It’s not every day that the Miami Hurricanes enter their home stadium as the underdogs.

For decades, Miami has been a program that has either talked the talk and/or walk the walk. They were either a great team or at least looked the part physically. However, Friday’s 17-9 win over No. 20 Virginia felt like a win for the little guys.

Jimmy Murphy, bringing the TL together as only he can. pic.twitter.com/v5QL7sVLLQ

— Christy Chirinos (@ChristyChirinos) October 12, 2019

Jimmy Murphy tackles the UVA punt returner before he could even think about running with the ball and the crowd goes wild. Listed at 5-7, Murphy is the shortest player on the team and is the only player on the Hurricanes with shoulder pads sticking out of the jersey.

Redshirt sophomore Turner Davidson entered the game as the new place kicker and converts two extra points and his only field goal. It was first collegiate game and it came after sophomore Bubba Baxa spent the entire previous season and the first five games of this season as the primary kicker.

“For Turner Davidson to come in and make the PATs and make that field goal in a very clutch time in the game during the fourth quarter was a huge shot in the arm to our football team,” Miami head coach Diaz said. “So, again, something that all three phases can be very proud of. It’s a very happy locker room right now as you can imagine. Now, we maybe have a little bit of momentum that we can kick on for the rest of our season.”

Davidson’s entrance into his first career collegiate game was a surprise to everyone. Listed at 5-9, 155 lbs, Davidson is the lightest player on the roster. He appeared amongst his teammates on the field like that scrawny college student in the recent NFL Sunday Ticket commercial featuring Patrick Mahomes.

“You know what’s funny? I obviously know who he is, but I didn’t know he was kicking until I got in the locker room,” wide receiver K.J. Osborn said. “I didn’t know. We were in the locker room and coach [Manny] Diaz said, ‘Special teams,’ and then they held up Turner. I looked around and said, ‘What did Turner do?’ And they were like, ‘He was kicking field goals,’ and I was like, ‘Oh.’ I didn’t even know.”

“I don’t either,” Diaz joked. “He just ran on the field during pregame and started knocking some in, and we said, Hey, here we go.”

Davidson said his approach was simply, “Don’t miss.” As simple and dead pan as it sounds, he took it to heart and made every kick.

Diaz said the decision to put Davidson on short field goals and extra points is how he looked during warmups compared to Baxa, who missed four field goals and two extra points this season.

“We let it kind of go down to warm-ups and he just had a better warm-up than Bubba and that doesn’t mean that’s a permanent move or whatever, but we just felt like from a pure evaluating who was making the kicks that he was the guy,” Diaz said. “He was without a doubt the better guy in the warm-up.”

While the big guys usually get the love in Miami, and deservedly so defensively, Friday night’s upset belongs to the little guys.

Note: For more awesome photos from Saturday’s Virginia Tech game, check out Tony Capobianco’s photo gallery.

The New Miami has crashed down to earth with a resounding thud.

Gone are the hopes of a quick rebuild, replaced with the somber realization that the Canes are as far away from “back” as they’ve ever been, complete with the knowledge that the Canes may have made a colossal mistake in the coaching hire by opting not to conduct a full search, instead choosing the now familiar path of immediately pivoting to a defensive coordinator off the previous staff who had no head coaching experience. Minus the lack of coaching search, it mirrors a failed approach the Canes used in 2007 to replace Larry Coker with Randy Shannon.

Now Manny Diaz will be more involved in calling the defense. And if you’re having déjà vu, that’s because Randy Shannon famously did the same thing in 2007 as the defense got torched by North Carolina and a huge comeback attempt fell just short. We’ve been here before.

Is it time to abandon ship? Be patient because we have no choice? It helps to start with examining how we got here.

System-wide Failure

Manny Diaz joined the Joe Rose Show for his weekly appearance and got right to the point. The team can’t do anything fundamentally right: Block, Tackle, Read Plays, Kick. And they throw in a boatload of penalties to boot.

That there is problem recognition is a step in the right direction. That the list is so long is scary.

As we try to get down to the heart of the matter, we’ll find that the Canes need to focus on getting back to basics. When David Eversole wrote earlier this week that the Hurricanes Need to Stop With the Gimmicks, Start With the Winning, he wasn’t blaming the chains and rings for the losses, but merely pointing out the error of the “New Miami.”

We know that the Canes generally show up with more raw talent than their opponent. So it is very easy to reduce problems, and therefore fixes, to attitude and effort. The “New Miami” branding was about just that…this year’s team would play hard and “finish.”

