Thoughts on Canes win over Pitt

There has been a lot of drama for the Canes since their loss at Ohio State. Randy Shannon banned Twitter. Some fans made racist comments on Jacory Harris' twitter page, saying Miami didn't want a black quarterback. Randy Shannon allegedly ripped into the team according to the Miami Herald's Manny Navarro, rightfully so as I stated in an earlier blog. I was anxious to see how the team would come out against Pitt. After watching the game I'm left feeling confused. I'm not sure if I am happy. I am not angry either, but not happy. We won 31-3 and made Dave Wannstedt look horrible on ESPN. Yet I feel so unimpressed. Jacory Harris threw two more interceptions and had a very mediocre first half. At times I wanted to reach through the screen and slap him.

Eric Winston, a former UM player who now plays in the NFL, tweeted this:

"@ericwinston: Dear jacory, There is nothing wrong with dumping the ball in the flat. Even Babe Ruth didn't hit a homerun every at bat. Sincerely, Alumni."

At one point I told my brother I thought Jacory should be benched. The only problem with that is who would you play in his place? Then immediately after I say something like that Jacory makes a beautiful pass to Travis Benjamin. Moments like this frustrate me. I have seen Jacory Harris make big plays. I have seen him make gorgeous throws with such touch it looks like the ball floats into the receiver's hands. But then I am reminded of Ohio State and that four interception game. Then I remember that last year he threw 17 interceptions. I am not sure if Jacory Harris can lead this team to wins against big time teams.

Anyway, I'd like to talk about something positive I saw in this game. Damien Berry is a good running back. He kind of reminds me of Willis Mcgahee. He had 21 carries for 87 yards and one touchdown. The numbers don't sound too shocking, but there was one play I was particularly impressed with. In the second half, Berry took a handoff for 27 yards around the corner. I have always thought of him as a physical, powerful runner, but on this play he showed some elusiveness and speed. If Berry has a breakout game at some point this year he could experience something similar to what happened with Edgerrin James before he was drafted. Edgerrin James climbed rapidly up the draft charts after he had a 299 yard rushing day against UCLA in 1998. Damien Berry was also a bright spot against Ohio State. In that game he rushed for 94 yards on 16 carries. If we had run the ball a bit more perhaps we would have had a better chance to win. With a little luck I can see Damien Berry getting drafted on Day 1 of the NFL Draft.

I'll finish by completely contradicting myself. I wish the Hurricanes would watch the Miami Dolphins and use some of their philosophy. Run the ball. Control the clock. Play good, solid defense. Don't let Jacory lose the game for you by trying to do too much. These are the exact same things I criticize about the Miami Dolphins' offense, but right now I trust Damien Berry and the rest of the Hurricanes' stable of running backs in comparison to Jacory Harris' arm. 

AP photo/ Wilfredo Lee

Thoughts on Canes win over Pitt

Redemption

A second chance. All of us know what that feels like. We all know what it's like to make a mistake, regret it, and wish we could somehow fix what we did. Some of us get lucky and find a way to get that second chance. Others are not as blessed. I think there is one thing we can all agree on though. There is no better feeling than seeing someone be at their lowest, and watch them climb back up to the top. A redemption story. America loves redemption stories.

Why? Perhaps it is because of this nation's history. We went from being a blip on the world's radar screen to being a world power in 250 years. We experienced the Great Depression, arguably this nation's lowest point, and fought back to become even stronger. We experienced 9/11. Look no further than the famous words of Vince Lombardi: "It isn't about whether you got knocked down, it's about whether you get back up."

Some of the movies we love, movies that have become ingrained in our minds, deal with that simple theme. Look at Rocky. Have you ever met someone that doesn't like Rocky? Rocky is about a guy who comes from nothing and all of a sudden becomes a champion boxer. To continue with Sylvester Stallone movies, another example is Rambo. John Rambo is a Vietnam vet who comes back to America to realize he is an outcast. He essentially is a "bad guy" who blows up a whole town because they arrested him for being a drifter. It's odd, but you are rooting for Rambo the entire time. There are more examples of movies like this. You've got Scarface, where the main character is a coke snorting crazy Cuban drug lord, yet at the end of the movie when his house is infiltrated by Colombians who have been hired to kill him you are cheering for him to somehow survive the ambush.

It should be no surprise that we do the same exact thing with athletes. Most of America believes Pete Rose should be inducted into the Hall of Fame. He gambled on baseball and denied it for years, was banned from the game, and for a long time we were angry with him. But America has moved on. The same goes for Ron Artest, who in 2004 during a basketball game between the Indiana Pacers and the Detroit Pistons went into the crowd and started a brawl between the fans and the teams. Now he is a Laker and is fresh off a championship. America has moved on. Miami Dolphin fans were enraged when Ricky Williams quit the team to smoke dope, but now he is a fan favorite. He has been forgiven.

