Gables, lured by some dude named Howard Schnellenberger, who sported a cartoon mustache and a pipe. Once there, they took a third-world football program that had nearly been euthanized and transformed it into a dynasty. As a writer, most of my work was done for me.

Miami had more personalities than an American Idol audition. Michael Irvin and Jerome Brown and Jesse Armstead and Thrill Hill, whose six-shooter routine wasn’t even his most famous shtick. (He was best known for strutting around like George Jefferson.) It was a team with so many celebrities that a defensive tackle named Dwayne Johnson, who would come to be known as the pro wrestler “The Rock,” was totally overlooked.
They were a team of outlaws who treated opponents like in-laws.

They were the Convicts to Notre Dame’s Catholics. Hell, they wore fatigues to the Fiesta Bowl. What a delicious paradox. Wearing camouflage to stick out.

But The U became The U because of the almighty W. Miami won four national titles in nine seasons between 1983 and 1991 under three different coaches. Schnellenberger won one and then handed the whip and chair to Jimmy Johnson. He won another and then fled after five seasons at least in part because he wanted to The U to stay The U while his own administration wanted the circus to leave town instead. Then Dennis Erickson coached the Canes to two more national titles, but to hear his players talk about it, he might as well have been a cardboard cutout on the sideline. The documentary compares Miami players to the Deltas in Animal House and Miami’s school president at the time, Edward Thaddeus Foote II, to Dean Wormer. Who wouldn’t root for Bluto over Wormer?

Why is this relevant? Well, one of the few things I despise about college football in 2009 is when some receiver catches a 93-yard touchdown pass, cracks a smile and the next thing you know his team is kicking off from its own 15-yard line. That type of football sharia can change a game. (See: Georgia v. LSU.) It has happened enough this fall that there’s a good chance that the result of one of this season’s bowl games—hopefully not the only one that actually matters—will be influenced by a celebration penalty.

Today’s touchdown police trace directly back to The U’s glory days, when the NCAA actually rewrote the rulebook and designated exactly what would no longer be tolerated after a score by more of less screening Miami highlight videos.

The NCAA wreaked its revenge on The U by condemning the program to probation in 1995, concluding that the university had lost institutional control over the football program. Duh. Not long after that Sports Illustrated was telling us Why the University of Miami Should Drop Football. By the time Kellen Winslow, Jr. channeled his inner Michael Irvin in 2003, we’d crossed the rubicon of political correctness and Winslow, “the f—-ing soldier,” was all but dishonorably discharged.

Under Randy Shannon in recent seasons there is a hint of The U back at Miami. Maybe a u. But the current face of the Canes, Jacory Harris, is just too humble, so damn sportsmanlike that he makes his ancestors like Kosar and Testaverde and Walsh look like badasses.

Sure, there are parts of The U that crossed the line. Luther Campbell strongly suggesting that he paid “bounties” to the Miami players for slobberknocking hits probably set off some radar detectors at the NCAA office. It would have been interesting to hear from Shannon, who played at Miami in the heyday of The U, began his coaching career there as a grad assistant in 1991 and no doubt knows where all the skeletons are hidden, but he was conspicuously and shrewdly absent from ESPN’s film. Shannon surely didn’t want to have to answer the same questions Luther Campbell was fielding.

Alas, the NCAA’s ass gets tighter with every passing season as The U fades farther into the ether of history, but the current players still embrace Miami’s traditional sign of defiance. They still put the tips of their thumbs together and form the U shape with their other fingers. They just don’t wiggle those fingers and stick their tongues out anymore.

2 bad.

(accsports.com)

For feedback on the University of Miami program -- players' pro prospects and other issues -- we solicited the views of three NFL scouts who have evaluated the Hurricanes, plus NFL Network draft expert Mike Mayock:

• Among UM seniors, tight end Jimmy Graham is generating the most interest and could be UM's highest draft pick in April, Mayock said. Two scouts said they see Jason Fox being picked before Graham, but either way, ``Fox and Graham have separated themselves from the other seniors,'' one said.

Mayock said Graham ``is looking at the third or fourth round assuming he runs well and catches well at his pro day.'' One team has him ranked 60th among all seniors.

``He's got good size, good hands, but he still has a long way to go,'' one scout said. ``He isn't Tony Gonzalez. He's not afraid to block, but he can't take on bigger linebackers by himself.''

• Two scouts disagreed about whether Fox has the body to play left tackle in the NFL. ``He's not a big, thick guy. He might need to move inside,'' one said. Said Mayock: ``Limited power, needs to get stronger. Most guys I talk to have him in the fourth, fifth round.''

• Though Darryl Sharpton played the run well, he ``doesn't have the skills linebackers need in pass coverage,'' one scout said. ``If you can't cover, you're a one-down player. He's too small.'' Mayock has him going in the middle rounds at best.

• Mayock said ``a lot of people like Javarris James because he can block'' -- though one scout said he wouldn't draft him ``because he can't stay healthy. He doesn't have the speed to consistently get outside.'' . . . Cornerback Sam Shields ``will run fast at Pro Day and could be a late draftable kid,'' Mayock said. . . . One scout rated tight end Dedrick Epps as a mid-to-late-round prospect because of his receiving skills.

• Scout feedback on the top juniors: Allen Bailey ``will be better in the NFL than college; second-rounder if he comes out now, could be top-10 pick if he stays'' and improves; Orlando Franklin ``could rise to a first- or second-rounder'' if he plays well at left tackle for UM in 2010; Graig Cooper is a potential ``third-rounder because of speed, versatility, return ability.''

A scout said Leonard Hankerson is a mid-rounder ``but I would be scared to take him because he [excelled] only one year and because of drops.''

• One scout raved about junior Damien Berry and cannot understand why he does not get more carries: ``He's their best running back. Physical, tough, good speed. If they ran him 25 times a game, they would be a different offense and it would help Jacory Harris.''

• One scout, on UM's defense: ``The linebackers are too slow. They can't keep up with guys in the flat and are out of position too much. The defensive linemen don't come off the ball well enough, and not enough of their linemen get better. Marcus Forston couldn't get upfield before they shut him down.''

• The scouts love Harris -- ``he can be special,'' one said -- but another said he must get stronger ``because his deep out routes tend to float. He's more accurate on midrange throws.''

CHATTER
• Ex-Dolphins great Mark Duper, who is close with Hankerson, said the junior receiver is leaning toward returning to UM, but it's not certain. Hankerson has two children and ``I'm sure that's weighing on him'' in his decision, Duper said. ``My advice was to stay and get your degree.''



(miamiherald.com -barry jackson)

Armed with a degree in finance and the nickname ``D-Money,'' University of Miami linebacker Darryl Sharpton has long considered a future in finance and entrepreneurship.

But these days, the 6-0, 235-pound son of CPA Darryl Sharpton Sr. and nephew of the Rev. Al Sharpton, is playing well enough to warrant another profession: NFL player.

``We're going to train for a bowl game and then it's time for the next saga of my life,'' Sharpton said. ``I'd like to give professional football a shot.''

Sharpton, 22, grew up in Coral Gables, graduated from Coral Gables High as part of the prestigious International Baccalaureate academic program and played his first three years at UM without much fanfare.

Now, with 14th-ranked Miami (9-3) about to begin preparing for No. 24 Wisconsin (9-3) in the Champs Sports Bowl, Sharpton leads the Hurricanes in tackles with 91. He was named a second-team All-Atlantic Coast Conference linebacker last week and also earned ACC Player of the Week honors after matching a career-high 12 tackles and causing a fumble at South Florida that led to a UM touchdown.

The previous week against Duke, Sharpton returned his first interception 73 yards for a touchdown.
On Sunday, Hurricanes coaches named Sharpton the team's most valuable defensive player at the awards ceremony.

``This is a great way to end my personal career and great for this program,'' Sharpton said after UM's 31-10 regular-season finale Nov. 28 at USF. ``It'll be good to have a little break, let my body heal, spend a lot of time in the ice tub, do some stretching and get into academics.''

Sharpton finally seems to have overcome knee problems and appears to be modeling other UM linebackers who had their best seasons as seniors. They include Tavares Gooden of the Baltimore Ravens, Spencer Adkins of the Atlanta Falcons and Glen Cook, who went undrafted last season but led in tackles and had two forced fumbles and a fumble recovery.

Jonathan Vilma (New Orleans Saints), in his sixth NFL season, also graduated from Gables High.

WIDE RECEIVER?
``I told Sharpton he needs to come play wide receiver,'' UM quarterback Jacory Harris said of the Duke interception on Senior Day, when Sharpton sprinted down the the left sideline untouched. ``I've never seen a linebacker with that much concentration. He showed a little speed down there.''

Long known for his ferocious hits (he also earned UM's hard-hitter award), Sharpton has finally crafted the mental part of his game as well. ``Darryl has always been a guy, when he first got here -- `Big hit, I want the big hit, Coach! I want the big hit,' '' Shannon mimicked. ``[Sometimes], big hits come when you don't wrap up and you throw your forearms out. I had to explain to him when we worked with him this year that big hits can come when you wrap up. And that's what he has been doing.

``Darryl has changed his mind set. Hit people as hard as you can, but you've got to wrap him up and go through the guy.''

Shannon said he is proud of Sharpton for his maturity and leadership. ``He has improved every week, making all the checks and lining up the defensive linemen. He's having more fun.''

Sharpton attributed his improvement to ``trusting the scheme, studying and really understanding the mental aspect. I believe physically I always had it,'' he said. ``But I had to tie the two [together] and right now I think I've reached that point.''

Academically, Sharpton is thrilled that he has already earned his degree. He is currently finishing four classes for 12 credits in extended studies. ``I'm trying all kinds of different stuff,'' he said, ``African-American studies, women's gender studies, geology.''

EAST-WEST GAME
After the Hurricanes take on the Badgers on Dec. 29 at The Florida Citrus Bowl Stadium, Sharpton will return to the Citrus Bowl on Jan. 23 for the East-West Shrine Game. No doubt he'll play hard.

``When I'm playing, I'm in my zone and it doesn't matter who's watching. I live for the moment.''



(miamiherald.com)

Fall Slate of ESPN Films’ “30 for 30” Series to Conclude with The U

ESPN Films’ critically acclaimed “30 for 30” series will conclude its fall slate Saturday, Dec. 12 at 9 p.m. ET, immediately following the Heisman Trophy presentation on ESPN, with The U – a two-hour documentary about the dramatic rise of the University of Miami football program in the 1980s. Directed by Miami native and alum, Billy Corben (Cocaine Cowboys), and produced by rakontur and ESPN Films, the film is an intimate look at the program’s sudden and jolting transformation into a football powerhouse that essentially changed the rules of the game as told by the players, coaches, students and administrators who were there. 

With music by long-time Canes supporter and rap artist Luther “Uncle Luke” Campbell and Honor Roll Music, The U peels back the layers of a program that claimed four national titles from the 1983 thru 1991 seasons and produced a steady wave of NFL stars. Bennie Blades, Melvin Bratton, Alonzo Highsmith, Michael Irvin, Bernie Kosar, Santana Moss, Brett Perriman, Jeremy Shockey and former head coaches Dennis Erickson, Jimmy Johnson and Howard Schnellenberger are among the 38 program insiders who were interviewed about what propelled Miami to the top and kept it there as the brash, controversial team its competition loved to hate.

Johnson: “When I first came to the University of Miami, the TV series Miami Vice was very popular and I wanted to play on that. That’s why we took the swagger that we did.”

Perriman on criticism of the program: “It was a lot of bigotry and it’s because we were young African Americans, for the most part, bringing a bravado, a different style that the University of Miami had never seen.”

Irvin on the team’s reputation: “It wasn’t any conspiracy or the media – they didn’t do anything. We were bad boys and we were enjoying being bad boys…”

Campbell on allegations he was paying players: “If they needed $50 to buy some food that weekend, no, I would never give it to them because that was against the NCAA rules…Giving a kid $100 to buy him some sneakers so he won’t go jump in some other kid’s dorm room, steal his stereo, no, I wouldn’t give a kid any money.”

**A conference call for interested media members will be held Wednesday, Dec. 2 with Corben and ESPN executive producers to discuss the film and series. Call-in information will be issued after the holiday.



(rakontur.com)

proCanes.com is continuing our “Tracking proCanes” feature with someone who is not a former University of Miami Athlete, but nonetheless an alum of the University of Miami and is heavily involved in spreading the spirit of the University of Miami Athletic program, specifically the football program, through his new film “The U” which will air on ESPN on December 12th at 9pm after the Heisman Trophy Presentation. Billy Corben was born in Florida and graduated from the University of Miami where he majored in political science, screenwriting and theater. His feature documentary directorial debut, “Raw Deal: A Question of Consent,” premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in 2001, making him one of the youngest directors in Sundance history. Examining the alleged rape of an exotic dancer at a fraternity house at the University of Florida, the film utilized extensive clips from videotape footage of the alleged assault. Considered by critics to be “one of the most controversial films of the modern day” and “one of the most compelling pieces of non-fiction ever produced,” (Film Threat Magazine), “Raw Deal” has been seen all over the world. Following that success, Corben and producing partner Alfred Spellman founded rakontur, a Miami Beach-based content creation company, and took on another Florida true-crime story, this one closer to home. The New York Times called “Cocaine Cowboys” “a hypervent-ilating account of the blood-drenched Miami drug culture in the 1970s and 1980s.”

Corben is now putting the finishing touches on the film, “The U” which is described here: Throughout the 1980s, Miami, Florida, was at the center of a racial and cultural shift taking place throughout the country. Overwhelmed by riots and tensions, Miami was a city in flux, and the University of Miami football team served as a microcosm for this evolution. The image of the predominantly white university was forever changed when coach Howard Schnellenberger scoured some of the toughest ghettos in Florida to recruit mostly black players for his team. With a newly branded swagger, inspired and fueled by the quickly growing local Miami hip hop culture, these Hurricanes took on larger-than-life personalities and won four national titles between 1983 and 1991. Filmmaker Billy Corben, a Miami native and University of Miami alum, will tell the story of how these “Bad Boys” of football changed the attitude of the game they played, and how this serene campus was transformed into “The U.”

proCanes: How did you come up with the idea for the film?
Billy Corben: Everyone in our company, Rakontur, are Miami natives basically. So one of the mandates of our company is to not only tell great stories, but tell great Miami stories. The Hurricanes of the 80’s in particular is one of those great Miami stories. It was one of those stories on our list for a long a time to tell and we had an opportunity to pitch it to ESPN and we took that opportunity. The inspiration was really growing up in Miami and seeing the dramatic impact, not only in sports, but in our community in terms of pop culture, in terms of the merging of sports and entertainment, this profound effect the Miami Hurricanes had being the team of the 80’s.

pC: What's the official name of the film?
BC: The temporary working title of the movie was “Hurricane Season,” and now it is “The U” and just “The U.” There have been some internal discussions about adding a subheading to it, but right now it is just called “The U”

pC: How did you end up partnering with ESPN?
BC: Like I said, this story of the Hurricanes of the 80’s was on our short list, of great Miami stories that we wanted to tell and ESPN Films was doing some really great work and we called them up and Connor Schell, he happened to have been from Miami and gone to high school in Miami and he knew all about this story of course, not to mention he was a big Cocaine Cowboys fan which was really exciting and fortuitous for us. We went up to New York and met with everybody at ESPN films and eventually went to the Bristol CT headquarters and met all the people we have been working very close with on this movie and they loved the idea. They loved our take on it. They loved our angle on it. To their credit, they loved that we were also alumni and graduates of the University [of Miami] working on it. They’ve also given us a lot of creative freedom and autonomy on this project to tell it in our voice. It’s definitely ESPN Films presents, there’s no doubt about that, but it is our voice, it is Rakontur’s voice telling the story just like all the 30 for 30’s. These are all personal stories. All the filmmakers have a personal relationship with these stories and it’s no different here with Rakontur, me and the Hurricanes. ESPN is producing over the course of just a couple of short years, 30 movies with 30 filmmakers. I mean movie studios these days don’t even do that. So they are working their asses off, to help all of us craft these individual unique visions, 30 of them. They’ve just been incredibly cooperative and helpful and supportive to work with. I really appreciate and I can’t imagine having made this movie with anyone else and for anyone else other than ESPN. We approached them, we pitched the story, they loved it and have been behind us ever since.

pC: You went to UM, were you always a UM fan?
BC: My grandfather had season tickets in the 40’s in the Orange Bowl and as long as I have been alive, my dad has had season tickets to first the Orange Bowl and now of course Joe Robbie, Pro Player, Dolphin, Land Shark Stadium, J-Lo Stadium whatever the hell it’s called. I think it’s Buffet Stadium, that would be fun at least or we should just call it Margaritaville. Why don’t we just call it Margaritaville and drop stadium from it? My dad has had season tickets as long as I have been alive and I grew up going to ‘Canes games. Whenever I could go, I would. I’m talking about five years old at the Orange Bowl. Some scary stuff. The Orange Bowl was quite an intimidating environment for a little kid. You could actually feel the stands move and shake as the crowd built up and roared and back in the 80’s, the crowd would often get built up and roar. I remember the feeling of that stadium. It felt like that stadium was going to come apart as everybody was stomping and cheering and screaming. I remember even being that young and realizing what an absolute sensation this team was, and these players were. I was conscious, even then, of a good show, the spectacle of a great story. You could just look down at the field, at that stage and know you were witnessing the greatest show on earth. I’ve never seen football or entertainment like that since. It’s a shame. It’s a shame that football can’t be that fun and that passionate and that exciting and that enthusiastic. Later, you know, we have the Miami rules, the excessive celebrations penalties which are just ludicrous and literally take the joy and the thrill out of a game being played by 18, 19, 20-year old kids and you would hope they would be able to enjoy it now as much as they enjoyed it then and as much as the crowd enjoyed them enjoying it.

pC: What's your favorite memory of the Hurricanes when growing up?
BC: It’s tough because I was so young going to some of these early games. In high school, when I have more distinct memories I didn’t go to as many games as I would’ve liked to, in fact I didn’t go to any of the Championship games at the Orange Bowl, unfortunately. My dad had friends to take with those tickets and he wasn’t going to let me have one of those tickets or maybe he sold them, who knows! Those were expensive tickets, even in those days, so who knows.

pC: How different was it doing a film like this as opposed to Cocaine Cowboys?
BC: Well, no joke, they’re actually very very similar. One is about Miami and cocaine and one is about Miami and college football, so see, they’re very much alike! [Laughter] In fact, Cocaine Cowboys fans will find that structurally there are a lot of similarities. Cocaine Cowboys opens with the city of Miami, as a sleepy little town. “The U” opens with the University of Miami as this institution of higher learning with a not so great football team going through six coaches in seven seasons, just really on the verge of extinction. The University of Miami had already cut basketball and football was the obvious next step for the trustees to cut and they managed to get one more lease on life, higher one more head coach, to see if they could make some thing happen and they happen to higher Howard Schnellenberger, which was of course the big shift in the fate of this program. So, the movies [Cocaine Cowboys, The U] kind of begin similarly in that regard with the old archival footage of the campus, which was a very lily-white campus in Coral Gables. We have this old classic tourism film about Coral Gables, just like at the beginning of Cocaine Cowboys we have those tourism films of Miami and Miami Beach and you’re about to see the Cocaine Cowboys come in and turn the city upside down and turn it into what it is today and the same thing happens in “The U.” In comes this remarkable football team, these groups of men, these different teams that made up the Hurricanes in that decade and they’re about to come in turn the campus upside down, college football upside down and eventually professional football on its head. So, really, they’re actually very similar films and not to mention there’s a nostalgia today for both the Cocaine Cowboys era in Miami where anything goes, it was the wild west, there was a lot of money, a lot of parties a lot of fun, even though here was murder and mayhem, you still have that nostalgia. Same thing with the Canes, there’s an even greater nostalgia for the ‘Canes of the 80’s and the exuberance and enthusiasm and style that they brought to the game despite the fact that there was some negativity some negative press some bad news from the program and that time period. There is still that very strong passion and nostalgia for the ‘Canes of the 80’s just like the Miami of the 80’s of Cocaine Cowboys.

pC: Who would you say was your favorite interviewee?
BC: Man, that’s tough. That is tough because we did something like 40 interviews of head coaches, assistant coaches, players, from quarterbacks, wide receivers to some of the greatest defensive players to ever play the game of college or professional football. This is a real tough one. Finally we just got the Michael Irvin interview so there is a certain sweet smell of success there and he was as good, as we knew he was going to be in his interview. Jimmy Johnson was sensational. Lamar Thomas was hilarious. Bernie Kosar was a sweetheart and offered a lot of great insights that we wouldn’t have otherwise gotten had we not interviewed him. Alonzo Highsmith was great. Mel Bratton was great. Jeremy Shockey, you had no idea what that guy was going to say next, he was a classic interview. That’s a real tough one. Which one was my favorite? Too hard to say, too hard to say.

pC: How long will the feature be for ESPN?
BC: We’re going to get a two-hour broadcast block so without commercials the total running time of the movie is going to be about 100 minutes, which is barely enough time to tell the story of the four national championships that we’re telling. 1983, 1987, 1989, 1991 seasons. It’s tight squeeze, it’s tight squeeze.

pC: How difficult was it to get the player interviews, were former players receptive to the idea?
BC: Good question. Very little trouble getting the interviews from the players. Except for Michael Irvin, which was a bit more of an uphill battle, but ultimately he agreed to talk to us and was terrific. Like Michael Irvin said and a lot of these guys said, the years playing for the Hurricanes were some of, if not the best years of their lives. To call someone up and say “hey will you come and talk about some of the best years of your lives” doesn’t require a lot of arm twisting. The biggest problem was the University of Miami who was not supportive in the least of the project, which was funny because I did the math, of our full-time employees at Rakontur and the independent contractors that worked on “The U” and we have combined, no less than 20 years, 20 years, at the University of Miami, that we spent as students. You do the math, that’s at least 2 million dollars in tuition, at least, for all of us and all the years and semesters we spent there. Not to mention we still get multiple emails a day asking us to donate money to the University and yet I approached the University of Miami as an alumni, as a graduate. I said “hey can we get access to your archives, your photos, your films, we’d like to interview Randy Shannon, we’d like to interview Paul Dee” and they told us to go screw ourselves. Here we are, School of Communication graduates made good, telling the definitive story of the University of Miami Hurricanes in this era for ESPN, one of the biggest, if not the biggest cable networks in the universe, basically producing a two-hour infomercial for the University of Miami. They should put Rakontur’s name on a building when this is all done. I don’t know how they measure in cash, the contribution of a two-hour primetime infomercial for the University of Miami and the extraordinary history of the football program. Nine p.m. after the Heisman Trophy ceremony on ESPN. I was really disappointed at the level of professionalism or lack thereof, and lack of support that we got from the Athletic Department and the University administration. They should really be ashamed of themselves of how they treat their alumni. It’s not like we went to them for money, we didn’t need money, ESPN was financing the thing. We went to them for support. Let us interview some people who are currently employed by you. Let us get some access to some of your archival materials and like I said, they sent us packing. Considering the quality of education that I got at the University of Miami for the money I spent, I like to say it’s a TJ Maxx education at Neiman Marcus prices. The least they could do was be professional and be courteous to alumni.

I resigned my position on the Citizens Board, a very prestigious Board of both alumni and influential people in the community who are actively involved in fundraising efforts for every program of the University. I resigned as a result of the disrespect that the University showed us. What was interesting about it, was that the University not only blocked our access the small handful of people, Randy Shannon and Paul Dee mostly, who are currently employed by them who we needed the University’s permission in order to get access to them for an interview. Not only did they block that, but they attempted be obstructionists about it. They were telling other people such as Coach [Dennis] Erickson, not to give us an interview. It’s one thing to say, no we can’t as a University endorse, though we didn’t ask for their endorsement, participate in this, it’s another thing for them to go out and try to obstruct our ability and access to people that are no longer employed by the University. So we went out to Arizona State to interview Coach Erickson and he said ‘you know, I called the University to follow-up on this request and to see about the project and they told me not to do it.’ I was like “you’re kidding?” It’s one thing for the University to say we’re not participating and do whatever you want but to tell someone not to participate?

