Miami opens the year ranked No. 13 in the official polls and has its sights set on Omaha. The Canes got a shot in the arm weeks back when sixth-year starter Eric Erickson and senior catcher Peter O’Brien were cleared by the NCAA for the 2012 season.

Erickson sat out the 2011 season after undergoing Tommy John surgery and was named tonight’s started by head coach Jim Morris on Wednesday, while O’Brien, one of the best catchers in the nation, hit .304 last season, with fourteen home runs and 69 RBI for Bethune-Cookman.

O’Brien, a Miami native, spent three seasons with the Wildcats and was named to five preseason All-America teams entering 2011. He’s a welcomed addition to the UM roster.

While O’Brien was named second team All-American entering this season, right-hander Eric Whaley and outfielder Rony Rodriguez both earned Honorable Mention accolades.

Pitching will again be a strength for the Canes. Besides Erickson and Whaley, Miami also returns Bryan Radziewski, Steven Ewing and closer EJ Encinosa. UM also welcomes back veteran infielder Stephen Perez.

Miami finished the 2011 regular season 34-20 (19-10 in the ACC) and went 2-1 in the ACC Championship, beating North Carolina, falling to Virginia and bouncing back with a win over Wake Forest.

The Canes were then shipped to the Gainesville Regional, beating Jacksonville twice and dropping two to Florida – a 5-4 heartbreaker in game two and an 11-4 beat down in what turned out to be a season-ending loss that left a bad taste in UM’s collective mouth.

Can the Canes channel the disappointment of 2011 into a stellar run in 2012? Tune in tonight for game one and to see Miami in action.

Can’t make the game? Click here to stream all tonight’s action live.

Our goal is to provide a Cliff Notes-type version o the book for those who don’t have the time to dive in, all in effort to fire up college football fans, forcing all of us to demand more out of this broken, money-driven, flawed system.

Last up, Chapter Seven : Myth Of The Dead Bowls. Today’s read, Chapter Eight : It’s Always Some Team Getting Screwed.

- The 2006 Rose Bowl pitted Southern Cal against Texas in what was being billed as an attempt at a “Threepeat” for the Trojans, having won the 2005 Orange Bowl and 2004 Rose Bowl. The OB was the official BCS title game. but the Rose was a case where USC, the AP’s top-ranked team, squared off against fourth-ranked Michigan, while the BCS title game (2004 Sugar Bowl) had LSU playing Oklahoma for the championship, which the Tigers won.

LSU fans were disgruntled with the media’s “Threepeat” chatter and a diehard Tiger, a twenty-six-year-old Internet consultant named Steve Cospolich, began an email change voicing his displeasure.

By the time the Longhorns beat the Trojans, Cospolich and some friends launched Onepeat.com – a site with a simple graphic and a PayPal button, encouraging folks to donate money for a billboard in Los Angeles. Within ten days over $10,000 has been raised by college football fans nationwide.

The message in the end; any national championship needing ten thousand dollars and a billboard for legitimacy probably isn’t worth a damn, anyway.

“It’s always some team getting screwed,” said Cospolich.

- The Onepeat.com folks raised $11,625 – more than enough to hang a billboard on 39th and Figueroa, next to the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum and kitty-corner from the USC campus. The tagline on the billboard read; “Shouldn’t Dynasties Win More Than One?”

Some of the leftover money was used for a car-hauled advertisement that drove around ESPN’s headquarters (in Bristol, CT), reminding the network how lame the “Threepeat” talk was.

The final $2,625 went to Hurricane Katrina victims.

- As of 2009, of the twelve national championship games since the inception of the BCS, there have been at least seven questionable match ups. (Same could be said for Alabama / LSU this year or Auburn / Oregon last year.)

- The top two teams are determined by coaches who vote along political lines – Harris Poll electors with obvious political biases – and computers whose influence is neutered by the restrictions the BCS places on them.

- In 2005 Southern Cal thrashed Oklahoma, 55-19, in the biggest blowout in BCS title game history, while Auburn tore through the toughest conference in the country, finished the season undefeated and was left out of the mix.

“It still kills me,” said Tommy Tuberville, coach of the 2004 Auburn squad that finished 13-0. “I coaches (as an assistant) in five national championship games at Miami. I knew what kind of team we had at Auburn. We beat five top 15 teams that year. USC and Oklahoma played three total between them. It’s just so much politics.”

- A big issue; preseason polls. When 2004 kicked off the Trojans were No. 1 with the Sooners at No.2 while the Tigers were a respective No. 17 and No. 18 in the polls.

With all three undefeated during the regular season, there was no way the voters were going to let Auburn leapfrog either traditional powerhouse, no matter how impressive the Tigers looked.

- The day after the 2004 Sugar Bowl, where Auburn knocked off Virginia Tech, Tuberville flew to Miami the following day for the Orange Bowl, where he held a presser to lobby voters to think twice about the Tigers’ efforts. One AP voters used his vote to put Auburn No. 1, but that was it.