It happens over and over again. A player hits rock bottom, but over time you want to see him succeed again. Most recently we have dealt with athletes like Tiger Woods, who we thought was squeaky clean for all these years and now we see he has been having extra-marital affairs for years with several women. Tiger Woods will eventually win a major tournament and be back in America's good graces in no time.

This brings me to Michael Vick. In 2005, Michael Vick was the NFL's highest paid player. He was 24 years old at that point and had just signed a 10 year contract with the Atlanta Falcons. We all know what happened next. The dog fighting scandal. The gambling. The tax evasion. Michael Vick went from being one of the NFL's most popular players to a convict. Fast forward to September 2010. Michael Vick is now the starting quarterback for the Philadelphia Eagles. He gets his shot at redemption.

Redemption

Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice...

We know the saying. We know what it's like to be let down, year after year. We've been fooled before. Some of us are being fooled right now. Me? I'm trying my very best to not fall for this trap the Dolphins have laid before us after week 2. Our record says we are undefeated right now. Two wins. Zero losses. The bandwagon is driving around the neighborhood. Better jump on now. Not me. I'm not that naiive anymore. I'm a wise man when it comes to this. Don't get me wrong. The feeling is there. The pull, the twinge in your heart when you read 2-0, it's there. Hope. Just a glimmer. But I'm stomping it down. I am doing everything I can to keep it locked away in a box deep down inside my soul.


Why you ask? Why so jaded? Why so determined to stop myself from celebrating a victory, especially one on the road against a team many consider Super Bowl caliber with a Hall of Fame quarterback and a Pro Bowl running back? Why not, for just a second, admit that it feels good to pull off this victory and be atop the AFC East Division? I've been down this road before. Since the very beginning of my Dolphin fandom I have been a hopeless romantic. Always believing the Dolphins will give me what my heart desires--a championship.


At first, it was because Dan Marino needed one. It would be the one thing that would cement him in the minds of many as the top quarterback of all time. Year after year I would feel pain when the Dolphins would lose in the playoffs. Not just my pain, I would feel Dan's pain. I would see him on the sideline or in the locker room, head hung, looking older each passing season. His arm was not failing him, but his legs and hips surely were. Time was running out on Dan.


In 1995, the Dolphins seemed set to make a run at the Super Bowl. We started off the year 4-0 and expectations were through the roof. Then we lost three in a row. The rest of the season was up and down, but even so we believed that come playoff time, Marino would get us to the Super Bowl. First round playoff exit. The Buffalo Bills rushed for over 300 yards and we got destroyed even though Marino threw for over 400 yards. That's when everyone started saying it was time for a change. Don Shula had to go.


Bring on the Jimmy Johnson era. More promises being made. Jimmy promised he would win us a championship by his third year. That didn't workout the way he planned, so he quit, leaving us in the hands of Dave Wannstedt. During all those years we had a few nice seasons. But we never made it to the promised land. Wannstedt quit the same year Ricky Williams left the team and then we started playing what seemed to be musical chairs with our coaching staff. Jim Bates was the head coach for some time, then there was Nick Saban. Saban seemed promising. I wanted to believe in him so much because I had read his book and he was part of the Parcells/Belichik coaching tree. Sports Illustrated predicted the Dolphins would win the Super Bowl. We signed Daunte Culpepper instead of Drew Brees. Culpepper played a few games before he was back on the injured list, and Nick bailed on us when he saw we were much further from a Super Bowl than what he had envisioned. He lied to all of us, packed his bags and went to Alabama.


Bring on Cam Cameron and the worst season in Miami Dolphins history. This was definitely the most painful season of football I have ever had to endure. I watched the games only because I was hoping we could win at least ONE. We did, against the Baltimore Ravens on a catch over the middle by Greg Camarillo. Then we got Parcells, Sparano, and Ireland. This is where we are at. Years and years of first round playoff exits, watching legends get tossed to the curb, stars simply walk away from the game for reasons I yet don't fully comprehend (Ricky Williams), draft day screw ups, free agency miscues, career ending injuries, have all left me in a fetal position on the floor sucking my thumb. The Super Bowl has become something of a myth around Miami. It's like the Holy Grail. Is it even real? Again, the Dolphins may be 2-0, and we may have beaten Brett Favre and the Minnesota Vikings, but I refuse to allow myself to fall into the same traps I've fallen into since I was a kid.

Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice...

Dolphins-Vikings: What to look for...

In an about an hour the Miami Dolphins will be taking on the Minnesota Vikings on the road. While most of the national attention will revolve around Brett Favre, I'll be keeping a close eye on Chad Henne. Last week Henne averaged somewhere around 5.6 yards per completion, most of those dump offs to his running backs or check downs underneath. Offensive Coordinator Dan Henning claims the team called for at least two or three deep passes but on one of them the ball was under-thrown (to Brandon Marshall), another Henne was sacked, and the third he checked down.