Fortunately for us, everybody pretty much, especially the players, didn’t care what the University had to say, certainly were not going to be kept from telling their story. That’s literally what this is; this is the player’s stories. If you’ve seen any of our Rakontur documentaries Cocaine Cowboys, Cocaine Cowboys Two, Raw Deal, A Question of Consent there’s no narrator there’s no real point of view of the filmmakers forced upon the movie. It’s not a Michael Moore movie. It’s not a big expose or anything. This is their opportunity to tell their story in the first person. I always say Rakontur is first person productions. It’s not about “they and he” it’s about “I” and “we” and that’s what we got here fortunately, because the players weren’t going to listen [to the University]. The players didn’t listen to the administration back when Tad Foote was trying to implement a code of conduct and dress codes, so they’re sure not going to listen to the administration now telling them not to participate and thank goodness for them. These are men of character and men who are great characters and fortunately I think virtually everyone we approached, now that Michael Irvin gave us the interview, pretty much everyone we approached said ‘yes’ except for a very small handful of people employed by the University.

pC: Talk about going down to Jimmy Johnson's house in the keys.
BC: Holy crap. Jimmy Johnson has life perfected, perfected. He makes Jimmy Buffet look like a stockbroker. This guy is doing retirement right. It’s amazing. He’s got this beautiful house, right on the ocean, and he very graciously invited us down there to interview him. We had a real small window of opportunity because, as he put it, he could ‘hear those fish biting out there’ and literally the background of the shot while we’re interviewing him is his fishing biddies loading up his fishing boat that’s in the background of the shot. They’re putting the bait on, the light beers, because Jimmy’s on light beers now, he’s on a diet, they’re loading up the Subway sandwiches, the fishing rods like right in the background of the shot [laughter]. They’re like ‘sorry guy we’re just running through!’ and Jimmy was like let’s do this, let’s do this. So we ran the interview and literally the last thing we did was just an intro we recorded and he said ‘alright guys, thank you, that’s it!’ He leapt down off the chair, ran into the background of the shot, jumped on his fishing boat and they just took off into the Atlantic [Ocean] to go fishing. It was awesome. There we all were, me and my crew just standing there with all of our equipment set up in Jimmy Johnson’s back yard thinking this is the coolest job ever. I got him and everybody else to sign this football. I mean everybody that we interviewed signed this football and it’s amazing. It’s like 40 signatures from the greatest players, coaches assistant coaches and one of the greatest athletic directors, Sam Jankovich, who signed this ball. It’s an amazing artifact that we have from making this movie.

pC: I assume you have a lot of footage that won't be shown on the ESPN feature, what will you do with that?
BC: That’s a great question too, because we always have a glut of extra footage. We’ll probably have some proCanes.com exclusive deleted scene that you can embed on the site at some point before or after the movie premiers. We’re definitely putting together quite a DVD package. To me actually, as a movie buff and DVD collector, my number one, top bonus feature that I look for in a DVD, if I am going to buy it or rented it or whatever, is deleted scenes. To that end, all of our DVDs, Cocaine Cowboys One especially, Raw Deal, A Question of Consent, on those two DVDs we put over 30 minutes of deleted scenes and deleted footage on there. That to me is a real serious value. That’s another 30 minutes of movie that you didn’t get and not to mention it’s a real insight into the film making process because you have to make a lot of tough decisions when you’re editing a movie especially a movie that has to be 100 minutes for television that’s got to tell the story of the Canes from the late 70’s into the early 90’s. I mean, obviously, as you said in your question, a lot of footage is going to wind up on proverbial cutting room floor. Fortunately there is no cutting room floor, it’s all digital non-linear editing, so we have all of those scenes, deleted lines, deleted scenes, deleted sequences, we have them all in a lock box in a folder in Final Cut Pro where we can go back to and access those for additional content. It’s definitely something whether it’s on proCanes.com, the ESPN website, certainly on the DVD you’re going to get a whole lot more of “The U” after the movie premiers.

pC: What phase are you in terms of the feature? Done? Editing?
BC: Man, oh man. This is an epic. ESPN is doing these 30 for 30’s which is 30 different documentaries by 30 different filmmakers about some extraordinary sports story of the last 30 years to celebrate ESPN’s 30th anniversary. They first came on in the fall of 1979, so right now they’re celebrating the 30th anniversary. When ESPN picked us up, we were not a part of the 30 for 30 series and then they announced the 30 for 30 series and told us that we were going to be one of the only two-hour 30 for 30s because the rest of them were all one hour. So, really all of the 30 for 30s are pretty much about one player or one game or in the case Barry Levinson, one band, the Baltimore Marching Band and this movie is an epic, it’s an epic. It’s one of the few, if not only, 30 for 30s that is about four national championships in under 10 years of a single team. This is an epic!

To that end, it has been an ongoing editing process not to mention that we just got a Michael Irvin on October 29th. We had locked pictures, so we thought several weeks ago, Two weeks ago we did live recording sessions that we put live on U-Stream so you could hear live a 14-piece orchestra all week long recording the music. Halloween weekend we spent editing the Michael Irvin sound bites into the movie which of course will make the movie longer which means we will have to cut other things out which means the shape and timing of the movie is going to change. We are still very much editing the movie but at the same time we are also recording the score, the original music, we are actually recording an original song, actually this is breaking news, I don’t think anybody knows about this. We are recording an original song, main title song, theme song with Luther Campbell last week which was pretty incredible. It’s an old school Miami based two live crew sounding styled song, which Luther is going to do the lead vocals on. We’re doing the graphics work, designing a beautiful lower thirds effect, I’m not going to give away the surprise but it’s a pretty bad ass concept very consistent with the spirit of the U. We’ve got some beautiful graphics work and animation that’s going on right now. So we’re really doing everything at the same time right now to try and finish this movie. ESPN said the movie is premiering December 12th at 9pm, I told them you will not have it a minute later than 8:45 pm on December 12th. At this rate that might be about when we deliver [laughter]. The movie is looking great, it’s sounding great. We’re making a lot of last minute changes. I asked ESPN at the end of the second hour of the movie if they could have a SportsCenter break, this just in ‘this just in, SportsCenter, “The U” is going into overtime” so we can make the movie a little bit longer.

pC: What's one thing you learned from making the film that you didn't already know about the program?
BC: Well I’m tempted to just say you have to watch the movie to find that out, but I’ll give you one. Jimmy Johnson’s Thursday night meetings, which I didn’t know about, but hearing about it from Coach Johnson, from the players, it took on a new life and a new depth and new meaning to what was otherwise sort of anecdotal stories about these mythical Thursday night meetings. Art Kehoe even told us, that he wished that he had gone to one, but never actually made it to one of the Thursday night meetings. Commentary from the players and coaches of things like that, that are really really compelling. Everything else that I learned, that I didn’t know about the team or the program I’m going to let you watch the movie and find out for yourselves something that maybe you didn’t know about the program.

pC: How would you say this film is different from other sports documentaries?
BC: First of all I don’t really look at it as a sports documentary. I look at it as a sports culture documentary. I look at it as a Miami story. I look at as a lot of things, but not just a sports documentary. I think it talks a lot about the atmosphere in Miami in the 1980’s, the racial tensions in the community, the fact that we had not one, not two, but three incidents where police officers murdered young black men that led to multiple race riots over the course of the decade, starting 1980 with the McDuffie murder and riots going all the way to 1989 with the Lozano shooting and subsequent civil unrest and this was the environment and the neighborhoods where a lot of the great players in South Florida were recruited by Howard Schnellenberger and Jimmy Johnson and it gave these players a perspective and a fire, a passion for the game. As Mel Bratton put it ‘football was the way out of the hood.’ They played with that passion and that fire and that swagger that nobody had ever seen anything like it before. Not on TV, anyway. Hip Hop culture and street swagger and Miami street swagger is now pretty much mainstream, but back in the 1980’s that was not what most of America knew. I think about pop culture references to black America in the 1980 and we have the Cosby Show and as far as music goes you had Run DMC, which was pretty tame Rap music. Luther Campbell was just coming on the scene, gangster rap was just coming on to the scene, it was very controversial and not ready for primetime. But here you had these players also not ready for primetime but right there in living color on your TV set every Saturday playing football and displays that you had just never seen before. That’s what the movie is about to me. Yes, it’s a great team, yes it’s certainly about four National Championships in a span of less than a decade, but it’s about these men and these personalities and the character and the characters that made up this team.

pC: Some former players I have spoken to have expressed concern over what sort of light the film will portray the “U.” What would you say the film is trying to portray?
BC: I’ll tell you this. I’ll tell you this. ‘Canes lovers who watch the movie are going to walk away from the movie still loving the team and maybe loving them even more. ‘Canes haters are going to walk away probably still hating the ‘Canes [laughter] for the same reasons they hated them before, but I think with a new level of appreciation or maybe even respect for how this team changed; first pop culture, then college football, then professional football maybe not in that order and really professional sports in general. I think this is a real opportunity for the team, the players, the coaches to tell their story from their perspective and respond, let’s say, to a lot of the criticism and the negativity that’s been around. There’s no doubt that we’re pretty objective in this film, we do present the other side of the story. But here you have first hand the Canes responding directly to that criticism and that controversy. Whether or not that makes everybody happy, whether or not that generates more controversy, we’ll have to see when the movie premiers. I don’t think anybody will throw a bottle at my head like poor Dan Le Batard [laughter]. He wrote something that pissed of a fan, I really hope I will not have enter the witness protection program after we premier this movie.

pC: You interviewed Coach Dennis Erickson, Larry Coker, Jimmy Johnson and Howard Schnellenberger. Talk about those interviews and just the difference between the 4 coaches and what they had to say.
BC: Coach Coker unfortunately is not going to be in the final cut of the movie, because we do not go all the way to 2001. Originally when we had conceived the movie we were possibly planning on going to ’01. We’re not now. This is just going to be the team of the 80’s, the Canes that were recruited primarily by Schnellenberger and Jimmy Johnson and that continued to play in the early 90’s and won in 89 and 91 with Coach Erickson. Right up to the Pell Grant scandal and the sanctions is kind of where we end our tale. In talking about Howard Schnellenberger, Jimmy Johnson, and Dennis Erickson, you could even tell today, interviewing them and watching their interviews in the movie exactly the kinds of personalities and exactly the kinds of coaches that they were and that the players and assistant coaches talk about. Their personalities are right there perfectly on display.

With Schnellenberger you get the stature of this man and the rich history of football that he brings to the table. You understand the reverence that these players had for him and you could practically still smell the cherry flavored tobacco smoke coming down the hall before he walks into a room and he’s a real presence to this day. That growl low voice that he has really contributes to the whole persona which continues to this day and you really understand why the players respected him, paid attention to him and did not want to disappoint him. They wanted to go out and win for him.

Jimmy Johnson, same thing. I mean you see Jimmy Johnson on TV every week on Fox and he’s just got that energy, and that enthusiasm, that passion, that fire that these players came along with. I think Don Bailey Junior told us in his interview, Jimmy Johnson had a chip on his shoulder from his time at Oklahoma and everything and he came in like a lot of these players did, with that chip on his shoulder. And Jimmy talked to us about how he could relate to a lot of these players because he was the first person in his family that went to college. A great line from the movie from Dan Le Batard, which I was going to tell you, but I think I am going to save it for the movie, it’s a great line about the relationship and connection Jimmy Johnson had with his players, motivating these players the right away you can see why Jimmy Johnson became, as Michael Irvin said: “A lot of the guys on the team, myself included, didn’t have fathers, grew up without fathers and Jimmy Johnson became all of our fathers.’ You can see the warmth. I mean watching the archival footage, Jimmy and the team in practice and on the sidelines in games, in the locker room, there’s always an arm around a shoulder, an embrace after a touchdown, I mean there was a bond and a level of warmth and not just respect but you know a familial bond and a love for each other and the game and that is so apparent in talking to Jimmy Johnson today.

Robert Bailey said in his interview ‘Coach Erickson was like when a substitute teacher comes into class.’ Everybody is just going mess around as much as possible and as much as they can get away with. Erickson you can see, he said in his interview ‘that the players taught him more about football, their lives, and their culture than he probably taught them.’ At the same time you can see that this is a guy knew enough to stay out of their way and to devise tactics to channel their energy off the field onto the field and into winning games on the field. You can see that he is cool and quiet but at the same time you can see he is calculating how to get these players to do what they need to do to win games. There’s no doubt that he did it, winning two national championships.

pC: Did you talk to some of the Hurricane QB greats? Talk about them and their personalities.
BC: This is not a “Quarterback U” documentary but you can’t make a documentary about the Hurricanes in the ‘80’s and not talk to some of the great quarterbacks. We talked to two in particular, both of who won National Championships. We talked to Bernie Kosar and Steve Walsh. Both were terrific and not unlike the coaches, even to this day could understand the personalities that made them leaders on the field. Bernie Kosar was about as nice and gracious a man as I have ever met. He actually did the interview less than a week before the news broke about his financial difficulties and it really broke my heart to read about that in the Miami Herald. He really could not have been a nicer guy, more gracious guy and less than a week before that news broke, did not let on at any point before, after or during the interview that he was dealing with the kind of problems he was clearly dealing with at that time and we really appreciate his time, which he gave us quite a lot that day. His insight into Howard Schnellenberger as a coach, some of his teammates and what went into being a freshman quarterback coming out of that quarterback preseason contest of the ’83 season that Schnellenberger had him and Vinny Testaverde endure to see who was going to get that starting position. It’s actually a great deleted scene from the movie that hopefully will see the light of day somewhere online or DVD about that quarterback competition and how Vinny Testaverde was clearly, to coach Schnellenberger and to Bernie Kosar, clearly the better athlete pound for pound, pass for pass and how Schnellenberger just had a feeling. They go into that season and lose that first game against the University of Florida and perhaps this looks like Schnellenberger‘s folly and Schnellenberger famously said that he went back and looked at the film from the game and determined that play by play statistically the Hurricanes beat the [Florida] Gators, just not in the final score and he was able to, I think, instill that enthusiasm and that inspiration in Bernie and in the players, that you were clearly the better team there, now we have to make that reflect on the scoreboard and that is what they did for the rest of the season with this freshman quarterback who ended up winning all of their [remaining] games and go to the Orange Bowl against Nebraska for the National Championship that year.

pC: What do you think about the move to Land Shark Stadium?
BC: I was on the University of Miami Citizen’s Board, a position that I resigned from, as a result of a lack of cooperation the University gave us on this project and I was on the Board when Paul Dee came and made a presentation at a luncheon about the options that the University was facing with regard to which stadium to contract with, to have the Hurricanes games and it broke my heart to see the Orange bowl torn down, in fact it’s something, that even though this movie is not about the Orange Bowl and the destruction of the Orange Bowl plays a very important visual element in our movie at the end of it. It felt right especially because of the rich history of the stadium. At the same time the presentation that we saw, from a business standpoint, was very clear that this move was inevitable, there was nothing that was going to stop it from happening. From a strictly business perspective it was a sound decision, and as I said inevitable, a foregone conclusion that they were going to move the team. What you can’t really account for in a business decision like that, the x-factor, we’ll call it the “U-factor,” the “OB-factor.” That is that element of whether it is motivational, spiritual, psychological, or what have you, that the Orange Bowl brings to the table in terms of local excitement, community excitement about the team and about the games. It was a creaky piece of crap, that stadium, but it had not only a lot of history, it felt a lot more like a college stadium, certainly than already dated corporate coldness of what is now Land Shark Stadium. So, there’s definitely something to that.

I think the distance is not a major factor, students can still take buses and everything up there, but I think there is definitely, I mean you can see when the team is number 8, number 9 [in the polls], attendance has been pathetic this year at Land Shark, there’s no doubt about it. I think there has been more enthusiastic tailgating going on outside of the stadium that fan support in the stadium. So whether or not that’s just a testament to the dissatisfaction the fans feel with the stadium change or the fact that there’s been some beautiful weather lately so there’s a lot of competition for people’s time and attention. People get out of bed and it’s a beautiful day and they’re like ‘huh, beach or Land Shark Stadium?’ The fair-weather fans, as they call them. Ultimately, like I said, it was a sound business decisions and an inevitable one at that, but I think it’s going to take a couple of year convince the community and the fans at-large that this is something that they should drive north to the county line to experience Hurricane football.

Schnellenberger talked to us in his interview about the plans he had for an on-campus stadium at the University of Miami. But Schnellenberger has always been a major proponent of that. Look at his plans at FAU right now. He’s got a beautiful on-campus stadium and shopping mall planned that he’s been actively endorsing and getting support for and it’s a real shame we can’t have that level of on-campus enthusiasm at the University of Miami. Again, there’s not a lot of options for playing football in Miami-Dade county is the bottom line, unless you’re going to build a stadium from scratch on available land. You can’t play at the Bank United/Convocation Center, you can’t play at Mark Light Steroid Field, or whatever it’s called. There’s only so many venues to play football and when you looked at the business opportunity that the City of Miami and the Orange Bowl was afforded with and Dolphins Stadium was offering at the time, there was no hope for the Orange Bowl, for the Hurricanes to continue with the Orange Bowl. That was the final nail in the coffin for a venue that took up a lot of property, a lot of land, you can’t help but watch the footage of it being torn down and wish that they could have thought of some way to preserve that structure and the history of that structure. I mean a Marlins stadium? I mean really? Really? Is that necessary?

pC: On your website, you use the photo of the Ibis being detained by FSU cops, why?
BC: Why not? [Laughter] Why not? It’s actually going to be a great deleted scene, John Routh, aka Sebastian the Ibis, telling us the story of how he was beat down and handcuffed at Doak Campbell Stadium by some troopers who were not happy that he was going to use a fire hydrant to put out the flaming spear [laughter]. It’s a great story and also a wonderful image that is so emblematic of the “bad boy” reputation that the Hurricanes had at the time that appeared to even extend to our mascot. I just think it’s one of those things that really deserves to be preserved as the header on our blog. Read proCanes.com’s exclusive interview and account of his run-in with the FSU cops.
pC: After all the interviews you have done, what's one word or phrase you think describes the U. BC: Well I think “The U” actually does a very effective job as a word or a phrase that describes the U. It’s “the U.” As McGahee would say ‘the U already know.’ What more do you need to say really about it? It’s become a brand. Howard Schnellenberger tells us in his interview how when he first came to the University he was giving the entire Football program an entire overhaul in terms of the facilities, box office, ticketing, the promotional materials, programs, artwork, etc, people were coming to him asking him to get rid of the U logo of the team. He said ‘why would we get rid of the U? What are we going to make it? We’re going to make it an M? There’s a lot of M’s in the world, but there’ only one U.’ He said ‘we’re going to make that logo more recognizable than the IBM logo.’ He said that in 1979. That’s exactly what has happened. One of the things we end the movie with is a montage from Monday Night Football of former Canes introducing themselves when they’re supposed to say what college they went to, they just say ‘the U.’

pC: After interviewing all these former greats, what's one thing you saw that they possessed or that made them great that the current team and future teams need to do to get back on top?
BC: I think I should leave the football coaching to the football coaches [laughter]. Well the football coaches and Sid Rosenberg and everybody on the sports talk radio who like to do a lot of Monday morning quarterbacking and Monday morning coaching. So I don’t know if it’s necessarily what the team needs to do now to get back on top, but I will tell you that the relationship that this team had with each other and with their coaches, it sounds trite, but it was a family. The former players, the way they look back at the new players and embrace them and try to mentor them and train them, I think is extraordinary. Michael Irvin told us in his interview, he had never talked with another player in the pro’s [NFL] that had the bond, relationship and talked as much about his alma mater and was as enthusiastic about the college team he played for as the former ‘Canes are. When you’re facing a tough year, sometimes teams break down into factions, sometimes there’s support for coaches, there’s people against coaches, it can become a very contentious environment when you’re not winning. It’s easy to pull together and be a family when you’re winning. It’s tougher through the tough times, through the hard times and that’s something this team really used to do. They were winning and the world was crapping on them. They would lose, at the Fiesta Bowl, the world was crapping on them. You come off the loss of the Fiesta Bowl, which Jimmy Johnson tells us in his interview, was ‘the most devastating loss of his entire career’ college or professional and a lot of the players share that sentiment, if not most of them. They came off of that loss, which was devastating, they came back to the University of Miami, back to Coral Gables and Jimmy Johnson nearly resigned with the conflict he got into with President Tad Foote. Tad Foote tried to implement the code of student conduct for the players, the dress code, etc., the players would have none of it. Here they were with the entire nation’s media crapping all over them, and here was the President of the University, and he came to symbolize everything they were up against, because they weren’t even feeling the love on campus at home from their own administration. They pulled together and came out the following year and won a national championship. Again, with a brand new quarterback, Steve Walsh, in the 1987 season.

What has to happen is that the team needs to pull together as a family; I think this movie will actually help, to tell you the truth. I think the team should watch this movie and they should understand the modern tradition, modern legacy of this team. This is not a team steeped in hundreds of years of tradition. It is a modern tradition a modern legacy, it is something current players are very much part of, especially the players from Schnellenberger ‘s fabled “State of Miami,” you know these local recruits that Randy Shannon has so passionately pursued and I hope he continues to do so. Really, that’s what they have to do. What the team needs to do is watch this movie. They should watch it on a loop. They should play it in the locker room endlessly. They should just have to watch this movie over and over again to be reminded of who the Hurricane are, where they come from and what is expected of them. What is expected of them is by their coaches, by the former players, by their teammates, by their classmates, by the campus, by the administration, by the community, by the city of Miami and ‘Canes fans all over the world, is to win. That’s all, it’s pretty simple right, just to win. Nothing more is expected of them, right?

pC: What is your next project once you're done with ”The U?”
BC: Ha! Next project! We’re already neck deep in the next projects. We’ve got “Dawg Fight” about a ring of underground, backyard fighting in South Florida, in Perrine, specifically. Really intense story. We have a great trailer for it online. We’re working on Cocaine Cowboys 3 which is about “Los Muchachos”, the boys Louis Falcon and Sal Magluta the most successful and notorious Cuban cocaine smugglers in Miami, in the 1980’s. Cocaine Cowboys One really focused on the Columbians, now this is the Miami Cuban cocaine smuggling story. We are working on Square Grouper, which is kind of an unofficial prequel to Cocaine Cowboys which is about marijuana smuggling in Miami in the 1970’s, which is going to be amazing. It looks extraordinary. The stories are, you know, revelations. It’s more these characters like John Roberts and Mickey Munday and Griselda Blanco and Jorge “Rivi” Ayala. These people that nobody, or very few people have heard of, that are just going to knock your socks off. Interviews with people that are telling the stories, your jaws are going to be on the ground. What else are we working on? Ah yes, “Peter Gatien Project.” Now we’re working on a 90’s ecstasy movie, takes place in New York, around the nightclub scene and how the city of New York and the Feds cracked down on ecstasy and nightclubs in New York in an effort to clean up the city. They really made public enemies of the local nightclub owners of New York in an effort to get rid of ecstasy and clean up New York. Other than that nothing is going on! Of course I would love to do a sequel to “The U” about the 2001 team, we could call it “The U 2” or something like that.

We at proCanes.com would like to thank Billy Corben for being so gracious with his time to do this very insightful interview for our new feature "Tracking proCanes." Click here to check out our past interviews with Leon Searcy, Steve Walsh, Frank Costa, John Routh, Chad Wilson and more!

Check out a Behind the Scenes Q&A Session with Billy Corben, Director of “The U” Documentary which will air on ESPN on December 12. Stay tuned tomorrow for an exclusive interview proCanes.com had with Billy Corben. You will not want to miss it!

