Hurricanes Return To Practice In Preparation For Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl
Dec. 15, 2005
CORAL GABLES, Fla. – Fresh off final exams and a layoff of more than two weeks,, the ninth-ranked University of Miami Hurricanes returned to the Greentree Practice fields for the first full day of preparations for 10th-ranked Louisiana State in the Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl, which will be played in the Georgia Dome on Dec. 30. The game will be nationally televised on ESPN.
In addition to concentrating on their final exams as the fall semester came to a close this week, Hurricanes football players had maintained a conditioning and weight-training regimen.
Coach Larry Coker seemed pleased with the team after their first day of practice since their regular-season ended with a win over Virginia on Nov. 26. “I think they were kind of anxious to get back into it a little bit. We’ve been running, lifting and conditioning and the players did a lot of stuff on their own, but this is the first time we’ve really been back and started preparation for LSU,” Coker said. “It was a good start to that today.”
Coker is not the only person anxious and glad to have gotten back on the field while looking ahead to one last game to wrap up the 2005 campaign. Sophomore quarterback Kyle Wright is also looking forward to playing an LSU team that bears some similarity to other Miami opponents from this season.
“I feel excited, rejuvenated,” Wright said. “We’ve had a couple weeks off to focus on school and getting rest, but I think guys are anxious to get back to practice today and really up to the Peach Bowl. LSU is really going to be a great game. Matchup-wise, athleticism-wise and across the board, they are very talented, and we’ve played several teams like that this year. It’s going to be a great challenge for us to play somebody out of our conference and a big team like LSU.
“I think a 10-win season is good, but obviously it’s not what we trained for and what we worked for in the off-season, but definitely it is a successful year,” Wright added.
LSU (10-2, 7-1 SEC) is coming off a 34-14 loss at the hands of Georgia in the SEC Championship game Dec. 3 and before that a 19-17 win over Arkansas Nov. 25. The Tiger’s other defeat came on Sept. 26 in a 30-27 overtime loss against Tennessee. Miami (9-2, 6-2 ACC) defeated Virginia 25-17 Nov. 26 to close out the season and lost to Georgia Tech 14-10 the previous weekend. The Hurricanes opened up the season with a 10-7 heartbreaker at Florida State.
Given the team’s similar records, athletic ability and high rankings, Coker is not downplaying the game one bit. In fact, he thinks it’s one of the best of the bowl season.
“The initials `BCS’ don’t mean anything. We have two losses and you have two teams with two losses playing in the Fiesta Bowl, which is a BCS game,” Coker said. “You have Oregon with one loss that is not in a BCS game. I think the quality of competition is the key, and other than the national championship game, we’ve got the game I believe.”Notes: Coker said senior cornerback Kelly Jennings appeared to injure his ankle but does not know to what extent. “I don’t know. We’ll get the report on it, but I don’t really know what happened to him other than he did sprain his ankle a little bit.”…Ten members of the Hurricanes football team participated in graduation festivities held at the BankUnited Center Thursday. “Today was graduation day. We had 10 players graduate today, and four of those guys will be back next near,” Coker said. “It was a good day for all of us today, but I expect everyone to be eligible for the bowl game.”…All-purpose threat Devin Hester practiced on offense Thursday and appears to have a package put in, as he does every week. “We did use him some on offense, so we like to have him in an orange jersey for the quarterbacks to look at, so he’ll definitely have an offensive package,” Coker said.
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TICKETS STILL AVAILABLE FOR THE PEACH BOWL
Tickets are still available and can be purchased online at www.hurricanesports.com or by calling 305/284-CANE in Miami-Dade County or 1-800-GO-CANES outside of Miami-Dade. Tickets are priced at $65 and $75, and there is no limit to the number of tickets that can be purchased. Fans purchasing tickets to the Peach Bowl are guaranteed the opportunity to buy a comparable amount of tickets to next season’s Miami-Florida State game on September 4, 2006.
