MIAMI -- News And Notes

The upcoming Miami weekend gives me another reason to post this, my favorite video from 2011:

2011 Jacory Harris dual-threat QB is gone.  Enter 2012 dual-threat QB Stephen Morris, who surprisingly was last season's QB to start the season @ Maryland due to a one-game suspension to Harris.  He then proceeded to basically never play again.

Prior to last weekend's opener against Boston College, he had completed just 108 of 190 passes for 7 TD's and 11 INT's in his career at Miami.  Against Boston College, he had 207 yards for one TD and one INT.  He also ran for 18 yards.

The big story this week is obviously Arthur Brown. Ahh, no. Sorry. The Judge. Because he "commands respect."  Well, I've given out a few nicknames in my time and that one is terrible. Clearly, the Predator (thank you K-State Mask) is far superior, and I think we can all agree this:

is just about as scary coming at you as this:

"I ain't got time to bleed."

I noticed last week Arthur Brown changed his jersey to A. Brown, Jr for this season.  I also took this picture of a fan sitting a few rows in front of me at the Missouri State game:

I like this T-Shirt.  Too bad it's only good for one more season.  

There are a lot of great numerical stats for the upcoming game listed here in the Collegian's By The Numbers. 

Here's one I especially like:

10 – The Miami Hurricanes have lost 10 of their last 11 road games against top 25 BCS-ranked teams going back to 2005. K-State comes into the game ranked 21st in the AP poll and 20th in the USA Coaches Poll. Miamiʼs last win against a ranked opponent on the road came in 2009 against No. 18 Florida State. Meanwhile, K-State has won 10-straight home games against unranked opponents.

But, then again, there's a lot going against us.  Let's review shall we?

1)  It's an 11:00 am kick, and we historically hate/choke/sleepwalk through the first half of morning kickoffs.
And well, you all remember the LAST time we played a OOC game before noon:

2)  It's televised.  We typically manufacture ways to play poorly when on TV.

3)  We are favored.  Were we favored in ANY games last season other than KU?  Didn't Vegas just say "IT'S A WASH" when listing our game for Iowa State?  I think the underdog role suited us last year, so we'll see how we respond as being the favorite this year in a few more games.

4)  We beat Miami last year.  And they are starting a new QB.  That means we will be expected to win and a loss would be devastating.  Hopefully that means we don't play too tight because the success of this season hinges on getting the W here.

All that said, the Cats have too great of a coaching and intangible advantage over the Canes to lose this.  With a roaring purple crowd and a motivated A. Brown pre-game (and half time if needed) speech to fire up the troops, this one should not be close and I would expect the Cats, like last week, to pull away in the 3rd with a superior rushing attack and special teams play from Lockett and Thompson.

While Miami brings to Manhattan a more athletic bunch at the skill positions than the Cats, we hold the advantage at QB, and seeing how Klein single handily kept us in every game last season except for one, I'm not going to bet against him any time soon.