Well an interesting thing happened on the way to a 2-3 record…and that thing was football. Becoming a good team takes a lot more than hard work. It takes collaboration, cohesion, competence…it takes time. Which is why it was so easy to buy into the “New Miami” with the promise of a quick fix, a magic elixir, an easy button.

We don’t know if the Diaz hire was a mistake or not, but we do know, and he has learned, that the offseason focus on attitude and “culture” was misguided. At the highest levels of FBS football, the margins are slim, and talent gaps can be easily bridged by fundamental soundness, clean play, and a level of strategic intelligence…three things that have been completely lacking.

Hay Liga

What about the short-term? There are 2 phrases from Spanish soccer that spring to mind: (1) “Hay Liga” which literally translates to “There is league” but really means there is a race for first place and (2) “sentencia” which is a phrase they use to convey that the race is over.

Miami’s goals have been completely reset. The ACC Coastal was a realistic goal, but at 0-2 with 2 Coastal losses, it’s hard to see a way back. The goal is now for Miami to be involved in an “Hay Liga” conversation in November. It’ll take some help from the rest of the Coastal, but that’s where they’re at. As for the Virginia game…well, Virginia can win that game and “sentencia” the league for Miami. Realistically, Diaz will likely be faced with a team that is fighting for bowl eligibility with little else to motivate them at the business end of the season.

It is extremely early in Diaz’s tenure, and as he continues to learn and hopefully grow, things should get better. But we’re in for a long trip and significant pain. Diaz’s moves on defense, such as they were, are the first step in a course correction after initially starting down the wrong path. But is this the right path? No one really knows. Time will tell, and in 20-20 hindsight, we’ll either see what’s happening now as clear signs that this thing was doomed from the start or signs that he was building the program. There is ample evidence to support either stance but results ultimately dictate everything.

Friday is another game, and another opportunity. This could work, and that’s reason enough. Let’s hope Diaz produces the right results.

Miami Heat basketball is (technically) back!

The real games don’t start for another two weeks, but the tune-up circuit will have to do for now.

For the first time in what feels like forever, there’s genuine excitement surrounding this team. Having a top-15 player headlining the roster will do that for you. Combine that star power with a semi-open field in the East, and there’s room for hope.

(How reasonable that hope is, however, is a discussion for another day. Or preview. Definitely a preview.)

I won’t bore you with the generic “don’t overreact to the preseason” spiel. I’m going to assume we all know that, like Summer League play, process matters more than results. We’re looking for trends that could carry over into the reg-

Oh, I’m doing it anyway. In short: watch the games and take the box scores with quite a few grains of salt.

Of course, you should not expect flawless basketball. Guys are working themselves into regular season shape; coaches will be trying out combos that’ll never see the light of day in November, much less April. In light of that reality, I’ve come up with a guide that’ll help you weed through the inevitable noise.

Big Picture

Who’s starting at point guard?

Blah, blah, positions don’t matter. That’s true in a general sense, but the Heat’s most important positional battle involves Justise Winslow and Goran Dragic. 

Dragic is the wily vet with a couple of fringe All-Star-caliber seasons (and an actual appearance) under his belt. He’s been the head of the snake before. and gives the offense a much-needed punch with his elbow-swinging forays to the basket.

Dragic saw some natural slippage last season, but still grades out as a good finisher and respectable pull-up threat. For a Heat offense that has struggled for most of the post-LeBron era, having as many three-level scoring threats on the floor as possible seems important.

Then there’s Winslow, a 6’7* playmaker that can get to the rim on a whim and fire skips all over the floor. He plays a more deliberate style than Dragic, but it works; he enhances the shot quality of his teammates because of his ability to manipulate defenses. Kind reminder: the flashes have been there since Year 2. 

Winslow is still adding the intermediate area to his repertoire. He tinkered with some floaters and pull-up jimmies last season, particularly in the second half. He wasn’t great in either aspect, ranking in the 33rd percentile on runners and the 22nd percentile on off-the-dribble jumpers, via Synergy. But his willingness to take those shots represent a potential watershed moment in his young career.

If we’re being honest, Winslow should win the starting job. He’s arguably the best passer on the team, and his improved spot-up shooting makes him an ideal secondary option to Jimmy Butler. Defensively, Winslow can get back to his guard-hounding roots, the skill that made him stand out as a rookie. Having Winslow defend at the point of attack is quite the difference from the much smaller, slower, and less instinctual Dragic.  

At this stage of Dragic’s career, the Heat should prioritize saving him during the 82-game marathon. Allowing him to punch well above his weight against second units would maximize the value of both parties. 