“This has created, and will continue to create, a lot of problems when you have people determining a mythical national championship through polls and not having everyone play it out on the field,” Tuberville said in his speech. “It’s unfortunate that people won’t get to see it played out like it should.”

- Oklahoma lost the Orange Bowl and years later Southern Cal had the win vacated due to a cheating scandal. In the end, Auburn is still the only undefeated team from 2004, yet no title was awarded retroactively.

- “I was dead right,” said Tuberville. “Sometimes I’ll sit there and think, ‘You will be the only team in the history of college football to go 13-0 in the SEC and not play for a championship.’ I think we could’ve beaten USC. We’d played them hard the previous two years. We would have given them a game.”

- The first true BCS mess came in 2000 when the BCS chose Florida State over Miami to take on No. 1 Oklahoma in the 2001 Orange Bowl, even though the Hurricanes were ranked higher in the human polls, having beating the Seminoles during the regular season.

Miami worked over No. 7 Florida in the Sugar Bowl, while Florida State fell to Oklahoma, 13-2 in the Orange Bowl, with the world not getting the deserved Canes / Sooners match-up it should’ve.

- A year later Miami was the unanimous No. 1 and went on to face a No. 2 Nebraska team that didn’t even win the Big XII after getting rolled at Colorado, 62-36. A few upsets moved the Huskers back to the number two spot in the BCS, while Oregon remained fourth, despite being ranked second in the other polls. Ducks head coach Mike Bellotti was livid.

“I liken the BCS to a bad disease, like cancer,” said Bellotti. “Not to take anything away from Nebraska or Colorado – they’re great football teams – but one has two losses and the other didn’t win their conference championship. We’re No. 2 in both polls, but those things don’t have a lot of merit, obviously.”

- A similar story in 2003 when top-ranked Oklahoma was schooled by Kansas State in the Big XII title game, 35-7, yet still got the BCS title game nod over one-loss Southern Cal.

- “We basically have a system for college football that too closely resembles the old Soviet Presidium,” said Air Force head coach Troy Calhoun. “You have a … politburo that’s decided if you aren’t one of those party members, then you’re unable to participate.”

- In 2009 there were five teams that entered bowl season undefeated; Alabama, Texas, Cincinnati, Texas Christian and Boise State. The Crimson Tide beat the Longhorns for the title while the Bearcats, Horned Frogs and Broncos were shut out. (TCU and Boise State were forced to slug it out against each other in the Fiesta Bowl, instead of getting pitted against major conference teams, getting a win and shaking up the system, a la undefeated Utah upsetting Alabama in the Sugar the year before, while Florida won it all.)

“There’s really no true champion with the system that’s in place,” said Utes head coach Kyle Wittingham. BYU head coach Bronco Mendenhall followed up saying, “A change is imminent and necessary.” Florida head coach Urban Meyer, whose team won titles in 2006 and 2008, was to the point when stating, “You’ve got to blow it up and start over,” despite the system working to his advantage … twice.

- In 2009 the AFCA (America Football Coaches Association) claimed that 73 percent of coaches liked the current system, despite what coaches are saying. The AFCA also only offers a ‘yes’ or ‘no’ reply and doesn’t offer or mention a reasonable alternative. In other words, 27 percentage of coaches think the BCS is such a disaster that they’d rather have nothing.

- Next up; Chapter Nine : Cowardice and Cupcakes.

Johnson was a one-man sales machine this past year. Having originally committed to ‘The U’ in September 2010 when Randy Shannon was still at the helm, Johnson never wavered. Not after a 7-6 season that saw Shannon and much of the staff fired, not after the hiring of Al Golden and not even when Nevin Shapiro did all he could to destroy the future of the Miami program with his salacious allegations.

Johnson not only stood by his hometown Hurricanes, he went a step further, going above and beyond to recruit other players to UM.

“[Miami assistant] George McDonald was my recruiting coordinator,” Johnson said. “And I was his.”

Johnson deserves credit for helping steer four-star Miami Columbus High safety Deon Bush to UM and away from Alabama and Auburn, the other two in his top three. Duke also helped close five-star Miramar High cornerback Tracy Howard at the final hour, choosing the Canes over the hated Seminoles and long-time favorite Gators.

Johnson led the charge and helped Miami pull in some like-minded players. Players unconcerned with Shapiro and his allegations and more focused on helping the new UM coaching staff put the program back on the map.

Regarding the new staff, recent signee, Miramar High receiver Malcolm Lewis was quick to defend Miami coaches. “I’m not going to hold them back for that,” said Lewis. ”They weren’t really there. It wasn’t really their fault. I just see a group of coaches trying to turn the program around. I want to be a part of that history.”

The desire to be a part of history is what helped put UM back on the map in the late nineties during the probation era. Guys like Santana Moss, Ed Reed, Edgerrin James, Dan Morgan and Reggie Wayne. They were part of that first influx that believed in Butch Davis and signed on with a Miami program that was seeing its worst days in two decades.

