The Hurricanes should write a thank-you-note to Mother Nature and strength and conditioning coach Andreu Swasey. Due in no small part to the dogged summer humidity and Swasey’s legendary summer workouts, the Hurricanes, unlike the Seminoles, had enough left in the tank to pull out a victory in the Orange Bowl on Friday night.
Fans at the game may have noticed that throughout the second half Florida State players cramped up like they had jumped in the pool right after a big meal.
“They were cramping up at the beginning of the third quarter,” UM’s gigantic left tackle Eric Winston said. “You didn’t see many of our guys cramping up. I cramped up after we won but I wasn’t coming out of the game.”
“We won that game sometime during the summer,” Winston added. “I really felt like they didn’t have that much left going into overtime.”
Vindication
Brian Monroe came to Miami last year and locked up the starting punting job with his powerful leg. However, as the season wore on, it became clear that Monroe’s mind was stopping his leg from doing its job. Monroe averaged just 35.7 yards per punt in his freshman season but he showed vast improvement against FSU.
“After last year, everyone’s been doubting me,” Monroe said after the game. “I just had to wait my time until the first game and show them what I got.”
With a renewed sense of confidence, Monroe averaged 42.6 yards on seven punts, three of which he laid to rest inside the 20-yard line. Monroe’s most impressive feat however, may have been catching a high snap while standing in front of his own goal line and then booting a career long 60-yard punt in the face of serious pressure.
“[Confidence] was pretty much the main thing that I had to work on,” Monroe said. “[Last season] I would just get down on myself if I did a bad kick, I would worry about it and every time I would kick, I would worry about that same kick.”
With Monroe’s head clear of distractions, the offense should feel a little less pressure this season.
Different Nights
Sinorice Moss came to Miami three years ago as an unheralded recruit whose big brother, Santana, helped return Miami to the top of college football.
Ryan Moore came to UM rated by many recruiting services as one of the top high school wide receivers in the country.
Moore finished last season as the ‘Canes No.1 receiver while Moss had trouble breaking into the starting rotation. That fact is hard to believe when one considers that Moss caught four passes for a team high 112 yards, including the game tying touchdown with 30 seconds remaining while Moore dropped three passes right in his hands.
“A lot of times I was four or five steps ahead of myself,” Moore said. “I was thinking about what I was going to do before I caught the ball…Everybody has bad days.”
“It felt great to step up and make a big play for the team,” Moss said. “I was fortunate enough to be that guy to make that play.”
Tidbits
Students can thank a university donor from Perry Ellis for providing those stylish orange tee’s and Power Bar for the towels on the seats…UM track star, Olympic silver medalist, and ‘Canes fullback Talib Humphrey’s girlfriend Lauryn Williams carried an American Flag onto the field while the crowd gave her a well-deserved ovation…Freshman Calais Campbell showed that he has most spirit than half the student body combined by pumping up the crowd on every defensive play of the game.