Hurricanes Return to Practice Field on Off Week
Sept. 10, 2008
CORAL GABLES, Fla. – The University of Miami football team returned to the practice field Wednesday afternoon after taking a few days off. UM has a bye week and will play at Texas A&M on Saturday. Sept. 20. That game will be televised on ABC at either 3:30 p.m. or 8 p.m. eastern time.
Miami worked out for nearly 2 ½ hours at the Greentree Practice Fields on Wednesday.
“We worked on Texas A&M a little bit today,” UM head coach Randy Shannon said. “We got some good work in with ones-vs.-ones and we practiced with a lot of enthusiasm. I’m happy right now. The guys came back out and responded today. They weren’t dragging around.”
Miami will practice Thursday before taking Friday and Saturday off. Shannon said he and his coaches are treating this week “like a normal game week. We’re not changing anything that we’re doing.”
The Hurricanes defeated the Aggies, 34-17, in the third game last season at the Orange Bowl. Texas A&M also has a bye week this week after going 1-1 in its first two games – a 28-22 win at New Mexico and an 18-14 loss to Arkansas State at home.
“They have a nice defense,” Shannon said about the Aggies. “Like any other situation when you have a new coach, they have to learn a new mentality. They are doing a good job; they had a win last week. Now they have a week off to get everyone healthy and things like that.”
UM returns to the practice field Thursday at 3:30 p.m.
UM-UF game third most watched regular season game on ESPN
The University of Miami’s football game at Florida on Saturday, Sept. 6 was the third most watched regular season game in the history of ESPN’s college football coverage. The game drew a 5.0 rating and had 6,954,000 household impressions.
The Hurricanes have now been involved in the three most-watched regular season college football games to air on ESPN. First on that list is the UM-Florida State game on Sept. 4, 2006 (9,120,000 household impressions) and the second most viewed game ever is the Hurricanes’ contest against the Seminoles on Oct. 8, 1994 (7,667,000 household impressions).
Post-Practice notes
· The Hurricanes will take Friday and Saturday off before returning to the practice fields on Sunday for a light practice.
· Fans can order tickets for the 2008 season, including season tickets starting at $99, by visiting www.hurricanesports.com or by calling the UM ticket office at (800) GO-CANES or (305) 284-CANE. The UM ticket office, located at the Hecht Athletic Center on UM’s campus, is open from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday to Friday.
· Shannon commented on losing junior running back Javarris James for a short time. “It hurts big time in the running game. Now Derron [Thomas] has to step up, Lee Chambers and Shawnbrey [McNeal] have to step up and do what we need to get done to get our running game going.