From there it paved the way for kids like Ken Dorsey, Andre Johnson, Clinton Portis, Bryant McKinnie and other first rounders who eventually helped lead the Canes back to national prominence.

Golden has spent the past year-and-change talking about “the process” and what it’d take to get the Miami program back on top.

One would have to believe that his 300-plus-page binder “Deserve Victory” had a whole chapter dedicated to the rebuild – and it starts with a cornerstone piece like The Duke.  - C.B.

CNBC’s “American Greed” series profiled Nevin Shapiro last week, again giving the pipsqueak exactly what he longs for – the spotlight and a platform.

As he sits and rots in a New Orleans prison with nothing but time, Shapiro bangs out scathing email after scathing email to any reporter who will listen.

“The public is going to hate me worse in the next coming months,” Shapiro, serving a 20-year sentence for a Ponzi scheme, wrote in numerous e-mails over the past few months. “It’s going to be severe and catastrophic. My feelings are getting inflamed and I’m going to pop off pretty soon with regards to them and the NCAA. I’m coming for them both [UM and former players] and I’m going to be successful.

“I’m taking that program down to Chinatown and the former players and links to that program. Why? Because the U.S. government lined up 47 former players to testify against me in open court if I went to trial. That in itself is motivation to shove it up their collective [butts].”

And there you have it, folks. More delusional rants from a crazy person with nothing but time and an axe to grind.

Shapiro, who spent eight months spilling the beans to Yahoo! Sports with one outrageous claim after another (strippers! hookers! abortions!) is now claiming that’s only the tip of the iceberg? Please.

Everything about Shapiro to date has been nothing but excess. Does anyone really believe Mini-Me held anything back helping Charles Robinson with his investigation; in what might’ve been his final moment in the sun and one chance to take UM out?

Thankfully the CNBC segment showed more bias in an hour that Yahoo! showed anywhere in its torrid tale. For those yet to see this recent segment of “American Greed”, some notes are below.

There’s a common theme regarding Shapiro. Whether it’s Miami locals and reporters or lawmen associated with the case, all tell of a twisted little man, scorned from a broken childhood and driven by greed and a desire for power and status.

DJ Irie, a staple at Miami Heat games and a longtime South Beach figure, made some great points about Shapiro in the documentary – most notably, that Shapiro would turn on a dime and was only out for himself.

Shapiro went from being someone who would defend “The U” to his death, but the minute he felt scorned, has made it his life’s goal to destroy his once beloved program.

“You definitely couldn’t say anything bad about the Hurricanes in Nevin’s face – in his presence. There would be problems”, said Irie. But from there, an about face.

“This was the guy that was always so cool and always just a really nice guy to me,” said Irie. “When that [Yahoo!] story broke, I was just disgusted. I was absolutely disgusted.”

Irie goes on, “The core of Nevin Shapiro – he’s someone that looks out for himself. At the end of the day, if things aren’t going his way, it’s ‘screw everything, I don’t care, it’s about me’ – and that’s not the Nevin that I thought I knew.”

Irie isn’t alone in that sentiment. Shapiro snowed countless people. Older, mature, smart, successful, well-off people who aren’t easily snowed and the type of people who pride themselves on their brains, savvy and track record.

FBI investigator Michael Ward uses “American Greed” as a platform to defend, or at least explain the actions, of any college-aged athletes who were enamored by Shapiro and caught in his web.

Ward calls the athletes ‘victims’ and goes on to say that, “Nevin Shapiro is a manipulator. He was able to seduce investors with a promise of large dollar amounts. And then he turns those same seduction techniques onto 18-, 19-, 20-year olds, offering them gifts and parties, sex – those are tools of seduction that have been used going back centuries.”

Some other notes on CNBC’s profile of Shapiro:

- Shapiro sets the tone right out the gate regarding his embellishing ways, emailing “American Greed” and letting them know they’d need “eight documentaries to fill this story”.

- Linda Jackson, a local attorney who represents some of Shapiro’s lenders, attended Beach High the same time as Shapiro. She pointed out that it was a rich school full of entitled kids and that Shapiro was a little guy who didn’t come from money (raised by single mom) and stated that even as a teen he was trying to compensate for that.

- Shapiro attended the University of South Florida, never earned his degree in Criminology, and wound up leaving school after punching a referee in the face during an intramural flag football game he was playing in.

- Tim Elfrink, reporter for the Miami New Times, has covered Shapiro and told “American Greed”, “I don’t think it’s a stretch from what I’ve heard about Nevin to speculate that he might have some kind of Napoleon complex going on. He always had an explosive temper.”

- In 1995, while trying to sneak twenty friends into a Miami nightclub on his birthday. When confronted by the owner, Shapiro lost it. Filmmaker Billy Corben was quoted as saying, “unwarranted”, “brutal” and “bloody”. Shapiro knocked out the owner’s tooth and destroyed his tear duct. Elfrink describes the event as defining, being that Shapiro set himself up as someone with the connections to get something done, but when proven to be a fraud, he lashed out.

