I got to thinking about the history of the USF/Miami series, and how important it was for this program. The good and the bad. And how 2010 became a moment so important in UM's timeline that it forever changed the program.
One of the final things done by Paul Dee in his last year as UM's Athletic Director was the finalization of a five year deal to play USF, beginning in 2009. The deal was signed in 2007, and a year earlier UM had just agreed to play two games with Florida. The problem was there was a large gap between the first game (2008) and Florida's return trip (2013). ESPN broached the idea to UM about having a rivalry match up to be played during Thanksgiving week to coincide with the FSU/UiF game.
It seemed intriguing at the time, and some Miami fans were all for it. The idea being that USF was a rising power and it could help us fill the stands with another in-state rival. The kind of game that UiF was adamant in not providing us. The only prior meeting between the two was a 27-7 win in 2005 where UM just kind of toyed with them.
Fast forward two years later and USF was coming off a season where they were ranked as high as #2 in the nation. Jim Leavitt had them rolling.
In 2009, when the first game was about to be played, Miami was a young team and looked to be moving in the right direction under Randy Shannon. Miami won pretty easily, riding Damien Berry and Javarris James to a convincing win. After Miami won the first meeting by three touchdowns, everyone thought this whole series was a great idea. After all, we looked so spiffy in our Nike Pro Combat Jerseys:
"Lets play more games against them", they said. "We'll never lose to a directional Florida school", they said. Then 2010 happened.
2010 was supposed to be the year that Miami took the next step. That step being a player on the national stage again. There was a lot of enthusiasm going into the season. We were ranked in the preseason polls for the first time in 4 years. We also were coming off of a 9 win season and returned most of our key starters. Then we had a turnover filled disaster against Ohio State in the second week of the season. That game made it clear that the interception problems from the year before were going to be a persistent thing with this team. We managed to shake that off until we got the doors blown off of us by FSU in Jimbo Fisher's first year as coach.
This is a moment that LuCane points out as the pendulum shifting moment in the UM/FSU rivalry. It's also when the "Fire Randy" train started getting ready to leave the station for most people. After overcoming the long walk at Duke, the team regrouped by finally beating UNC. This was something that was propped up by Randy's supporters as an accomplishment, only because he hadn't beaten them before. That was completely irrelevant one week later when UM lost on the road to an awful UVA team. Randy made things worse two days later by going on the radio and telling Joe Rose that it wouldn't be a big deal if we didn't win the Coastal Division. Another loss to Virginia Tech a few weeks later eliminated UM from the Coastal Division title, and gave them a 7-4 record heading into the final game of the season. Everyone in Miami was irate, people made banners and everything:
After a season so pathetic and embarrassing, losing to USF would've been the toothpick that held together the ****-sandwich of a season that we had just been subjected to. And lose we did. Late in the 4th quarter, while already in field goal range, Offensive Coordinator Mark Whipple called a play for Jacory to throw down the field on 3rd and 15. It got intercepted, and the game went to overtime. On our first possession we went 3 and out and settled for a field goal. If you couldn't already tell what was going to happen next, then I feel sorry for you.
In retrospect, the loss turned out to be great for two reasons. The first reason was that the national media attributed USF's win to the greatness of Skip Holtz. He was in his first year after Jim Leavitt got the ziggy for slapping around one of his players. If a real coach was there that win could've have been turned into something meaningful for them. Something a little more tangible than a billboard on the highway and a couple of recruits. Instead they had a corch who was out of a job two years later. The second great reason was that it led to the firing of Randy Shannon a few hours after the game. The previous sentence needs no further explanation.
The lasting images from the past two games against USF are quite a contrast from those in 2010. I'll never (and I mean NEVER) forget seeing Colin McCarthy, down on one knee, crying his eyes out after having lost on senior day. That's what makes the 6-3 win in 2011 so great to me.
[video=youtube;iduAhAEnBz8]www.youtube.com/watch?v=iduAhAEnBz8[/video]
Now the first thing Canes fans think about when USF is brought up is that scene of Golden and the team jumping around Jake Wieclaw before his game winning kick. If that wasn't enough to wipe the awful images of 2010 from your brain, then the 40-9 beat down last year surely did it. Mainly because of Denzel Perryman leaving Bobby Eveld's lifeless body folded up like a cheap accordion:
The last time Eveld was in Sun Life Stadium, it was coming off the bench in the 2nd half to lead his team to that 2010 victory. Perryman sent him back to the bench with an injury like it was his life's mission to do so.
Now we're getting ready to play USF for probably the final time. I wont miss them, and neither should any of you. There's a reason they are getting left behind in the AAC. They've lost whatever momentum they had as a program and aren't going to be able to recreate it. Especially in that awful conference of theirs. All of these things render the purpose of this "rivalry game" meaningless. That's not to say I'm not grateful to them being responsible for Al Golden coming to Coral Gables. Far from it, we'll always have 2010 to look back on. I just want us to return the favor by giving one more beating. Think of it as our way of saying, "Thank You", to USF. Don't let these guys get it in their heads that we dropped them because we're too scared to play them.
