Former CANES to "right UM ship".

[cygnus34]

FLORIDA SPORTS BUZZ

Irvin wants to help right the UM ship

Stung by the firings of Art Kehoe and Don Soldinger and concerned about UM's offensive drop-off, Michael Irvin will take a more hands-on approach with the program and wants other prominent ex-Canes to join him.

The ESPN analyst and former Cowboys great said last week he will spend at least three weeks this spring tutoring UM's receivers on route-routing and other aspects. ''I need to be there. That responsibility falls on me,'' he said off the air. ``It's not anything against the coaching, but you're asking these guys to play at a level that a lot of coaches haven't played at.

'I didn't work with them last summer and [some players] said, `You should have been there.' I'm going to spend so much time with Lance Leggett. That's the kind of guy I know I can make all the difference in the world with.''

Irvin also will seek involvement from Edgerrin James and Santana Moss, among others. ''Imagine the influence they can have,'' he said. ``We will right the ship.''

Coach Larry Coker and receivers coach Curtis Johnson approve of his involvement, Irvin said: ``Their attitude is anything that can make them better [is OK]. That's the sign of a great coach.''

Irvin said UM ''is right by keeping Coker'' but Kehoe's dismissal 'hurts me. I'm praying they will say, `We were wrong,' and bring [Kehoe and Soldinger] back. These are guys you know will sell the U harder than anybody. Even if you have to reassign them, they deserve to be there. A lot of people feel this way.''

Irvin offers two ideas to help the floundering offense: 1) Rehire ex-UM and ex-Dolphins coordinator Gary Stevens, who's out of coaching. He said he knows that sounds ''crazy,'' but ''Gary was great''; 2) ''Stop changing systems,'' he said. ``It should be a pro-style offense, and I can't say it was this year. You find pro-style players, and if you're not, you're not coming to the U. That's your best recruiting tool. . . . We're not maximizing the talent. It's killing me seeing USC. It's about being the very best. Anything less in not acceptable.''

• Excluding Randy Shannon, UM generally doesn't pay top money for assistants (less than $150,000 per year for most), which has frustrated some of them and could affect UM's ability to land a big-time offensive coordinator.

• Some wonder why Johnson was retained but linebackers coach Vernon Hargreaves wasn't. Insiders note Johnson (who recruited Ed Reed and Reggie Wayne) had much more success in recruiting than Hargreaves.

[E.T.]

• Excluding Randy Shannon, UM generally doesn't pay top money for assistants (less than $150,000 per year for most), which has frustrated some of them and could affect UM's ability to land a big-time offensive coordinator.

Suprises me.

[smazza]

irvin will bring the drugs

usf bulls should hire art kehoe

what about gary stevens?

irvin is all talk.when it comes time to get down and dirty he will not be anywhere to be found

he correctly sees that usc is the standard by which all teams are judged yet almost all on this board don't see that clear fact

[USFMikeB]

Whenever a team sits on top for a while, they say that about them.  They won't be saying that about USC next year, they're losing too many core players.

[Joe]

USC will be fine, they lose a lot, but they also have PLENTY of players in the fold. They recruit the best players year in and out.

[flsportsfan83]

The Canes will finish top 5 next year

[bulls96go]

canes, gators and FSU IMHO are done...as far as year in year out NC runs.

they will rise every 5 years but the confereces they play in will drag them down...the canes  nation will rue the day they left the BE (glad they are gone, it made room for usf)

[Joe]

I dunno about that. FSU started a lot of young guys this year and will probaly be the favorite w/ UF, USC, and Ohio State to win the national title in 2 years. Miami isn't going to be down long, they only lost 3 games this year and just gave up in the bowl game after getting down early.

Sure the teams have been down, but they all have some of the top talent in the country.

[DawgPound]

UF will not be a national title contender.  WVU will be instead.