-  Shapiro’s mother married Richard Armand Adam, a man who appeared wealthy (re: a mansion and a yacht) but eventually served time for “running a complicated multi-million dollar lending fraud”. Shapiro’s first taste of the good life and real money came through a mentor who introduced him to white collar crime. He learned nothing from his stepfather’s mistake and fall.

- When Shapiro left college in 1993 he started work at a grocery diverting company called Atlantic Wholesale. Kay Balbi, a co-worker at Atlantic, called him a statistic genius regarding sports knowledge, which he used to his advantage career-wise.

- In 1996, Premium Sales, another grocery diverting company at the time in Miami, had thirty-six people arrested for fraud (re: a massive investment scheme). Within a year Shapiro started his own grocery diverting scam, based on the model Premium Sales started. His company was Capital Investments.

- Shapiro was savvy and knew the game. He offered lenders a 14% return on short-term bridge loans. High rate of return and a quick turnaround meant big money and fast money. Investors rolled in as it was a simple story that made sense. Shapiro brought in investors from Miami and New Jersey, but earned an in-road to old money in Naples.

- Shapiro’s style wouldn’t work with the Naples community, but got his in with Sidney Jack Williams, who was embedded in the community as a real estate investor from Indianapolis. Williams invested $3.5M with Shapiro and became Capital Investments’ top pitchman. He told everyone he knew the deal was a “no-brainer” and in many cases offered a personal guarantee. In time Williams brought Shapiro sixty investors and $307M, which earned him a $12M commission.

- Shapiro had his accountant and CFO create false documents, invoices and financial statements, showing supposed action between Capital Investments and other companies that investor dollars were supposedly financing. In 2006, tax filings showed Capital Investments’ gross sales at $54M. In reality, Capital Investments did zero business from 2006 to 2009. In the end Shapiro still raised $930M in investor funds.

- Shapiro took $35M from investor funds, while paying off other investors with new investor money. Shapiro had a $5M mansion on Biscayne Bay, a yacht, a Mercedes S65 AMG (with a monthly payment of $4,700). Also bought a condo in the Bahamas, invested $7M in a North Carolina golf course and “blows through cash like a man obsessed”. Also paid $2.2M in credit card bills and $100,000 for Miami Heat court side seats, getting him in with Miami A-Listers. Shapiro also gambled away over $9M on sports.

- As the financial system imploded, Shapiro didn’t have the money to pay the lenders. He was too heavily leveraged and couldn’t afford to pay anyone back. Falling behind in paying back interest payments set things off with one investor that went to the feds.

- Feds were able to determine there was no business going on with Capital Investments due to checking the false invoices with the real companies whose names were being listed.

- Shapiro in his first meeting with feds gave up his ruse as he as tired of running, lying and hiding. He admitted there was no real business with Capital Investments and told his attorney, after surrendering to police, that he was glad the charade was over. Months later he’d tell “American Greed” that sometimes you’re “forced to plead guilty on something you don’t believe you are guilty of”.

- “Here’s someone who spent a lot of money – lavish gifts for individuals and then when he thought that, ‘OK now I’m in trouble I need you to step up and help me’ – when these people failed to do that, I do think that it had an impact on him,” said Ward, the FBI agent out of Newark working the case.

- Facing twenty years in jail, Shapiro turned his focus on taking down the people that used to be his friends.

- Corben stated that Yahoo! Sports seemed to do an eight-month investigation of “University of Miami students’ Facebook pictures”, in regards to the images that accompanied the story.

- “I go back to that incident when he was a young man in South Beach and sucker-punched that club owner. I think his instinct was to worm his way in as a power player as best he could and when things went on, he lashed out,” said Elfrink of the New Times.

The anti-UM contingent will choose not to listen to reason, but an unbiased party can look deeper at Shapiro and see the predator that always lurked. An evil, vengeful, manipulative, driven-by-greed individual who lived the lie as long as he could, took and took along the way and cheated until the moment he was caught.

Shapiro ruined lives just to make his own meaningless existence a little more exciting and when he realized that the “friends” he rented as Nevin-The-Self-Made-Man weren’t there for Nevin-The-Jailed-Ponzi-Schemer, he lost whatever was left of his already delusional mind and set his sights on revenge the same way he did financial success and a lavish lifestyle. This effort to take down UM is being treated as the start-up of Capital Investments – just another venture that he’s all-in on.

The more Shapiro talks, the more rope he gives to hang himself. One UM official spoke to the Miami Herald last week and claimed he or she personally there could be another one or two bowl games lost, as well as some scholarships, but there is still cautious optimism around Hecth – and with good reason.

UM’s understanding is that the NCAA will dismiss any of Shapiro’s claims that cannot be corroborated and they are highly skeptical about some of his allegations, most of which have not been corroborated.

Head coach Al Golden also stated that he thinks there will be a fair, logical ending to this mess.

