Larry Brown Sports

If Ray Lewis had a son who was a halfway decent football prospect, you had better believe that kid was going to choose the University of Miami for college or face being disowned. That’s why it was no surprise to hear that Ray Lewis III, the son of the Ravens All-Pro linebacker, had committed to Miami.

Lewis is a running back and safety from Lake Mary Prep in Florida. He rushed for 2,312 yards and 29 touchdowns as a junior last season. We highlighted the 384-yard, five touchdown game he had last September, so hearing that he’s Canes material is not surprising.

“Coming in as a legacy is very exciting,” Lewis told CaneSport.com, according to the Palm Beach Post. “My dad is an icon at Miami. People look up to him. It’s going to be an honor to be there. I will be there to finish off what he started.”

If what Lewis tweeted Tuesday was any indication, he’s pretty stoked about the announcement.

Lewis is the third running back to commit to Miami so he’ll have plenty of competition when he arrives on campus. We doubt it’s anything he won’t be able to handle.

Miami beat South Florida 6-3 Saturday on a 36-yard field goal from Jake Wieclaw as time expired in Tampa. What was strange about the field goal is what transpired prior to Wieclaw’s attempt.

Typically opposing coaches will call a timeout to try and “ice” the kicker. You know, they’ll freeze time and make the kicker think for a few minutes about having the game in his hands. The hope is that the kicker lets the pressure get to him, and then he shanks the attempt.

Well Miami coach Al Golden used some sort of reverse psychology.

As LBS contributor Aaron pointed out to us, Golden had his team surround Wieclaw and jump around him wildly during each of South Florida’s timeouts. The scene on Miami’s sideline was similar to what happens pregame when teams try to pump themselves up. The tactic worked, and Wieclaw nailed the field goal to win the game.

Here is a video of the winning kick, and it includes both timeouts where Miami mobbed Wieclaw to keep him loose:

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Miami may be 2-3 on the season, but head coach Al Golden is optimistic about his team. Appearing on 790 the Ticket with host Jorge Sedano Thursday, Golden said he’s starting to see an attitude change for his players.

“All I’ve heard since I’ve been here is that the team’s not unified and that there’s a bunch of guys playing as individuals,” Golden said. “Everybody’s got NFL on the brain — a lot of them are three-and-out and just want to do their own thing. And that’s [the mentality] that I set out to fix.

“For the first time in 10 months, I looked out there in the second half and saw a team that was playing for each other. [The players] stuck together. 21-7 down in Blacksburg, and we had leaders step up at halftime. We had leadership from Jacory [Harris] and Brandon Washington in the second half. We need that. We need that to win in that type of environment.”

The Canes lost the game 38-35, but it was impressive that they came back to take the lead 35-31 with around three minutes left. Sophomore running back Lamar Miller scored four touchdowns in the game and is the star of the team. He’s averaging 132 yard per game and 7 yards per carry, and he should be able to keep Miami in games the rest of the year. Next up is North Carolina before a home clash with Georgia Tech. Let’s see if Golden’s observations will translate to victories on the field.

There was one nugget from the entire Miami scandal that totally slipped past me. It is literally too good to pass up. In Dan Wetzel’s piece for Yahoo! Sports on why Miami is in trouble, he includes this fantastic detail about booster Nevin Shapiro.

“I had an architect try to put a stripper pole in the suite,” Shapiro said. “Aesthetically it wouldn’t work.”

No word if Shapiro also tried to install a garbage disposal in the suite’s bathtub or a shelf and mini fridge under the desk. But here’s the killer part. The description of Shapiro’s game day antics is enough to tell you Miami can’t use the “we had no idea what was going on” defense.

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The Miami Hurricanes football program is going down and it’s going down hard. Yahoo! Sports’ investigative report unveiled hundreds of violations committed by the program from ’02-’10. Their information comes from former booster Nevin Shapiro who’s in jail for running a $930 million Ponzi scheme. The guy is a crook, a jock-sniffer, and a pathetic wanna-be who was used by talented athletes. But anyone who denies his stories despite the overwhelming financial and photographic evidence is blind.

The thing is, this isn’t about Nevin Shapiro, his credibility, or his motives. This isn’t about whether or not the athletic department knew of the violations (it was on too large of a scale to ignore). This isn’t about whether or not Miami deserves the death penalty.

Really, this isn’t even about Miami.

The issue is we’ve learned that this is a widespread problem going on throughout most programs in Division-I college football. Changes are needed on a grand scale.

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The Miami Hurricanes football program came under scrutiny Tuesday after Yahoo! Sports published an investigation alleging improper conduct between several players and a prominent booster. Nevin Shapiro, who is currently in jail for his role in a $930 million Ponzi scheme, says he provided 72 players with thousands of impermissible benefits from 2002-2010. Amongst the benefits Shapiro says he provided were “bounties” on opposing players. Specifically, Shapiro says Hurricanes players were offered $5,000 to knock former Florida quarterback Tim Tebow or former Florida State quarterback Chris Rix out of games.

Larry Brown Sports spoke with Rix Tuesday evening to hear his thoughts on the bounties.

“My first reaction was ‘wow,’ the former Seminoles quarterback told LBS. “It’s just sad to see.”

Rix, who currently runs the Champion Training Academy that mentors young quarterbacks, says he remembers Miami players coming after him hard but he thought it was due to the rivalry between the teams.

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Despite the fact that they have done virtually nothing since joining the ACC in 2004, the Miami Hurricanes still carry a celebrity presence.  Playing football at The U is something to be proud of.  If you can say you go to The U, people immediately think you’re the man (or a criminal).  The recent struggles of the Hurricanes have done little to quiet the mouths of current players and alumni.  If you wanted to describe players at The U in one word, you might say they have “swagger.”  Just don’t say it in front of new head coach Al Golden.

Golden, who you may remember from his days of destroying the Penn State weight room, wants nothing to do with that word.  He realizes the Hurricanes have done nothing noteworthy in recent years and sounds like he wants to change the Hollywood environment that surrounds the team.

“I’m so tired of talking about ‘swagger,’” Golden said according to CBSSports.com. “Swagger, as it was said to me by Alonzo Highsmith and so many of the other former players, was the by-product. It wasn’t the product, it was the by-product.

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