I made the assertion in an earlier blog that the Dolphins will have to be able to sling the ball down field in order to have a realistic shot of competing when it comes to the playoffs. Henne technically has not yet played a full season, having only become the starter after Chad Pennington went down with a shoulder injury last season. Last week I jumped all over him and started to doubt whether he could be the guy to lead this team to the Super Bowl. A week has passed and although I have many of the same concerns, I am willing to let Henne evolve before my eyes (hopefully he does).

That being said, here are some of the problems I see with Henne so far. I think he holds the ball way too long and at times doesn't look too confident about where to throw the ball. Against the Vikings he will have to get rid of the ball early because Jared Allen is lining up on the other side of the ball and will be looking to wreak havoc on him. But the main thing I want to see from Henne is a little of the stuff that makes Brett Favre one of the all time greats--Henne needs to trust himself and trust his instincts. He can't be worried about making mistakes. I know the Dolphins preach no interceptions, no fumbles, and no penalties. All of that is beautiful, but if Henne is worried about making mistakes, he'll never be the playmaker we need him to be.

Henne has a strong arm and is capable of hitting the deep pass (he made Ten Ginn look great against the New York Jets). We need him to become the leader of this offense, and he will never gain that position by being the guy who makes the safe passes. He needs to be the guy who takes some risks, makes some big plays. The quarterback needs to live and die on his arm, a la Brett Favre. The Dolphins need look no further than their own past. Dan Marino trusted his arm more than anything else. He had the utmost confidence in himself. Take a look at this play just to see exactly what I mean. In this game against the New England Patriots, coming from behind and on 4th down and 5, instead of going for the safe play Marino slung the ball down field to Irving Fryar. What happens next is a thing of beauty (fast forward to the 3:43 mark to see the play I am referring to).

Dolphins-Vikings: What to look for...

LET LBJ PLAY PG

The Miami Heat have a situation at point guard. Who to start? Mario Chalmers? A guy who showed talent his rookie year but then had a huge drop-off his second year in the league? Or Carlos Arroyo, an NBA journeyman who doesn't really do anything spectacularly? Mario Chalmers is most famous for making a last second shot in the NCAA tournament a few years ago. "Super" Mario is his nickname, but he has done close to nothing in the NBA so far to be considered starter caliber. He's an average on the ball defender who likes to gamble. He might get a few steals, but more likely than not he is getting beat by most point guards in the league. What is most shocking to me is that he appeared slower his second season. I don't know how it's possible to lose speed at his age (second year player) but that's how it seemed to me. Carlos Arroyo on the other hand has never been known to be a great defensive player. The upside for Arroyo is that he doesn't turn the ball over much, but that is countered by the fact he's not a great playmaker either. Aside from that, his range is not as good as Chalmers' (although I wouldn't call Chalmers a lethal threat from beyond three point range either).


Many people around the league, the so called experts, have made much of the fact we don't have a true starting caliber point guard on the Miami Heat roster. I disagree. Ever since Lebron James came into the NBA I thought to myself Lebron should be playing point guard. At his size, speed, and athletic ability, it would create a mismatch against any team in the NBA. Many have touted his passing ability as his best attribute. I know in Cleveland he needed to carry the team and score a whole lot of points in order to win ball games, but now that he's in Miami, he has Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh to feed the ball to. Adding to that, he is going to have Mike Miller, one of the best three point shooters in the league, out on the wing by himself when opposing teams send a double team to make up for the size mismatch Lebron has over "x" point guard. Obviously Erik Spoelstra needs to clear it with Lebron and make sure he would be willing to play point guard, but I really don't see any reason why he wouldn't.


It would benefit the team greatly and he has made it clear he wants to try and average a triple double next year. What better way for him to reach those numbers than to play point guard? Lebron would be this generation's Magic Johnson, if not even better (I still give Magic the advantage when it comes to intangibles such as leadership skills). It's not like this is a new idea either. The Chicago Bulls used Scottie Pippen as a point forward who would handle the ball for a large part of the game, especially towards the end of the Bulls dynasty when Michael Jordan needed someone to carry some of the ball handling load. The second wave of Bulls' championships featured Ron Harper as the starting point guard, and he was brought on more for his defense than his playmaking or ball handling ability. The backup point guard was Steve Kerr, another player who was really a specialist type and not starting caliber (Kerr retired with the highest three point shooting percentage in league history). Scottie Pippen's numbers reflect more of what Lebron's numbers should be if he played point guard (Pippen was really a triple threat player in that he could score, rebound, and distribute the ball as well as any point guard in the league). In today's league, players like the Lakers' Lamar Odom are used as point forwards as well.