“We think the worst is behind us,” said Golden. “The [current] coaches and 95 percent of the players weren’t here when that thing went on. There’s a shift by the NCAA to go after the perpetrators and that’s not us.”

The NCAA also hasn’t contacted many former players implicated by Shapiro. Samuel Shields, father to former Cane defensive back / wide receiver Sam Shields, told the Herald that there’s been no contact regarding Shapiro’s claim that he gave the younger Shields a TV. The elder Shields again reiterated that the claim was false.

UM also believes that former players, excluding those currently playing college football elsewhere, aren’t talking to the NCAA.

Shapiro presses on though, revenge on the brain and crazy as ever. ”I’m more of a victim than a Ponzi schemer and assailant,” he said recently, though a safe bet no one is buying.

Why the Herald and other media outlets keep giving this hack a voice (instead of letting the NCAA and the process play out), that’s another story for another time. – C.B.

As of now, the following members of The U Family are involved, including Jones; Najeh Davenport, Duane Starks, Earl Little, Joaquin Gonzalez, Larry Jones, Richard Mercier, Darrin Smith, Brett Romberg, Chris T. Jones, Wesley Carroll, Darryl Fullington, Sherko Haji-Rasouli and Mike Pagliarulo.

The event will take place at Splitsville in Sunset Place on Monday February 27th. Click here to sign up and check out the UM Hall Of Fame’s official website for more.

Beast : What was your mindset as you attacked recruiting this year, taking into account all of the adversity you guys went through this year?

Golden : We were just going to be who we have been and who we are. I can’t really speak to the obstacles, as far as what transpired. I know we endured we a lot as a football program and as a football team this year, stemming from August 14th. We faced suspensions all year long. We just never seemed to have continuity or consistency. We just never seemed to be the same team, week in and week out. That was disappointing because we always try to have a process. From a recruiting standpoint, this is a great place to recruit to. You’re selling an opportunity, not only to go to a great school, but to be a part of a program like Miami and make a difference and I think a lot of these kids fashion themselves as guys that can make a difference.

Beast : You spent a lot of time on the road. Did not going to a bowl game help you from the standpoint that you had more time to spend on the road and recruit?

Golden : You can sit around and sulk, or you can take advantage of it. We chose to take advantage of it. Obviously we were behind other schools in this state and in this region, because we were not only new to this region but new to the University of Miami. It really gave us a chance to catch up. I wouldn’t say we got ahead, but I would say we’re caught now in terms of knowing who’s coming down the pike, with the juniors and sophomores and knowing the high school coaches.

Beast : You’ve been labeled as a great recruiter. How do you attack it differently than other coaches?

Golden : I try to be honest and I try to listen. I try to see what the needs are of the family and the young man and obviously try to fulfill those needs. It’s flattering but, I don’t know, we just move forward. We have a great staff. Obviously we have a great product here, great tradition, great weather, and obviously from a diversity standpoint and cultural standpoint, we’re second to none. It’s kind of second to none. We’re exposed to a lot of kids in camp, that it didn’t matter to us how many stars they had, that if they could do it (we’d recruit them). We battled down the stretch with some big guys and won, which was good.

Beast : You got Tracy Howard from Miramar. In the past that may not have been a kid that you got, from that high school, but you stayed with him. He was a Gator lean, but you got him. Talk about Tracy’s recruitment. (Note : Al then goes on to talk about Antonio Crawford instead.)

Golden : I’m too dumb to know what schools we’re supposed to be doing good at or not good at. I’m almost naive to it. We went into (Tampa) Plant High School, and the last time we got a kid from Plant (Robert Marve) it didn’t have a good ending, but I was naive to it. To some extent I can’t do anything about that, but here’s what we are offering, for Antonio Crawford in that case. Here’s why we want him…Here’s the opportunity that he has. From that standpoint we just sold who we are, and what our program is all about.

Beast : You did well recruiting South Florida. How important is it to put that “fence” up around this area?

Golden : I don’t like the fence phrase, or mantra. I think you can get to a spot as a coach where you can get A too political, and B, you’re just recruiting kids to just make sure other teams don’t recruit them. I don’t want to do that. This was a unique year where we ended up signing thirty-three kids, but for the most part you’re looking at eighteen to twenty-two kids a year. We’re not going to get every kid from down here. We’re not. Let’s just make sure the twenty that we do get, are the right twenty, that can do the things that we can ask them to do, that want to get a degree, that want to go to a great school, that want to win a championship, that understand our core values. There are some guys that got away this year that a lot of the fans will say ‘why did we lose that guy?’ At the end of the day, would you have traded these guys we got down the stretch? Would you have traded (Robert) Lockhart, Tracy Howard, Deon Bush, Tyriq McCord, for some of those guys that supposedly got away?

Beast : Quarterback was an important position for you in recruiting because of a lack of numbers there. You had Ryan Williams transfer in from Memphis and you recruited three in this class, two are on campus. How important was it to fill out that spot?

