The Canes moved to 6-5 last week when they beat USF on Senior Day 40-9. The thrill of victory lasted less than 48 hours as UM announced they would once again self-impose a bowl ban yesterday. It sucks for the Seniors and the fans that we once again will not be going to the ACC Championship Game, but there is still another game to play. UM put forth an uninspiring effort against Boston College after the Administration self-imposed last year. Let's hope they don't do the same thing as last year because a loss Duke would basically be the worst thing ever.



1. Where they are in the standings/rankings:



What a cavalcade of suck this division is. Seeing that "X" next to Georgia Tech really gives me the red ***. In the 8 years the ACC has had a championship game, this is the 4th time that we beat the eventual division champions ('05 VT, '08 VT, '09 GT, and '12 GT). This year is obviously different, but it just reinforces how frustrating being a UM fan has been the last decade.

Duke has been bowl eligible for weeks now and while they too can't go to Charlotte, don't think for a second they wouldn't love the opportunity to get a win over us. They'll be jacked up to play us. Last week Duke lost to the eventual division champions Georgia Tech. Lets see what Yellow-Jacket fans said about Duke after the game:

From: From The Rumble Seat

GTNate said:

It began just like any other prototypical Georgia Tech shootout. We score, they score, we score, they score, we score...we get a STOP? Between a few such stops and a HUGE effort from Tevin, Zach Laskey, Attaochu and lots of others, Georgia Tech may have very well completed its journey from ACC bottom feeders to Coastal division champions tonight. With another little bump from crazy old testament God and the angry ACC Gods of Football, of course....

...The defense also helped out, with four sacks (!), one interception, and three pass break-ups, including a huge one by T.J. Barnes in the 4th that put the light out on Duke's last real chance to get back in the game. After the offense-filled first half it appeared that the D wasn't going to be a factor in this game, but as coach Johnson pointed out in his post-game conference, Duke only had 154 yards at halftime! The score was close, but that was more us shooting ourselves in the foot with that long kickoff return and less Duke gaining any offensive ground.

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Hey, remember when Paul Johnson was gonna get fired? And these guys are going to Charlotte?




2. What happened the last time Miami played Duke?

[video=youtube;jPNbnfOcgp4]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jPNbnfOcgp4[/video]


From the Associated Press:

Lamar Miller ran for two touchdowns and became Miami's first 1,000-yard rusher since 2002, Jacory Harris passed for three first-half scores and the Hurricanes scored on their first five possessions to roll past Duke 49-14 on Saturday.Miller finished with 147 yards, giving him 1,016 for the season -- the first Hurricane since Willis McGahee to reach that mark. Mike James also ran for two touchdowns for Miami (5-4, 3-3 Atlantic Coast Conference), which got scoring catches from Tommy Streeter, Phillip Dorsett and Chase Ford.

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I remember being so happy for Lamar Miller when he eclipsed the 1,000 yard mark (4:25 mark of Spooner's video). It was on a typical Lamar touchdown run where he broke the first level and turned on the after-burners. We also saw a decent amount of Mike James in the wildcat. We might have been doing that as an extra wrinkle since we played FSU the following week, but I wouldn't be surprised if we see it again with James or Crawford this week.


3. Who to be scared of:



Sean Renfree

Head Coach David Cutcliffe runs a spread passing attack, and his Senior signal caller can sling it. He has several weapons at his disposal and does an excellent job of spreading it around. He's got prototypical size at 6'5 225 lbs. and has over 8,000 career passing yards. He does however throw alot of picks, with 38 over his career and 8 this year. Hopefully Bush is recovered from his injury and can patrol the secondary this week. The Yellow-Jackets were able to sack him 4 times last week and their defense sucks, so it would be nice to get some of those too.



4. Player that will score against us:



Jamison Crowder

Crowder leads the team in touchdowns, be it rushing or receiving with 6. He's also 2nd on the team in receptions (62) and receiving yards (822). If you think he's doing it against bad defenses think again. He had 112 yards on 10 catches against Stanford, 127 yards on 8 catches & a TD against Virginia Tech, and 167 yards on 7 catches against Clemson (including a 77 yard TD). He's only a Sophomore, so we'll be seeing him for another couple of years too.


5. Person that will **** you off:



Conner Vernon

Another week, another South Florida kid. Conner Vernon was part of the '09 signing class. While we were wasting time with Rueben Randle and sending Andre Debose to strip clubs, Vernon was winning 1st Team All-Dade at Gulliver Prep. He didn't get an offer from any of the big 3 so we aren't alone, but he was good enough to get offers from the likes of Wisconsin and Ole Miss so he wasn't exactly an unknown commodity. Oh well, all he's done at Duke is become the ACC's all-time leader in receptions (262) and in receiving yards (3,521). No big deal. He leads his team again in receptions (64) and yards (846) this year to go along with 5 touchdowns.


6. Official Internet meme for this game:

Super Cool Ski Instructor

For god sakes do not lose to Duke!



[video=youtube;_YfjMZ6n8Bk]www.youtube.com/watch?v=_YfjMZ6n8Bk[/video]