Did you know that a former Miami Hurricane/current proCane has scored at least one touchdown in 114 consecutive regular season NFL weeks? Dating back to Week 15 of the 2002 season where Clinton Portis scored 4 TDs, at least one proCane has scored a TD in each regular season week since then. We have chronicled every touchdown since 2002. See below:

Week 9 2009:
Greg Olsen - 3 TDs - Chicago Bears
Frank Gore - 1 TD - San Francisco 49ers
Kellen Winslow - 1 TD - Tampa Bay Buccaneers

Week 8 2009:
Frank Gore - 1 TD - San Francisco 49ers
Reggie Wayne - 1 TD - Indianapolis Colts

Week 7 2009:
Reggie Wayne - 1 TD - Indianapolis Colts
Brandon Meriweather - INT returned for a TD – New England Patriots
Devin Hester - 1 TD - Chicago Bears

Week 6 2009:
Jeremy Shockey - 1 TD - New Orleans Saints
Greg Olsen - 1 TD - Chicago Bears

Week 5 2009:
Clinton Portis - 2 TDs - Washington Redskins
Ed Reed - INT returned for a TD - Baltimore Ravens
Kellen Winslow - 2 TDs - Tampa Bay Buccaneers
Andre Johnson - 2 TDs - Houston Texans
Reggie Wayne - 1 TD - Indianapolis Colts

Week 4 2009:
Greg Olsen - 1 TD - Chicago Bears
Reggie Wayne - 1 TD - Indianapolis Colts
Willis McGahee - 2 TDs - Baltimore Ravens
Santana Moss - 1 TD - Washington Redskins

Week 3 2009:
Santana Moss - 1 TD - Washington Redskins
Willis McGahee - 2 TDs - Baltimore Ravens
Sinorice Moss - 1 TD - NY Giants
Devin Hester - 1 TD - Chicago Bears
Greg Olsen - 1 TD - Chicago Bears
Reggie Wayne - 1 TD - Indianapolis Colts

Week 2 2009:
Antrel Rolle - Blocked Field Goal Return for a TD - Arizona Cardinals
Andre Johnson - 2 TDs - Houston Texans
Willis McGahee - 2 TDs - Baltimore Ravens
Kellen Winslow - 1 TD - Tampa Bay Buccaneers
Frank Gore - 2 TDs - San Francisco 49ers
Bruce Johnson - 1 TD - New York Giants

Week 1 2009:
Willis McGahee - 2 TDs - Baltimore Ravens
Kellen Winslow - 1 TD - Tampa Bay Buccaneers
Reggie Wayne - 1 TD - Indianapolis Colts
Jeremy Shockey - 2 TDs - New Orleans Saints
Frank Gore - 1 TD - San Francisco 49ers
Devin Hester - 1 TD - Chicago Bears

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Did you know that a former Miami Hurricane/current proCane has scored at least one touchdown in 113 consecutive regular season NFL weeks? Dating back to Week 15 of the 2002 season where Clinton Portis scored 4 TDs, at least one proCane has scored a TD in each regular season week since then. We have chronicled every touchdown since 2002. See below:

Week 8 2009:
Frank Gore - 1 TD - San Francisco 49ers
Reggie Wayne - 1 TD - Indianapolis Colts

Week 7 2009:
Reggie Wayne - 1 TD - Indianapolis Colts
Brandon Meriweather - INT returned for a TD – New England Patriots
Devin Hester - 1 TD - Chicago Bears

Week 6 2009:
Jeremy Shockey - 1 TD - New Orleans Saints
Greg Olsen - 1 TD - Chicago Bears

Week 5 2009:
Clinton Portis - 2 TDs - Washington Redskins
Ed Reed - INT returned for a TD - Baltimore Ravens
Kellen Winslow - 2 TDs - Tampa Bay Buccaneers
Andre Johnson - 2 TDs - Houston Texans
Reggie Wayne - 1 TD - Indianapolis Colts

Week 4 2009:
Greg Olsen - 1 TD - Chicago Bears
Reggie Wayne - 1 TD - Indianapolis Colts
Willis McGahee - 2 TDs - Baltimore Ravens
Santana Moss - 1 TD - Washington Redskins

Week 3 2009:
Santana Moss - 1 TD - Washington Redskins
Willis McGahee - 2 TDs - Baltimore Ravens
Sinorice Moss - 1 TD - NY Giants
Devin Hester - 1 TD - Chicago Bears
Greg Olsen - 1 TD - Chicago Bears
Reggie Wayne - 1 TD - Indianapolis Colts

Week 2 2009:
Antrel Rolle - Blocked Field Goal Return for a TD - Arizona Cardinals
Andre Johnson - 2 TDs - Houston Texans
Willis McGahee - 2 TDs - Baltimore Ravens
Kellen Winslow - 1 TD - Tampa Bay Buccaneers
Frank Gore - 2 TDs - San Francisco 49ers
Bruce Johnson - 1 TD - New York Giants

Week 1 2009:
Willis McGahee - 2 TDs - Baltimore Ravens
Kellen Winslow - 1 TD - Tampa Bay Buccaneers
Reggie Wayne - 1 TD - Indianapolis Colts
Jeremy Shockey - 2 TDs - New Orleans Saints
Frank Gore - 1 TD - San Francisco 49ers
Devin Hester - 1 TD - Chicago Bears

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Andre Johnson: 6 catches for 63 yards

Vince Wilfork: NO GAME, Patriots Bye Week

Brandon Meriweather: NO GAME, Patriots Bye Week

Jeremy Shockey: Led the Saints with 4 catches 55 yards

Jonathan Vilma: 6 tackles, 5 solo tackles, 2 pass deflections

Santana Moss: NO GAME, Redskins Bye Week

Clinton Portis: NO GAME, Redskins Bye Week

Rocky McIntosh: NO GAME, Redskins Bye Week

Calais Campbell: 8 tackles, 6 solo tackles, .5 sack

Antrel Rolle: 4 tackles, 4 solo tackles

Edgerrin James: 6 carries, 17 yards

Kelly Jennings: 1 solo tackles, 1 pass deflection

Frank Gore: 13 carries 91 yards, 1 TD, 5 catches 43 yards

Kellen Winslow: NO GAME, Buccaneers Bye Week

Roscoe Parrish: DID NOT PLAY though he was active and listed as the 3rd string QB

Greg Olsen: 3 catches, 40 yards

Devin Hester: 7 catches, 81 yards, 4 punt returns 47 yards

Darrell McClover: 1 solo tackle

Willis McGahee: 2 carries -1 yard, 1 catch 4 yards

Ray Lewis: 7 tackles, 6 solo tackles

Ed Reed: 4 tackles, 3 solo tackles, tackle for loss, 1 forced fumble, 1 pass deflection

Tavares Gooden: 3 tackles, 2 solo tackles

DJ Williams: 11 tackles, 8 solo tackles, 2 tackles for loss

Sinorice Moss: did not record a reception

Jeff Feagles: 3 punts for 114 yards with a 38 yard average and 1 inside the 20-yard line

Bruce Johnson: 2 solo tackles, 1 sack

Reggie Wayne: 12 catches 147 yards 1 TD

Jon Beason: 11 tackles, 8 solo tackles and 1 pass deflection

Damione Lewis: 1 solo tackle

Phillip Buchanon: 5 solo tackles

Antonio Dixon: 2 solo tackles, 1 sack

Did you know that a former Miami Hurricane/current proCane has scored at least one touchdown in 112 consecutive regular season NFL weeks? Dating back to Week 15 of the 2002 season where Clinton Portis scored 4 TDs, at least one proCane has scored a TD in each regular season week since then. We have chronicled every touchdown since 2002. See below:

Week 7 2009:
Reggie Wayne - 1 TD - Indianapolis Colts
Brandon Meriweather - INT returned for a TD – New England Patriots
Devin Hester - 1 TD - Chicago Bears

Week 6 2009:
Jeremy Shockey - 1 TD - New Orleans Saints
Greg Olsen - 1 TD - Chicago Bears

Week 5 2009:
Clinton Portis - 2 TDs - Washington Redskins
Ed Reed - INT returned for a TD - Baltimore Ravens
Kellen Winslow - 2 TDs - Tampa Bay Buccaneers
Andre Johnson - 2 TDs - Houston Texans
Reggie Wayne - 1 TD - Indianapolis Colts

Week 4 2009:
Greg Olsen - 1 TD - Chicago Bears
Reggie Wayne - 1 TD - Indianapolis Colts
Willis McGahee - 2 TDs - Baltimore Ravens
Santana Moss - 1 TD - Washington Redskins

Week 3 2009:
Santana Moss - 1 TD - Washington Redskins
Willis McGahee - 2 TDs - Baltimore Ravens
Sinorice Moss - 1 TD - NY Giants
Devin Hester - 1 TD - Chicago Bears
Greg Olsen - 1 TD - Chicago Bears
Reggie Wayne - 1 TD - Indianapolis Colts

Week 2 2009:
Antrel Rolle - Blocked Field Goal Return for a TD - Arizona Cardinals
Andre Johnson - 2 TDs - Houston Texans
Willis McGahee - 2 TDs - Baltimore Ravens
Kellen Winslow - 1 TD - Tampa Bay Buccaneers
Frank Gore - 2 TDs - San Francisco 49ers
Bruce Johnson - 1 TD - New York Giants

Week 1 2009:
Willis McGahee - 2 TDs - Baltimore Ravens
Kellen Winslow - 1 TD - Tampa Bay Buccaneers
Reggie Wayne - 1 TD - Indianapolis Colts
Jeremy Shockey - 2 TDs - New Orleans Saints
Frank Gore - 1 TD - San Francisco 49ers
Devin Hester - 1 TD - Chicago Bears

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Check out the latest update to the 2009 NFL U Rosters. There is a new addition and some subtractions since our last update. You can also check out the MLB, and CFL rosters. Click here to see the proCane rosters.

Click here to see the episode at Canes4Life.com

Andre Johnson: 8 catches for 101 yards 2 TDs

Vince Wilfork: 5 tackles 4 solo tackles, 1 tackle for a loss

Brandon Meriweather: 6 solo tackles and 1 tackle for a loss

Jeremy Shockey: NO GAME, Saints Bye Week

Jonathan Vilma: NO GAME, Saints Bye Week

Santana Moss: 4 catches for 44 yards

Clinton Portis: 19 carries for 57 yards 1 TD, 2 catches 17 yards 1 TD

Rocky McIntosh: 6 tackles, 4 solo tackles 1 pass deflected

Calais Campbell: 2 solo tackles and 1 field goal block (second of the season)

Antrel Rolle: 8 tackles, 7 solo tackles and 1 pass deflection

Edgerrin James: 16 carries 46 yards, 1 catch for 7 yards

Kelly Jennings: 1 solo tackle, 1 pass deflection

Frank Gore: DID NOT PLAY due to ankle injury

Kellen Winslow: 9 catches 102 yards and 2 TDs

Roscoe Parrish: 3 punt returns for 7 yards and one fumble lost

Greg Olsen: NO GAME, Bears Bye Week

Devin Hester: NO GAME, Bears Bye Week

Darrell McClover: NO GAME, Bears Bye Week

Willis McGahee: 1 carry -1 yard, 1 catch 4 yards

Ray Lewis: 10 solo tackles, 2 pass deflections

Ed Reed: 6 solo tackles, 1 pass deflection and 1 interception returned 52 yards for a TD

Tavares Gooden: 5 solo tackles, 1 pass deflection

DJ Williams: 9 tackles, 8 solo tackles

Sinorice Moss: 7 punt returns for 48 yards, 2 kick returns for 19 yards, and 2 solo tackles

Jeff Feagles: 3 punts for 92 yards with all three landing inside the 20-yard line

Bruce Johnson: Played but did not record a tackle

Reggie Wayne: 6 catches 60 yards 1 TD

Jon Beason: 10 tackles, 8 solo tackles and 1 sack

Damione Lewis: 3 tackles, 2 solo tackles

Phillip Buchanon: 1 solo tackle

Antonio Dixon: 1 solo tackle

We’re almost a quarter of the way through the NFL regular season and proCanes.com will take a look at NFL U’s top performers, biggest disappointments, top plays and much more. Read below to get your 4-week NFL U recap.

Who has had the greatest impact overall? I think it has to be Reggie Wayne. Reggie is in his first season without Marvin Harrison. There were many people that doubted Reggie and whether he could shoulder the load of being the official #1 receiver and the double teams that come along with it. He has more than proved himself especially with the Colts having a rusher top 50 yards only once in their first 4 games (4 wins) and no true #2 receiver with the injury to Anthony Gonzalez. Yes Peyton Manning is the quarterback, and yes they have Dallas Clark and the up-and-coming Pierre Garcon, but Reggie Wayne’s one handed grabs and big plays have led the Colts and made it very difficult on opposing defenses. Wayne is averaging 15.3 yards per catch and is second in the league with 399 yards, only 12 yards behind the Giants’ Steve Smith with 8 fewer receptions. He is converting 80% of his receptions for 1st downs and has 21 first downs to his name. Look for Reggie to continue his fine play and go on to his 4th straight Pro Bowl.

Best plays so far?
Week 1 Bills @ Patriots: With less than 2 minutes left the Patriots had just scored a touchdown to cut the lead to 5 points. On the ensuing kickoff Leodis McKelvin returned the kick from out of his own end zone and was met at the 31-yard line by Brandon Meriweather who stood McKelvin up and stripped the ball. The Patriots recovered the fumble and scored a few plays later to take a 25-24 lead and win the game.

Week 2 Ravens @ Chargers: 4th and 2 the Chargers have the ball on the Baltimore 15 yard line with a little over 30 seconds to play with Baltimore leading by 5 points. Philip Rivers hands the ball off to Darren Sproles and low and behold Ray reads the play perfectly and drops Sproles for a 5-yard loss. Game over.

Week 2 Cardinals @ Jaguars: The Cardinals were leading 10-0 in the 2nd quarter when the Jaguars’ Josh Scobee lined up to attempt a 46-yard field goal. Scobee’s field goal was blocked by Calais Campbell and recovered by Antrel Rolle who caught the ball before it hit the ground at the 17-yard line and returned it 83 yards for a touchdown. The Cardinals went on to win 31-17.

Biggest Surprises:
Bruce Johnson: Bruce was supposed to be Miami’s only draft pick in the ’09 draft and ended up not being drafted and being picked up by the NY Giants in free agency. He impressed the Giants from the beginning and has played in each of the first four games recording a forced fumble, an interception for a touchdown, 3 pass deflections and 8 tackles. He’s become the regular nickel corner on the outside for the Giants and has really taken advantage of his opportunities. Click here to read our exclusive interview with Bruce: http://www.procanes.com/files/category-tracking-procanes.html

Willis McGahee: Willis lost his starting job to Ray Rice in the off-season but that seems to have added fuel to his fire. He showed up in better shape than he ever had in the past to training camp and has accepted his #2 role with grace while actually outperforming Rice leading to Willis starting the last game versus the Patriots. McGahee scored 2 TDs in each of his first 3 games and has 7 TDs total along with 201 yards rushing with a 5.4 yard per carry average. If he keeps this up, look for him to start some more games for the Ravens.

Starting to Heat up:
Santana Moss: In his first two games Santana had 5 receptions for 41 yards and no TDs. In his last two games he has had 12 receptions for 252 yards and 2 TDs. Look for him to be Campbell’s go-to-guy for the rest of the season and if he keeps this up he could even squeeze into the Pro Bowl.

Comeback Player:
Jeremy Shockey: Shockey was traded to the Saints last season to add another weapon to their high powered offense. Unfortunately, Shockey battled injuries all season and didn’t even record a TD. This season he has been a consistent threat for Drew Brees in the middle of the field recording at least 4 catches in each of the first 4 games along with 2 TDs. As long as he stays healthy, he will continue to excel in the Saints offense.

Biggest disappointments so far?
Greg Olsen: With Jay Cutler in his first year under center and a host of unknowns at WR for the Bears, Olsen figured to get a lot passes thrown his way, especially at the beginning of the season, but so far he has been very quiet. He has had two 1-catch performances and has only scored two touchdowns. If the Bears receivers continue to improve look for the middle of the field to open up a little for Greg which should result in some more touches.

Clinton Portis: Clinton isn’t playing badly, but I think everyone had high expectations for him this season. He has yet to break 100 yards in a game and he has also yet to score a TD. He is averaging 3.9 yards a carry despite the Redskins offense being abysmal, but I expected him to carry more of the load and reach the end zone. He has also been battling injuries which have slowed him down, but he is supposed to be the leader of that offense.

Tavares Gooden: Many think Tavares will eventually replace Ray Lewis as the Ravens’ MLB when Ray retires and because of that, there were high expectations going into this season. He was supposed to make the Ravens forget about Bart Scott but unfortunately Tavares has only recorded 7 tackles in 3 games and did not play in the Ravens’ last game versus the Patriots because he was still feeling the effects of a concussion from the previous week. Look for him to pick it up, or he could be replaced permanently.

Phillip Buchanon: Phillip was signed in the off-season by the Lions to be one of their starting corners and to say he has been a disappointment would be an understatement. He did not play in the first game because of a very last minute scratch that seemed to irritate the coaching staff and in his last two games he hasn’t shown up on the stat sheet and has been beaten out for the starting spot by Will James.

Who Can Book A Ticket to Miami for the Pro Bowl?
Frank Gore: If Gore can make a healthy return in 2 weeks and play like he did before his injury he should be a lock.
Ray Lewis: Ray is the leader emotionally and physically of the Ravens defense, and each week makes big plays. He’s a lock.
Andre Johnson: If it weren’t for Matt Schaub and the Texans offense being so inconsistent, Andre Johnson would be getting a lot more publicity, but regardless he’s the best receiver in the league and shows it each week.
Reggie Wayne: No Marvin Harrison, no problem. We knew Reggie Wayne was unofficially the #1 receiver for the Colts the last couple of seasons, but now there is no question. He is Manning’s go-to-guy and without a doubt one of the top 3 receivers in the league.

Top 3 leading rushers:
Clinton Portis: 281 yards, 0 TDs rushing
Frank Gore: 241 yards, 3 TDs in 3 games
Willis McGahee: 201 yards, 5 TDs

Top 5 receivers: Reggie Wayne: 26 catches, 399 Yards, 3 TDs
Andre Johnson: 20 catches, 336 yards, 2 TDs
Jeremy Shockey: 18 Catches, 162 yards, 2 TDs
Santana Moss: 17 catches, 293 yards, 2 TDs
Devin Hester: 14 catches, 189 yards, 2 TDs

Top Tacklers: Ray Lewis: 35 tackles
Jon Beason: 21 tackles, 1 sack and 1 interception
DJ Williams: 31 tackles and 1 sack
Rocky McIntosh: 24 tackles and 2 forced fumbles

Most TDs: Willis McGahee: 7 TDs
Reggie Wayne: 3 TDs

Click here to see the episode at Canes4Life.com

Check out Week 4 photos from around the the NFL of our proCanes. Click here to see the photos.

Check out Week 3 photos from around the the NFL of our proCanes. Click here to see the photos.

Andre Johnson: 4 catches for 86 yards

Vince Wilfork: 2 tackles 1 solo tackle, 1 tackle for a loss and 1 pass deflected before being injured in the second quarter

Brandon Meriweather: 7 tackles, 3 solo tackles

Jeremy Shockey: 6 catches for 48 yards.

Jonathan Vilma: 5 tackles, 4 solo tackles

Santana Moss: 10 catches for 178 yards 1 TD

Clinton Portis: 12 carries for 42 yards

Rocky McIntosh: 7 tackles, 5 solo tackles 1 tackle for a loss

Calais Campbell: 4 tackles, 3 solo tackles

Antrel Rolle: 7 solo tackles and 1 interception returned 26 yards

Edgerrin James: 4 carries 7 yards

Kelly Jennings: 2 tackles, 2 solo tackles

Frank Gore: 1 carry, 4 yards. Gore left the game after one carry with an ankle strain

Kellen Winslow: 3 catches 14 yards

Roscoe Parrish: 1 catch for 5 yards and 3 punt returns for -1 yards

Greg Olsen: 5 catches for 44 yards 1 TD

Devin Hester: 5 catches for 76 yards 1TD (the winning TD) and 1 punt return for 9 yards

Willis McGahee: 7 carries for 67 yards 2 TDs

Ray Lewis: 3 solo tackles

Ed Reed: 2 tackles, 1 solo tackle, 1 pass deflection and 1 interception returned 9 yards.

Tavares Gooden: 3 solo tackles

DJ Williams: 7 solo tackles and 2 tackles for loss

Sinorice Moss: 1 catch for 18 yards and 1 TD, 1 punt return for 7 yards

Jeff Feagles: 4 punts for 200 yards with a long of 56 yards

Bruce Johnson: 3 solo tackles and 1 pass deflection

Reggie Wayne: 7 catches 126 yards 1 TD

Jon Beason: 11 tackles, 10 solo tackles, 1 tackle for a loss, 1 sack

Damione Lewis: 2 tackles, 1 solo tackle

Phillip Buchanon: Did not play due to injury

Jon Beason: Six solo tackles

Damione Lewis: 2 solo tackles, 1 tackle for a loss

Phillip Buchanon: 5 tackle, 4 solo tackles

Andre Johnson: 10 catches for 149 yards and 2 TDs including a 72-yard touchdown

Vince Wilfork: 6 solo tackles

Brandon Meriweather: 4 tackles, 2 solo tackles and 1 tackle for a loss

Jeremy Shockey: 4 catches for 49 yards.

Jonathan Vilma: 7 tackles, 5 solo tackles

Santana Moss: 3 catches for 35 yards

Clinton Portis: 19 carries for 79 yards

Rocky McIntosh: 5 tackles, 4 solo tackles

Calais Campbell: 1 tackle and .5 sack and one blocked fieldgoal

Antrel Rolle: 4 solo tackles and 1 blocked field goal returned 83 yards for a TD

Edgerrin James: 2 ruches 6 yards

Kelly Jennings: 4 tackles, 3 solo tackles

Frank Gore: 16 carries, 207 yards and 2 TDs and 5 catches for 39 yards

Kellen Winslow: 7 catches 90 yards 1 TD

Roscoe Parrish: 1 rush for 9 yards and 3 punt returns for 15 yards

Greg Olsen: 3 catches for 41 yards

Devin Hester: 4 catches for 21 yards and 2 punt returns for 14 yards

Willis McGahee: 15 rushes for 79 yards 2 TDs and 2 catches for 10 yards

Ray Lewis: The second Ravens player on our list, Ray Lewis may have had two of the most important plays of the game against San Diego. First, Lewis blitzed and pressured San Diego QB Philip Rivers, causing an interception. Second, on a 4th and short in the final minutes of the game, the Chargers tried to send Darren Sproles up the middle. Lewis sniffed the play out, tackling Sproles in the backfield as soon as he got the handoff. Ray finished the game with 10 tackles and a forced fumble.

Ed Reed: 1 solo tackle

DJ Williams: 5 solo tackles and 1 pass deflection.

Sinorice Moss: 4 kickoff returns for 90 yards

Kenny Phillips: Phillips had an outstanding game against the Dallas Cowboys, recording 5 tackles and two interceptions. One of Phillips interceptions came off the heel of Jason Witten and was returned for a touchdown. The problem is, the refs called it an incomplete pass and blew the whistle. Upon review, the pick counted, but the touchdown didn’t. The Giants won with a last minute field goal.

Bruce Johnson: 1 tackle and 1 interception returned 34 yards for a TD

Antonio Dixon: 1 solo tackle

We present our annual (well, I think we did it last year) Sweet 16 list of the best current NFL players from the University of Miami.

No shortage of choices. This marks the fourth consecutive season the Hurricanes have led or tied for the league lead in most ex's. Twenty-one of 32 teams have at least one Cane, with the Ravens, Texans and Giants leading with four each.

UM's 39 total active players as of this week leads the state parade over Florida State (28), Florida (27), Central Florida (14), South Florida (5), Bethune-Cookman (3), FIU (1 -- Ravens backup OLB Antwan Barnes) and Central Florida CC (1).

Our ranking:

• 1. Ed Reed, Ravens FS: Has 43 career picks including NFL-leading nine in '08, when he made fifth Pro Bowl and fourth first-team All-Pro.

• 2. Andre Johnson, Texans WR: Had 115 catches for 1,557 yards last year to make third Pro Bowl and first All-Pro.

• 3. Ray Lewis, Ravens ILB: Past his prime? Really? He made his 10th Pro Bowl and sixth first-team All-Pro in 2008, and once again led the league in scowling.

• 4. Reggie Wayne, Colts WR: Facing Dolphins Monday night, Wayne made third Pro Bowl last year, had fifth consecutive 1,000-yard season and began 2009 season with 10 catches for 162 yards and one TD.

• 5. Clinton Portis, Redskins RB: Made second Pro Bowl last year and has six 1,000s in seven years entering this season.

