Banged-up Canes
posted by LW, Wednesday, October 21, 2009
I tried to get a read on Miami's injury situation yesterday.
It took a while.
The list is long and diverse.
Senior safety Randy Phillips has missed three games with a torn labrum and needs surgery but will wait until after the season. That's gotta hurt.
Dynamic tailback Graig Cooper has a really sore hip bit is expected to play Saturday.
LB Colin McCarthy has been playing with a shoulder injury.
DE Eric Moncur has missed two games with a leg injury but returned to practice this week.
DL Josh Holmes missed last week's game against UCF with something called a "lower-extremity injury" but is expected to play Saturday.
On offense, OL Joel Figueroa missed last week's game with a shoulder injury. He's expected back.
WR Aldarius Johnson missed the UCF game after suffering a shoulder injury against Florida A&M. He is back at practice.
And that's not counting the guys who are out for the season: DT Marcus Fortson, DE Adewale Ojomo, DE Gavin Hardin, DE Dyron Dye, LB Jordan Futch, LB Shayon Green, CB Ryan Hill, TE Richard Gordon, and maybe a few more that I missed.
This is quite a wave of ailments. Miami is already a young team, and you have to think these holes are going to cost them at some point.
Did you know Jacory Harris has been sacked 12 times in the last three games? Getting that shored up is one of the Canes' main concerns heading into Saturday's game against Clemson.
Miami's OL received a lot of props early in the season, but there are some issues there. Virginia Tech completely overwhelmed them, and George O'Leary schemed them up for six sacks in the Hurricanes' 27-7 win over UCF.
What's more, there's very little depth; no reserve played at UCF until less than two minutes remained.
Given how much Kevin Steele rotates his guys up front, this is a matchup Clemson might feel pretty good about.
The Canes were pouring on the praise of Clemson yesterday.
Left guard Orlando Franlkin:
``They have good people at every position on the field. It looks like the Oklahoma defense pretty much. They've got a two-deep defensive line."
Jacory Harris, on ends Da'Quan Bowers and Ricky Sapp:
"They're awesome guys. They have a two-headed monster."
More on the Canes' OL here.
The Canes have a fleet of talented tailbacks, including the emergent Damien Berry.
Posted this on the board last night, but Manny Navarro of The Miami Herald has a good blog post that details why Miami should fear Clemson.
When Clemson went down to Miami in 2004 and upset the Canes in overtime, you could make the case that the Tigers snuck up on them. That won't be the case this time. Clemson is a lot more talented this time around, and Miami knows it.
Navarro, by the way, is taking part in this week's "Enemy Lines" feature. Should be a good read, because Navarro knows his stuff.
The AP writes about the first meeting between these two since 2005.
So now, 1,498 days later, the Tigers (3-3, 2-2 ACC) will visit the eighth-ranked Hurricanes (5-1, 2-1) on Saturday afternoon, a critical game for both teams in the conference title chase.
Of course, that doesn't mean either side knows a whole lot about the other.
"I don't know if it can be a rivalry," said Miami senior left tackle Jason Fox, who'll start his team-best 43rd career game. "I've never played them."
Maryland has officially hit rock bottom: The Terps are underdogs against Duke.
That doesn't happen often.
N.C. State desperately needs this open date after getting strafed by Boston College and Duke.
N.C. State (3-4, 0-3 ACC) has turned around its fortunes during mid-October open dates in the past two seasons under O'Brien. The Wolfpack was a combined 3-9 before open dates and 8-5 after them.
O'Brien hopes to engineer a similar turnaround this season, but he's not making any promises.
Late last season, key injured players such as Nate Irving, Anthony Hill and Alan-Michael Cash returned to help the Wolfpack win its last four regular-season games.
There are no injured standouts coming back for N.C. State this season, however. That leaves O'Brien hoping for the type of across-the-board improvement that occurred in 2007, when an extra week of practice helped his first Wolfpack team understand what the coaches were trying to do.
"The first year, we finally figured it out," O'Brien said. "So maybe we can finally figure it out now."
Moving on to Clemson Land, The Post and Courier takes a look at Mark Whipple's offense.
Travis Sawchik might risk being denied entry to Saturday's game because he referred to the stadium as Pro Player instead of Land Shark.
More on the chess match between Whipple and Steele in The State, with a great line from Steele in explaining how hard he's been studying for this exam:
"Coming to work this morning, I passed myself going home."
In the Independent-Mail, a piece on the Tigers' plan to harass Harris.
Also a piece on Da'Quan Bowers' scalping of Wake Forest after he shaved off his locks.
“It’s been an unbelievable process, now,” Steele said Tuesday. “That guy, boy he’s really smart. He’s now at the point where we’re actually giving him some ability on second and third down — based on the set, based on what he sees — to call the pass rush himself. He calls it for the front. He’s really bright and he understands football and he understands what we’re doing.
“For a guy that’s 19 years old to do that and play it at the level he’s playing … that’s what I’m talking about. If you go back and watch the spring film and see him play a six-technique and then watch him now, it’s night and day. When he gets everything right, obviously he’s got the tools (to succeed).”
And finally, some yahoo tries to take the pulse of Clemson's fan base in the ACC Sports Journal.
LW
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I tried to get a read on Miami's injury situation yesterday.
It took a while.
The list is long and diverse.
