Miami Continues Prep For B.C.
Nov. 7, 2001
CORAL GABLES, Fla. (www.hurricanesports.com) – The top-ranked Miami Hurricanes (7-0 overall, 4-0 in the BIG EAST) reached the midway point of preparations for Saturday’s contest with the Eagles of Boston College (6-2, 3-1) with a two-hour practice in and shorts and pads on Wednesday afternoon at the Greentree Practice Fields on the UM campus.
“This was a good day, a long day, guys are tired but they pushed through it,” head coach Larry Coker said after practice. “I just told them to make sure and be rested. We’ve got roughly three weeks and a couple of days to get it done, so every day is very important for us.”
After practice, Coker commented on the injury status of starting left guard Sherko Haji-Rasouli, who suffered a knee injury during Tuesday’s practice.
“Sherko has a knee injury, the extent of it is unknown,” Coker said. “They’re going to let the swelling go down, they’re going to look at it, they may do surgery may not do surgery, just depends on how it looks after the swelling goes down. We’ll just have to see. I really don’t know the extent of the damage to any ligaments and we won’t until the swelling goes down.”
Haji-Rasouli, a junior who took over the starting job at left guard this season, will not play against the Eagles this Saturday.
“He will not play in this game, but Ed Wilkins is going to start in his place,” Coker said. “Ed’s played a lot, he’s played in every game this season. Vernon Carey can also play there and there’s the possibility that Brett Romberg could move over from center and play some at guard while plays at Joel Rodriguez at center. It’s not like it was five years ago, when we just didn’t have anybody. We have good players and we know they can play there.”
Miami and BC meet for the 23rd time on Saturday with Miami holding a 19-3 edge in the series and riding an 11-game win streak against the Eagles. The Hurricanes also travel to the Boston suburb of Chestnut Hill trying to extend the nation’s longest winning streak, a 17-game stretch that dates back to a loss at Washington on Sept. 9, 2000, in Seattle.
The Miami-BC game will be televised on a split-national basis by ABC Sports and can be seen locally on WPLG-TV (Channel 10) in the Miami/Fort Lauderdale area. For ticket information about Hurricanes football, contact the UM Ticket Office at 1-800-GO-CANES or purchase them on the web at www.hurricanesports.com.