• 6. Frank Gore, 49ers RB: Had third straight 1,000-yard season last year and scored twice in opener last week.

• 7. Devin Hester, Bears WR/returner: Had 11 kick- or punt-return TDs his first two years before tailing off with none last season.

• 8. Jon Beason, Panthers MLB: Rising star was first-team All-Pro in '08 and had an interception last week.

• 9. Vince Wilfork, Patriots NT: Run-stopping force made Pro Bowl in 2007.

• 10. Jeremy Shockey, Saints TE: Had two TD catches last week; aims for first Pro Bowl since 2006.

• 11. Willis McGahee, Ravens RB: Solid veteran no longer starts but proved worth with rushing and receiving touchdowns in last week's opener.

• 12. Santana Moss, Redskins WR: Had his third 1,000-yard season last year.

• 13. Kellen Winslow, Bucs TE: Made '07 Pro Bowl and scored a TD last week.

• 14. Jonathan Vilma, Saints MLB: Made Pro Bowl in '05 and had a sack last week.

• 15. Edgerrin James, Seahawks RB: Sentimental nod for career achievement. Edge is a backup near end of career now, but has seven 1K seasons, four Pro Bowls.

• 16. Jeff Feagles, Giants P: Sentimental nod II. The 22-year veteran is NFL's all-time leader in most punts and punting yardage.

• Other former Hurricanes who start: Lions CB Phillip Buchanon, Cardinals DE Calais Campbell, Dolphins RT Vernon Carey, Ravens ILB Tavares Gooden, Panthers DT Damione Lewis, Redskins OLB Rocky McIntosh, Vikings LT Bryant McKinnie, Patriots SS Brandon Meriweather, Texans C Chris Myers, Bears TE Greg Olsen, Giants SS Kenny Phillips, Cardinals FS Antrel Rolle, Broncos ILB D.J. Williams, Texans RT Eric Winston.

• Former Canes who are backups: Falcons OLB Spencer Adkins, Texans RT Rashad Butler, Eagles DT Antonio Dixon, Lions DT Orien Harris, Seahawks CB Kelly Jennings, Giants CB Bruce Johnson, Giants WR Sinorice Moss, Bills WR Roscoe Parrish, Falcons C Brett Romberg.



(miamiherald.com)

The ACC can claim 259 spots on NFL rosters this season, led by 41 from Miami.

Even if you subtract the 34 Miami, Virginia Tech and Boston College players who never took a snap in the ACC, that's still a healthy number of professionals flowing from the conference.

Why that doesn't translate to national success for the ACC arguably can be attributed to the quality of coaching and the positions of the talent. There are 42 ACC linebackers in the NFL, and 25 tackles, but only eight quarterbacks (and three of those were pre-expansion).

Miami's total actually shrunk by five players this year, but the 'Canes expanded their lead over Florida State to a net of 11. The Seminoles, while still second in the conference, dropped from 39 to 30 players who are either on an active 53-man NFL roster, listed as injured reserve or under league suspension. The breakdown by school:



Among the interesting notes:

Five ACC quarterbacks start in the NFL. Even if you rightfully count Boston College's Matt Hasselbeck in the Big East's total, the ACC's four starters – N.C. State's Philip Rivers (San Diego), Virginia's Matt Schaub (Houston), Maryland's Shaun Hill (San Francisco) and Boston College's Matt Ryan (Atlanta) – compare favorably with those from the SEC (six, with those blasted Manning boys skewing the curve), Pac-10 (five, including three from Southern California) and the Big Ten (four).

Surprisingly, the Big 12, the so-called conference of quarterbacks which has produced three Heisman-winning quarterbacks this decade, does not have a single starter this year.

The pipeline from Florida State to the NFL has sprung a leak. The Seminoles had an ACC-best 45 alumni in the NFL in 2006, one more than Miami, but has subsequently dropped to 43 (in '07), then 39 last season and 30 today.
The 'Noles have seen stalwarts such as linebacker Derrick Brooks, running back Warrick Dunn, defensive tackle Corey Simon and quarterback Brad Johnson leave the NFL in the past three years, while adding only two players – DE Everette Brown and WR Michael Ray Garvin – to this rookie crop.

It's no coincidence that FSU's record has fallen with less NFL-caliber talent on campus.

The list of 259 NFL players from the ACC breaks down this way: 129 on defense, 118 on offense and 12 on special teams. Linebacker (42) is the most populated position, followed by receiver (28), tackle (25) and safety (24).

There are almost as many long-snappers (six) as quarterbacks.

On offense, 47 of the 118 players' primary role is to block, while 21 of the 71 skill-position players came through Miami, Virginia Tech and Boston College before they joined the ACC, which again accentuates some of the ACC's competition problems. They've got the plumbers, but not the playmakers.

North Carolina wins the race of the Carolinas with 24 pros. Take away the Tar Heels' two long-snappers, and they still beat N.C. State (19), Wake Forest (14), Clemson (14) and Duke (3).

Incredibly, Mack Brown left UNC in 1997 but recruited nine of UNC's current NFLers.

This rookie class appears cursed. Five of them begin the season on injured reserve and three, N.C. State tailback Andre Brown (N.Y. Giants), Wake Forest safety Chip Vaughn (New Orleans) and Wake Forest linebacker Stanley Arnoux (New Orleans) are out for the season.

Brown tore his Achilles' tendon early in August training camp, and Vaughn suffered a knee injury in training camp. They both had longer seasons than Arnoux, who tore his Achilles' tendon in May, on the first day of rookie mini-camp.

Being injured is not all bad. NFL teams aren't allowed to cut players on injured reserve, so as long as they're on IR, they're collecting an NFL paycheck (as opposed to the five-digit deals for the practice-squad players).

Three feel-good stories from the list of 259:

N.C State kicker Steven Hauschka (Baltimore): It's a long way from Middlebury College's neuroscience program to the NFL, but Hauschka made it. Hauschka finished his undergraduate career at Middlebury in Vermont, then followed Tom O'Brien from Boston College to N.C. State, where he kicked one season (2007) for the Wolfpack. After getting cut by Minnesota, he found a spot on Baltimore's practice squad and eventually on the main roster as the kickoff and long field-goal specialist. He beat out Florida State's Graham Gano in training camp for the full-time gig with the Ravens this season.

Virginia linebacker Isaiah Ekejiuba (Oakland): The Nigerian enters his fifth NFL season as special-teams specialist, not bad for someone who skipped high school football and who was a walk-on at Virginia.

Miami tight end Buck Ortega (New Orleans): An accomplished high school quarterback, Ortega switched to tight end at Miami, only to be stuck behind Kellen Winslow and Greg Olsen. He found a niche on special teams with the Saints, after three different practice-squad stops.



(charlottebserver.com)

CUTS:

Baraka Atkins: DL, Seattle Seahawks

Tanard Davis: DB, Tennessee Titans

William Joseph: DL, Oakland Raiders: Joseph was initially given a roster spot but was cut the following day with the Raiders trading for the Patriots Richard Seymour.

Darrell McClover: LB, Chicago Bears

Santonio Thomas: DL, Cleveland Browns

CUT, BUT MADE A PRACTICE SQUAD:

Brock Berlin: QB, cut by the St. Louis Rams, signed to the Detroit Lions Practice Squad.

Kareem Brown: TE, cut by the NY Jets, signed to the NY Giants Practice Squad.

Darnell Jenkins: WR, cut by the Houston Texans, signed to the Houston Texans Practice Squad.

Lance Leggett: WR, cut by the Cleveland Browns, signed to the Cleveland Browns Practice Squad.

Glenn Sharpe: DB, cut by the Atlanta Falcons, signed to the Atlanta Falcons Practice Squad.

WHO JUST MADE IT?

Spencer Adkins: LB, Atlanta Falcons: Adkins got the call over NFL vet Jamie Winborn who had performed pretty well in the preseason. Adkins probably made it over Winborn for special teams reasons.

Antonio Dixon: DL. Antonio was cut by the Washington Redskins, but was immediately signed by the Philadelphia Eagles roster taking the spot vacated by Quarterback AJ Feeley. .

Orien Harris: DL, Detroit Lions: Orien hadn’t made much noise since the Lions acquired him in trade with the St. Louis Rams for WR Ronald Curry, however on Thursday, he led all lineman with four tackles and a sack.
Not a world-beating performance, but the Lions don’t see a lot of sacks out of their interior linemen.

Bruce Johnson: DB, NY Giants: The Giants waived their seventh round draft pick, CB Stoney Woodson, who reportedly suffered a high ankle sprain.  He was later joined on the waiver wire by fellow corner and draft pick DeAndre Wright, the Giants' sixth rounder this year, who was beaten out by rookie free agent CB Bruce Johnson for a roster spot.

Buck Ortega: TE, New Orleans Saints: The injury to Billy Miller made it a lot easier for Ortega to make the team though he was a member last year and played valuable minutes toward the end of the season.

Throughout the 1980s, Miami, Fla., was at the center of a racial and cultural shift taking place throughout the country. Overwhelmed by riots and tensions, Miami was a city in flux, and the University of Miami football team served as a microcosm for this evolution. The image of the predominantly white university was forever changed when coach Howard Schnellenberger scoured some of the toughest ghettos in Florida to recruit mostly black players for his team. With a newly branded swagger, inspired and fueled by the quickly growing local Miami hip hop culture, these Hurricanes took on larger-than-life personalities and won four national titles between 1983 and 1991. Filmmaker Billy Corben, a Miami native and University of Miami alum, will tell the story of how these "Bad Boys" of football changed the attitude of the game they played, and how this serene campus was transformed into "The U."

“The U “ will premiere on ESPN immediately following the Heisman Trophy ceremony.

Thanks to a legion of NFL stars, Miami has developed the reputation as "NFL U" in most circles. It's a widely accepted fact that the school has produced the best collection of running backs, tight ends, linebackers and safeties in the last generation.

And the program didn't mind using that in its recruiting pitch, but in recent years that approach has backfired. A few weeks ago, I chatted with UM safety Randy Phillips, one of the leaders of the team, and he mentioned that so many players there -- too many players -- had an attitude that college was just about getting ready for The League.

"In the past we had a lot of guys who were just trying to be 'three-and-out,'" Phillips said. "We've had to get that [attitude] away from the program. I mean, you gotta get your degree. You gotta be coachable. You gotta be a man. We just wanna win. It was great when people were using [the NFL hook] for recruiting, but when you get here, you just can't have that mindframe."



(espn.com)

The affable and outspoken broadcast major, Laron Byrd, wears the No. 47 of former UM great Michael Irvin, and regularly watches old film of him with the Cowboys and UM. This summer he has been under the tutelage of NFL stars and UM alums such as Ravens safety Ed Reed and Colts receiver Reggie Wayne. The latter two grew up in the New Orleans area, also home to Byrd.

Byrd said Reed told him, `` `Don't embarrass Louisiana.' The second thing he'll say is when you represent Miami you represent them right. Take every play like it's your last, because you never know. . . .

``Reggie was like, `You've got to represent the receiver spot right. Every time you run a route, run it full speed. Always expect that the ball is going to come to you.'

``I've seen a lot of guys, like Andre [Johnson]. I'm trying to work hard to be his size. The Andres, the Reggie Waynes, the Ed Reeds, the Phillip Buchanons, the Antrel Rolles. A lot of guys roll in and out [of UM], and for me it's motivation.''



(miamiherald.com)

Find static stretching to be stale? Freshen up your flexibility routine with a tennis ball drill, courtesy of Andreu Swasey, University of Miami football strength and conditioning coach.

This drill enhances elasticity. To perform it correctly, Swasey says, “you’ve got to be able to bend at the hips, and be fluid and flexible.” Furthermore, it works your first-step quickness because you react off what you see—just like in a game.

The current crop of ’Cane superstars use this drill every day to stretch their lower bodies before or after activity.
What you need: Two tennis balls, a hard surface [e.g., gym floor], coach, teammates

Setup: Behind line on floor, get in 40-yard dash or position-specific stance // Teammate assumes same stance an arm’s length to your left or right // Coach stands five yards in front of you with arms raised at sides, holding tennis ball in each hand

• When coach simultaneously drops balls straight down, explode out of stance and retrieve ball in your “lane” • Bend at hips to catch ball • Sprint 5 to 10 yards after catch

Sets/Rest: 3-6/30-45 seconds between drops

Note: Drill can be performed solo, but competing against teammates spices it up and builds camaraderie
Coaching Points: Stay low when shooting off the line // Always keep back flat and low // Maintain a straight angle to ball // Don’t reach or dive for tennis ball

Benefits: Recruits hip and lower-body flexibility // Develops quickness and explosion off the line // Enhances hand-eye coordination // Forces you to react by sight instead of sound or cadence.



(mkrob.com)

ESPN's Todd McShay said Darryl Sharpton and Jason Fox enter 2009 as UM's highest-rated seniors (''third- or fourth-round grades''). One NFC scout said the player he's most excited to see is junior Graig Cooper -- ``good lower body, with power and speed.'' . . . Another NFC scout said sophomore Jacory Harris ''has a better feel for the game'' than Purdue/former Canes quarterback Robert Marve, who became teary-eyed when he visited former UM teammates recently at Lucky Strikes. (Purdue is hooking up Marve with Drew Brees.)



(miamiherald.com)

Rocky Mcintosh, Leon Williams, Kellen Winslow and Kenny Dorsey.


Ken Dorsey’s wife (left) Kellen Winslow’s wife (center white).

Funniest player: The NFL doesn't really have an answer to Charles Barkley, although Clinton Portis had a nice run a few years ago when he came up with several alter egos. Let's give it to one of Portis' teammates, tight end Chris Cooley. Occasionally he crosses the line (accidentally publishing a picture of his manhood on The Cooley Zone blog), but he's consistently funny. Still love that he walked out to midfield a couple of years ago and introduced himself to the opposing captains as "Captain Chaos." There's not enough of that type stuff going around.



(espn.com)

17. Willis McGahee: He thinks of himself as a superstar back, but so far he's nowhere close. In five seasons, McGahee has never ranked higher than eighth in the NFL in rushing yardage or 14th in DYAR. He's also had very poor receiving numbers. Last year, for example, McGahee's 24 receptions included four that actually lost yardage and two others on third-and-eight plays that each came up six yards short of the sticks.



(espn.com)

Returner, Devin Hester: Hester's impact has been relatively brief but nonetheless historic. He set an NFL record for touchdown returns during a season in both 2006 and 2007, and his total of 11 over that span ranks him fourth all-time in the NFL.

You could make an argument for the consistency of Dante Hall, who returned 12 kicks for scores while playing for Kansas City and St. Louis from 2000 to 2007. When the Bears made Hester a full-time receiver last year, his production as a returner evaporated.

But most of the observers we spoke with suggested Hester made a superior impact on games during the two years he was a full-time returner. From squib kicks to intentionally punting out of bounds, opponents went to great lengths to keep the ball out of his hands.

At the end of the 2007 season, Hester was averaging a touchdown for every 13.8 returns. He was also the second player in NFL history to surpass 500 yards in both kickoff and punt returns in consecutive seasons.

The Bears have removed Hester from kickoff returns but he is expected to remain their primary punt returner in 2009. In either event, from 2006 to 2007, Hester altered games like no other returner in league history.

To see the rest of the rankings click here!



(espn.com)

7. Ray Lewis: Lewis is the top-rated linebacker of this decade with a Super Bowl victory and seven Pro Bowls since 2000. But No. 9 still seems a little low for the future Hall of Famer and one of the most dominant defenders ever to play the game. (JW)

12. Ed Reed: In a decade when mostly hard-hitting safeties ruled the NFL, Reed brought "ball-hawking" back to the position. His hands, anticipation and knack for the spectacular play are as good as any safety in NFL history. (JW)

Click here to see the rest of the rankings.



(espn.com)

4. Andre Johnson, WR, Texans: He's big, strong and corners can't handle him in single coverage. If Schaub stays healthy, his numbers should be huge.

12. Ed Reed, S, Ravens: He isn't the big hitter some of the other safeties can be, but he's the best playmaker of them all. And he's a willing tackler.

27. Reggie Wayne, WR, Colts: He has been the Colts' go-to guy the past two seasons and with Marvin Harrison gone, there isn't a doubt. He's undervalued by most.

37. Clinton Portis, RB, Redskins: He just keeps on putting up huge numbers. Hard to believe he's only 27.

43. Vince Wilfork, NT, Patriots: Over the past two seasons, he has developed into a top nose tackle. He is entering a contract year, so look for a big one.

Just missed: Ray Lewis, LB, Ravens; Jon Beason, LB, Panthers;

To see the rest of the rankings click here!



(cbssports.com)

Check out our new NFL U Family Wallpaper featuring Clinton Portis and Santana Moss. Click here to download our NFLU Family Wallpaper and many other ones or click above on proCanes Wallpapers. Enjoy and stay tuned to more wallpapers in the near future.

Arkansas Twisters: OL/DL Vegas Franklin 6'2 240

Corpus Christi Sharks Roster: OL/DL, Adrian Wilson 6'3 305

Stockton Lightning: WR/LB, Carl Walker 6'3 215

Peoria Pirates: OL/DL, Brad Kunz, 6'7 315

Florida Firecats: WR, Magic Benton 6' 1" 205

Former Whitney Young star Russell Maryland is teaming together with Bears tight end Greg Olsen to support a scholarship fundraiser for their school--the University of Miami.

Maryland will be honored at a dinner May 28 at the Metropolitan Club at Sears Tower in the 11th annual Chicago Scholarship Classic. Olsen is scheduled to appear along with Miami head coach Randy Shannon, other members of his staff and Pro Football Hall of Fame member Ted Hendricks. The event will be emceed by Bryan Dolgin of WMVP AM-1000. He is a 1997 graduate of the school. A golf outing will follow May 29 at Oakbrook Country Club in Oak Brook at 1 p.m.

For more information and tickets visit www.chicago-canes.org.

(suntimes.com)

Pick 14 Jim Kelly  |  QB, Bills, 1983
The Bills drafted him in the great QB class of '83 but had to wait until '86 to get him, since he took a detour to the USFL. But when Kelly arrived in Buffalo, he was the consummate leader, taking the Bills to four Super Bowls.

Pick 24 Ed Reed  |  S, Ravens, 2002
Reed is almost unanimously considered one of the best defensive backs of the decade. He has been selected to five Pro Bowls and twice led the league in interceptions. He was named the 2004 Defensive Player of the Year and holds the record for the longest interception return in NFL history (108 yards in 2008). Reed was the fourth defensive back chosen in '02.

Pick 26 Ray Lewis  |  LB, Ravens, 1996
He has been the centerpiece of one of the greatest defenses in NFL history and five times led the league in tackles. A 10-time Pro Bowler and two-time Defensive Player of the Year, Lewis is known for his vocal leadership and his outstanding speed to the ball. Steelers' offensive lineman Alan Faneca would have been a good pick in this spot as well, but Lewis' astonishing resume of awards and decorations gives him the edge.

Pick 30 Reggie Wayne  |  WR, Colts, 2001
Since 2004, Reggie Wayne has become one of the most prolific and consistent receivers in the NFL, which is why he gets the slight nod over Titans' linebacker Keith Bullock. In the past five seasons, Wayne has logged over 75 receptions, 1,000 yards and five touchdowns five times while not missing a single game and being named to three Pro Bowls. Wayne played a pivotal role in the Colts' 2006 Super Bowl run and usurped Marvin Harrison as Peyton's No. 1 receiver when Harrison went down with an injury in 2007.

(cnnsi.com)

University of Miami football great Gino Torretta had two of his biggest thrills Thursday in New York, as he was named one of the newest members of the College Football Hall of Fame and then got to officially open the NASDAQ stock market in Times Square.

Torretta, 38, is a former quarterback who led the Hurricanes to the 1991 national championship and won the Heisman Trophy -- college football's most coveted award -- in 1992. He is one of UM's most decorated football players, having won in 1992 the Maxwell Award (best overall player), Davey O'Brien Award (top quarterback) and Unitas Award (top senior quarterback). He also was a consensus All-American that year.

At 9:30 a.m. Thursday, Torretta -- flanked by National Football Foundation & College Hall of Fame president and CEO Steve Hatchell and NASDAQ senior vice president Bob McCooey -- rang the NASDAQ stock market's opening bell in New York.

''It's a great honor to be here and to represent the University of Miami being the fourth inductee into the College Football Hall of Fame,'' Torretta said moments before signaling the start of the NASDAQ trading. ``Hopefully we have a few more in years to come.

``I want to thank all my teammates, my family and obviously all the coaches I had from Pop Warner all the way up. Thank you.''

Torretta finished his Miami career with 11 school passing records. He threw for 7,690 yards from 1989 through 1992. He lives in Coral Gables with his wife and 4-year-old daughter. He is the CEO of Touchdown Radio, a company that syndicates a college football game every week for national radio. He also is vice president for Institutional Sales with Gabelli Asset Management.

''It's pretty awesome,'' he said by phone after opening the market. ``Obviously with my background in finance, to ring the bell for NASDAQ is a pretty neat experience. You remember all your hard work over so many years. I've gotten some text messages from friends and family and [UM] president [Donna] Shalala called to congratulate me a few minutes after they rang the bell.''

UM head football coach Randy Shannon said in a statement released on the Hurricanes' website, ``This is a great honor for Gino. He contributed so much to the University of Miami football program as a student-athlete. He was a Heisman Trophy winner and a member of our 1989 and 1991 National Champion teams. He's one of the great players in Hurricane football history, and we appreciate The National Football Foundation & College Hall of Fame for recognizing him.''

The other UM players in the College Football Hall of Fame are running back Don Bosseler, defensive end Ted Hendricks and safety Bennie Blades. Former UM coaches Jack Harding and Andy Gustafson also are in the college Hall.

In addition to Torretta, the other new Hall players announced Thursday live on ESPNEWS television: Pervis Atkins, HB, New Mexico State (1958-60); Tim Brown, WR, Notre Dame (1984-87); Chuck Cecil, DB, Arizona (1984-87); Ed Dyas, FB, Auburn (1958-60); Major Harris, QB, West Virginia (1987-89); Gordon Hudson, TE, Brigham Young (1980-83); William Lewis, C, Harvard (1892-93); Woodrow Lowe, LB, Alabama (1972-75); Ken Margerum, WR, Stanford (1977-80); Steve McMichael, DT, Texas (1976-79); Chris Spielman, LB, Ohio State (1984-87); Larry Station, LB, Iowa (1982-85); Pat Swilling, DE, Georgia Tech (1982-85); Curt Warner, RB, Penn State (1979-82); and Grant Wistrom, DE, Nebraska (1994-97).

The new coaches announced Thursday were Dick MacPherson of Massachusetts and Syracuse; and John Robinson of Southern Cal and Nevada-Las Vegas.

Last November, Torretta also became one of five UM football greats announced as the newest members of the Ring of Honor during halftime of the game against Virginia Tech.

(miamiherald.com)

Some fans of proCanes.com asked us whether we had a copy of the “Unrestricted” magazine cover from the 2008 College Football season which featured the 7 University of Miami freshmen from Miami Northwestern. We kept a copy of the magazine and have posted the cover along with an inside spread for all of you to see. Click on the images below to enlarge them.

Signings among undrafted Canes: Antonio Dixon (Redskins), Bruce Johnson (Giants), Dwayne Hendricks (Giants). Tryouts this weekend: Chris Rutledge (Dolphins), Chris Zellner (Bucs), Anthony Reddick (Bears), Kayne Farquharson (Saints).


(miamiherald.com)

I think Michael Cunningham, "The Hater," went a little soft on the Hurricanes recent slide from relevance. The BIG problem at the U is talent development. It's not getting done anymore, on either side of the ball. Let's hope new offensive coordinator Mark Whipple, who is rented from the NFL (he's going back when Bill Cowher finally takes a coaching job) can save the program, and Randy Shannon's job.

I know for a fact players go to Miami because it WAS the best pipeline to the NFL. When the pipe's shut off, and I think it has unless Eric Moncur, Colin McCarthy, Darryl Sharpton, Jason Fox, Javarris James, Graig Cooper, Dedrick Epps and Randy Phillips really turn it on next season, there will be no reason for prospects to look in UM's direction.