Golden : It’s going to be great for competition. Just to go out there every day during the Spring and see four guys throwing. I’m used to seeing that at every program I’ve been at, and we haven’t had that here. To have four guys throwing, and four guys competing…to see that dynamic and to know that they’re talented and that they’ll all get a shot with the first team, or first and second team this spring. I think it’s great.

Beast : So you don’t just hand the keys to Stephen Morris and just go with it?

Golden : We don’t hand the keys to anybody. I’m not very political. I don’t do what’s popular. I don’t think Jacory would have gotten a chance last year if I was. There was a lot of people that were saying this is really easy, you should pick Stephen, you’re a new coach etc. At the end of the day I let them compete and other than the last game, Jacory had a good year.

Beast : You installed the U-Tough off-season program last year. The guys are back at it again now. How has this year’s offseason program changed since last year’s?

Golden : It’s weird. Down here things take on a persona of their own some times and I don’t get it. I know a lot of coaches don’t get it either. Big deal. Just because they weren’t doing it here before we got here doesn’t mean that it’s punishment, or punitive, or that we’re doing something special. Every team in America is going to do something like that in the off-season. That’s not really the challenge. When I hear guys say, “nobody is working like this,” that’s not true. That’s not true. Everybody is out there. It’s just a function of who can get their eighty or ninety players to have the best off-season program, the best stations, the best work out, that’s who is going to rise to the top. We all have the same work outs. We all have the same weights. We all have the same computers. That’s what the culture is all about. It’s who can create more value from their opportunity then the other eleven guys and opponents.

Beast : Something other schools don’t have though is a fleet of Pro Bowlers parading around in the off-season. How does that help?

Golden : I’m good with it. I’m walking on campus the other day and a guy with a hat on stops by me in his car and says, “Hey coach, how’s it going?” He said, “Hey Coach, great recruiting class.” I looked and, “Oh man I’m sorry.” It’s Jimmy Graham. So that’s a little bit weird. There’s two things going on. The kids are obviously screaming about the life they had here in Coral Gables and at the University of Miami because they are always coming back. What’s that phrase? “What you do speaks so loudly that I can’t hear what you’re saying.” That’s a great example. Guys can say I love this school or that school, but the reality is, how many of them go back to that school. These guys all come back to this school, so there’s something special about the University of Miami and Coral Gables. Clearly players want to come back to Miami to year-round temperature that’s about 82 degrees.

Beast : We heard the rumors about Penn State and UCLA. You had other opportunities, but you chose to stay here. Why?

Golden : I think you can do great things here. I said it on Signing Day, but this is just the beginning. We don’t want it to be like every one takes a deep breath and we had success with a recruiting class. You have to get to the point where you’re consistently expecting that, and not only with recruiting but in every aspect. You talked about U Tough. We have to get to the point where we are consistently beating those drills, and we’re not yet. We have a long way to go. We have to have symmetry with our depth. From that standpoint we have a long way to go. Eventually, we’re going to develop that symmetry, and build classes and vertical depth, so that when someone does go down we have someone to move up or have competition constantly at every position. We were too comfortable at too many positions a year ago for my liking. We didn’t have enough guys challenging or enough competition. We just have to keep moving the program forward and eventually it’s going to pay dividends.

Beast : What went through your mind when Joe Paterno passed away?

Golden : It was tough. It was tough. The night before he passed, I started getting requests, and I thought that was distasteful. I said I didn’t want to talk to anybody. I woke up the next morning and he was gone. It was hard, because he was always there. I don’t want to equate it to anything, but if you grew up in New York or New Jersey or on Long Island..the World Trade Center was always there. When you were driving around….a lot of people can feel the impact of the lost lives, and the tragedy, and the terrorism and everything but it was like you always had that beacon. If you were driving around, you always knew what direction you were going in based on those buildings, when you grew up there. For us that played for him, we could always measure ourselves by him, or his affirmation or his approval. IT was tough when that was gone. At the same time you feel like there was a lot he left with us. I struggled. I struggled that whole Sunday. I didn’t want to talk to anybody. Everyone wanted me to go on TV and I didn’t feel comfortable. I didn’t feel I could do it.

Beast : You had a chance to visit with him just before he died on December 29th. Could you get a sense that all of the events of the last few months were taking a drastic toll on him?

Golden : Two things. He was was probably grief stricken, number one. And number two, he always, and I don’t know the psychological aspects of it, but certainly there was a self-fulfilling prophecy there, and he always said it about Coach (Bear) Bryant, I think he always knew in his mind that when football was over, he wasn’t going to make it too long. I think he was afraid of that and I think it motivated him. To see it end that way was horrific. Again it’s hard for the players or the Penn Staters, because there’s someone on the outside world that as soon as you say something like, “Hey Joe meant a lot to me and I don’t want that legacy to be destroyed”, they’ll say “what about the kids?” Don’t think for a second that I’m not saying “what about the kids?” I wanna make sure we get that right. As someone that played there and worked there, and knew Joe well, we’re not saying that’s excused. It’s hard to in one sentence to make peace with the whole way that Joe passed. As I said, I’m proud of what he taught me and what he and Sue meant to us and I’m proud of that. That’s not something I’m ashamed of.

