GT game

Well due to illness I have not written much this season.  It looks like I am finally over the hump.  I have my club seats for the game today.  I’m hoping Miami improves on stopping the run.  If not it will be like 4 years ago on that cold night in November where GT seemed to run for 1000 yards.  The bottom line is Miami needs to play ball control offence or makes this game a shoot out.  As much as Miami defense is young, GT’s defense is not that good and has not been for years.  I don’t know if Miami can run the ball 50%+ and keep Miami’s young defense on the sideline.  Morris has to manage the game, but he has not played well the last few weeks.

Going off topic this morning.  I’m tired of hearing radio talk show host that claim to be Miami fans blame Golden and blame the kids.  One idiot on 790 the zone tried to blame Golden, and he was the reason for the down fall. By the way he was a big Shannon supporter.   Dan Sileo went on his rant a few days that exploded on the internet.  He just was demoted from the afternoon drive to the midmorning spot a few weeks ago on WQAM.  You figure a guy who is about 50 years old would lay off the PEDs and the sweat suits.  He is pretty much your typical loud mouth ‘roid head who has bounced around radio stations for the last 5-10 years.  I used to listen to him in San Francisco, but he was told to stop talking about Miami football.  It was not too much longer before he left the station.  He is what the Miami program need to separate themselves from.

The fact is the Miami program is one of the youngest teams in the nation.  It is way too early to judge these kids and this team.  I am going to stay with my pick of winning 8-9 games.  I think the defense will improve.  I just hope it starts today.

camp opens up on Friday

The University of Miami football team opens summer camp this Friday.  For the second year in a row Yahoo sends a black cloud over the practice fields.  This year they said a runner was illegally recruiting for Al Golden.  Several days later Dan Sileo said the story was bought by Yahoo from a former university employee Golden fired.  It seems like Yahoo has an ax to grind against the football program.  I have said for months Miami should sue Yahoo before the NCAA makes a decision.  If they prove Yahoo paid for the story about Golden, the creditability of last year’s story goes out the window.

Golden seemed to have been able to defect the story during the ACC meetings this past week.  He also received commitments from two 4 star defensive backs.  Looks like the recruits are trusting Golden, not Yahoo.  What I was most surprised at was ESPN reporter Heather Dinich defended Golden.  When the smoke clear the NCAA will give the same sanction Ohio State received.

With camp opening up hopefully I can write and talk about football.  Due to my real job I have been traveling a lot.  I may mix in an audio article and she how it fly’s.  Maybe I’ll get 20 people to read my blog by the end of the year.

 

No bowl for Miami

Like  I have been saying for months now, Miami is not going to a bowl.  This is the best decision by the university in the long run.  Miami has a good recruiting class coming in this year.  Al Golden has stated that he will not lose any scholarships this year.  As of this morning he had 30 recruits for the 2012 class and his staff is hitting the recruiting road Sunday morning.

Hopefully the rest of the NCAA sanctions will be announced by March or April.  I expect Miami to lose 9-15 scholarships over the next three years.  I also think the NCAA will go after the former assistant coaches and AD’s who allowed this to happen.

 

It’s the night before the Duke and homecoming for Miami alumni.  I have just back from being on the road again.  I’m not getting paid to write this blog, if I did I would owe people money.  The big story this week was Al Golden’s rumored pay raise and contract extension.  Omar Kelly of the Miami Herald made comments on WQAM that he should not get a raise and he knew about the Shapiro investigation.  I think he may have known something, but not the existent of the lies Shapiro was going to claim in the Yahoo report.  I think he will get an extra year on his contract and a raise for every year of probation Miami is going to get.  I reported this a few weeks ago, and called in on WQAM about it after the Kansas State loss; Miami will turn down a bowl game this year.  The post game radio staff said why should they? I told them that they will take the bowl loss now, like the Tennessee basketball program did and get a lesser punishment later.  I honestly think the NCAA is going to go after the people the comment the acts, and not just punish the university after those people leave.  Unless the acting AD or president of the university knew about the situation and either lied about it or did nothing to stop it.  The NCAA is fight to survive as an organization.