A LOT of programs have better facilities. Everyone is on TV these days. And if you have talent the NFL will find you, even at Coastal Carolina. The Hurricanes have to get back to coaching up their players. There once was a day when I watched players make drastic improvements from season to season, and it never stopped. Why doesn't that happen anymore? Bruce Johnson and Spencer Adkins, two Hurricanes that might be late-round picks on Sunday, are the same players they were their freshman year.

(sun-sentinel.com)

NEW YORK — Once the nation's foremost football factory, the University of Miami barely got a mention during this year's NFL draft.

The U's streak of 14 years with at least one first-round draft pick was snapped Saturday. Then Sunday came, and just how far the Hurricanes' talent-level has fallen since Butch Davis left for the NFL and handed the program to Larry Coker in 2001 was magnified.

The first and only Miami player drafted went in the sixth round. Linebacker Spencer Adkins was taken 176th overall by the Atlanta Falcons.

In fact, Miami, Ohio, had just as many players selected this year.

The previous time no Miami player was taken in the opening three rounds was 1986. For the record, the last time no Hurricanes were drafted was 1974.

Miami has gone 19-19 over the past three seasons.

Perennial doormat Temple even had a player taken before Miami. Defensive tackle Terrance Knighton was selected in the third round by Jacksonville.

In fact, the first Temple Owls player came off the board before anyone from Michigan (defensive tackle Terrance Taylor to Indianapolis with the 136th overall pick), Nebraska (linebacker Cody Glenn to Washington with the 158th overall pick), Notre Dame (defensive back David Bruton to Denver with the 114th overall pick) and Virginia Tech (cornerback Victor Harris to Philadelphia with the 157th overall pick).

As for Miami, its record-setting run started in 1995 with star defensive tackle Warren Sapp taken by Tampa Bay. The list of All-Pros and Pro Bowl players from Miami over the last two decades is staggering. A sampling: Ray Lewis, Ed Reed, Edgerrin James, Reggie Wayne, Santana Moss, Willis McGahee, Jon Vilma and Sean Taylor.

In all, 33 Miami players - including an NFL-record six in 2004 alone - were taken in the first round of drafts since 1995, by far the most of any school. The second-longest current streak of first-round selections is six years by LSU.
Until Miami's string came along, Florida held the record of first-round selections with nine consecutive drafts (1983-1991).

Prospects are good for a turnaround for Miami. Coach Randy Shannon has had highly rated recruiting classes the past two seasons, but in many ways this draft could be viewed as rock bottom for the once great program.

(ap.com)

HOLLYWOOD Notice the dateline. It says Hollywood. Not Miami Beach, or wherever super-agent Drew Rosenhaus would host the draft party for a University of Miami NFL hopeful.

No, Hollywood is my residence, the UM media headquarters for the NFL Draft. Times have changed for UM football as well as for those who cover the team. Time was, this day was intense as covering the Rose Bowl or National Signing Day. I spoke today with Omar Kelly and Andrea Adelson, the two previous UM beat writers for the Sun Sentinel.

They covered the team during the glory years. The Draft was a time when they spent weeks planning coverage, deciding which players to follow. Adelson hung at Dan Morgan's house during the 2001 Draft. She also covered it in 2002 where five `Canes were taken in the first round, calling the experience "nuts."

"In 2002, I was in the office basically from the start of the draft, which was noon back then, to 10 or 11 at night," Adelson said. "...But it was a lot of sitting around, then scrambling to make calls and get guys on the phone before they took flights out to their new teams."

The only call I made today involving athletics was to my 6-year-old nephew, so he could tell me more about his T-ball debut. He went 2-for-3, and expressed his disappointment of the game not being televised.

Omar (I won't refer to him as Kelly because he's reached one-word status with most of you) said his days were spent at some draft party while also hustling on the phone to catch up with the draft picks. The day was almost the equivalent of covering a Rose Bowl or National Signing Day in terms of workload. Now, it's become more like a day off. 

Today came and went without a single UM player selected, ending the school's NFL-record streak of 14 years with a first-round draft pick. My day consisted of losing two basketball games at L.A. Fitness, running a few errands, making some turkey Sloppy Joe's and watching a few episodes of Beverly Hills 90210 (Brandon Walsh cheated on his exam).

Hardly the expected draft-day experience for someone who covers a team many used to call an NFL football factory. 

"It's real disappointing to see what's happened to the program, and not all of the blame belongs on the players" Omar said. "It's not always their fault they didn't develop."

Covering Miami the last two years has been like having a conversation with your grandfather. You know,the ones that begin, "Back when I was your age ..." Miami used to be Quarterback U. Used to be Running Back U. Used to NFL U.

Now, it's more like Remember When U.

The positive is the blocks are in place for the start of a new streak. Players such as Sean Spence, LaRon Byrd and Marcus Forston are already way ahead of the game. In time, the `Canes should be making their way back toward the top of college football and  wearing their fancy suits and baseball caps once again for Draft Day on ESPN.

(sun-sentinel.com)

Mike Mayock is connected in NFL Draft circles, so when he talks about the topic it's not the uninformed ramblings of some guy who threw up a Web site and called himself an expert.

Mayock covered college football for years as a TV reporter and analyst and now is a draft guru for NFL.com. His opinions are based on studying game film, observing pro days, taking in All-Star games, breaking down the Combine and constantly talking to NFL scouts.

So with the Miami Hurricanes' celebrated record streak of 14 straight seasons with at least one player selected in the draft's first round set to end Saturday, Mayock is qualified to relate what NFL personnel types are saying about UM's program now that it's not spitting out pro prospects.

"I think what they say is that things are cyclical," he said. "USC is the place now that Miami used to be as far as star power on pro day."

That won't satisfy many Hurricanes supporters, a group never known for patience. They want simple, clear-cut reasons for the program's decline because simple, clear-cut reasons can be dealt with more easily.

They tend to think UM's problems are all about coaching and recruiting. Because then restoring UM's glory would be as straightforward as finding a new coach.

They don't want to accept that it's just UM's turn in the valley after so long at the peak and that it will take time to get back. They may not even care to listen to Butch Davis, the coach for UM's last resurgence, when he says he had no instant solution but benefited from a long process.

"Miami in its heyday, that was the byproduct of 18 years of a program building and growing and adding players to the program every single year," Davis said.

UM did it so well that NFL scouts flocked to Coral Gables annually to salivate over the latest batch of stars. Other programs copied the formula, though, and Mayock thinks that's part of UM's dilemma.

"In the last 10 years it's amazing how many colleges are recruiting in the state of Florida," Mayock said.

Whatever Randy Shannon's faults, he's still protecting UM's turf. Shannon's Miami-Dade-dominated 2008 class is the future and perhaps more stars come from that group.

But right now cornerback Bruce Johnson is the only Hurricane projected to be drafted at all this weekend, and that's a maybe.

"He's going to go late if he goes at all," Mayock said.

How did the 'Canes go from first-rounders every year to one marginal NFL prospect this year?

On the surface, at least, the perception that Larry Coker and Shannon botched it has some basis. From '02 until the '05 class that produced '08 first-round pick Kenny Phillips, there were eight UM prep prospects that Rivals.com rated as "can't miss" five-star players.

Five ended up as disappointments if not busts for UM: Ryan Moore, Willie Williams, Kyle Wright, Lance Leggett and Reggie Youngblood.

Did Coker and Shannon, like every other coach, misjudge their talent? Did suspect recruiting analysts overrate those kids or did they just not get the right college coaching?

Again, there's no simple explanation, though Davis had one interesting angle on UM's coaching. He said his NFL background and that of Howard Schnellenberger and Jimmy Johnson before him nurtured a pro-style philosophy of "position-specific" projections for prospects.

Coker and Shannon don't have NFL coaching backgrounds. Of course, maybe they just didn't sign enough players with the self-motivated makeup of UM's past stars.

"God blessed [those players] with athletic ability but they also had a tremendous amount of competitiveness and work ethic to push themselves to become great players," Davis said. "There was more to [evaluating] than just getting 40-yard dash [times] on guys."

And there's more to the end of UM's NFL Draft streak than poor recruiting and coaching, no matter how much frustrated 'Canes fans want to believe otherwise.

(sun-sentinel.com)

When former Hurricanes tackle Mike Sullivan got the phone call from a woman who told him he would be inducted into the University of Miami Sports Hall of Fame, he didn't believe her.

So Sullivan did what any skeptic with jokester UM buddies would do. He googled Jodi Appelbaum-Steinbauer -- the Hall president and woman who identified herself as the caller.

''I had just spoken to some UM guys I hadn't heard from in a while,'' said Sullivan, the San Diego Chargers offensive line coach. ``Then I got the call from Jodi. I thought it was a locker-room-type prank because it was just too much of a coincidence. I was happy to find that Jodi is well-represented on the Internet as being legitimate.''

UM's other newest Hall of Famers to be inducted Thursday night at Jungle Island:
• NFL star Edgerrin James.
• Sunrise Piper High graduate and Olympic runner Davian Clarke.
• Miami Northwestern grad and former Miami Heat player Tim James.
• Retired LPGA Tour member Cathy Morse.
• South Miami Middle School teacher and former major-leaguer Warren Bogle.

Baltimore Orioles slugger Aubrey Huff, already inducted into this class before a UM baseball game, will not attend. Tim James is in Texas training for the Army and will be represented by former UM football player Duane Starks.

Arizona Cardinals running back Edgerrin James, second in UM history with 2,960 yards in three seasons, will be at the ceremony with a heavy heart. Longtime girlfriend Andia Denise Wilson, the mother of his four children, died April 14 of leukemia. James declined to speak before Thursday's event.

Among those in attendance: former UM pitcher and power hitter Bogle, who lettered at UM in 1966 and '67. He left the Hurricanes with a .329 batting average and .523 slugging percentage.

The first Hurricane to make it to the majors, Bogle was drafted in the fourth round of the '67 Major League Baseball secondary draft by the then-Kansas City Athletics, now the Oakland Athletics. A relief pitcher for one summer, Bogle made his first and only major-league start at Yankee Stadium on July 31, 1968.

''When Jodi Steinbauer came into school at the end of the day with her daughter and told me about making it to the UM Hall of Fame, I got pretty choked up,'' said Bogle, 62, about to retire from teaching at South Miami after 36 years. ``It's a great honor to be recognized by any institution, but especially the University of Miami.

``I don't mind showing emotion. It proves to people that you're human.''

OLYMPIC RUNNER
At times during his UM career, Clarke, now 33, seemed super human. The two-time NCAA national champion 400-meter runner became the first -- and still only -- UM male track and field athlete to win an NCAA individual title. He did it outdoors as a sophomore in 45.29 seconds. That summer, he went on to win a bronze medal for the Jamaican 1,600-meter relay team at the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta.

''After 400 meters,'' Clarke told The Miami Herald after winning the NCAA title, ``your body is in agony. Your legs are like lead weights that refuse to walk. Your head starts pounding. And the dizziness makes you stumble like a drunk looking for a place to vomit.''

Today, Clarke lives in Austin, where he is training to become a University of Texas police officer.

''I wouldn't trade my UM experience for anything,'' said Clarke, a three-time Olympian and gold medalist in the 1,600-meter relay at the 2004 indoor world championships. He has been married 10 years to Jamaican Olympic hurdler Lacena Golding-Clarke.

Sullivan, the offensive lineman, is a Chicago native whose greatest personal moment at UM -- despite winning national titles in 1987 and '89 -- was defeating Notre Dame 24-0 in the Orange Bowl as a redshirt freshman. Sullivan's parents were from Ireland, and his extended family idolized the Fighting Irish.

''The championships were great, he said, but beating Notre Dame was amazing,'' he said.

RELIABLE PLAYER
Sullivan started every game for four years, the first UM player to do so. Known as one of the smartest Canes, he was drafted in the sixth round in 1991 by Dallas Cowboys coach Jimmy Johnson, his first UM coach, and played another five seasons for Tampa Bay. Today, he coaches with San Diego assistant head coach Rob Chudzinski, a former UM player, offensive coordinator and roommate of ''Sully's'' for three years.

''As I look back on my career, my life's path,'' Sullivan, 41, said, ``it has been the people from the University of Miami football program who have steered every single avenue I've taken. . . . I was telling my wife that they made an emphasis on having a short acceptance speech. I have a slight reputation, if someone gives me a microphone, to talk a bit. They underlined in bold face three to four minutes. I can triple that.''

Chudzinski can't make the ceremony because of this weekend's NFL Draft. But he said his heart will be with the UM ``brotherhood.''

''I miss those times,'' Chudzinski said. ''Mike was a great, incredibly tough player,'' adding that Sullivan also was ``a neat freak. If anyone left crumbs or an unwashed plate around, you'd end up finding them on your bed.''
Said fellow UM Hall of Famer Randal Hill: ``Mike is very animated, very intelligent and very deserving.''

(miamiherald.com)

The streak lasted so long that during its span, Warren Sapp crafted a Hall of Fame-caliber professional career, retired, finished a season on “Dancing With the Stars” and began a second career as an analyst on the NFL Network.

It wound through so many generations of football players that Sapp stumps people with a trivia question: who was the highest-drafted University of Miami player the year before the streak started? (Running back Donnell Bennett, second round in 1994, by Kansas City.)

The streak has hung on for so many years that when Sapp spoke to Kenny Phillips, who saved the streak when the Giants chose him with the final pick in the first round last year, he welcomed him to an extraordinary Hurricanes club.

“I said, ‘Way to keep the streak going,’ ” Sapp recalled recently. “It’s a common bond with someone who is 13 years removed from me.”

Sapp and Phillips are the bookends of a singular period of Miami football dominance: at least one Hurricanes player has been selected in the first round in 14 consecutive N.F.L. drafts. But Miami’s fortunes on the recruiting trail and the football field have suffered in recent years — no national championships since the 2001 season, and a losing season in 2007.

Even if Miami’s absence from college football’s loftiest ranks is just temporary, as most recruiting experts and N.F.L. personnel executives believe, it will take its toll this month. The streak — and one of the Hurricanes’ favorite trash-talk fodder — will almost surely end. When the college draft begins April 25, cornerback Bruce Johnson could be the only Hurricane drafted, and probably not before the fourth round. Years of the draft being colored in orange and green will fade to black.

“My streak ends,” Sapp said, sighing. “It’s something we took immense pride in.”

Still, with the dispersal of talent to more colleges than ever — players from football lesser lights like Troy (Leodis McKelvin), Delaware (Joe Flacco) and Tennessee State (Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie) were selected in the first round last year — Sapp may not have to worry about Miami’s record being matched. Elias Sports Bureau found Louisiana State has the next-longest current streak of first-rounders (five). Recruiting powers like Southern California (one) and Florida (two) are well off Miami’s pace.

And it is unlikely that any program will touch Miami’s mind-boggling run early this decade, when it had four first-rounders in 2001, five in 2002, four in 2003 and an N.F.L.-record six in 2004.

Miami nearly scuttled football in the 1970s, and it still fails to sell out games against anybody but its biggest rivals. But Howard Schnellenberger, the coach who revived the program in the 1980s, laid the groundwork for the streak by eschewing most out-of-state recruiting and mining talent-rich South and Central Florida.
From those areas came Michael Irvin, Bennie Blades, Jerome Brown, Ray Lewis, Phillips and Sapp. All were first-rounders. Schnellenberger started a slogan: “Pipeline to the pros.”

“We caught all kinds of flak,” Schnellenberger, now the coach at Florida Atlantic, said. “The university hierarchy thought it was guff because it was emphasizing pro football as an end to the means.”

Without the lavish facilities and tradition of Texas and Michigan, Schnellenberger encouraged a culture that emphasized college and regional pride, binding the players to the campus and to one another. Its most obvious manifestation is that players, even deep into their pro careers, still return to Coral Gables to work out in the off-season.

With one coach after another leaving for pro jobs (Schnellenberger, Jimmy Johnson, Dennis Erickson and Butch Davis), those players provided continuity at Miami, filling, Schnellenberger said, the institutional role that coaches like Joe Paterno and Bobby Bowden do at Penn State and Florida State.

The pros provided a powerful recruiting pitch on national television when they stood on the sideline at Miami games. And once the prospects came to Miami, the pros helped prepare them for their next step. When Sapp was there, Russell Maryland and Brown showed up. When Phillips was a freshman, he worked out with safety Ed Reed and running back Edgerrin James, both first-rounders.

When Ernie Accorsi, the former general manager of the Giants, visited the campus, Alonzo Highsmith, Micheal Barrow and Jessie Armstead were working out with Miami players.

“They give you tips — they teach you how to watch film,” Phillips said. “It does a lot for a guy who is 18 years old. My junior year, Ed said: ‘The way is paved for you. All you have to do is play.’ ”

Sapp and Phillips credit the influence of former Hurricanes for fostering sustained excellence.

“We were not going to bend those standards,” Sapp said.

Accorsi saw the not-so-subtle pressure up close when he went to campus to “box” the players (teams used a battery-powered reaction box to test quickness, explosion and change of direction). It was so hot that the dry-cell battery melted. Two players found a store that sold the hard-to-find battery. The test was on.

“They were going to make sure we were able to test them, a test players generally would duck, but not them,” Accorsi said. “Then they competed against each other like it was an Olympic trial. All the players put pressure on each other, current and past, to be relentless competitors.

But just as the decrepit Orange Bowl stadium crumbled a few years ago, so did Miami’s supremacy. There are many theories why Miami did not produce a top pro prospect this year. Schnellenberger says coaches tried to recruit too much nationally, forsaking their backyard. He also notes that Miami’s decline has coincided with a failure to find a top-flight quarterback.

And as bowl games and cable channels showing college games have proliferated, more teams play on national TV. That has helped put lower-profile teams on the recruiting map. On national signing day in February, Miami Pace defensive back Kayvon Webster, who had committed to Miami, signed with South Florida.

Tom Luginbill, the national recruiting director for ESPN’s Scouts Inc., says Miami’s recruiting dip started after the 2003 season. For years, Miami had its pick in South Florida. But then Florida, Florida State, South Florida and others in the Southeastern Conference and the Atlantic Coast Conference began plucking their share.

“They just weren’t getting the same caliber of player as they had gotten before,” Luginbill said. “I don’t attribute it to anything other than maybe they had a little dip in effort, but more than anything else, streaks come to an end.”

Larry Coker, fired as coach after the 2006 season, has been blamed for what is perceived as lackluster recruiting. He won the national title in 2001, his first season after replacing Davis, and the Hurricanes lost to Ohio State in the title game the next season. Then the slow slide began.

“The overall talent in South Florida wasn’t as good as it has been as far as really great talent,” said Coker, the coach for the new football program at the University of Texas at San Antonio. “The key for Miami is always the talent level in South Florida. When I left, I think there was good talent. Were there six first-round draft choices? Obviously not, but the talent was good.”

The recruiting analyst Tom Lemming says he suspects Coker’s efforts were also hampered when Miami moved to the A.C.C., from the Big East, in 2004.

“They dominated everything before that, and they had trouble after that,” Lemming said. “They helped elevate the rest of the A.C.C. They started losing more than they did. Miami would still be Miami if they’d stayed in the Big East.”

But everyone agrees that Florida Coach Urban Meyer has hurt Miami the most. Meyer arrived in Gainesville in 2005, and the Gators have won two national championships since. They play in a raucous stadium and on national TV. That has helped Meyer make inroads into what had been Miami recruiting territory. He has in turn elevated the rest of the SEC.

The most startling example of how things have changed: Bryce Brown, a running back from Wichita, Kan., considered by many the top recruit this year, committed to Miami last year but continued to visit other colleges. In February, he signed with Tennessee — even though his older brother plays for Miami.

Sapp was outraged by Brown’s about-face — “What an idiot,” he said — but Lemming blames something else.
“It’s no longer the place to be,” Lemming said of Miami. “Now, U.S.C. is the place to be.”

Maybe, but perhaps not for long. When he replaced Coker two years ago, Coach Randy Shannon adopted Schnellenberger’s strategy of recruiting in South Florida. In 2008, more than half of his class of 33 signees was from the area, and it finished near the top of nearly every recruiting class ranking. This year’s class ranked as high as 11th, landing 6 of the top 150 recruits, according to ESPN.com rankings.

“They have some good young guys,” Baltimore Ravens General Manager Ozzie Newsome said. “They’ll be back.”

He should know. Newsome’s hand is all over the streak — the Ravens drafted Lewis and Reed.

(nytimes.com)

This story appeared in the April 20 issue of ESPN The Magazine.

After finishing his final 40-yard dash attempt, Miami cornerback Bruce Johnson lets his momentum carry him to the far end of the Hurricanes' practice field. There, in the shadow of a parking garage, he glances back at the school's pro day setup. What he sees are the unmistakable signs of the end of an era. Aluminum bleachers, once bulging with 100 scouts reeking of rental-car living, are not even half full on this late-February afternoon. The large section roped off for agents contains only seven people, four of whom are university employees. In the nearly deserted area behind the end zone—which most years overflows with family, friends and students—a woman with her back to the field talks on her cell about her cousin's canine-allergy medication. The VIPs, once a who's who of NFL royalty, are limited to a pair of big-name former Canes: Panthers linebacker Jon Beason and Cardinals running back Edgerrin James, who wrapped Johnson in a hug before the day began and implored him to "represent the U."

As Miami's best pro prospect, Johnson, 22, does in fact perfectly embody the state of the Hurricanes, who have gone 12—13 since 2007. Undersized (5'9") and a step slow (40 time: 4.42), the soft-spoken Johnson is ranked as the draft's 25th-best corner by Scouts Inc. and will likely be a late-round pick. That means that for the first time since 1994, the program dubbed NFLU won't have a player taken in the first round, ending a streak that changed both college and pro football. The last year a Hurricane wasn't selected in one of the first three rounds? Try 1986. "I guess it's kind of a sad day," Johnson says after his workout.

In many ways, Miami is a victim of its own success—it became so good at producing NFL players that everyone stole the school's formula. Dennis Erickson, who took over for Jimmy Johnson, cranked up the pipeline while winning national titles in 1989 and 1991. The coach wooed players to his program by promising what they really wanted: a paved path to the pros. Unlike most college teams then, Miami became NFL-friendly, giving scouts ample access to game film, prospects and facilities.

That open attitude most noticeably manifested itself in a souped-up pro day that had the intensity of a bowl game and the star power of South Beach. While the Canes performed the same drills and underwent the same measurements as prospects elsewhere, they did them in front of stands packed with family, recruits and ex-players. The day was a can't-miss event rather than an obligatory exercise. Allured by the hoopla and wealth of talent, all 32 NFL teams sent their GM, their coach or often both, and a few dispatched up to seven scouts. "It was like a festival, a celebration," says Titans GM Mike Reinfeldt. "You knew there'd be so many good players you might discover someone you weren't even looking for."

The results are staggering. Over the past 14 years, Miami produced more first-round picks (33) than any other school, beginning with defensive tackle Warren Sapp, who went 12th overall to the Bucs in 1995. (Ohio State ranks second, with 25 over the same period.) The following year, picking 26th, the Ravens selected Ray Lewis. The pipeline reached its peak after the Hurricanes won the 2001 national championship. Over the next three drafts, 23 players from the title team were selected, including 11 in the first round. It was a group of players—featuring safety Ed Reed, wide receiver Andre Johnson and running back Clinton Portis—who set new standards for speed, attitude and pro-level preparedness. "You knew what you were going to get with a player from Miami," says Giants GM Jerry Reese. "Tough guys who played hard and loved football."

There are whispers in the scouting community, punctuated by Vince Young's breakdown in Tennessee, that players at many high-profile programs are coddled, soft and illprepared for the next level. That was never a concern with the Hurricanes, and it's one reason why no school had more players on NFL opening day rosters last year than NFLU (44). Under Miami's system—one that Reed has called The Crucible—hardened players from rough urban high schools are pushed to the limit, not just by coaches and teammates but by past generations of greats. In the main hallway inside the team's facility is a massive wood display that has the feel of an altar, honoring all the former Canes now playing in the NFL. Many of those alums, like Reed and Portis, work out at the school during the off-season and make a habit of staying in touch and mentoring the current Canes with tough love. Word is passed down that there are no promises or guaranteed roster spots at the U. Each week the best play—period.

