The U

Hello All,

Alright, finally have come down enough from that documentary last night to write something coherent.

Obviously, I give the film an A+. It seems as though fellow Com School Grad Billy Corben was looking to make a film that celebrated this period in the history of the sport that many people would rather you forget.

In that, he totally succeeded. It is important to note that this was not supposed to be an exhaustive history of the program, because that would have taken ten hours to do correctly.

There are things he could have done with the film which he chose to leave out, such as pointing out the fact that while those teams were "Bad Boys" on the field and had the occasional flare up off of it, they weren't the "Thugs" that they were labeled. Being from the 'hood and being a Thug are different entities, and guys like Brett Perriman and Tolbert Bain might have straddled the line, but they were at the end of the day good kids with a chip on their shoulders.

What I did not expect was that the "Fire Shannon" crowd would find a way to try and use this film for their "cause".

A buddy of mine, who I will not name because when he reads this he will know how embarassingly stupid his logic is and that is all that is important, texted me after the on-campus screening and said "Great film. We need to go back to playing like this. Shannon's teams are soft."

SIDENOTE: This is the same kid that within two sentences of each other once told me that he is "sick of having Academic All American goodie two-shoes" and that Shannon should be fired because he is "illiterate". This is the type of reasoning we are dealing with. My response to him was that he is no longer allowed to talk to me about college football, and that his only sports privileges were Hurricane Basketball, the NFL and MLB. Hurricane Baseball was taken away when he claimed that he would rather have Scott Lawson than Jemile Weeks. And yet I digress.

He failed to consider the segment of the film wherein they talked about the "Miami Rules". Essentailly, the type of behavior that we all loved (the dancing and taunting) was legislated out of the sport. If Miami was to pull that kind of stuff in the Champs Sports Bowl, they would end up with so much penalty yardage that it would probably cost them the game and would get the "Fire Shannon" brigade fired up that "this team has no discipline and needs a new coach." you can almost see the wheels turning in the heads of these fans. "Well...Miami didn't win the game...and Shannon is the coach...it must be his fault...and we didn't dance after we scored...and Shannon is the coach...so Shannon should be fired....because we didn't dance...yeah, that's it...so Shannon's team must be soft...yeah, that sounds good....yeah!....and then, if he's soft he can be fired... and we can hire someone else....yeah, this is starting to work...we'll be back to winning titles in no time!!!!"

And therein lies the central thrust of this post. After seeing the film, every 'Cane fan longs for the old days. That's just the way it is. We were winning big. Not only that, we were embarassing everyone else while we did it.

The problem is that those are the old days. Things have changed, whether we like it or not. My same friend said once that "Randy Shannon doesn't have a true 'Cane attitude." Aside from the fact that this is a ridiculous statement, especially after doing, oh, I don't know, two seconds of research on the man, it highlights the mentality of the reactionary 'Cane fan. They not only long for the past, but are stuck in it. They are willing to defy logic in order to will themselves to believe that we can get back to doing the running man after first downs and shooting imagnary six shooters in the tunnel. They believe that only then will we be able to win again.

(Another sidenote: this kid probably never even saw the 2001 team play a game but claims them as his favorite. He probably didn't know who Cortez Kennedy was until three years ago when he enrolled at UM but claims to have a man crush on him. Again, not the most logical kid)

The reality is that times have changed and therefore the program has changed out of necessity.

To be "back" doesn't mean we have to dance after we score touchdowns and convert first downs. I do not recall ever seeing Ed Reed or Sean Taylor or Andre Johnson doing much of that, and I watched nearly every game of their careers. To be "back" means playing with the same chip on their shoulders that the eighties teams had.

(Those teams in the eighties wouldn't have done the stuff they did if it meant losing games. And trust me, if we were taking 200 yards in penalties per game in the year 2009, we would lose every game.)

That is the takeaway from the film. Those guys played their asses off.

The dancing was all a sideshow to the main event.

The main event, rather, was a group of fast, hard working kids that came out to prove something. They were better than anyone the world had ever seen. The game had not yet caught up to them.

Now, the rest of the sport has caught up. Miami has to find a new way to break in to the winner's circle.

That is what Randy is trying to move his team back to, the type of attitude he is trying to instill. Howard Schnellenberger was famous for being a hard-nosed man. He didn't put up with bullshit (I write this as I watch a replay of the 1984 Orange Bowl). That is what Shannon has tried to impart. No bullshit accepted. Take care of business of the field and blast people once you're on it. Find a way to win.

Academic recognition does not mean that this football program is falling off. It is not an admittance that the 'Canes are getting away from their roots. If anything, it means to me that the 'Canes are staying true. They are working their asses off both on and off the field, as is now reflected in both and improving record on the field and naitonal recognition off of it.

The program is getting closer to being "back", although people who took the wrong message away from this movie may tend to differ.

OTHER THOUGHTS FROM THE WEEKEND

-App State vs. Montana was a hell of a game. Army-Navy wasn't but I loved it anyway. One good thing about off weekends like this one is getting to watch guys who are really playing for no reason but love of the game.

-Congrats to Mark Ingram on his trophy. He was classy in victory and gave the best acceptance speech I can remember. The voters got it as right as they could without giving the award to Spiller. Good stuff.

- After re-watching this 1984 Orange Bowl, Stein on the Sidelines has decided that Eddie Brown is perhaps the most underappreciated 'Cane of all time. And Jay Brophy looks like he should have starred in his own series of Spaghetti Westerns. And Stanley Shakespeare is the greatest name of any 'Cane ever.

Always guard the inbound passer.