Hits Keep On Coming for 'Canes' Image

[E.T.]

Published Thursday, August 3, 2006

COLLEGE FOOTBALL

Hits Keep On Coming for 'Canes' Image

By JORGE MILIAN

Palm Beach Post

CORAL GABLES -- The offseason has long been as newsworthy for the University of Miami as the football season.

Player arrests, assorted misbehavior and general scandal often have kept the Hurricanes on the front page long after the season.

Who can forget the spring and summer of 1996, when six UM players were facing criminal charges and a seventh - linebacker Marlin Barnes - was murdered on campus?

Or more recently, the controversy surrounding Willie Williams' admission into UM after his extensive criminal history was revealed?

Few off-seasons have been quite as turbulent as this one, which ends Monday when the Hurricanes begin fall practice.

The latest issue occurred Tuesday, when coach Larry Coker announced the suspension of four players, including starting receiver Ryan Moore and tailback Tyrone Moss, for the season opener against Florida State.

That was the most recent of events -- mass firings, shootings and a Jerry Springer-like attack on a UM player Saturday -- that have affected Miami's football program since it ended the 2005 season with a 40-3 loss to LSU in the Peach Bowl.

"Lou Holtz had a statement that there are going to be three bad things happen to your football team," UM coach Larry Coker said. "(He said), 'I don't know what they are. I don't know when it'll happen. But there are three bad things that will happen."'

The Hurricanes have made their quota and more in just the past month.

Among the lowlights:

•  The suspensions of Moore, Moss, receiver Rashaun Jones and linebacker James Bryant for violations of team policy. Moore will miss UM's first two games, effectively sitting out a threegame suspension that began with the Peach Bowl.

•  A shootout July 21 between an unidentified gunman and UM safety Brandon Meriweather that left teammate Willie Cooper with a bullet in his buttocks.

•  A bizarre incident involving UM safety Lovon Ponder, who was physically and verbally attacked by his mother and aunt during CanesFest on Saturday in Fort Lauderdale.

[lotsofbull99]

Thug Life!

[cygnus34]

http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/sports/15172530.htm

Does this look like thug "U" to you?

I think Jorge is the LOW LIFE, and a garbage reporter.  The CANES have not had one player since 1998 or 99, get in trouble while in school.  Yes, there are suspensions for minor violations and Coker is taking care of things and not letting anything get out of hand.  

The Ponder incident has nothing to do with the school but a private matter within the family.  It was stupid for his aunt to act that way, Lavon did nothing.

The shooting incident had more to do with being attacked and defended than a player out of control.  I am sure there will be something done about having a weapon.

Oklahoma just suspended some players as did some other teams but there is no garbage reporting about that.

[E.T.]

It's hard to get rid of a reputation.

[Triple B]

5 NC's would smooth over a lot of the pain of being known as a Thug School .....

[smazza]

THEY WIN

[bulls96go]

seems like a reporter with an agenda

who pissed in his milk?