Few players represent the self-perpetuating, competitive furnace better than Saints tight end Jeremy Shockey. As a Cane, if he ever felt practice lacked proper pop, he'd run downfield and cheap-shot a defensive back, sparking a brawl. Drafted 14th overall by the Giants in 2002, Shockey pushed himself hard in order to live up to predecessor Bubba Franks (taken 14th by the Packers in 2000), while setting a good example for Kellen Winslow (sixth by the Browns in 2004). "That's why we're NFLU," says Johnson. "If you don't make plays, they will sit you, forget you and move on to the next guy, just like in the NFL."

Of course, as Johnson has discovered, the scouting game is just as ruthless. As Miami waned, so did interest in its players. The burnout started when coach Butch Davis took his scouting smarts to the NFL after the 2000 season. Although successor Larry Coker led the team to title games in 2001 and 2002, he ultimately couldn't restock his ranks quickly enough to keep up with all those Canes going pro. By the time the team fell out of the national rankings four years later, several key components of its can't-miss recruiting formula were no more. The crumbling Orange Bowl no longer impressed prospects; the school instituted much tougher admissions standards; a focus on national recruiting cost the Canes their monopoly on talent-rich South Florida. Perhaps most critical of all, there's nothing unique about Miami's pro day or scout-friendliness now. It's the standard. "The playing field leveled," says Lions coach Jim Schwartz.

That's made Miami an optional stop, not a must-see, on the scouting calendar. Only a dozen or so teams showed up for this year's pro day, including reps from the Lions, Giants and Titans, all of whom have shown interest in Johnson. Even late in the draft, a prospect from NFLU is a worthy choice.

And Johnson, even at 167 pounds, represents what teams are looking for in a second-day pick. He plays with fluid hips that allow him to change direction and accelerate with power in the open field, where he craves contact. "That's the dog in me," he says. "That fight, that's the U right there."Sitting on a high-jump pad, Johnson slowly unties the fluorescent-green cleats he wore during his workout. As is the Miami tradition, he plans on passing the shoes to a younger teammate, maybe even one of the recruits in the Hurricanes' freshman or sophomore class, who are expected to restart the school's first-round streak in 2011 or sooner. Finally, it appears, third-year coach Randy Shannon is turning the program back around.

A linebacker on Miami's 1987 title team, Shannon has put together three straight top-10 recruiting hauls the Erickson way, by focusing on local talent. In fact, eight members of the 2008 class, widely considered the nation's best, played for prep power Northwestern High, located just a few miles from Miami's campus. "The future is bright," Miami AD Kirby Hocutt said in January.

In the meantime, it's up to Johnson to represent. As he stuffs the cleats into his bag, students walking past on their way to class recognize him and yell out, "Bruuuuuuuce!"

He waves back, but without looking up. Instead, his eyes remain fixated on the tongue of the neon cleats, labeled by the manufacturer with a 40 time—4.2—that he'll never come close to running. Not that it matters.

Teams already know what they're going to get.

(espn.com)

Having attended just about every University of Miami spring game for the past 20 plus years, I have had the opportunity to watch the way the Hurricanes have always commanded the respect of high school football players -- locally and throughout Florida.

While a 12-13 record is never something you want to showcase to your recruits, the reputation that follows this program is as easy as picking up a pro football magazine on the shelf of the local supermarket. Last Saturday, I found out that it makes little difference what the Hurricanes have done in the immediate past, it's what has gone on here since the late 1970s and early 80s that brings kids in from as far away as New Jersey and as close as Miami and Fort Lauderdale.

While I have always had the answer to why football recruits pay little or no attention to the record of the Hurricanes, it's those alumni that might hold the key. Watching an Alonzo Highsmith, Jon Vilma, Ed Reed or Leon Searcy on the sideline, mixing with 18-, 19- and 20-year-olds is something you rarely see any place else in the country.

IT'S ALL CLEAR WHY
As I sat in the stands last Saturday watching the the Hurricanes play in front of just about 10,000 fans at Lockhart Stadium, it all came into focus why they attract throngs of high profile players to come watch. It's something that doesn't exist when 90,000 fans pack into Tuscaloosa for an Alabama spring event. It's not present when the Florida Gators bring in 55,000 to Ben Hill Griffin Stadium or when Ohio State gets 60,000 to come into the Horseshoe in the middle of April.

As I watched Lamar Thomas trot back and forth with Danny Stubbs, Dave Heffernan and others along the sideline, it reinforced that the past of this program is so strong, and the mystique is still so vivid, having a Brandon Linder, Jeff Luc, Lamarcus Joyner, Ivan McCartney, Jakhari Gore and James White in attendance was a given.

Whether many recruits are looking at Miami as an option or not, it's that attraction -- like a strong magnet -- that pulls these budding stars in the direction of the University of Miami football program, and it's not likely to change as this program is certainly on the verge of producing more stars who will only add to that mystique and aura that four decades of winning and churning out professional talent brings.

To see a Vinnie Mauro, Mike Anderson, Mike Palardy, Turner Baty, David Perry, Tommy Heffernan, Brandon Doughty and Justin Birkenholz in the stands, watching the spring game only adds to the lists that have been in attendance throughout the years to be a part of that tradition and take part in something that Miami has been known for during the past 35 years.

Perhaps no program in the nation boasts more players returning to give back than the ''U'' does. That is something that was started back with Michael Irvin and the Blades brothers and has continued.

GIVING BACK TO UM
Much of the talk at a post game party last Saturday afternoon at Miami Prime Grill in North Miami Beach centered around the very fact that Miami players have always given back. That event, put on by 790 The Ticket, truly backed that up.

From Joe Mira to Don Soldinger, Art Kehoe, Gerard Daphnes, Twan Russell, Bobby Harden, Eddie Edwards, Wesley Carroll, Don Smith, Willie Smith, Kenny Calhoun, K.C. Jones, James Burgess, Melvin Bratton, Yatil Green, Ryan Collins, Chuck Hirschenson, Anthony Hamlett, Kelvin Harris, Duane Starkes, Carlos Huerta, Edgar Benes, Don Bailey Jr. and Donnell Bennett, these standouts came out to show how special the program has been through the years.

It's little surprise why Brian Robinson, Tony Grimes, Keion Payne, Max Belieau, Desmond Bozeman, Gideon Ajagbe, Reginald Moore, Alec Ogletree and Louis Nix were on hand as well!

Don't forget that we are always looking to help our area recruits for the current Class of 2010, 2011 and 2012. All you have to do is send a DVD and information about the athlete to: Larry Blustein, P.O. Box 3181, Hallandale Beach, Fl. 33009.

(miamiherald.com)

NORTH MYRTLE BEACH, S.C. (AP) -- He was a star football player in college, a champion pro football coach, a baseball president, a man with a short temper and very long resume, never averse to tackling something new.

Nobody has ever done it quite like Lou Saban, who died early Sunday at his home in North Myrtle Beach, S.C., at age 87. He had heart problems for years and recently suffered a fall that required hospitalization, his wife, Joyce, said.

"He was an original," she said. "He was one of a kind."

There was a reason Saban was dubbed "Much Traveled Lou." In the first 33 years of a career that spanned five decades, Saban held 18 jobs, an average of 1.83 years per stop. Among those jobs was president of the New York Yankees from 1981-82 for his longtime friend, team owner George Steinbrenner.

"He has been my friend and mentor for over 50 years, and one of the people who helped shape my life," Steinbrenner, who was receivers coach under Saban at Northwestern University in 1955, said in a statement. "Lou was tough and disciplined, and he earned all the respect and recognition that came his way. He spent a lifetime leading, teaching and inspiring, and took great satisfaction in making the lives around him better. This is a tremendous loss to me personally."

Louis Henry Saban, a son of Yugoslav immigrants, was born in Brookfield, Ill., in 1921, was an underground construction worker during the building of the Chicago subways and a 1940 graduate of Lyons Township High School.

He became a star quarterback and linebacker at Indiana University and an all-league linebacker for the Cleveland Browns from 1946-49.

In 1950, Saban accepted the first of his many head coaching positions -- at Case Institute of Technology in Cleveland. Five years later, he took over at Northwestern for two years, then moved to Western Illinois University before embarking on an unmatched head coaching career.
It included stops with the Boston Patriots and Buffalo Bills of the old American Football League and Denver Broncos and Bills after the AFL merged with the NFL in 1970, along with college jobs at Miami, Army, Northwestern and Maryland.

"The entire Bills organization is deeply saddened to learn of the passing of Lou Saban," the team said in a statement. "Talented, enthusiastic and colorful, Coach Saban's style of coaching left an indelible mark on the AFL and professional football."

Saban joined the Patriots in 1960 when the AFL started.

"As the Patriots' first head coach, Lou helped kick off a new era of football in Boston," Patriots chairman and CEO Robert Kraft said in a statement. "This season, we will be celebrating the Patriots' 50th anniversary and reflecting back on that inaugural season. It should give us all cause to appreciate Lou's many contributions during the Patriots' formative years."

Saban left for the Bills in 1962, guiding them to AFL championships in 1964 and 1965, the only titles the Bills have ever won. He quit for a job with the Broncos because of difficulties with owner Ralph Wilson.

Six years later, at the urging of Steinbrenner, Wilson rehired Saban, and he again was successful, overseeing O.J. Simpson's record-breaking, 2,003-yard rushing season in 1973 and getting the Bills to the NFL playoffs the next season. Saban left again after some of his responsibilities were taken away.

"He was like a father to me," former Bills defensive back Booker Edgerson said. "He steered me in the right direction. He gave me advice. Some of it, I didn't like, but isn't that what a father does?"

Edgerson, who also played for Saban at Western Illinois and with the Broncos, said he last saw Saban in October at a Western Illinois banquet honoring the veteran coach.

"Lou Saban was a great teacher," Edgerson said. "He knew how to build football programs. He could have built any program -- football, baseball, basketball, whatever. Even though his patience was short-tempered, he allowed players to let out their anxieties and frustrations."

After quitting the Bills midseason in 1976, Saban spent two years as athletic director at Miami, where he recruited future Buffalo quarterback Jim Kelly.

He earned his peripatetic nickname as he skipped from job to job, coaching Army in 1979 and then becoming athletic director at Miami. Among the entries on his resume -- AD at the University of Cincinnati -- for 19 days. Saban left that job at halftime of an early-season game against Ohio University.

Saban also coached at Central Florida in 1983-84 when it was a struggling Division II school and coached high schools in the late 1980s nd in the Arena Football League in 1994.

Saban spent most of the 1990s starting or rebuilding college programs at places like Peru State, Canton Tech and Alfred State, where he left before the team played its first game.
"I've coached at all levels, covered the gamut, and I've never really seen any difference," Saban said after being hired to coach Alfred in upstate New York in 1994. "My coaching techniques are pretty much the same, with some adjustments for what younger players can and can't do."

Saban spent five years at Canton Tech in northern New York, where the football stadium bears his name, before leaving after the 2000 season. In one of his last jobs, he coached Division III Chowan State in North Carolina, leaving in 2002 after the team went 0-10.

Despite all his travels, Saban was a loser in every major college head coaching job he had, and despite his achievements at Buffalo, he was a loser in the pros, too. His pro mark: 96-102-7.

(ap.com)

Former UM offensive line coach and Cane player Art Kehoe, who has had a part in all five national championships won by the Hurricanes, will be honored by his peers as part of festivities at the first annual Spring Game Alumni After Party March 28 at Miami Prime Grill in North Miami Beach.
Kehoe, 52, will be presented with the first Canes 4 Life Lifetime Dedication Award, which is being sponsored by CaneSport.com.

The event, which is being presented by the alumni group Canes 4 Life, CaneSport.com, 790 The Ticket and Miami Prime, will be held from 1-6 p.m. at Miami Prime, which is located at 16395 Biscayne Blvd. in North Miami Beach.

Admission is free, and there will be food and beverages, music, Canes Merchanise by All Canes, a Canes trading card show, autograph signings, kids zone and more.

A special edition of the CaneSport Live Radio Show will be broadcast live on-site from 4-6 p.m.

The goal is to make the event an annual celebration of the Hurricane family.

Among the players who have RSVP's to attend are Mike Adams (1975), OJ Anderson (1975), Jessie Armstead (1989), Andy Atrio (1995), Tolbert Bain (1984), Don Bailey (1979), Rudy Barber (1990), Tolbert Bain (1984), Robert Bass (1991) Coleman Bell (1990), Edgar Benes (1987), Donnell Bennett (1991), Kenny Berry (1987), Brian Blades (1984), Bennie Blades (1985), Dominic Brandy (1967), Melvin Bratton (1984), Kevin Brinkworth (1991), Nate Brooks (1995), Freeman Brown (1994), Hurlie Brown (1988), James Burgess (1993), Dinavin Bythwood (1992), Mark Caesar (1989), Lamont Cain (1994), Larry Cain (1973), Kenny Calhoun (1981), Carlos Callejas (1996), Marcus Carey (1990), Wesley Carroll (1989), Jermaine Chambers (1992), Bernard Clark (1986), Ryan Clement (1993), Tony Coley (1992), Ryan Collins (1991), Horace Copeland (1990), Frank Costa (1991), Mike Crissy (1993), Gerard Daphnis (1992), Marvin Davis (1992), Pat Del Vecchio (1996), Otis Fowler (1989), Corwin Francis (1991), Jammi German (1993), Chris Gibson (1992), Frank Glover (1974), Derrick Golden (1988), Yatil Green (1994), Casey Greer (1989), Derrick Ham (1995), Bobby Harden (1986), Kelvin Harris (1987), Terris Harris (1991), Jonathan Harris (1991), Derrick Harris (1991), Alonzo Highsmith (1986); J Ina (1992), Cliff Jackson (1993), Carlos Jones (1992), Chris T. Jones (1991), Chris C. Jones (1993), Trent Jones (1993), K.C. Jones (1992), Carlo Joseph (1995), Kenard Lang (1993), Larry Latrell (1991), Mike Lawson (1993), Earl Little (1992), Kenny Lopez (1990), Nick Luchey (1995), Zev Lumelski (1991), Larry Luttrell (1994), Rohan Marley (1991), Jason Marucci (1990), Russell Maryland (1986), Ryan McNeil (1989), Darius McCollum (1992), Damond Neely (1994), Chad Pegues (1995), Malcolm Pearson (1991), Booker Pickett (1992), Eugene Ridgley (1994), Pat Riley (1992), Nelson Rodriguez (1996), Omar Rolle (1995), Robert Sampson (1997), Eric Schnupp (1997), Leon Searcy (1988), Al Shipman (1992), Baraka Short (1991), Darrin Smith (1989), Michael Smith (1996), Roland Smith (1987), Darryl Spencer (1988), Duane Starks (1996), Brian Stinson (1998), Daniel Stubbs (1987), Alan Symonette (1991), A.C. Tellison (1991), Lamar Thomas (1989), Syii Tucker (1991), Chad Wilson (1991) and Marcus Wimberly (1992).

Kehoe has been absent from Miami football since he was terminated after the 2005 season as part of the fallout from the program's decline in the final years of Larry Coker's tenure. But as his final UM media guide bio stated, Kehoe is "The modern day Mr. Miami Football to many fans."

Kehoe first came to Miami in 1979 as a transfer from Laney Junior College in Oakland, Calif., and he started at guard for the Hurricanes for two seasons under Howard Schnellenberger. He was offensive captain both years. Little did he know then that he would be part of the program for five national titles.

And he was inducted into the University of Miami Athletic Hall of Fame in 2002.

Kehoe was involved as a coach or player at Miami for part of four decades - from 1979 until 2005.

After Kehoe's playing days were over at Miami he was a student assistant football coach for one season, a graduate assistant for three seasons then in 1985 became the offensive line coach. From 1992-94, Kehoe also tutored tight ends in addition to his duties with the offensive line.

In 2002 he was rewarded with the title of assistant head coach while retaining his primary responsibilities as offensive line coach.

Kehoe worked with five different coaches - Howard Schenllenberger, Jimmy Johnson, Dennis Erickson, Butch Davis and Larry Coker.

During his time as a football coach at UM, Kehoe was part of 21 bowl games. He has coached some of the greatest players to ever wear a Hurricane uniform - he has produced six players (Brett Romberg in 2002, Bryant McKinnie in 2001, Joaquin Gonzalez in 2000, Richard Mercier in 1999, K.C. Jones in 1996 and Leon Searcy in 1991) who received first-team All-America honors.

His offensive lines protected Bernie Kosar, Vinny Testaverde, Steve Walsh, Craig Erickson, Gino Torretta and Ken Dorsey.

He recruited and coached 2002 Rimington Trophy winner Brett Romberg and recruited and coached 2001 Outland Trophy winner Bryant McKinnie.

Overall Kehoe coached 19 offensive linemen who went on to play professionally.

As amazing as some of Kehoe's accomplishments are, perhaps none is more noteworthy than the fact that in 2000 and 2001 the offensive line allowed, combined, only seven sacks. Those units are widely considered among the finest in recent college football history.

Kehoe's offensive lines played a key role in producing six of Miami's eight thousand-yard rushers.

Kehoe received his Bachelor of Arts degree in business administration from Miami.

Russell Maryland, Miami (Fla.)-Defensive Tackle-1990 unanimous First Team All-America selection and Outland Trophy winner...Led Miami to four consecutive bowl berths and national championships in 1987 and 1989...Registered 45-3-0 record during career.

Gino Torretta, Miami (Fla.)-Quarterback-In 1992, he earned unanimous First Team All-America honors, won the Heisman Trophy, Davey O'Brien Award, Maxwell Award and was named Walter Camp Player of the Year...Led Miami to a the 1991 National Championship.

(ncaafootball.com)

Here are the top 10 college football factories, and some of their raw NFL placement numbers …

1. Miami

Draft picks since 1999: 65

First-round picks:: 27

Highlights: RB Clinton Portis, RB Edgerrin James, WR Reggie Wayne, WR Santana Moss, S Ed Reed, WR Andre Johnson, RB Willis McGahee, TE Jeremy Shockey, TE Kellen Winslow, DT Vince Wilfork, LB Jonathan Vilma, LB D.J. Williams, S Sean Taylor, RB Frank Gore

Lowlights: CB Mike Rumph, DE Jerome McDougle, DT Damione Lewis, DT William Joseph, DE Michael Boireau, WR Roscoe Parrish, WR Sinorice Moss

Skinny: The “elite” talent has waned recently, as Florida, Texas and USC have begun snatching away players Miami would have developed and sent to the NFL seven or eight years ago. However, the Hurricanes’ cache of players in the first half of this decade was unmatched. Miami’s 27 first-round picks in the past 10 years nearly match the total NFL draft picks that perennial football factories such as Auburn and Alabama produced in the same time span. The only question is whether Miami’s class from 1999-2008 is the greatest 10-year haul of talent in the history of college football.

“I don’t know how you would argue it,” Portis said. “The teams in [2000 and 2001] were basically NFL teams. You had Pro Bowlers rooming with other Pro Bowlers. Hell, some of the meeting rooms, if you took a picture, everyone in it would have been a first- or second-round pick. … You raised your game to stay on the field. You basically had to be an NFL [talent] if you were going to play.”

Click here for the rest of the rankings.

proCanes.com is continuing our “Tracking proCanes” feature with former starting quarterback and National Champion Steve Walsh. After graduating from Cretin-Derham Hall High School in Saint Paul, Minnesota, Steve Walsh attended the University of Miami. He posted a record of 23-1 in his two seasons as the team's starting quarterback and led the Hurricanes to the 1987 national championship. Walsh held the school record for career touchdown passes from 1988-2002 before being surpassed by Ken Dorsey. Walsh was selected by the Dallas Cowboys with the first pick in the 1989 NFL Supplemental Draft where he was reunited with his former UM head coach Jimmy Johnson. Walsh went on to have an 11-year NFL career, playing for the Cowboys, Saints, Chicago Bears, St. Louis Rams, Tampa Bay Buccaneers, and Indianapolis Colts. Please read Read below as Steve talks to proCanes.com about how he was recruited out of high school, his days as a Hurricane, pro and more!

proCanes: So you're head coach at Cardinal Newman High School in Palm Beach, can you talk a little bit about how you became the head coach?  Were you always interested in coaching? 
Steve Walsh: I’ve always had a kind of secret passion to coach because it’s something I stayed involved in with the University of Miami and the various quarterbacks , mainly Kenny Dorsey. As I got out of the league and I knew enough of the coaches on the staff like Rob Chudzinski and Butch Davis and all those guys, I spent some time around Kenny as I explored coaching back in 2000.  I decided to enter the business world through a mortgage company called  Home Bank and decided to not pursue the coaching industry but it was something I always had a passion for and love and I continued to stay around some of the Miami qbs.  I then started to do radio broadcasting for FAU and over the last three years got involved in some sports through a weekly college football show called Tailgate Overtime as well as University of Miami football specials called Grilled Iron Gate. Over the last year the mortgage industry has gone through major transitions and the company shut down so I joined Country Wide and over the last year the coaching opportunity evolved. I went down to talk to Randy Shannon about coaching and possibly coming to the University of Miami and coaching.  In the end though, I just felt like it was easier for me to stay in West Palm Beach for my family and explore coaching at the high school level and see how much I do love it and then make a decision over the next five years and then decide if this is something I want to do for the rest of my life and at what level.  If this is something I do love, then I’ll explore coaching at the collegial level. 

pC: Did you have an opportunity at UM? 
SW: After I talked to Randy I think there would have been an opportunity in a graduate assistant position.  With some of his changes, would there have been another opportunity?  Maybe, maybe not.  I was exploring a graduate position with him. 

pC: You said you had a great relationship with Dorsey, do you have a relationship at all with Jacory Harris? 
SW: Not so much.  I saw [Harris and Robert Marve] before the season and talked to them on the sidelines a little bit but I wouldn’t say there is a strong relationship.  Nothing like what I had with Ken Dorsey. 

pC: Are you going to continue your stint with QAM for next season?
SW: No. That’s not going to be able to happen. 

pC: Going back to your Hurricane and NFL days what would you say was the hardest for your transition from UM to the NFL?
SW: Well I think when you go into a different system and different personnel there were a lot of challenges with the level of play.  It becomes that much better and more intense and when I didn’t feel comfortable in some of the offensive systems that we ran, that really didn’t take advantage of my skills, that was probably my challenge. You know the one system that I really felt comfortable in was in Chicago and that’s where my greatest success was. 

pC:What was the most uncomfortable system?
SW: St. Louis or New Orleans.

pC: So would you say that the Bears was your favorite stop?
SW: Yeah. My last year in the league in Indianapolis working with Peyton [Manning] and Tom Moore the Colts was really an unbelievable experience because they had a really unbelievable offensive system and Peyton and I had a relationship from my days with the New Orleans Saints so that was a real good relationship and him and I worked well together. That was a lot of fun and we were successful but certainly for me as a player personally, it was Chicago. 

pC: What was your favorite memories from the UM days?
SW: The comeback victory against Florida State, the comeback victory against Michigan.  Everybody remembers the Norte Dame loss. That’s something I‘d like to forget and then the National Championship against Oklahoma was a great memory of course. Those were just memories that every once in a while you think about a certain play or part of the game. The thing that people most talk to me about was the Michigan comeback. 

pC:How was it having Jimmy Johnson as your head coach?
SW: Jimmy was extremely passionate about being  a champion and being the best.  He would always say be the best and at the end of the day can you say you were the best? That doesn’t happen often in life.  That was what his passion and what he was about and that transcended to the players and we had that thought process and he was able to further it along with his passion. Jimmy was an incredible motivator and gifted speaker and really knew how to push the buttons of his players and that’s what I’ll take from Jimmy.   

pC: What do you think UM needs to do to become the best again?
SW: The playing field is so much more leveled than it was in my day.  You’re going into situations where if you don’t play really good you’re going to get beat and that’s the biggest thing they see about the ACC.  I think they thought they were just going to walk over the ACC and that’s really tough.  They just need to get the confidence back that they can be champions because everyone has talent on both sides of the ball and everyone has scholarships on both sides of the ball.  The difference maker is having the confidence and that confidence comes with success. It’s a fine line having that confidence and that creates success and having success creates confidence.  But when you get both of those things and you obviously mix in the talent there, that’s when you get the national championships.  There was a need for them to upgrade their talent and there is still a need for that but now they have to play with confidence, they have to have the coaches that are going to help instill and coach them on how to make the plays and then you have to go out there and do it. 

pC: So what was then the downfall the program? Do you think it was a lack of talent? Coaching?
SW: I think it’s a combination. When you bring in talent  it doesn’t matter how good they were in their highschool careers, they have to get better.   If they come in saying okay I’m at the University of Miami I’ve made it now, let’s walk over some teams, they’re going to lose.  They have to come in there with the hunger and passion to be the best like Jimmy preached and it doesn’t come easy.  You have to work hard at it and it’s not to say that they don’t work hard but when teams become champions it’s a combination of talent and hard work. 

pC: How did you come from Minnesota all the way down to Miami?
SW: Mark Trestman was the initial guy that was on me. Mark played college football with one of my highschool coaches. I was not getting recruited very heavily and he called Mark and said you want to take a look at this kid, he’s pretty talented and Mark came to take a look at me and immediately Miami started recruiting me. He mentioned me to Howard Schnellenberger at Louisville and Howard started recruiting me but I really didn’t have a lot of options.  Iowa State was always recruiting me but none of the Big Ten schools were really on me. Miami, Louisville, Iowa State, Northwestern were my choices, but it was pretty easy choice at that point. 

pC: Were you a Hurricane fan beforehand? 
SW: Oh no, I had no clue. The only Miami Hurricane game I remember watching was the Boston College game and I just thought that was an unbelievable game on both sides. I was a Kosar fan but it was an unbelievable game Boston College pulled out. I just left the game thinking I’d love to be part of a college that treated the ball like that. 

pC:I say a word and you tell me the first thing that pops in your head:
Randy Shannon: Intelligent
Larry Coker:  [Pause] Solid guy.
Orange Bowl:  A great place to play.
Dolphin Stadium:  Unbelievable facility.
Jimmy Johnson:  Motivational
The Fiesta Bowl:  Forgettable
Nortre Dame:  Intense Rivalry
 
pC: Do you wish that rivalry came back?
SW: I do.  I think both schools need it actually. 

pC:Which school do you think is in better shape?
SW: They [Notre Dame] are just financially. They’ve always been in a better position than Miami.   But as far as quality of the team I would say Miami. 

pC: What do you think of the move to Dolphin Stadium?
SW: I think it needed to happen.  You know Miami could not support what the facility needed done from a long term revenue standpoint for the University.  So I think it’s fine.  As a player, you had that commonality of that field that drew everybody back full circle but bottom line is the facilities are a weak link on campus and from a game day standpoint you’re not going to play in a better stadium than Dolphin Stadium so I think they solved that with one move.  Financially it was a smart move. Though financially it’s been very successful it’s just the field isn’t the same but I guess what are you going to do. 