Beast : You lost a lot of leadership and talent. Is it possible for the incoming freshmen to replace that?

Golden : They have to. We played the most freshmen in America in 2007 and 2008 at Temple and it ended up being these guys that won the most game in the history of that program. There’s going to be a lot of young guys that have to play. We recruited forty-eight guys in the last thirteen months, which was exhausting. I think the stat of the year, that goes unnoticed, is that we signed thirty-three guys on forty-eight visits. That’s hard to do.

Beast : Are we sticking with the tie?

Golden : I’m sticking with the tie. I don’t understand why it’s such a big deal, but yeah, I believe in it. I’m going to stay with it till we get it right.

For fans looking to get in on the action the first open practice will be the following day, the caveat – “Fan Appreciation Day” is only open to those who purchase a ticket to Miami’s home baseball game against Florida later in the day. Practice will take place 10am to noon, with first pitch for Canes vs. Gators taking place at 1pm.

Official practice days for spring football 2012: March 3, 4, 5, 6, 20, 22, 24, 27, 29 and 30; April 3, 5, 10, 12 and 14.

Besides the one “open” practice, there will be three scrimmages for fans to take in this spring – March 24th from 10am to noon at Ted Hendricks Stadium in Hialeah, March 30th at Bishop Verot High School in Fort Myers, with a 7pm start, and an April 14th spring game at Sun Life Stadium, kicking off at 2pm.

Spring football is in the air, Canes fans. Three weeks until Al Golden and staff get this thing rolling. Stay tuned.

For those who missed the show, it was a gem – and thankfully it’s already been uploaded to our archives section.

Check it out and pass it along for other members of the U Family to enjoy. Coach Golden, up close and personal. Enjoy!

A few weeks ago, a handful of South Florida journalists were granted interviews with Al Golden. I hadn’t realized Coach was available for one on one’s during recruiting, so I immediately put in a request for some face time and was told I’d be granted one the next time Al was available.

That day was Wednesday and four of us got one on ones: Matt Shodell from CaneSport, Chris Stock from InsideTheU, Brandon Odoi from CaneInsider, and me.

When I found out that I scored a slot, I let my boss at CBS Sports know and to my surprise, he let me know that CBS would run my Q & A at some point, advising that I gear it to as national an audience as I could. I had a feeling that Matt, Chris and Brandon would ask the roster-oriented questions; depth charts, spring ball and whatnot, so I took a different path.

I wanted to get into the second-year head coach’s mind a bit. I wanted to better understand how he attacked recruiting. Golden has been labeled a closer and I wanted to know what made his tactics on the recruiting trail different from everybody else’s.

I asked about the importance of having multiple quarterbacks on campus as well as replacing all of the leadership lost to the NFL draft.

As soon as we wrapped, I sat down with my notes and transcribed the interview, which came in at just under 2,500 words. At some point the text will hit CBSSports.com but until then, you can hear the interview, unedited, in its entirety on Thursday night’s edition of allCanes Radio.

Due to the 9pm ET of the men’s basketball game against Virginia Tech, our show will hit the Internet at 6pm on Thursday might. I don’t want to spoil it for you, but I think Coach’s thoughts and words on Joe Paterno and his mentor’s passing will move you.

It’s one thing to read his answers, but it’s a completely different experience to hear the emotion in those words when spoken. allCanes Radio is the only outlet that has unfiltered audio of Coach Golden and this certainly is one show you won’t want to miss. Trust me.

Also joining us on the show tomorrow night will be @ProCanes and defensive back DeMarcus VanDyke.

DVD, the current Oakland Raider, will join Platon from ProCanes.com and I at allCanes to talk about his first year in the NFL. Come by the store and get DVD’s autograph and / or take a pic. He’s an unbelievable kid and I can’t wait to spend time with him.

IN OTHER NEWS : Aside from my time in Golden’s office on Wednesday, I also sat in on the Jim Larranaga press conference as his team preps for Virginia Tech. What will it take to beat the Hokies and how do the Canes avoid a letdown after the tremendous upset at Duke. Find out as we roll that audio.

I also sat court side as the women’s basketball team trounced 17th-ranked North Carolina. It was Miami’s thirty-eighth straight home win. We have the sound from coach Katie Meier and the Shenise Johnson post-game presser.

Lastly, the baseball team has their pre-season banquet on Friday. The season is days away and head coach Jim Morris believes this squad has a great chance at reaching Omaha. Listen in and find out why on this week’s show.

Can you tell it will be a completely jam-packed two hours?

Don’t miss it, but in case you do, you can listen to every show we’ve done on our archive page. We’ve got so much to get to and so little time. Thursday night. 6pm ET. allCanes.com. Be there.