But hey, we’ll see.

Who’s starting alongside Bam Adebayo?

Hassan Whiteside is gone. The starting center job fully belongs to Bam Adebayo. On balance, that is a very good thing!

Handing the reigns to Adebayo was the right move. His rim-diving, high-post passing, and chameleon-like versatility on defense make him one of the NBA’s most intriguing young guys. The next step for the Heat is deciding what his ideal front-court partner looks like.

While one could argue that Adebayo is an upgrade from Whiteside, there is reason for mild concern. Adebayo is 6’9 on a good day. As well as he moves on the floor, he isn’t the rim protector or rebounder that Whiteside was in Miami. The size element complicates the frontcourt pairing question. This is in addition to Adebayo needing a spacer to complement his rim-rolling ability.

The natural answer to this question is Kelly Olynyk. The Adebayo-Olynyk pairing posted a plus-4.9 net rating in 1,048 minutes last season. Of course, Olynyk is currently on the mend with a knee injury. A number that matters more now: their 50.6 rebounding percentage when sharing the court together. For comparison’s sake, the Whiteside-Olynyk was also a success (plus-3.5 net rating) while rebounding at a much higher rate (53.4).

On paper, newbie and Heat Twitter folk hero Meyers Leonard makes more sense. He’s a bit bigger than Olynyk, is a better outside shooter (career 38.5 percent from deep), is a slightly better rebounder (career 13.2 rebounding rate vs Olynyk’s 12.5).

One issue there is that Leonard doesn’t have a real track record for three-point volume. He’s only logged one season averaging more than 3.0 three-point attempts per game; Olynyk averages that many attempts for his career. And as lead-footed as Olynk is defensively, he at least knows where to be defensively and adds some value as a charge magnet. I … will just say the same can’t be said for Leonard at this stage.

Starting either James Johnson or Derrick Jones Jr. at the 4 would allow the Heat to be switch-y or blitz-heavy, but there are obvious spacing questions on the other end. The idea of Adebayo and Jones Jr. just bludgeoning teams on the offensive glass is intriguing until they face the Pistons (Blake Griffin and Andre Drummond) or the Nuggets (Paul Millsap and Nikola Jokic).

We’re going to find out a lot about the Heat’s thinking over the next couple of weeks.

Tyler Herro’s Next Challenge

Four things can be true at once.

1. I was not a fan of the Herro pick on draft night.
2. Herro has much more in his offensive bag than I gave him credit for, and made plenty of flash plays in Summer League.
3. The questions that made me dislike the Herro pick are still there.
4. An ideal starting lineup, to me, involves Herro at the 2 alongside Winslow, Butler, whoever-is-at-the-4, and Adebayo

Herro looked at home as a pick-and-roll initiator, especially when he was able to get a head start. That, plus his ability to stop on a dime and pull-up, are skills that should translate. Creating space is going to be the swing skill for him offensively; attacking those crevices is what will open up the plus-passing vision and shooting versatility. 

Here’s the thing: the level of athleticism is about to improve again. I understand how cliche that sounds, but it’s an important thing to note. Even though Herro played well this summer, he still struggled to create without help. 

He’s going to face more tenacious on-ball defenders and more athletic rim protectors moving forward. Those shot/pass windows are going to close faster. How quickly he can adjust will go a long way towards determining how high up on the depth chart he should be when the season starts.

While We’re At It…

Can Derrick Jones Jr. dribble yet?

That sounds more harsh than I intend it to, but this is the swing-skill for him. We know he can finish any dunk or lob attempt within a six-mile radius. He’s proven that his outlier leaping ability makes him a functional threat as an offensive rebounder. Giving him a launching pad is akin to giving peak Jerome Bettis a one-on-one with a slot corner.

The corner three is coming (36.8 percent via Basketball-Reference), and Jones’ defense has improved. He skies for weakside blocks, and did a much better job of navigating screens and bothering ball-handlers with his length.

If the jumper is as real as he says it is, teams will stop ignoring him from deep. That’s great news — unless he doesn’t have the ball-handling chops to pump, drive, then elevate (or flip the ball ahead, but we’re working with baby steps here). I lost count of the out-of-control drives and (uncalled) travels from last season. There may or may not have been James Ennis comparisons dropped on my timeline.

It is way too early to give up on Jones Jr; the Suns learned that the hard way. The fact that there’s a path to him being a consistent rotation piece is a testament to his work ethic. But man, he has to be able to dribble and run at the same time to take the next step.