We at proCanes.com would like to thank Steve Walsh for giving us his time to be our second interviewee for our new feature: "Tracking proCanes."

Kevin Brinkworth, Class '96 reached out to Procanes last week regarding a UM Documentary he started producing in 2006 which focused on the Miami Hurricanes’ last season at the Orange Bowl. Brinkworth attended every home game during the 2007 season, capturing more than 15 hours of footage with a high-speed camera. He roamed the UM sideline, filming strategy sessions and coaches’ chalkboard talks. He went up to the press box, where he had an “unbelievable” interview with Ted Hendricks, ’72, a three-time All-American linebacker and defensive end for UM who played 15 seasons in the NFL. Before each game, Brinkworth taped interviews with Hurricane greats who came back to their former turf: Russell Maryland, A.B. ’90; Houston Texans wide receiver Andre Johnson; quarterback Gino Torretta and more.

Brinkworth subsequently partnered up with UM Alumni Billy Corben and Rakontur (Producer's of Cocaine Cowboys) to complete a 2 hour Documentary on UM Football which is being funded by ESPN. The documentary is part of ESPN’s 30th Anniversary Programming called "30 in 30" and will air next year on ESPN after the Heisman Trophy presentation.

Producing this documentary has been a dream of Brinkworth's for the last five years, as he's been a Canes fan since birth. Thus far they have interviewed; Melvin Bratton, Howard Schnellenberger, Larry Coker, Jon Vilma, Willis McGahee, Jeremy Shockey, Bennie Blades, John Routh (The Ibis), Don Bailey Jr, Art Kehoe, Sam Jankovich, Luther Campbell, Jessie Armstead, Drew Rosenhaus, Robert Bailey, Jerry Rushin & James T (99 Jamz). Brinkworth also has over 50 live "sideline" interviews from '91-'96, including Dwayne “the Rock” Johnson, Michael Irvin, Jim Kelly and much more. Many awesome pictures from the current interviews that have already been taped including Jeremy Shockey, Willis McGahee, Jonathan Vilma and more are here: http://www.rakontur.com/category/the-u/

Please see the press release below about Brinkworth's partnership with Rakontur and ESPN. We will be talking to Brinkworth in the coming weeks for our "Tracking proCanes" feature and look forward to hearing more about this project and his days as a 'Cane.

Rakontur signs deal with UM’s Brinkworth to license footage for upcoming ESPN documentary “The U”

Rakontur the producers of Cocaine Cowboys I & II executed an agreement with former University of Miami player Kevin Brinkworth to license 40 hours of former player interviews and footage of the program dating back to 1991. ESPN commissioned the documentary and will air it part of a series called “30 for 30,” covering sports events of the past 30 years, which celebrates ESPN's 30th anniversary in 2009. No air date has been set, but the project expects to be complete by the 2009 season opener.

Corben stated, “It’s not going to be a highlight film. It’s going to be an account supported by  former players and administration recaps of how the University of Miami changed the sport in both positive and negative ways, how the small, private Southern school whose football program was on the verge of extinction in the mid-1970s changed the face of college football on and off the field forever.”

Spellman and Corben have interviewed 15 people, including Howard Schnellenberger, Larry Coker, Melvin Bratton, Luther Campbell, Robert Bailey, Drew Rosenhaus, Jeremy Shockey and Art Kehoe. Brinkworth’s footage adds another 25 of some interviews, including memoirs from Dwayne ‘The Rock” Johnson and Michael Irvin. “They’re personal accounts from my friends, my teammates. They opened up to me because I was there too,” stated Brinkworth.

Corben is had been bogged down by sscheduling a tour for the coffee-table book they're now doing with MTV Books and Cocaine Cowboys II just celebrated a well received premier. “Brinkworth is real, he was there and they former players open up to him. He has a very unique style,” Corben stated. Brinkworth has been a part of the UM program since graduation and was coached by Randy Shannon in his very first year as a Miami graduate assistant.

''I don't think anyone will come away saying we did anyone wrong,'' said director Alfred Spellman, who, along with producer Billy Corben, and Brinkworth all attended UM. ``It will be very objective and very fair. We don't come in with an agenda. We will explore why the program was under a microscope, but not in a judgmental way. We are UM fans, what do you expect?”

Former Heisman Trophy winner and University of Miami quarterback Gino Torretta will host an exciting weekend of poker, golf and festivities on March 7-9 to raise money for his foundation, The Torretta Foundation, which benefits ALS (Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis a.k.a. Lou Gehrig’s Disease) Research, the Hard Rock said in a press release.

At 4:30 p.m. Saturday is an invitation-only meet-and-greet for casino players attending the weekend festivities.

Later that evening, Passion Nightclub in Seminole Paradise will host live performances by Steve Azar, Keith Burns, and the USO Liberty Bells. There will be a silent auction and Torretta will also host a live auction. Tickets cost $100.

At 2 p.m. March 8, Torretta will host a charity poker tournament in the Poker Room at Seminole Paradise. The buy-in for the Texas Hold’em Charity Tournament is $1,100. First prize of up to $30,000 (based on 100 entries) will be awarded to the winner with the rest of the proceeds benefiting The Torretta Foundation.

There will be a super satellite tournament at 7:30 p.m. March 6. Buy-in is $150.

The fundraiser wraps up with a celebrity golf tournament at Jacaranda Golf Club in Plantation on on Monday. Registration starts at 9 a.m. with a shotgun start at 11 a.m. Bacardi drinks, a buffet and gift bags are included. Foursomes can be purchased for $6,000 and individual play cost $1,500.

Past celebrity guests include Mike Rozier, Johnny Rodgers, Keith Byars, Steve Walsh, Kijana Carter, Jim McMahon, John Friesz, Mike Eruzione, Keith Burns, Steve Azar, Ken Dorsey, Pam Fletcher, Steve Lundquist, John Congemi, Chris Wienke, Ty Detmer, Kelly Pavlick, Rich Waltz, Tom Hutton, Craig Erickson, Jeff Cross, Brad Culpepper, Lamar Thomas, George Rogers, Reggie Givens, Troy Drayton, Walter Briggs, Bennie Blades, Shaun Hill, O.J. McDuffie, Bernie Kosar and Darryl Williams, according to the casino.

To participate, contact Kevin Pickard at 954-985-5701 ext. 10613 or kevinpickard@semtribe.com

(sun-sentinel.com)

CORAL GABLES - Miami safety Anthony Reddick spent Friday morning showing two dozen scouts from around the NFL how he could run.

Run left. Run right. Run straight ahead.

Maybe even run away from his past, too.

Reddick's time with the Hurricanes will be best remembered by things he wishes people would forget. The St. Thomas Aquinas alum blew out the anterior cruciate ligament in his right knee in 2005 and played in only one game. Blew out the ACL in his left knee playing pickup basketball in the spring of 2007 season and missed that entire season, too.

And most notably, there was the unforgettable scene of him running across the field, wielding his helmet high and swinging it wildly during the infamous on-field brawl between Miami and Florida International in 2006, drawing a four-game suspension.

"I learned from all those things," Reddick said, "Made me a better person, a better man."

That's the message he has for the 17 teams who sent staff to the Hurricanes' practice field Friday for the annual pro day, where departing Miami players get poked, prodded, tested and measured by scouts evaluating talent ahead of the NFL draft.

In past years, pro day has been a circus at Miami. Not anymore; Friday's session was relatively low-key, and even the players running around under the hot South Florida sun realize that the Hurricanes' record streak of 14 straight years with a first-round draft pick will end.

"It's disappointing to be a part of that," said linebacker Glenn Cook, another of the Miami players who worked out Friday. "But it doesn't take away from our school, our program."

Reddick didn't mind, either. All he wants is to catch the eye of some team -- and convince those people that he deserves a shot at the NFL.

He was an All-American at the South Florida superpower high school St. Thomas Aquinas, and was wooed by Ohio State, Florida State and Georgia before signing with Miami. As a true freshman in 2004, Reddick played in 11 games, and by year's end was one of only three true freshmen in the starting lineup. He blocked punts, made interceptions, defended passes, whatever the Hurricanes needed.

"Anthony could do a little of everything," former Miami coach Larry Coker said after that season.

Reddick was Miami's starting strong safety for the 2005 season-opener at Florida State, got hurt in that game, and the downward spiral began.

The fight against FIU -- the one where 18 Golden Panthers and 13 Hurricanes drew suspensions for their actions -- was rock bottom.

"The person that everyone saw ... it's truly not me and that wasn't a good reflection of my character," Reddick said days later, looking into a horde of television cameras as he walked onto the same practice field Friday's pro day took place upon to make a public apology.

After getting hurt in that 2005 opener, Reddick had to wait three full years before starting another game for the Hurricanes, but redeemed himself with 75 tackles this season, playing in all 13 Miami games.

The brawl, the knee surgeries, everything negative was finally behind him.

He worked his way into Miami's good graces again, and knows he'll still likely have to answer for those actions when interviewed by NFL clubs.

"I put myself in those situations, especially the NFL fight. The injuries, I can't do anything about those, but I'll tell them the truth about what happened," Reddick said. "I made a mistake. What I did was wrong. There's nothing else about it. I'm not going to let it bring me down at all. I'm sorry for it, I owned up to it and I moved on with my life."

Reddick has nothing to hide, and that includes how his knees are feeling. He insists he's never been stronger, even making a facetious offer to jump from a two-story-high balcony after all the scouts trudged off the pro day field.

He's not listed highly on any draft boards. He isn't listed at all on many of them.

Somehow, someway, he just wants a shot to get inside an NFL camp this summer. If that happens, Reddick insists he'll take care of the rest.

"All I need is an opportunity," Reddick said. "I'm a football player. I know I am. I'm a great one at that. Opportunity is all I need, and I'll go from there."

(sun-sentinel.com)

The NFL coaches were missing Friday at Greentree Field. But the dreams of the University of Miami football players working out in front of several scouts were no different from their famous predecessors.

''Either I'm going to play at the next level or I have to take up another trade,'' said linebacker Glenn Cook, one of 17 Hurricanes seniors from last season's team to take part in UM Timing Day, a day-long combine that for years had drawn every NFL head coach. ``This is an important step to the rest of our lives.''

For the past 14 years, NFL teams have drafted at least one UM player in the first round, a record streak. But this year, only cornerback Bruce Johnson is expected to be drafted, and even that is not a lock. So for the players grinding it out Friday in front of scouts from 17 of 32 NFL teams, this day might have been their only shot to turn heads.

''They always say that we're the best group in the country, and I think we held that up [Friday],'' said Cook, who noted he ran a 5.46 in the 40-yard dash. ``You always hear that one moment can change your [future] for the bad or the good. You do one thing and it may mess up the rest of your life or it may set you up for the best. It's something we should be used to, taking advantage of each moment.''

ADKINS SEIZES MOMENT
On Friday, linebacker Spencer Adkins took advantage of that moment, according to Cook and other players. Adkins played as a reserve in the middle and as a pass rusher in third-down situations, totaling 20 tackles and four sacks in 2008.

A muscular 5-11 and 230 pounds, Adkins said he was timed in the 40 in 4.43 seconds. His vertical leap was 36 inches. His shuttle-run time was 4.25 and he had 30 bench-press repetitions at 225 pounds.

''I obviously needed to show good things or my chances would be minimum,'' said Adkins, who is from Naples. ``I look throughout the league nowadays and there are a lot of dudes who didn't get drafted and are Pro Bowlers. That's the motivation I have.

'There were a couple questions about if I liked the inside or rushing off the edge. I told them, `It doesn't matter. Whatever you want me to do I'll be able to do.' I think [Friday] opened up a lot of eyes.''

ONE-SHOT DEAL
Adkins was asked if he felt it was fair that so much is put into one day's work.

''For somebody who is about to get paid a lot of money and has to do a lot of things in pressure situations, I think it is fair,'' he said.

For a couple of Canes, it must have felt extremely unfair.

Receiver Kayne Farquharson and offensive tackle Chris Rutledge sustained injuries doing drills -- Farquharson tweaked his knee during the broad jump and Rutledge injured his leg while running the 40. Both fought through the pain and completed their workouts.

Johnson, the only Cane invited to the NFL combine in Indianapolis, said he bettered his time in the 40 from 4.47 to 4.4, and increased his vertical jump from 34 to 38 ½ inches. Johnson is projected to be drafted from the fourth round down.

''I wanted to show them that I could do it here and [in Indianapolis],'' Johnson said, ``that I could be consistent. I feel I performed real well.''

Safety Anthony Reddick, who turned down an opportunity to apply for a sixth-year medical redshirt after numerous knee surgeries, said his main concern was to prove his knees were fine.

''I'm satisfied,'' said Reddick, who said he was told by scouts he ran ''a really low 4.5'' in the 40. ``I wasn't nervous. Nothing to be nervous about. I've been doing this my whole life.''

(miamiherald.com)

Stay tuned for an in-depth analysis of each of the proCanes free agents and where they might end up later in the week.

2009 UNRESTRICTED FREE AGENTS

Phillip Buchanon CB 5-11 186 7th Season Buccaneers

Vernon Carey OT 6-5 350 5th Season Dolphins

Bubba Franks TE 6-6 265 9th Season NY Jets

William Joseph DT 6-5 308 6th Season Raiders

Ray Lewis LB 6-1 250 13th Season Ravens

Darrell McClover LB 6-1 226 5th Season Bears

Jerome McDougle DE 6-2 2646th Season NY Giants

Brett Romberg C 6-2 298 5th Season Rams

Jonathan Vilma LB 6-1230 5th Season Saints

Nate Webster LB 6-0 232 9th Season Broncos

2009 RESTRICTED FREE AGENTS

Rashad Butler OT 6-4 309 3rd Season Texans

2009 EXCLUSIVE RIGHTS FREE AGENTS

Orien Harris DL6-3 300 1st Season Bengals

RELEASED

Ken Dorsey QB 6-4 215 6th Season Browns

Najeh Davenport RB 6-1 247 7th Season Colts

Bruce Johnson was the sole Miami Hurricane Invited to the 2009 NFL Combine, a place where in the recent past Miami Hurricanes have outnumbered every other school. He will be in Group 10 wearing number DB26.

Good luck to Bruce. We're sure he will be getting some advice from his cousin, former first round pick and current DB of the Seattle Seahawks Kelly Jennings.

TAMPA — This state has its share of big-time football programs, with the University of Florida and Florida State leading the way in more recent years.

But when it comes to the NFC Champion Arizona Cardinals, one school leads the way: the "U."

That's the University of Miami, the home of five national championships since 1983, two Heisman trophy winners and Cardinals players Edgerrin James, Antrel Rolle and Calais Campbell. (Although Florida State graduates Anquan Boldin and Darnell Dockett may disagree).

"I got text (messages) from Edge and Antrel right after I was drafted by the Cardinals," Campbell said. "It's a big brother-type thing."

As the Cardinals prepare for Sunday's Super Bowl at 6 p.m. at Tampa's Raymond James Stadium, these three players will be focused on the red and white -- but they still bleed orange and green.

"I'm always helping recruit (to Miami)," said James, an Immokalee native. "We're the ones that set the trend for everyone else (in Florida)."

James' commitment to Miami might be the most visible of the three Cardinals players -- the 30-year-old star running back made a $250, 000 donation to his alma mater in 2000, the largest amount of money ever donated to Miami by a former Hurricanes athlete, and the team meeting room is named after him. He was selected to the school's Ring of Honor in September.

But Rolle and Campbell also add to the South Florida feel on this Southwestern NFL team.

"It was like no other, man," Rolle said, reminiscing about his Miami team's national championship in 2001. "I've never been part of an organization where I didn't work for myself, I worked for the guy next to me. It was a team of brothers."

Of the three Cardinals from UM, Rolle best represents the program's glory years -- he was at Miami from 2001-04, when the Hurricanes advanced to the national championship twice and played in the Orange Bowl and the Peach Bowl his other two seasons.

A Miami-area native himself, Rolle attended South Dade High School, where he was an all-American, before choosing the hometown Hurricanes. The then-cornerback was an All-American in college, too, and a first-team all-Atlantic Coast Conference player as a senior. The Cardinals then chose Rolle eighth overall in the 2005 NFL Draft, and he has been a regular in Arizona's defensive backfield since, picking up five interceptions in 2007 and 77 tackles in 2008.

As for James, his future at Miami looked bright after the Hurricanes won the 1994 National Championship in James' junior year of high school. But Miami received NCAA sanctions in 1995 before James arrived, and his sophomore year the Hurricanes were 5-6, including an embarrassing 47-0 loss to Florida State. Still, James rushed for 1,098 yards on just 184 attempts.

James left Miami after his junior year as the only player in school history to post back-to-back seasons of 1,000 yards rushing or better. The program had started to rebound, with a 9-3 record in 1998 including a 49-45 win against then-No. 2 UCLA.

Despite Miami's recent problems, James' support for the Hurricanes hasn't wavered, even given his sanction-ridden experience there.

"You have to understand why the program is that way," said James, addressing the Hurricanes' 5-7 season in 2007 and 7-6 campaign in 2008. "We've had guys that are consistently good enough to leave. ... No other school could come back right away after losing that many players."

Campbell was part of that exodus from Miami. The rookie defensive end left the Hurricanes after his junior season and was picked up by the Cardinals in the second round of the 2008 NFL Draft.

"He's the baby of the group," Rolle joked. "But you've got to look out for him."

Campbell, 6-foot-8 and 282 pounds, was a first-team All-American for the Hurricanes after a streak of seven straight games with a sack as a sophomore. He was highly recruited by several big-time football schools after earning a Colorado high school record of 58 sacks in his four seasons.

"I had an opportunity to go a lot of places," Campbell said. "But I still had a good time at UM. To me, it still taught me what I needed to know ... They just need to get back that, well, swagger is what we called it when I was there."

(naplesnews.com)

Scoring a touchdown is an exciting accomplishment. It inspires end zone dances, slum dunks over goal posts, leaps into the bleachers and any number of other creative and often outrageous acts.

A touchdown scored in the Super Bowl – football's biggest stage – likely multiplies the excitement at least tenfold. Consider that of all the men to play football, only 161 have reached the end zone in the Super Bowl.

Three of them have come from Wyoming, a program with a decent history but certainly not a national power. Yet Wyoming has had as many alums score Super Bowl touchdowns as Florida State, Georgia, Penn State, UCLA and USC and more than Florida, Alabama, Auburn, Tennessee, Texas and Oklahoma.

These days, the Big Ten is criticized as a struggling conference, but 25 players from current Big Ten schools have scored touchdowns – more than any other conference.

Following is a list of college football programs that produced players who have scored Super Bowl touchdowns; we also provide the answers to Wednesday's trivia questions.

Trivia answers

1. What university has produced the most players who have scored Super Bowl touchdowns? Miami has had eight players; Notre Dame is second with six.

Miami (8) Bill Miller, Oakland (scored 2) Pete Banaszak, Oakland Ottis Anderson, New York Giants (2) Michael Irvin, Dallas (2) Jimmie Jones, Dallas Duane Starks, Baltimore Ravens Devin Hester, Chicago Reggie Wayne, Indianapolis

Thanks to 305to917 for sending us the link to this story to post!

(rivals.com)

TAMPA -- During the tough times, when it looked as if all they were doing in Arizona was wandering the desert, Edgerrin James, Antrel Rolle and Calais Campbell could find direction in their brotherhood.

The tie that binds them is the fact they all played at the University of Miami. And they argue that is every bit as important as one out of similar DNA.

''It really is a brotherhood,'' Rolle insisted Tuesday as the Cardinals continued preparations for Super Bowl XLIII against Pittsburgh. ``No matter what, it can never be broken. Nobody should even try.''

If you think there is nothing extraordinary about the bond between players at ''The U,'' examine the relationship the three Cardinals players share. They come from different Miami classes and teams that reached different levels of success.

But when they were united on the same Arizona roster, they connected. It was natural. It was expected.

''We have a special relationship,'' James said. ``It's a bond that has been going on for years with players from that school. It's something that no other team and no other school can duplicate.

``It's something that's super special. It's really hard to explain, but you talk to anybody from the University of Miami, they know what it's about.''
It's about men who wouldn't otherwise be friends becoming each other's support system.

When Campbell, 22 and still a rookie, was selected by Arizona in the second round of last April's NFL Draft, the first call he took was from the Cardinals. The second and third calls he took were from James, 30, and Rolle, 26.

WELCOME TO THE CLUB
''As soon as I got drafted by the team, they called me and welcomed me to the team,'' Campbell said. ``There's just that connection you have that comes from work ethic and knowing what you have to do to get where you want to be. We had that and learned that at UM and it carries over.

``So when I got to Arizona, these guys helped me with getting a house and showed me what people to talk to. They helped with simple decisions like places to eat. They took care of me like a little brother. They looked out for me.''

That apparently applies in times of trouble as well as triumph. And this trio has tasted both this season.

After being drafted as a cornerback in 2005 and enjoying only modest success his first two seasons, Rolle lost his starting job in 2007. James was the teammate who encouraged Rolle.

''Since I first stepped into this league, he's been that guy in my ear telling me the right things to do,'' Rolle said. ``He pulls you to the side and talks to you, he's not a spotlight person. He doesn't tell you what you want to hear, but he does tell you what you need to hear.''

Rolle handled the demotion by moving to safety, where he has become a ball-hawking, touchdown return waiting to happen.

Rolle has nine interceptions in his career and has returned four for touchdowns. He also had a fumble return for a touchdown during the playoffs.
James also has a playoff touchdown to go with his 203 yards on 52 carries. He is again a starter and a key to bringing balance to a pass-first Arizona offense.

