Miami held it’s annual Orange and Green Game Saturday in front of about 10,000 fans at Sun Life Stadium. Running back Mike James gave the Orange a tough 7-6 win over the Green team. Ryan Williams threw the ball with good precision and moved around pretty well, completing 15 of 27 passes for 169 yards, but also threw two interceptions. Rafael Kirby led the Orange defense with 5 solo tackles and 6 overall. The Green defense was paced by Ladarius Gunter who totalled 7 tackles and a forced fumble. Kendal Thompkins caught 6 balls for 45 yards and Rashawn Scott had four catches for 74 yards. Mike James had 15 carries for 57 yards and the games only touchdown while placekicker Jake Wieclaw kicked two field goals, a 35 yarder and he added a 29 yarder. With Tommy Streeter and Lamar Miller not there, the Hurricanes had problems moving the ball all day. Head coach Al Golden was impressed with the defense. “I was pleased with the way the defense ran to the ball,” Coach Al Golden said. “I thought we were physical. We needed play makers to make plays the way they did.”
Starting left gaurd Jermaine Johnson did not play in the game due to an injury. Golden said the injury isn’t major but there was no word given on what it is.
Al Golden handed out spring practice awards at halftime of the game for the second year in a row. This years winners were:
305 Walk On Award–Presented to the most improved non-scholarship player–Wide Receiver Garrett Kidd. Kidd red shirted in his freshman season in 2011.
Defensive Most Improved Player Award–Shayon Green. Green was hurt a lot of his sophomore year in 2011 but still managed to get in 4 games and had 7 tackles.
Offensive Most Improved Player Award–Rashawn Scott. In his freshman year (2011) he played in 6 games before suffering a season ending injury, catching one ball. He is expected to be a major factor this year for the Hurricanes.
Special Teams Most Improved Player Award–Thomas Finnie. In 2011, his freshman season, he played in 11 games and had 14 tackles, 10 of them solo.
ESPN is reporting that 7 Hurricanes are expected to be draft in next week’s NFL Draft, and that as many as 9 players could go overall. The Canes have always done very well at the draft. From 1994 to 2008 they had at least one player go in the first round each year.
In 2011 Vaughn Telemaque was the starting safety for Miami where he collected 59 tackles and an interception in 12 games as a junior. But when spring practice ended he was playing with the second team.
Recent Canes commit Standish Dobard is ranked the 8th best TE recruit and 208th overall according to Rivals.com. They give him a 4 out of 5 star rating. He has not signed yet but his commitment status is listed as “Strong verbal”.
Ray Blanchette covers the Miami Hurricanes for Outside The Redzone. He also covers NCAA football for the Saturday Blitz. Follow along at www.saturdayblitz.com. Blanchette is the owner of Blanchette Sports Holdings. Follow along with them at www.blanchettesh.elementfx.com or on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/#!/profile.php?id=100003521034703&sk=wall or on Twitter at https://twitter.com/#!/BlanchettSports
