No. 1 Miami Rested, Ready For Return Against Pittsburgh
Sept. 25, 2001
By MARK LONG
AP Sports Writer
CORAL GABLES, Fla. (AP) – With a second consecutive Saturday off, MiamiHurricanes quarterback Ken Dorsey decided to play golf for the first timesince last spring.
“I was rusty – downright pathetic,” Dorsey said.
He hopes the top-ranked Hurricanes (2-0, 1-0 Big East) are much sharperThursday night as they return from a bye week and a 19-day layoff againstPittsburgh (1-1, 0-0).
“It’s so rare during the season to get time to do stuff you like to do offthe field,” Dorsey said Monday. “We’ve had time to relax and reflect onwhere we’ve been and where we want to go.”
The Hurricanes opened the season with lopsided victories at Penn State andagainst Rutgers, outscoring them 94-7, then had their game against No. 13Washington postponed to Nov. 24 because of the terrorist attacks in New Yorkand Washington, D.C..
Miami was idle Saturday, giving the Hurricanes almost three weeks betweengames. First-year Hurricanes coach Larry Coker tried to keep the layoff frombecoming a distraction.
He mixed tough – and sometimes fun – practices with extra downtime for hisplayers. He expects the results to show against the Panthers.
“Are we concerned about being rusty with a 19-day layoff? There’s no doubtabout it,” Coker said. “We were in a pretty good rhythm, playing pretty welland we were healthy. With the layoff, we’ll see. We’re not going to let thatbe an excuse.
“Our players have practiced well, practiced hard and we expect to play verywell Thursday night.”
In the week following the attacks, Coker gave his players three days off.They returned to practice last Tuesday, and Coker matched the first-teamoffense against the first-team defense – a move rarely seen outsidepreseason drills.
“The best way to stay sharp is to play against the best,” linebackerJonathan Vilma said.
Coker also provided some entertainment. He held a scrimmage between theteam’s young offensive and defensive players, mostly freshmen. The playerscalled it the “Toilet Bowl.” They even made a trophy, taping a shoe to thetop of an empty water cooler bottle, for the most valuable player.
“We’ve tried to have some fun with it instead of making it a long, longgrind,” Coker said. “We did not want it to be August two-a-days.”
Coker capped the long layoff – which was three days shy of being the samelength as fall practice – with a second Saturday away from the footballfield.
Running back Clinton Portis spent the extra day sleeping and watchingfootball, defensive tackle Matt Walters used the downtime to study andlinebacker Howard Clark went shopping.
And Dorsey played golf. Feeling refreshed, the Hurricanes say they are readyto continue their quest for a national title against the Panthers.
“We’re a lot more focused this week than we were last week,” Dorsey said.”We’re so much more into what we want to do this season that a lack ofpreparation isn’t even in the deck of cards. We’re ready to go.”