What does the Dion Waiters-Jimmy Butler partnership look like?

Best believe I’m going to be paying attention to who ends possessions when these two share the court together. Ideally, this could be the Dragic-Waiters circa 2017 duo on steroids. Of course, there’s also the chance that we get a viral video of Waiters waiving for the ball while Butler does his mid-range dance.

When will we see James Johnson?

No, seriously, what the heck is his body fat percentage at this point?

Are we sleeping on Kendrick Nunn?

Lost in #HerroMania this summer was the play of Kendrick Nunn, easily the Heat’s best player during the July circuit. He earned All-Summer League honors with offensive exploits and tenacious on-ball defense. He grew as a passer out of pick-and-roll, and showcased a new confidence in his pull-up triple.

I’m interested to see just how much of a shot the Heat give him. It’s clear that they like him a great deal. If the pull-up jimmy is here to stay, there’s some real equity here for Nunn as the third point guard … or more, if .. certain players become available.

Nekias Duncan (@NekiasNBA) writes for a number of outlets about the Heat and NBA, including Bleacher Report, and will be contributing regularly for Five Reasons Sports. 

No team got a quicker start on this NHL season than the Florida Panthers.

The sticks and pads were barely put away after a disappointing 2018-19 campaign when the Panthers reeled in the best available coach, a three-time Stanley Cup winner at that.

The day the summer signing period started they rolled out a load of cash and came away with the best goalie on the market, a two-time Vezina Trophy winner.

Now the challenge is to get off to a quick start to the season, for a change.

Too many previous Panthers teams have tumbled down the elevator shaft before you could say, “Going up.”

Panthers held back by Lightning

The past two seasons the downfall began with opening-night losses at Tampa Bay.

Consequently, the 5-2 loss to the Tampa Bay Lightning at Amalie Arena on Thursday night had an ominously familiar feel — even with Sergei Bobrovsky in goal and Joel Quenneville behind the bench.

Amid the shrugs of “it’s only one game” some concern showed through, with captain Aleksander Barkov saying, “We had the game in our hands. We played really well. … We need to learn how to win.”

That lent a measure of urgency to Saturday’s home opener in the rematch against the Lightning in Sunrise.

Here in the cradle of rebuilding teams in South Florida, the Under Construction Forever Panthers are finally constituted to make a significant move.

That view is widely held. Pierre LeBrun of The Athletic asked every NHL coach to identify a dark-horse contender for this season. According to LeBrun, of the 28 coaches who responded, the Panthers were the team most often cited.

Panthers prepare at the IceDen for the home opener against the Lightning. (Craig Davis for Five Reasons Sports)

Fast start a must

There’s no excuse to stumble out of the gate and get buried behind the pack before Thanksgiving this year.

It’s up to them to rise from irrelevancy and erase the label of Same Old Panthers. All the ingredients have been assembled

All they have to do, as Barkov said, is learn how.

Starting with two games against a Lightning team favored by many to win the Stanley Cup put the onus on the Panthers to figure it out quickly. They whiffed on the first chance in Tampa.

“Nothing wrong with playing the best right off the bat and learning from that and knowing you’ve got to be as good as you need to be every single night,” Quenneville said Friday.

Despite their aggressive offseason, the Panthers face major obstacles in their own division, starting with the Lightning. Toronto has a Cup-caliber team and Boston was a finalist last season.

Lot of obstacles to playoffs

If the Panthers can’t crack that top 3, they’ll have plenty of competition for a wild card.

“Let’s worry about ourselves doing the right things shift in and shift out, and consistency is going to be something that can help us,” Quenneville said. “I just think across the board there is a lot to be excited about. We get some balance in four lines we can be a better team.”

Quenneville stressed positives from the opening-night loss. But some familiar flaws showed there is work to be done, particularly on defense.

While Bobrovsky made some terrific saves, four shots got past him. Defensemen still aren’t clearing the puck and minimizing opponents’ scoring chances like a championship defense must.

A vital task for Quenneville is getting more competent defensive play out of offensive-minded D-men Keith Yandle and Aaron Ekblad, who were a combined minus-3 on the night.

Again, it was just one game against one of the top teams in the league. A scoreless night by the top line of Barkov, Jonathan Huberdeau and Evgenii Dadonov and 0-for-4 by a power play that led the league last year were atypical.

Can Panthers capture South Florida?

There was a lot to like about the second line of Vincent Trocheck, Mike Hoffman and newcomer Brett Connolly, which produced both goals.

But with the Panthers, nothing can be taken for granted, especially expectations for a breakthrough season.

