By Camron Ghorbi
HurricaneSports.com

“Man…this is awesome.”

Jon Vilma accomplished it all in his playing days: first-team NCAA All-America, BCS national championship, NFL Defensive Rookie of the Year, multiple Pro Bowls, Super Bowl champion…the list goes on.

But when he recalls his memories from that day, watching the first round of the 2004 NFL Draft unfold with friends and family, his voice is still flush with excitement.

It’s an occasion that stands in National Football League history – the only time a single program has produced six first-round picks.

“I don’t think any of us ever thought we would hold the record for so long.”

Vilma never considered leaving early for the NFL, even after his Hurricanes fell just short* of winning back-to-back national championships as a draft-eligible junior.

“After getting robbed in the Fiesta Bowl, I remember [defensive coordinator] Randy Shannon asking me, ‘you’re coming back, right?’ It never struck me that I would play in the NFL,” Vilma said. “I was so wrapped up in being at UM. It struck me even less that I would end up in the first round.

“I started thinking about the guys around me – Vince Wilfork being a freak of nature, DJ Williams, and of course Sean Taylor…we started realizing, ‘we’re going to be pretty damn good [in 2003].'”

The Hurricanes finished the year with an 11-2 record, toppling Florida State, 16-14, in the 2004 Orange Bowl to cap off a four-year stretch with a 45-4 record and bowl wins over Florida and Florida State, in addition to the thumping of Nebraska for a national title.

“The season ended well, don’t get me wrong – we only lost two games – but we didn’t get to the national championship and when we started working out, that’s when it really hit myself, it hit all of us, as far as being first-round talent,” Vilma said.

Hurricanes offensive lineman Vernon Carey, a two-time All-BIG EAST selection and third-team All-America in 2003, remembers the time leading up into the draft vividly.

“I had had surgery right after the season, so I couldn’t train like most of those guys,” he said. “I think I trained two or three weeks right before the draft. I maintained my strength, but I had had knee surgery – I couldn’t do too much. I worked out with those guys, but most of those guys were on the field and I had to sit on the side and watch.”

Carey stops briefly and laughs.

“It was a little painful for me, but things went the way they did and it all turned out well for us. We had six first ro­unders – no complaints from us.”

Carey and his family rented out a space on South Beach in celebration of the occasion, but, knowing he was slotted anywhere from pick No. 18 to the end of the first round, he told his family to relax for a little during the early parts of the afternoon.

First off the board – to the Washington Redskins with the fifth pick – was Taylor, a supreme talent whose life was cut tragically short but whose memory lives on in the lives of Hurricanes everywhere. With the very next selection, Cleveland picked tight end Kellen Winslow II – making it back-to-back Hurricanes and two within the top-six picks.

“I remember being around my family and watching Sean get drafted and then Kellen get drafted – it was just awesome,” Vilma said. “It was what we all had hoped for, what we all talked about, and then it was happening. I remember calling Sean and congratulating him, and then him doing the same for me.”

Taylor’s call to his pal Vilma came seven picks later, when the standout middle linebacker was selected by the Jets.

Linebacker D.J. Williams went shortly thereafter, chosen by the Broncos at No. 17.

Both Carey and defensive tackle Vince Wilfork knew their time was near.

“I knew Minnesota wanted me and they had the 19^th pick,” he said. “Bryant McKinnie was playing with the Vikings and there was talk they wanted two UM tackles.”
McKinnie, who was in attendance for the Carey Family festivities, was rooting for his Vikings to select his friend.

But the Dolphins moved up to take the Miami native, trading a fourth-round pick for the right to select Carey.

“I remember [Miami] calling to tell me they were taking me,” Carey said. “I broke down and cried a little bit. All those years of hard work…you work so hard for that goal. To get that call, it’s like, ‘Wow.’ It’s emotional. You put in so much, all the waking up in the morning, all the hard work on the practice field. People don’t understand how much you put in.”

Wilfork’s chance came two picks later, when New England selected their defensive anchor for the next decade, putting three Hurricanes first-round picks in the AFC East alone.

Since 2000, only one other program has ever had five first-round selections in a draft, and none have matched Miami’s six from 2004 in the history of the event.

“I remember all of us kind of with our families in our own areas watching the draft,” Vilma said. “It wasn’t until we all got drafted, and we all got back together, having a good time and talking trash. It was almost like a gathering at a barbecue or a family party. You have some of the guys that had been drafted the year before, they were down in Miami working out. We just got drafted, so we’re there in the weight room. It was surreal, because these were all the guys I had been playing with for the past four years, but now we’re all elevated to this other status. It was a great feeling.”

For Carey, a day that remains historic in NFL all started on the Greentree Practice Field.

“I remember sitting with each other every day after practice with Vince and we’d critique each other,” he said. “This step, that step, the technique – just the want to get better was amazing. We always were sharpening each other. Iron sharpens iron, or whatever they say. That’s the metaphor that was there.

“We were making each other better. We all had dreams, we all had goals, and for us to accomplish those goals, we had to go hard, and you’re making the person next to you better. When I’m a younger guy and I’ve got Ed Reed and Bryant McKinnie and all those guys going hard in practice, it trickles down. Everyone did it.”