Changes, They are A-Comin'

Hello All,

Sorry for the delay in between posts...that is aimed at my 7 loyal readers.

I have been a little busy lately. Last week I started my first paying job in the entertainment industry, as a Research Intern at CBS.

It is nothing glamorous, more like Ratings Boot Camp in their Domestic Distribution Department, specifically pulling numbers for syndicated programming starting every morning at 5 AM. TRANSLATION: I tell women I work at CBS, directly with

Oprah's production company.

The reason I am writing today, however, is to talk about the best day of every summer: the day that Miami starts Fall Camp.

As we have seen in the position previews I have written (and I will be posting the last group soon...they are already written), this team has a huge number of question marks.

For some reason, Miami fans have turned in to a group of people I don't like to be included in.

They are bloodthirsty for a coach who has done nothing but improve the team every year (both observationally AND statistically speaking) since taking over a BARE roster. If you need further proof of how bare it was, let's take a look back to my sophomore and junior years:

Lance Leggett was our top receiver. Brian Monroe, our punter, was our emergency 5th receiver. Charlie Jones was our starting running back. Khalil Jones was getting serious playing time. So was Romeo Davis. So was Lovon Ponder. and let's not even start with Kirby Freeman and Kyle Wright.

To say that we have improved the talent and the production is an understatement. Anyone who says otherwise clearly does not know what they are talking about, or is just arguing because they like to argue.

Randy Shannon is not great with the media, nor should he be. He is a man that has been around the program long enough to know exactly how the media should be treated: like mushrooms.

At Miami, the media turns on the team faster than anywhere else in the nation. Any step out of line and "Thug U" gets plastered everywhere.

"Same old Miami", they will say.

If he is a nice guy, like Dennis Erickson, he will get turned on just as quickly as if he is stoic and short with the media. Miami's press corps is fickle and usually temperamental to a fault. They are like the Miami culture at large: fairweather (with few exceptions). They will love Randy when he wins and hate him when he loses. Period.

For a man that does not like speaking in public in the first place (probably because media members are always quick to nitpick his speech patterns) and is under great pressure to win not from others but from himself, it comes down to utilitarian calculus; the answer, unfortunately for the beat writers, usually comes out that the media cannot help Randy in accordance with the time and information that the media thinks it deserves. So he doesn't give it to them. Call it going with his gut. He would rather take the fall and let the media snipe at him than his players. That is a good coach. He will never get the benefit of the doubt from those media members, but the people that matter understand what is at play.

Call me crazy, but unlike the Miami "fans" that I keep talking to I am very excited for this season. I see a team that is growing up and is full of talent. It has its thin spots, but guess what, so does everyone else...including Alabama.

I am pumped to see the team run through the smoke again.

I am excited to start smiling every time I see Miami during an ESPN promo spot.

I am excited to see Damien Berry and Sean Spence and Jacory and Kylan Robinson and every damn player on the team.

I am excited to write about the team from a new angle: die hard 'Canes fan trapped in LA and desperate to find a way to watch my team, which I have followed at an ulcer-inducing rate since I was 5.

So instead of focusing on every little detail and it's "HUGE" implications, as people in the media love to do in the age of the 24 hr. News Cycle, I am taking a big picture approach.

I don't think the depth chart on the first day of practice matters. I think what happens during the next month of practice does.

I think that it is impossible to say that Miami doing well in the APR is a bad thing.

I think that what happened to Thearon Collier is a shame and I wish him all the best, either at UM or somewhere else. I also think he was a very good player and that he will be a lot tougher to replace than others want to believe, but I also believe that we can do it without missing a beat.

I think that Randy Shannon is a definition of what it means to be a Hurricane.

I consider myself one, and I think that it is one of the things I am most proud of.

It is why I am excited for football to start again.

Today is the day that the march to Title #6 began.

Changes are comin', whether it is in Coral Gables or Los Angeles, and that is a damn good thing.