Posted by ESPN.com’s Heather Dinich
When Miami quarterback Jacory Harris was on the field for Monday’s walk-through and Tuesday’s practice, he was a little bit surprised to see his teammates “running around full of speed, laughing and joking around, like ‘this can’t ever happen again.’”
This, being the devastating 40-37 overtime loss to Clemson last Saturday -- a loss that knocked the Hurricanes out of the top 10 in the BCS standings and the thick of the Coastal Division race heading into Saturday’s game at Wake Forest.
“We’ve said that before, but now we’ve dug ourselves too deep in a hole,” Harris said. “We can’t let it go any deeper.”
The good news in Coral Gables is that Miami coach Randy Shannon said nobody is sulking this week.
“We came out Sunday, as a matter of fact, and there was a lot of enthusiasm, a lot of excitement,” Shannon said. “It was a point of, ‘Oh, well, we just lost,’ it was one of those feelings like, ‘You know what? We lost this game. We played terrible. We weren’t where we normally play as Miami, let’s get going. Let’s get back focused. Let’s not hang our heads.’ Clemson did a good job, they made more big plays than us, and we responded Sunday, Tuesday and this morning, we did very well.”
Miami still has the potential and the talent to finish 10-2, which would be an impressive finish in Shannon’s third season. The Canes have to cut down on the penalties and turnovers, though, in order for that to happen.
Harris actually leads the ACC with 10 interceptions right now, and the only team faring worse than Miami in penalties this year is Florida State. The Canes are losing 63.6 yards per game this year because of penalties.
The notion of a 10-win season isn’t their focus right now, though. Looking ahead is what got the Canes into trouble at Virginia Tech. It sounds like they’ve learned lessons from both losses this year.
“We haven’t had enough time to think about scenarios,” Harris said. “Right now, we just want to win the rest of our games. That’s what we’re thinking about right now. ... Keep on moving forward, do all things that your coaches [have] been teaching you and have fun.”
Somehow they’ve found a way to do that this week, too.
When Miami quarterback Jacory Harris was on the field for Monday’s walk-through and Tuesday’s practice, he was a little bit surprised to see his teammates “running around full of speed, laughing and joking around, like ‘this can’t ever happen again.’”
This, being the devastating 40-37 overtime loss to Clemson last Saturday -- a loss that knocked the Hurricanes out of the top 10 in the BCS standings and the thick of the Coastal Division race heading into Saturday’s game at Wake Forest.
“We’ve said that before, but now we’ve dug ourselves too deep in a hole,” Harris said. “We can’t let it go any deeper.”
The good news in Coral Gables is that Miami coach Randy Shannon said nobody is sulking this week.
“We came out Sunday, as a matter of fact, and there was a lot of enthusiasm, a lot of excitement,” Shannon said. “It was a point of, ‘Oh, well, we just lost,’ it was one of those feelings like, ‘You know what? We lost this game. We played terrible. We weren’t where we normally play as Miami, let’s get going. Let’s get back focused. Let’s not hang our heads.’ Clemson did a good job, they made more big plays than us, and we responded Sunday, Tuesday and this morning, we did very well.”
Miami still has the potential and the talent to finish 10-2, which would be an impressive finish in Shannon’s third season. The Canes have to cut down on the penalties and turnovers, though, in order for that to happen.
Harris actually leads the ACC with 10 interceptions right now, and the only team faring worse than Miami in penalties this year is Florida State. The Canes are losing 63.6 yards per game this year because of penalties.
The notion of a 10-win season isn’t their focus right now, though. Looking ahead is what got the Canes into trouble at Virginia Tech. It sounds like they’ve learned lessons from both losses this year.
“We haven’t had enough time to think about scenarios,” Harris said. “Right now, we just want to win the rest of our games. That’s what we’re thinking about right now. ... Keep on moving forward, do all things that your coaches [have] been teaching you and have fun.”
Somehow they’ve found a way to do that this week, too.
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ABOUT THIS BLOG
Heather Dinich
Dinich covered ACC and Big Ten football for five seasons before joining ESPN.com in November 2007. She's an Indiana grad but somehow her favorite day of the week is Saturday.