Senior safety Randy Phillips has missed three games with a torn labrum and needs surgery but will wait until after the season. That's gotta hurt.
Dynamic tailback Graig Cooper has a really sore hip bit is expected to play Saturday.
LB Colin McCarthy has been playing with a shoulder injury.
DE Eric Moncur has missed two games with a leg injury but returned to practice this week.
DL Josh Holmes missed last week's game against UCF with something called a "lower-extremity injury" but is expected to play Saturday.
On offense, OL Joel Figueroa missed last week's game with a shoulder injury. He's expected back.
WR Aldarius Johnson missed the UCF game after suffering a shoulder injury against Florida A&M. He is back at practice.
And that's not counting the guys who are out for the season: DT Marcus Fortson, DE Adewale Ojomo, DE Gavin Hardin, DE Dyron Dye, LB Jordan Futch, LB Shayon Green, CB Ryan Hill, TE Richard Gordon, and maybe a few more that I missed.
This is quite a wave of ailments. Miami is already a young team, and you have to think these holes are going to cost them at some point.
Did you know Jacory Harris has been sacked 12 times in the last three games? Getting that shored up is one of the Canes' main concerns heading into Saturday's game against Clemson.
Miami's OL received a lot of props early in the season, but there are some issues there. Virginia Tech completely overwhelmed them, and George O'Leary schemed them up for six sacks in the Hurricanes' 27-7 win over UCF.
What's more, there's very little depth; no reserve played at UCF until less than two minutes remained.
Given how much Kevin Steele rotates his guys up front, this is a matchup Clemson might feel pretty good about.
The Canes were pouring on the praise of Clemson yesterday.
Left guard Orlando Franlkin:
``They have good people at every position on the field. It looks like the Oklahoma defense pretty much. They've got a two-deep defensive line."
Jacory Harris, on ends Da'Quan Bowers and Ricky Sapp:
"They're awesome guys. They have a two-headed monster."
More on the Canes' OL here.
The Canes have a fleet of talented tailbacks, including the emergent Damien Berry.
Posted this on the board last night, but Manny Navarro of The Miami Herald has a good blog post that details why Miami should fear Clemson.
When Clemson went down to Miami in 2004 and upset the Canes in overtime, you could make the case that the Tigers snuck up on them. That won't be the case this time. Clemson is a lot more talented this time around, and Miami knows it.
Navarro, by the way, is taking part in this week's "Enemy Lines" feature. Should be a good read, because Navarro knows his stuff.
The AP writes about the first meeting between these two since 2005.
So now, 1,498 days later, the Tigers (3-3, 2-2 ACC) will visit the eighth-ranked Hurricanes (5-1, 2-1) on Saturday afternoon, a critical game for both teams in the conference title chase.
Of course, that doesn't mean either side knows a whole lot about the other.
"I don't know if it can be a rivalry," said Miami senior left tackle Jason Fox, who'll start his team-best 43rd career game. "I've never played them."
Maryland has officially hit rock bottom: The Terps are underdogs against Duke.
That doesn't happen often.
N.C. State desperately needs this open date after getting strafed by Boston College and Duke.
N.C. State (3-4, 0-3 ACC) has turned around its fortunes during mid-October open dates in the past two seasons under O'Brien. The Wolfpack was a combined 3-9 before open dates and 8-5 after them.
O'Brien hopes to engineer a similar turnaround this season, but he's not making any promises.
Late last season, key injured players such as Nate Irving, Anthony Hill and Alan-Michael Cash returned to help the Wolfpack win its last four regular-season games.
There are no injured standouts coming back for N.C. State this season, however. That leaves O'Brien hoping for the type of across-the-board improvement that occurred in 2007, when an extra week of practice helped his first Wolfpack team understand what the coaches were trying to do.
"The first year, we finally figured it out," O'Brien said. "So maybe we can finally figure it out now."
Moving on to Clemson Land, The Post and Courier takes a look at Mark Whipple's offense.
Travis Sawchik might risk being denied entry to Saturday's game because he referred to the stadium as Pro Player instead of Land Shark.
More on the chess match between Whipple and Steele in The State, with a great line from Steele in explaining how hard he's been studying for this exam:
"Coming to work this morning, I passed myself going home."
In the Independent-Mail, a piece on the Tigers' plan to harass Harris.
Also a piece on Da'Quan Bowers' scalping of Wake Forest after he shaved off his locks.
“It’s been an unbelievable process, now,” Steele said Tuesday. “That guy, boy he’s really smart. He’s now at the point where we’re actually giving him some ability on second and third down — based on the set, based on what he sees — to call the pass rush himself. He calls it for the front. He’s really bright and he understands football and he understands what we’re doing.
“For a guy that’s 19 years old to do that and play it at the level he’s playing … that’s what I’m talking about. If you go back and watch the spring film and see him play a six-technique and then watch him now, it’s night and day. When he gets everything right, obviously he’s got the tools (to succeed).”
And finally, some yahoo tries to take the pulse of Clemson's fan base in the ACC Sports Journal.
LW
For questions or comments on this blog entry, please visit The West Zone message board.
Link to this entry - Discuss this entry - Return to Blog Home
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Larry Williams. Larry has covered the daily beat at Clemson since 2004. Williams, who worked for the Charleston Post & Courier from 2004-08, joined Tigerillustrated.com in November of 2008. He may be reached by email at ldubya08(at)gmail.com. Replace (at) with @.