I just returned from working at Penn State, and Al Golden is not going to be coaching there next year.  Jo Pa will not resign and the university cannot fire him.  There also may be a clause in his contract that will allow him to pick his replacement if he does quit.  Hell, there could be a clause in his will too. If that is the case the Jo Pa will pick his son as the new head coach.  Urban will not be the next head coach at Penn State because they will not pay the money for a high end coach.

The feeling seems to not to  look  past Duke, and on to FSU next week.   Duke gave Va Tech fits last week and seems to have hung in a few games this year.  Miami needs to blow them out, and by over 20 points.  They need to get the team focused again.  Then worry about FSU on Sunday.

I will have a preview tomorrow morning.

Miami @ UNC blog

Miami had a very important victory over UNC yesterday.  They started fast, held on to the lead, and made key plays when they had too.  Jacory was the MVP in the Hurricanes victory.  He was 20 for 30 for 267 yards, and 3 touchdowns.  Benjamin and Streeter had great games too.  After Benjamin got the wind knocked out of him from a solid hit from UNC’s Tre Boston, Streeter burned him for a long gain.  It had to be my favorite play of the game.

Miami was not able to establish any kind of a running game.  Miami only had 44 net yards again UNC’s run defense.  They need to get the offensive line back on track for Georgia Tech.  I did not track how many plays Henderson got it but, he needs to start next week.  He blows holes off the line at Va Tech.  I do not understand why they kept going to the running game when it was not working and UNC could not stop the pass.

Miami’s defense showed it still has serious issues.  They allowed 429 yards of total offence, and they were run over in the 2^nd half.  Spence had a big game for Miami.  He had 14 tackles and a sack.  He seemed to be all over the field.  He is going to need the same sort of performance against Georgia Tech Saturday.  Olivier Vernon is going to return next week, and he will to play right away and play well.  Luckily, UNC’s coaching staff did not have a scene of urgency in the 4^th quarter.  I expected UNC to run hurry up offense, but I guess they had no faith in Renner.

The special teams played well, but Byrd fumbled the UNC onside kick late in the fourth quarter.  Byrd may have played himself on the bench for the rest of the season.  I don’t even think he was in one offensive play yesterday.  Wieclaw has been perfect with field goals and extra points.  He is headed to being all ACC if he keeps it up.

Hopefully some of the critics Golden had had the last few weeks are satisfied with the progress this team had made.  This is going to take some time, but I think the run will start now.  Some of the phones calls I heard on WQAM and the hosts the past few were ridiculous and proved that most radio hosts know nothing about football.  Sid said it best a few weeks ago, I rather be entertaining then right.

The ACC announced the game time for Georgia Tech is 3:30 EST next Saturday.

Shapiro Situation

Both the Miami Herald and the Palm Beach Post reported yesterday , Joel Tabas has recovered about $19 million, out of the almost one billion dollar ponzi scheme.  Joel Tabas who is the trustee for the bankruptcy is turning his attention toward Shapiro’s lawyers. Who were paid with funds from Shapiro’s company, Capitol Investments USA.  Shapiro should not have used company money for his legal defense.  Tabas is seeking a little under a million dollars.

When this story broke in August, I was trying to read through the TMZ reporting that ESPN, SI, and the rest of the sports media was spitting out.  Shapiro said he did it because none of the Miami player came to his defense.  Maybe that is a part of it, but I felt there was more to it then petty revenge.  Shapiro and his lawyers were shopping this story for over a year.  It was confirmed that Miami Herald and ESPN turned down the story.  Even Yahoo has been removing parts and has retracted parts of the original story.

Even the legal defense team was getting on Miami sports radio, saying the coached knew, everyone knew.  Shapiro is a liar, and that is well documented.  Part of his plea agreement was to pay back the money to the victims.  I think he dragged the Miami players into this are to pay off part his debt.  I am not going to deny that he did give some players money.  The University suspended several players due to illegal payments to player before and after they signed with Miami. It will be interesting to see if the lawyers change the story or walk away from the story if they have to play the money.  Lawyers do not like it when they do not get paid for their services.

As time goes on, I feel most of the allegations will not be true, or over fabricated.