Everyone has expected Lebron to be the next Michael Jordan. To me, he is more of a blend of Magic Johnson and Scottie Pippen. Sure he can score tons of points. He proved that in Cleveland. But in order for him to win championships here in Miami and for the Heat to become the dynasty he and the rest of the Heat stars envisioned when they all agreed to take less money and come to South Beach, scoring can't be his main focus. 

With this much talent around him, Lebron doesn't need to carry the scoring load.

LET LBJ PLAY PG

It's about time!

According to Manny Navarro from the Miami Herald, Randy Shannon lit into his players. (Eye on the U). I have been complaining about Randy Shannon's sideline demeanor since he was hired. Honestly, I have been complaining about Randy Shannon for many other reasons as well and have at times flip-flopped when it comes to any discussion dealing with him. I applauded Shannon when he first became the head coach for making discipline a priority. He made sure his players were going to class, he banned guns on campus, he told them that their main focus should be on getting a solid education. I read about these stories in the paper and thought to myself it was about time someone stepped up and helped mold these kids into men, not just athletes hoping to make it to the NFL.

Many of my friends, most of them varsity coaches in Dade County, told me they felt Randy Shannon was the wrong guy for the job. Some of them even stopped being Hurricane fans when he was hired because they felt the program was heading in the wrong direction. Randy Shannon was a good defensive coordinator, they'd say, but not head coach material. Year in and year out, I would find myself wondering if they were correct when I would notice several blunders that even a casual fan could see. To begin with, I felt Shannon handled the Robert Marve/Jacory Harris quarterback competition the wrong way. Reading between the lines, and I could be wrong, I felt Shannon had made promises to both players. After Randy brought in the entire Northwestern team, I thought the writing was already on the wall--Jacory would become the starter.

Then there were the clock management issues. Shannon seemed to use his time-outs at the most inopportune times, leaving the team vulnerable in the last few minutes of games. Why was he taking so many time-outs? Too many men on the field, the wrong personnel on the field, not knowing how to line up against certain offenses, etc. These are things that an organized coach takes care of way before the game on the practice field. As a guy who was a high school coach for a few years, I understand that these things happen. In my first year I found myself calling time-outs all the time. Difference is I was 23 and had no experience in managing a team. Shannon has been around football his whole life and is getting paid a hell of a whole lot more than I was.

Another thing that bothered me about Randy was he always seemed to be so calm on the sidelines. I know ranting and raving during games isn't for everyone (personally, I don't know any other way to behave. I am naturally a loud guy, so as a coach, I stormed up and down the sideline the entire game. Especially when a player would jump offsides or forget their blocking assignment). So when I read this story that Randy Shannon lit into his players after losing to Ohio State, I felt this was something long overdue. He should have done this a very long time ago. He should have done it last year when we lost to Virginia Tech.

People have been making excuses for this team for far too long. I have heard it all from blaming Larry Coker for his poor recruiting to Randy just needs more time to get his guys in place. I am sorry to say this is the Northwestern class' third year and I have seen very little improvement from most of their players. I am not at practice every day but I do watch the games. Where the hell is Tommy Streeter? Why is Aldarius Johnson playing so poorly? We were told these guys would be the next wave of great receivers at the U and we have barely seen anything from either of them. Jacory Harris has been nothing but mediocre at best!

I know it is a sports cliche, but I firmly believe it to be true...a team takes on the personality of their head coach. Attitude is contagious. I am not friends with Randy Shannon, nor am I with the team when they are behind closed doors. Judging from what I see during games, there does not seem to be much urgency from this team. The Miami fans are getting tired of being told to wait. They are tired of being told that this team is too young. Watch the Ohio State game again. We should have won that game.

It's about time!

Black Eyed Peas to perform in next Super Bowl

The NFL has had a problem with their halftime show in the past few years ever since Janet Jackson's boob popped out on stage (Thank Justin Timberlake). In order to try and remain "family" friendly, the league has had rock bands such as The Rolling Stones and The Who perform during halftime. The problem with this? The stats show most people under the age of 30 are tuning out. While I personally have no problem watching Mick Jagger decompose on stage, most people I know disagree with me. This was made clear to me last year via my facebook account. Every other status update was some form of complaint about The Who being selected for the halftime show. When I defended the NFL's choice I was surprised to find out most people on my friends list had never even heard of The Who. I assume the NFL's choice this year will appeal to a more general mass of people. The Black Eyed Peas have a variety of songs that appeal to a younger crowd while not offending the "family" group out there. Songs such as "I got a feeling", "Let's get it started",  or "Where is the love" are sure to be neutral and vanilla. However, there are certain songs I am sure the NFL won't let them play on stage such as "My Humps" and "Boom Boom Pow" which both revolve around certain female body parts.

I am decomposing.

Black Eyed Peas to perform in next Super Bowl