But midway through the season, James was practically erased from the offense -- with 27 carries in 10 games between Oct. 5 and Dec. 21. He was benched in favor of rookie Tim Hightower.

It was a difficult time for the NFL's leading active rusher.

''You want to play,'' James said. ``This year I worked extremely hard in the offseason, and I had a chance to pass some of the greatest rushers of all time. You want to build on the previous year, and the previous year I had 1,200 yards, and that was a new system. In training camp we were doing certain things that looked like it was going to be promising, and then we were going in a different direction.''

It was a time in which James could lean on Rolle and Campbell.

''I was in the same situation as him last year,'' Rolle said. ``I got pulled from my starting job last year and every day there was a conversation with him. He'd say, `Antrel, keep balling, keep working, keep doing what you do. They're going to have to play you, they're going to have to put you on the field.'

LEARNING TO BE A PRO
'And so when the same thing happened to him, I told him, `Edge, you know who you are. I mean, the whole world knows who you are and it's going to come back. Trust me, it's going to come.' For whatever reason, the coaches thought he wasn't getting the job done. But he never let them keep him down.''

The professionalism James and Rolle showed this season didn't go unnoticed by Campbell.

He didn't start any games and had only 25 tackles on defense and 16 more on special teams, but Campbell learned by watching Rolle and James.

''The way Edgerrin carried himself and the way he came back was a great story,'' Campbell said. ``I learned all it takes is one opportunity to be at the top again. You can never get down on yourself. If something bad happens, you let it go into yesterday and think there's always tomorrow and try to better yourself.

``It was a good lesson to learn from a guy I think of as an older brother.''

(miamiherald.com)

When spring football practice begins this year, Northeast will have a former NFL talent guiding the program.

Northeast athletic director Dave Phillips confirmed on Friday that Donnell Bennett has been hired as the school's new coach.

Bennett, a Fort Lauderdale native, was a second-round draft choice of the Kansas City Chiefs in 1994. He was a running back at the University of Miami and played at Cardinal Gibbons.

Bennett has been an assistant coach at Gibbons, and Phillips said this would be his first high school head coaching position.

"We're extremely excited and feel so fortunate to have him," Phillips said. "It's good for not just our student-athletes, but all the students at our school. He's a role model who has succeeded at every level."

Bennett replaces former coach Adam Ratkevich who stepped down after eight seasons with the Hurricanes. Northeast was 6-4 last season.

(sun-sentinel.com)

ESPN 760 in West Palm Beach is reporting Steve Walsh has accepted the Cardinal Newman head-coaching job left vacant Monday when Don Dicus resigned.

Walsh went 23-1 in two seasons as the starting quarterback for the Miami Hurricanes and led them to the 1987 national championship. He spent 11 seasons in the NFL.

Cardinal Newman athletic director Alan Botkin did not immediately return a phone message seeking comment, and neither did Walsh.

If Walsh takes the position, he will join fellow ex-‘Canes Kenny Berry (head coach at Berean Christian) and Lamar Thomas (assistant coach at Boynton Beach).

(palmbeachpost.com)

Kelly, who never could get the Bills over the Super Bowl hump in his Hall of Fame career, has a new mission these days -- to get every state to test for 54 potentially fatal diseases that could be diagnosed at birth. Only one state, Minnesota, tests for that many today.

He's on this mission because of the death of his son, Hunter, in 2005, from a rare brain disease called Krabbe Leukodystrophy. The disease (leukodystrophies afflict one of every 100,000 American births) could have been diagnosed at birth, but New York State did not test for the illness when Hunter was born in 1997.

"The tragedy for Hunter, and for so many children born with fatal illnesses, is that they're simply born in the wrong state,'' Kelly said the other night. "If you don't think that's something that just tears at your heart every day ...''

I've known Kelly for a long time, and I've always found him to be one of the biggest life-of-the-party guys I've covered. He was a prolific pre-curfew beer man in his Bills training-camp years, when the Buffalo players were as tight as a team could be. But when I saw him the other day, I saw he'd changed. There was a grimness to a once-carefree guy, with more lines on his face than I remembered. The grimness is not from giving up; it's a grim determination.

He's already seen governors of three states -- New York, Pennsylvania and Kansas -- and gotten each to increase dramatically the number of diseases tested for at birth. When babies are born, their heels are pricked and a blood sample taken to test for diseases. With Kelly's lobbying, New York has increased from 11 to 44 diseases tested for, Pennsylvania from 11 to 29, and Kansas from four to 29.

Parents can buy a kit to screen their children for the maximum number of diseases for less than $100, but Kelly, and his foundation, want the tests to be done for every child as a matter of course. Considering that the costs of caring for children with one of many known leukodystrophies can run from between $500,000 and $1 million per year, it seems like early-testing money would be well spent.

"I never won a Super Bowl,'' said Kelly, "and for a long time that really bothered me, obviously. But this is real. This is life. My Super Bowl victory will be to get every state to adopt universal newborn screening so we can save lives that are now being lost needlessly. When that day comes, that victory will be 10 times better than any Super Bowl.''

Because New York now tests for Krabbe, Kelly met a perfectly healthy boy, now a year and half old, who was diagnosed at birth and successfully treated. "Little Elmer,'' he said with a grin. Now his goal is to meet a lot more Elmers. If you'd like to help, or learn more about Kelly's mission, you can go to www.huntershope.org.

Miami is unranked this week in college football. The Hurricanes haven't been to a bowl since 2006. They haven't finished a season in the national polls since 2005. The Hurricanes haven't won a national title since 2001.

But Miami remains the first stop for NFL talent evaluators looking to build championship teams. The Hurricanes placed 44 players on NFL rosters in September, tops in the league by a wide margin. Florida State was next with 37.

Miami safety Kenny Phillips was a first-round draft pick by the Super Bowl champion New York Giants last April. It marked the 14th consecutive draft that a Hurricane has been taken in the first round. The next-longest current streak is five consecutive drafts by LSU.

Miami has had 26 players selected in the first round this decade. Ohio State is next with 14 first-rounders. There are Hurricanes on 22 of the NFL's 32 rosters. Fourteen Hurricanes have been to the Pro Bowl, including six last season.

Of the 44 Hurricanes on NFL rosters, 22 started last weekend. That group includes four halfbacks (Frank Gore of San Francisco, Edgerrin James of Arizona, Willis McGahee of Baltimore and Clinton Portis of Washington) and four middle linebackers (Jon Beason of Carolina, Ray Lewis of Baltimore, Jonathan Vilma of New Orleans and Nate Webster of Denver).

Four Hurricanes play for the Giants. Four also play for the Texans. Surprisingly, none play for the Cowboys, who once used first-round draft picks on Michael Irvin and Russell Maryland. Both won Super Bowl rings with the Cowboys, as did fellow Hurricanes Bernie Kosar, Jimmie Jones, Darrin Smith and Kevin Williams.

In fact, the Cowboys have not drafted a Hurricane since selecting Smith in the second-round in 1993. The Cowboys also haven't won a playoff game since Smith left in free agency after the 1996 season.

Here are some other roster/school tidbits:

Ten schools have 30-plus players on NFL rosters, and three are from the state of Florida - Miami (44), Florida State (37) and Florida (30).
Cal (27) has more players on NFL rosters than traditional powers Alabama (18), Arkansas (16), Oklahoma (18) and Penn State (22).
Fresno State (17) has more players on NFL rosters than Ole Miss, Pitt, Syracuse or Washington - all with 14.

Hawaii (15) has more players on NFL rosters than Clemson (13).

Here's a list of all the schools of the top schools with NFL opening-day rosters in 2008:
Miami (Fla.); 44
Florida State; 37
Georgia; 36
Michigan; 36
Ohio State; 36
LSU; 35
Tennessee; 34
Texas; 34
Southern Cal; 32
Florida; 30
Notre Dame; 28
Auburn; 27
Cal; 27
Virginia Tech; 25
Nebraska; 24
Maryland; 23
Boston College; 22

(sportsline.com)

Cortez Kennedy had to catch his breath when he received the news. That is how humbled he was to learn he was one of five University of Miami greats selected for the UM Football Ring of Honor.

''I couldn't believe it,'' Kennedy, 40, a former defensive tackle, said by phone from his Orlando home. 'I'm in the Seattle Seahawks' Ring of Honor, and this has even more meaning to me. Just think of all the UM greatness that came before and after me.''

After a nine-year hiatus, UM's Ring of Honor has been revived -- and strengthened.

The five UM greats who were announced Thursday to become the newest members of the Ring of Honor during halftime of a Thursday night game against Virginia Tech on Nov. 13 are:

• Kennedy.
• Running back Edgerrin James.
• Quarterback Jim Kelly.
• Center Jim Otto.
• Quarterback Gino Torretta.

''It's great when you're considered one of the best your school has ever had,'' said Torretta, 38, who lives in Coral Gables with his wife and their 3-year-old daughter. He is the CEO of Touchdown Radio, a company that syndicates a college football game every week for national radio. He led the Hurricanes to the 1991 national title and won the Heisman Trophy in '92.

''It's a tremendous honor and brings back lots of great memories,'' Torretta said. ``When I signed my scholarship, I just wanted an opportunity to win a national championship. You never know if things are going to work out for you individually. Obviously, my teams had a lot of success.''

`SUPER BIG-TIME'
James, 30, is the youngest in the class. James, a cousin of UM tailback Javarris James, played from 1996-98 and was a first-team All-American before being taken fourth overall by the Indianapolis Colts in the 1999 NFL Draft. He now plays for the Arizona Cardinals.

''This is one of my biggest accomplishments,'' James said by phone Thursday night. ``To stand out among the greatest players at the University of Miami, that's super big-time. That is where I started. That is my family.''

James said his mother, Julie, will attend the ceremony in his place because he will be in the middle of his season and on a West Coast swing.

''She's super nervous and excited,'' he said.

The Ring of Honor began in 1997 to recognize the outstanding UM players through the decades. UM athletic director Kirby Hocutt said an anonymous committee of ''eight individuals with a long-standing history with [UM] and its football program and athletic department'' worked with himself and coach Randy Shannon to determine the honorees. Criteria for selection included athletic achievements at UM and on the pro level, commitment and loyalty to the continued success of the program and a personal commitment to courage, fortitude, honesty and integrity, according to a statement from the university.

''This was the appropriate time to do it,'' Hocutt said Thursday afternoon. ``[UM] has a tradition of excellence in the sport of football that is unmatched anywhere in the country. This is a way for us to recognize and embrace that tradition.''

Hocutt said he expects more names to be added before another nine years pass.

''We won't have an induction every year, but it's a process we hope to continue in the years to come,'' he said.

This will be the third class to be inducted. The first class was made up of quarterback George Mira (1961-63), halfback Jim Dooley (1949-51), defensive end Ted Hendricks (1966-68) and quarterback Vinny Testaverde (1982-86). The second class in 1999 had fullback Don Bosseler (1953-56), running back Ottis Anderson (1975-78), quarterback Bernie Kosar (1982-84) and defensive back Burgess Owens (1970-72).

TWO HALL OF FAMERS
Kelly and Otto had equally illustrious careers. Kelly, who starred at UM from 1979-82, went on to a great career with the Buffalo Bills and was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2002.

Otto, a 12-time Pro Bowl selection with the Oakland Raiders, played center for UM from 1957-59 and was inducted into the 1980 class of the Pro Football Hall of Fame. He now works in the front office of the Raiders.

The five will have their names unveiled on the Ring of Honor banner that will be displayed at UM home football games, beginning with Virginia Tech.

''I can't believe I'm in that top category,'' said Kennedy, a single father who is raising his 13-year-old daughter and works with Seahawks linemen during training camp. Kennedy was the MVP of the Hurricanes' 1989 national championship team.

''I respect every player that came through the U, because we sacrificed so much on and off the field,'' he said. ``It was hard for me to even tell some of the former players I was selected, because so many of them deserve to be in that ring.''

Shannon, a friend and former teammate of Kennedy's, said in the statement it was difficult to make the decision because of all the great players from which to choose.

''A tremendous group has been selected for this next induction,'' Shannon said. ``They truly understand what it means to be a Miami Hurricane.''

(miamiherald.com)

Though the University of Miami football team has seen better days, the program still rules the NFL.

The NFL announced Wednesday that The U has the most players in the league, for the third consecutive season. Miami has 44 players on NFL rosters, following 42 in 2006 and 46 in 2007.

And Florida colleges continue to dominate the NFL landscape. Florida State is second on the list with 37 players, and Florida is 10th with 30.
The top 10 most-represented schools in the league:
1. Miami — 44
2. Florida State — 37
3. Georgia — 36
4. Michigan — 36
5. Ohio State — 36
6. LSU — 35
7. Tennessee — 34
8. Texas — 34
9. USC — 32
10. Florida — 30

The league also breaks it down by position.

Not surprisingly, Miami has the most tight ends in the NFL (four) and linebackers (nine).

Florida State has the most running backs (five), offensive tackles (five) and defensive tackles (five).

What is a bit surprising is that Ohio State produces the most skill players. The Buckeyes have the most receivers (six, tied with LSU) and defensive backs (nine).

Michigan and USC have the most quarterbacks in the league (four apiece).

Georgia leads in defensive ends (nine), tied with Miami in tight ends (four) and tied in kickers (two).

And little Louisiana Tech, whose team hasn’t exactly been nationally relevant since the days of Terry Bradshaw and Fred Dean, also appears on this list. The Bulldogs are tied for the most kickers in the NFL, with two.

(palmbeachpost.com)

Check out Version 1.1 of the 2008 proCanes NFL Roster. This Roster will be updated whenever neccessary so you can keep up with your favorite 'Canes and which teams they are playing on. Click here to check out the roster or above on proCanes Stats/Rosters.

Check out Version 1.0 of the 2008 proCanes NFL Roster. This Roster will be updated whenever neccessary so you can keep up with your favorite 'Canes and which teams they are playing on. Click here to check out the roster or above on proCanes Stats/Rosters.

FORMER PLAYERS, HISTORIC RIVALS ANNOUNCE NEW CHARITABLE FOUNDATION
Letterwinners from 3 of college football’s legendary rivals form a unique partnership through the Make a Play Foundation, a new charitable organization that will impact children across Florida

MIAMI, Fla – August 21, 2008  – Legendary former football players of Florida, Florida State and Miami have developed programs and initiatives designed to create opportunities for children in their hometowns by providing academic and recreational grants through a new charitable organization, the Make a Play Foundation. The 501(c)(3) organization is a unique partnership between former players of three of college football’s most storied rivals and will partner with established community organizations and individual player foundations to provide grants promoting leadership, accountability and confidence in children around the state of Florida.

“There are so many kids out there that don’t have goals or expectations of themselves because they don’t have access or the opportunity for bigger things,” co-founder Terry Jackson said. “Anything we can do to help get them involved in something that interests them, whether it’s sports, music, art or education, it’s worth it.”

The organization’s goal is to use a collective voice to help promote growth and change for children in their hometowns, building on what several individual players have already done by devoting their time, leadership and financial support to a range of causes. The Make a Play Foundation’s vision is to provide academic or recreational grants designed to fund educational field trips, improve or build community playgrounds and athletic fields, provide college scholarships, develop leadership programs, reward academic improvements or success, purchase athletic equipment and uniforms, support musical programs, provide computers and technology to local community centers and fund additional family-based programs.

Founding members of the Player Panel include Neal Anderson (UF), James Bates (UF), Lomas Brown (UF), Warrick Dunn (FSU), Earnest Graham (UF), Jacquez Green (UF), Terry Jackson (UF), Willie Jackson, Jr. (UF), Marvin Jones (FSU), Nick Maddox (FSU), Shane Matthews (UF), Santana Moss (Miami), Sinorice Moss (Miami), Burgess Owens (Miami), Errict Rhett (UF), Leon Searcy (Miami), Max Starks (UF), Fred Weary (UF) and Lawrence Wright (UF).

“So many players are out there doing things on the local level, this just provides a network between us to do bigger things, help us expand and build,” Jackson said. “We’ve always supported each other’s community projects, this just gives us the opportunity to pull together and bring fans into the competition and have a little fun with it.”

One hundred percent of individual fan donations will go towards youth and family grants thanks to the generosity of corporate partners and members of the Player Panel who will underwrite the foundation’s operating expenses.

Programs will focus on having a local presence as resources raised in each specific area will be invested back into those communities through hometown grants. Players and fans will also have the opportunity to directly support children and families in their communities through an option to specify that financial donations are designated for children in one of seven areas: the Panhandle; North Central Florida; Jacksonville; Tampa-St.Pete; Orlando and the East Coast; Southwest Florida and Miami-Dade and Broward counties.

Along with providing opportunities and access to at-risk youth, the Make a Play Foundation will also focus the energy and spirit of the three rivalry weeks by launching state-wide fan competitions. The week leading up to each rivalry game promises to bring fans into the battle, making them an active player in some of the most intense rivalries in all of sports. The foundation will partner with a different national or regional charity and dedicate service hours and donations to the adopted organization during the head-to-head competition weeks. The 2008 college football schedule includes games at all three universities: Florida hosts Miami in Gainesville on September 6th, Miami will host Florida State at Dolphin Stadium on October 4th and Florida will travel to Tallahassee to face Florida State on November 29th.

The Make a Play Foundation was established and provided Publix and Wal-Mart gift cards to 250 families in Miami, Tallahassee and Gainesville to purchase holiday meals last December. The cards were distributed through three organizations: the Refuge House of North Florida, Peaceful Paths Domestic Abuse Network of North Central Florida and the CBS4 Neighbors4Neighbors Holiday Adopt-a-Family program in South Florida. The Refuge House of North Florida and the Peaceful Paths Domestic Abuse Network are two organizations that focus on assisting families and victims of domestic violence while the CBS4 Neighbors4Neighbors organization assists South Florida families in crisis for a variety of different issues.

The foundation will expand to include alumni of all Florida colleges and universities to develop the power to promote change for children and families around the state.  For more information on the Make a Play Foundation and partnering player foundations, please visit the official Web site at www.makeaplayfoundation.org.

ABOUT THE FOUNDATION:
The Make a Play Foundation is a 501(c)(3) organization that represents a unique partnership of former players of three of college football’s legendary rivals – Florida, Florida State and Miami- and will partner with established community organizations and individual player foundations to create opportunities for underprivileged children through academic and recreational grants, designed to promote confidence and leadership. The organization’s goal is to use a collective voice to help promote growth and change for children in former players’ hometowns.

We at proCanes.com view Luke Campbell as an Honorary 'Cane. He has contributed a lot to the Miami program and still does. Congrats to you and your bride Luke!

Luke Campbell, former frontman of 2 Live Crew, heard wedding bells instead of beatboxing on Saturday as he and Kristin Thompson tied the knot in Dallas, Texas.

"I waited 47 years to find a special woman and have found that in Kristin," Campbell tells PEOPLE exclusively. "I never knew that I could feel love on another level like this until I met her, and I am now honored to call her my wife."

The stars of the upcoming VH1 reality series Luke's Parental Advisory tied the knot in front of 300 guests at Saint Luke Community Methodist Church, followed by a reception at the Opus Grand Ballroom at Hotel Palomar. Thompson, 27, who serves as general counsel for Campell's company Luke Entertainment, wore a wedding gown by Monique Lhuillier.

Doug E. Fresh deejayed and performed, keeping guests, including Arizona Cardinal Edgerrin James, on the dance floor until the early morning. Soul singer Betty Wright serenaded the happy couple. Their first dance was to Brian McKnight's "Back At One."

Campbell and Thompson met at Jerry's Deli in Miami Beach two years ago. He proposed to her on Halloween last year. This is the first marriage for both. Campbell has two children from a previous relationship.

Luke's Parental Advisory premieres Aug. 4 at 10:30 p.m. EST. The wedding will be featured on the season finale in September.

(people.com)

CAROL CITY
Rudy Barber - 1989
S - Kenny Phillips - 2005
QB - Ethenic Sands - 1998

COLUMBUS
RB - Danyell Ferguson - 1992
RB - Alonzo Highsmith - 1983

CORAL GABLES
RB - Frank Gore - 2001
LB Jon Vilma - 1999

EDISON
DL - William Joseph - 1998
GULLIVER
S - Sean Taylor - 2001

HIALEAH DE - Ted Hendricks - 1965

HOMESTEAD
LB - Micheal Barrow - 1988

KILLIAN
WR - Randal Hill - 1987

MIAMI HIGH
WR - Andre Johnson - 1999

NORLAND
LB - Darren Smith - 1988

NORTHWESTERN
RB Melvin Bratton - 1982
OL Vernon Carey - 1999
QB - Jacory Harris - 2008
WR - Aldarius Johnson - 2008
WR - Brett Perriman - 1984
LB - Sean Spence - 2008
LB - Nate Webster - 1996
NORTH MIAMI DB - Earl Little - 1992

SOUTH DADE
DB - Antrel Rolle - 2001
REMEMBER: Nominations should be based on high school performance and not what the athlete did after high school!

(miamiherald.com)

For 13 years, the University of Miami has had at least one player drafted in the first round. To put that in perspective, the last time a Hurricanes' player wasn't taken in the first round — in 1994 — gas was $1.03 per gallon.

Depending on who you talk to, Miami's streak of first-round picks will continue with safety Kenny Phillips and perhaps defensive end Calais Campbell — or it'll end.

Two months ago, Phillips and Campbell were first-round locks. Now they're not, according to various mock drafts.

Phillips is projected to go as high as 19th in the draft by The Sports Xchange and CBS Sportsline's Clark Judge.

The Sports Xchange also has Campbell being taken 21st, but ESPN's Mel Kiper and Sports Illustrated's Peter King have neither player going in the first round.

"I originally had Kenny Phillips and Calais Campbell in," Kiper said. "The Arkansas State state kid (Tyrell Johnson) has moved up and Phillips is not coming off a great year.

"Calais has a better chance to be picked late in the first round. ... Like Kenny Phillips, it was not his best year."

Gary Wichard, Campbell's agent, laughs at all the conjecture.

"I've won too many bets with Mel Kiper," he said. "None of those guys have a pick on Saturday, which is a good thing.

"There's no way Calais won't be picked in the first round. He's a 6-foot-7, 280-pound freak. I don't care if he was down a little bit. He's a great kid, he'll graduate and he's nothing but hard work and a good attitude. And how many guys in the draft can do what he can do? He'll be fine."
Phillips, who's represented by Drew and Jason Rosenhaus, said they've told him to ignore all the talk but that it's hard.

"It's in the paper, on TV, shows you like to watch," Phillips said. "They're always saying something and it's a negative. It's someone's opinion, not a general manager or coach. People saying that have nothing to do with the draft. They get paid to do it, which I understand. But there's nothing I can do about it."

It's tougher for family members, Phillips said.

"No one likes to hear talk about their son or children," he said. "It's those people's opinions, but it's not things a mother who loves her son likes to hear."

Phillips remains confident he'll be chosen in the first round.

"You never know what will happen," he said. "If I fall into the second round, that's fine; people are dying to go in the second round. But you pray to go in the first round or as high as possible."

While Kiper isn't high on Campbell's or Phillips' first-round chances, he continues to move Tavares Gooden up. He ranked Gooden No. 2 among outside linebackers.

"He had a heckuva a year," Kiper said. "He put it together at the right time."

The 6-foot-1, 234-pound Gooden, who played all three linebacker positions, had 100 tackles (three for losses), three fumble recoveries, three pass breakups and an interception this past season. He has nearly a 40-inch vertical jump and ran a 4.65 time in the 40-yard dash.

"I don't think the real me has come out yet," Gooden said. "I played so many different positions. ... When I worked at something for a couple of years, I get the feel for it and get better at it. I can't wait to show skills at the next level."

Quarterback Kyle Wright, wide receivers Lance Leggett and Darnell Jenkins, offensive linemen Derrick Morse of Estero High, John Rochford and Andrew Bain and defensive lineman Vegas Franklin look like free agents.

Wright never matched his high school hype and was slowed by a series of offensive coordinators.

"I'm very anxious for a new start, to start a new chapter and not look back," Wright said. "Here's what a lot of teams stress. It's hard to get any continuity in the offseason. I never had the same coordinator twice in the summer. I'm definitely looking forward to get in a system team-wise and having people around me work on things I really didn't get here."

(news-press.com)