One of the final things done by Paul Dee in his last year as UM's Athletic Director was the finalization of a five year deal to play USF, beginning in 2009. The deal was signed in 2007, and a year earlier UM had just agreed to play two games with Florida. The problem was there was a large gap between the first game (2008) and Florida's return trip (2013). ESPN broached the idea to UM about having a rivalry match up to be played during Thanksgiving week to coincide with the FSU/UiF game.
It seemed intriguing at the time, and some Miami fans were all for it. The idea being that USF was a rising power and it could help us fill the stands with another in-state rival. The kind of game that UiF was adamant in not providing us. The only prior meeting between the two was a 27-7 win in 2005 where UM just kind of toyed with them.
Fast forward two years later and USF was coming off a season where they were ranked as high as #2 in the nation. Jim Leavitt had them rolling.
In 2009, when the first game was about to be played, Miami was a young team and looked to be moving in the right direction under Randy Shannon. Miami won pretty easily, riding Damien Berry and Javarris James to a convincing win. After Miami won the first meeting by three touchdowns, everyone thought this whole series was a great idea. After all, we looked so spiffy in our Nike Pro Combat Jerseys:
"Lets play more games against them", they said. "We'll never lose to a directional Florida school", they said. Then 2010 happened.
2010 was supposed to be the year that Miami took the next step. That step being a player on the national stage again. There was a lot of enthusiasm going into the season. We were ranked in the preseason polls for the first time in 4 years. We also were coming off of a 9 win season and returned most of our key starters. Then we had a turnover filled disaster against Ohio State in the second week of the season. That game made it clear that the interception problems from the year before were going to be a persistent thing with this team. We managed to shake that off until we got the doors blown off of us by FSU in Jimbo Fisher's first year as coach.
This is a moment that LuCane points out as the pendulum shifting moment in the UM/FSU rivalry. It's also when the "Fire Randy" train started getting ready to leave the station for most people. After overcoming the long walk at Duke, the team regrouped by finally beating UNC. This was something that was propped up by Randy's supporters as an accomplishment, only because he hadn't beaten them before. That was completely irrelevant one week later when UM lost on the road to an awful UVA team. Randy made things worse two days later by going on the radio and telling Joe Rose that it wouldn't be a big deal if we didn't win the Coastal Division. Another loss to Virginia Tech a few weeks later eliminated UM from the Coastal Division title, and gave them a 7-4 record heading into the final game of the season. Everyone in Miami was irate, people made banners and everything:
After a season so pathetic and embarrassing, losing to USF would've been the toothpick that held together the ****-sandwich of a season that we had just been subjected to. And lose we did. Late in the 4th quarter, while already in field goal range, Offensive Coordinator Mark Whipple called a play for Jacory to throw down the field on 3rd and 15. It got intercepted, and the game went to overtime. On our first possession we went 3 and out and settled for a field goal. If you couldn't already tell what was going to happen next, then I feel sorry for you.
In retrospect, the loss turned out to be great for two reasons. The first reason was that the national media attributed USF's win to the greatness of Skip Holtz. He was in his first year after Jim Leavitt got the ziggy for slapping around one of his players. If a real coach was there that win could've have been turned into something meaningful for them. Something a little more tangible than a billboard on the highway and a couple of recruits. Instead they had a corch who was out of a job two years later. The second great reason was that it led to the firing of Randy Shannon a few hours after the game. The previous sentence needs no further explanation.
The lasting images from the past two games against USF are quite a contrast from those in 2010. I'll never (and I mean NEVER) forget seeing Colin McCarthy, down on one knee, crying his eyes out after having lost on senior day. That's what makes the 6-3 win in 2011 so great to me.
[video=youtube;iduAhAEnBz8]www.youtube.com/watch?v=iduAhAEnBz8[/video]
Now the first thing Canes fans think about when USF is brought up is that scene of Golden and the team jumping around Jake Wieclaw before his game winning kick. If that wasn't enough to wipe the awful images of 2010 from your brain, then the 40-9 beat down last year surely did it. Mainly because of Denzel Perryman leaving Bobby Eveld's lifeless body folded up like a cheap accordion:
The last time Eveld was in Sun Life Stadium, it was coming off the bench in the 2nd half to lead his team to that 2010 victory. Perryman sent him back to the bench with an injury like it was his life's mission to do so.
Now we're getting ready to play USF for probably the final time. I wont miss them, and neither should any of you. There's a reason they are getting left behind in the AAC. They've lost whatever momentum they had as a program and aren't going to be able to recreate it. Especially in that awful conference of theirs. All of these things render the purpose of this "rivalry game" meaningless. That's not to say I'm not grateful to them being responsible for Al Golden coming to Coral Gables. Far from it, we'll always have 2010 to look back on. I just want us to return the favor by giving one more beating. Think of it as our way of saying, "Thank You", to USF. Don't let these guys get it in their heads that we dropped them because we're too scared to play them.