While other former Miami players made their mark in the NFL, Brown took a shot as a free agent in 1992, came back to UM as a grad assistant under Dennis Erickson, and spent the next half decade in the Canadian League before his return to coaching. Brown spent some time at Dillard High, his alma mater Merritt Island and earned a spot as special teams coordinator / defensive backs coach at Florida International in 2001, where he remained until 2006, before taking over the secondary at Louisiana-Lafayette, where he coached through 2010.

Last January head coach Al Golden brought Brown home, with a full-time gig at ‘The U’, where he holds the title “senior football operations coordinator”, which was described on today’s Michael Irvin radio show as ‘general manager’ for the Canes football program.

The Irvin / Brown piece is must-listen radio (check it out here) for countless reasons. For starters, the bond between the two Decade Of Dominance-era Canes is a reminder what this #UFamily is all about as Brown immediately takes a moment to thank ‘The Playmaker’ for reaching out to him in that upperclassman / underclassman dynamic over two decades ago.

Brown talks about the work ethic Irvin helped instill, which carried him through both his playing and coaching years, and is something he now passes down to modern-day Canes, as well.

Brown recaps a story of Irvin waking him at midnight and taking him to a stairwell where they ran sprints with a weight vest and routes with a resistance rope, helping instill a belief in hard work that he still carries to this day – to the point where he literally thanks Irvin’s lesson for helping put food on his family’s table all these years later.

Irvin then goes on to talk about his dynamic with Brown, as well as recent NFL Hall of Fame inductee Cortez Kennedy and the fact that he wouldn’t let the big man sign with Arkansas over Miami.

As fans these are the stories almost take on a folk-like vibe; little pieces of the puzzle and steps in the journey of Miami football that give outsiders a warm and fuzzy feeling, but to the players who lived it, it’s their history, their legacy and that intangible which made the Canes a notch above the rest.

The most exciting part of the Brown piece was listening to him gush about Coach Golden and these thirty-three new signees. Brown compared it to the glory days when great talent stayed home and the best of the best were recruiting and pushing each other.

“These kids want to be Miami Hurricanes regardless of what’s being said, regardless of who’s recruiting them,” Brown said. “These kids got together and it was amazing to see these kids go out there and say, ‘hey, let’s do this’.”

“When Deon Bush got on the podium and said ‘it’s time for me to put my city back on the man’, that was the epitome of the Miami Hurricanes. That was it, right there. ‘It’s time for me to put my city back on the map’. It’s time for me to get my brothers together – all these guys that are playing football down here in the state of Florida – are going all over the country and recruiting.”

Brown goes on to talk about the change in culture and attitude, to a throwback mentality where this newest crop of Canes was simply tired of seeing guys leaving South Florida and taking their talents elsewhere while the Miami program remained down.

A contingent of local kids finally decided that it was time to get on board with the hometown program and to bring a championship home to their friends and families. As any long-time Cane will tell you, that’s the first step towards being great again and Brown couldn’t stop his legitimate gushing about the kids Golden and staff reeled in.

Irvin talked about these new kids, as well, talking about incoming receiver Malcolm Lewis being the show recently and a challenge the past Cane gave the then-verbal commit about rounding up his teammates and other local stars, selling the Miami program and keeping the best kids home.

Lewis’ response; “I’m working on it”, in regards to five-star corner and Miramar High teammate Tracy Howard, who wound up signing with the Canes down the stretch.

Brown also recalled Irvin’s speech about every player making a commitment to each other that they would get their job done. It was a speech that Irvin again dropped on the Canes before a season-opener against the Noles, in Tallahassee back in 2005 (Miami fell, 10-7) and according to Brown, UM finally has the type of kids who will buy all-in to that mindset.

Regarding the second-year Miami head coach, Brown calls him “unbelievable”. The quickness at which things come to Golden and his ability to ‘get it’ is something this class is buying into.

These kids are all in on upholding the legacy, which has been Golden’s mantra since day one, as outlined in his 300-page “Deserve Victory” binder. The Miami brand, the U Family, the guys who put this program on the map – the kids Golden and staff are going after are the type who buy into the past and want to be a part of the future.

That’s an easy sell on the right kid – a kid who wants to be a part of your program, despite a 6-6 season, pending sanctions and negative recruiting – but to some current Canes that are holdovers from the old regime, that’s a tough belief to lay on someone who doesn’t think or feel that way.

Golden reeled some in last year. Guys like Denzel Perryman, Anthony Chickillo and Phillip Dorsett – who proved to be impact players year one, standouts and future stars. In fourteen months on the job, Golden and staff have hauled in fifty new Hurricanes and while the roster is still a mismatch of kids who helped go 35-29 between 2006 and 2010, the program took one step closer to building the type of machine that won’t let that garbage happen on their watch.

Put aside twenty-five minutes and listen to Brown and The Playmaker go off about what makes Miami football tick. It’s the U Fam at its best and it’s the type of piece that reminds you why this program is so deeply embedded in your DNA. – C.B.