U Betta Believe It, Baby

Nothing gets me pumped up for the new college football season like Lloyd's Barbecue Company and Tim Brando's amazing combover. Yup, it's that time of year again. It's the time of year when you're just starting to accept college football back into your life and still not willing to accept the NFL because it's still two months away even though ESPN has been shoving it down your throat since the Super Bowl ended. You'd think they make a lot of money off that league or something?

Anyway, I'm ready for college football. EA Sports' latest college football edition is out and I've started a new dynasty with the best young team in the country - the University of Miami. Ah, UM. My alma mater. There are very few programs in the country as storied as the Canes. There are probably less that are as under the radar as Miami. Miami is probably one of the most underrated teams in country this year and it shows with complete lack of respect and acknowledgment by the Lloyd's BBQ College Football Special crew. (I think I'm going to refer to that show by its full name for the remainder of this column. I'll give them the respect they didn't give Miami.)

Miami's new head coach Randy Shannon has brought some order back to south Florida. He's brought back pride to the program. He's brought back discipline (no more surnames on the back of the jerseys). And he's brought back some huevos to the UM head coaching job. I'm sorry, Larry, but you were too much of a pushover with zero killer instinct. Coach Shannon is a Miami guy through and through. He grew up there (without a father mind you - he was shot and killed when Randy was just 3 years old), he played for the Canes in the mid-80's and was a starter on their 1987 National Championship team, he was brought on as defensive line coach and in 2001, defensive coordinator. The man is Miami football.

Shannon has already gotten Miami back on the right track without even having played a game yet. The reason: south Florida athletes. The pride of Miami has always been just that - Miamians themselves. UM has been notorious for recruiting heavily in Miami-Dade and Broward counties creating a monopoly of sorts on the fresh homegrown talent down there. However, after Butch Davis bolted for the NFL (by the way, he's rumored to get North Carolina back on track as their new head coach this year) Larry Coker opened the door for other schools to pluck south Florida talent away from Miami.

No more. Randy Shannon has already signed or gotten verbal commitments from dozens of four and five star recruits for 2007 and 2008 including blue-chip runningback Graig Cooper. I have to say, not only am I pumped for Coop DeVille (yea, that's his nickname) to amass sick yardage but the man is continuing some great tradition by wearing Willis McGahee's old number two.

Now with all this information about UM's new head coach and star young talent coming to the 305 (I haven't even mentioned stud quarterback Robert Marve out of Tampa) coupled with the storied history and national presence of the school, one would think that the Lloyd's BBQ College Special crew would touch on the Canes for a least a little bit. Nope. Tim Brando, Spencer Tillman (who?), and Terry Bowden combed over (yea, that's right - I made that joke again) every obvious issue about the upcoming season. I'll quickly go over them in case you've forgotten:

The SEC is still stacked with talent. The Big 10 is still boring and Lloyd Carr is still the Marty Schottenheimer of college football. USC is what Miami was six years ago complete with the able but completely overrated quarterback (you're telling me John David-Booty is starting on any other team in the top 10?). Virginia Tech is somehow flying under the radar because of the tragedy from last spring (how Metallica doesn't go to Blacksburg and play "Enter Sandman" live before the Hokies come out is beyond me). Colt Brennan won't win the Heisman even though he'll throw for seven kajillion yards. We still don't have a playoff system even though it makes every bit of sense as the BCS doesn't and it would make the conferences more money.

Yup, they pretty much covered all that. Well, they covered those topics but didn't say what really should be said as I just did. But you get the picture. But you see, they didn't talk about the Canes. They didn't mention them when they individually went over the pre-season All-Americans (Calais Campbell and Kenny Phillips were on that list). They didn't mention them when they talked about teams coming back from off years (I guess Miami's 7-6 record along with a disgusting brawl with FIU and shooting death of Bryan Pata wasn't enough to warrant mention). And they didn't mention Miami when talking about the new head coaches in college football.

What does all this mean? It means the Hurricanes have an extra chip on their shoulder. I don't know how many, if any, saw the Lloyd's BBQ College Football Special on ABC Sunday afternoon. I don't know if they saw the shoddy production and the bad editing. Maybe they didn't see the poor direction or the lack of proper fonts. Maybe they didn't see a completely uncalled for spectacle only meant to hawk some crappy barbecue food shamefully plugged every five minutes and ignored the obvious money the NCAA was giving some low brow production company, but I'll tell you what. I saw it. And Canes talk. I'm not saying I'm the reason the Canes will have an extra chip on their shoulder (as if they need it) but I am saying that someone in Coral Gables saw this show and I guarantee you it only served as another gallon of gasoline in tank that is the Miami football machine.

So thank you random production company. Thank you ABC for airing it. Thank you Tim, Spencer, Terry and random guy from the Sporting News who's name escapes me. You did a service to the Miami Hurricanes when you slapped them in the face. The entire nation of Hurricanes fans, students, and alumni thank you. Remember what happened last time Miami felt they were disrespected? They won a couple national championships.

The orange jerseys are back. The black socks and cleats are back. And you better believe Miami is back. Don't say I didn't warn you.