The elusive memory of 1996, the Year of the Rat when South Florida went gaga over the upstart Panthers on an improbable run to the Cup finals, has been an unscratchable itch ever since.

Could hockey rouse the passions of this fickle sports market like that again?

This a much different time and place. But one thing that hasn’t changed, this is a region starved for a winner.

The time is certainly ripe to find out.

Craig Davis has covered South Florida sports and teams for more than four decades. Follow him on Twitter @CraigDavisRuns

October has arrived and it’s time for the Miami Hurricanes to put up or shut up. 

The Hurricanes are home for the next three games against Virginia Tech (Saturday), No. 23 Virginia (Oct. 11) and Georgia Tech (Oct. 19). Miami then caps off the month on the road at Pittsburgh, who are still riding the high of being the first team to beat Central Florida in the last two years and change.

“We knew that this would really be, starting in October, this would really be the meat of our season, really define how this whole deal was going to go,” Miami head coach Manny Diaz said on Monday morning on 560-AM.

Miami has always been known for its fierce defense and it will have to be that unit that helps lead the Hurricanes through the Coastal Divison and into the ACC Championship Game. Fortunately for the Hurricanes, they enter Saturday’s game as close to full health as they’ve been all season, according to Diaz.

“We are probably as healthy as we’ve been,” Diaz said during Monday’s press conference and then knocked on his wooden podium inside the Schwartz Center for Athletic Excellence.

Defensive tackle Nesta Jade Silvera has returned to practice and is expected to play against Virginia Tech as well. Silvera was regarded as one of the best defensive lineman in the nation while at American Heritage High. He played 10 games as a true freshman last season and totaled 13 tackles including a blocked punt that was recovered for a touchdown against Savannah State. 

“[Silvera] will be back well, which will be great, allowing us to roll our guys up front, which obviously, everybody knows we like to do,” Diaz said. “I think our D-tackles are off to a good start. Obviously, they’re pretty stout versus the run, which will be a huge key — I think every week — but certainly this week with Virginia Tech coming in.”

“Nesta’s a load inside, now,” said defensive coordinator Blake Baker. “He’s a spark for us. I think he brings a ton of energy besides the physical aspect of it, but he’s a physically gifted young man.”

Another new feature on the defensive front is the upgrade in playing time for defensive end Gregory Rousseau. The redshirt freshman leads the Hurricanes in sacks (three) and, earned his first Turnover Chain moment when he forced a fumble on a strip-sack and recovered it himself against Central Michigan. Baker said during his press conference on Monday that, “You’ll see more a dose of Greg Rousseau.”

“He keeps producing, he’s going to continue to play. He’s continuing to get more comfortable with what we’re asking him to do. He continues to produce when he’s out there. Competition makes everybody better,” Baker said. “He’s really pushing Scott Patchan, pushing [Jonathan Garvin] and I think Trevon Hill is getting a lot better and getting more comfortable in our scheme.

Miami is also expected to have defensive back Bubba Bolden make his Canes debut on Saturday. Bolden transferred to Miami from USC and is finally eligible to play. It’s been a full calendar year since he’s left the Trojans.  

“Bubba adds a lot of range,” Baker said. “He has phenomenal ball skills, but he’s a long guy that can run and cover a lot of ground. I think he’s physical in the run game, as well.”

Bolden didn’t play in 2018 and totaled eight tackles in 13 games with the Trojans in 2017 as a freshman. That was because of an incident at an off-campus party result in an indefinite suspension at USC in August 2018, prompting Bolden to eventually transfer. He became eligible to play in Miami once he earned an associates degree by taking 40 credit hours worth of classes at both the College of Southern Nevada and El Camino College in Southern California in 12 months.

“It’ll be good to see him going and providing more competition in our secondary,” Diaz said. “He’s been waiting around, working really hard. I’m just really excited to see Bubba get out there on the field of play.”

Virginia Tech (2-2, 0-2 ACC) ranks 99th nationally in scoring offense (23.3 points per game), 104th in rushing defense (189 yards per game) and have a turnover margin of minus-8. Only Hawai’i and New Mexico State are worse. The Hookies’ last game resulted in a 45-10 beatdown by Duke but at 2-2 with only wins against Bethune-Cookman of the FCS and Central Michigan of the MAC, Miami is in no position to take any team lightly.

“It’s very hard to watch a team a week ago, and say, ‘That’s the team that’s going to show up this Saturday,’ because generally speaking, almost the opposite is more often true in college football,” Diaz said on Monday. “We expect to see their best effort on Saturday.”