SB Nation - DeMarcus Van Dyke

The Connect: Summer CanesFest Edition

The Great Barstoolio — Sat, 25 Jul 2009 23:36:58 -0000

ETA: hopefully last update: UM has pics

Let's just get this out of the way: Bryce Brown was there, in Tennessee shorts. Clearly, between having a UM hat at his signing for no reason and showing up to CanesFest, he has a giant boner for both Miami and attention. Speaking of hats, Randy Shannon said on QAM from the stadium that most of the time - not always, but most of the time - kids who pull hat tricks are basically assholes and not worth the trouble. Snap!

The Sun-Sentinel has pics, though no one has yet looked at Travis Benjamin directly and lived, so beware. The Palm Beach Post keeps an eye on the Freak. And Eye On the U is impressed with the fan-friendly affair:

Not once in the 14 years I've been working for The Miami Herald have I ever seen fans not only have two hours worth of access to players and coaches, but to be able to interact (take pictures, dunk players, even get some smooches) with them like family and friends. Hats off to athletic director Kirby Hocutt and coach Randy Shannon for taking a giant leap forward from the way these events used to be run.

Several players were game to spend time in the dunk tank at fans' mercy, including Graig Cooper, Laron Byrd, Sean Spence, and Javarris James. But none made the impression that Allen Bailey did: "He's like Shamu up there," said a UM assistant before Bailey was dunked and the splash was so large more water had to be added to the tank.

Dedrick Epps was roaming around reassuring everyone that he's functional after knee surgery, and will be ready to go when workouts start. "I'm fine," he said, though he noted he's not 100% yet and still feels sore after workouts. "I've been running on it for a long time. I don't know exactly how long, but it's been a little while. I'm feeling good. I plan to be ready."

Ray Ray is not, unfortunately, perfect in every way on arrival. "He's definitely big and strong," Chavez Grant said. "But everyday in practice we're working with him, trying to get his feet right and work with his hips. He's not bad. But at this level you have to be a lot quicker, a lot faster at what you do... at this level you get beat by a step and it's over."

Jimmy Graham is no male cheerleader: "I definitely didn't want to come back to look pretty on the sideline," he said. "I came back so I can help these guys win something. It means a lot for me to play for the U, especially football, my first love." We'll check back in with him in August when he realizes the contact happens without a/c, but in the meantime, he's getting help from Bernie Kosar and Ed Reed. (Hopefully not financial help.)

Allen Bailey power cleaned 400 pounds last Tuesday, which he says set a new UM team record. Holy hell. That is all.

The young guys are breaking down film with the ProCanes. Jacory's shoulder is okay. Randy Phillips is god. And Arthur Brown is coming out of his shell. Manny has it all.

Eric Moncur -- and his awesome muppet eyebrows -- are back. "I'm good to go," he said. "Words can't describe it - coming out, being around the guys, they're all like my little brothers. They're all younger than me. I'm so excited to get this season started... It's going to be nasty, man. We're going to be nasty up front. It's going to be crazy."

Said Bailey about getting Moncur back: "He's been here about eight years now. He knows a lot. He's been around, has seen a lot of things." LIKE THE EMPTINESS IN LARRY COKER'S EYES.

Colin McCarthy says Heather Dinich's no. 1 ranking for his unit sounds good. "That makes sense, that's accurate," McCarthy said. "We have a lot of depth, are two or three deep across the board. With Sean, he's one of the top linebackers. With all of us together and the way we work, way we chase the ball, No. 1 in the ACC, that sounds about right."

Of Lovett's defense, McCarthy reported, "It's more of the defense we ran my freshman year under Coach Shannon. It's not as many checks, just go out there, we'll get a call and play football. That's how it was back in the day when the athletes we had could just use their athleticism and make plays. The defense is more simplified."

CBS4 has video of Jacory being Jacory.

El Herald has audio from Vaughn Telemaque, DeMarcus Van Dyke, Sean Spence, Randy Shannon, Ray Ray Armstrong, Olivier Vernon, Colin McCarthy, Lamar Miller, Jimmy Graham, Jamal Reid ("Oh, I'm livin' right now!"), Jacory Harris, Dedrick Epps, Eric Moncur, Dyron Dye [spontaneous orgasm], Brandon Harris, Brandon McGee, and Chavez Grant, who reported that Ed Reed, Reggie Wayne, and Jonathan Vilma are spending a lot of time at Greentree.

Rest assured we at The 7th Floor will never, ever work that hard.

ETA: MIKE JAMES (MIKE JAYYYMES!) SIGHTING!

The Connect: 03/25/09

The Great Barstoolio — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 14:43:29 -0000

Not much funny today (yet). All the news that's fit to type about Saturday's spring scrimmage:

CB DeMarcus Van Dyke is hoping to bounce back from his sophomore slump. What was the difference between a great freshman season and the mess that was 2008? "I played with confidence [my freshman year]," Van Dyke said. "My freshman year people thought I was going to go out there and be scared. I played with confidence. I listened to what coaches were telling me to do. The second year ..."

Yeah, just trail off. I like to pretend it never happened, too.

WR LaRon Byrd says his crew understand 90-95% of Whip's new offense. "I study my playbook extra hard day and night, and so do all the other receivers and the quarterback," Byrd said. "The offense as a whole, we have at least 90 percent of the playbook down."

CJ Holton was permanently moved from safety to linebacker three practices ago. "We were trying something new...we had a bunch of players at safety, so we tried something different during the scrimmage. Coaches thought I did pretty well, so I stayed there." He's with the twos, playing strongside behind Sean Spence. And he's really, really happy he can gain weight back.

Javarris James is injured AGAIN. Trainers worked on his left side/shoulder yesterday; he will miss Saturday's scrimmage. Hmmph. This is a job for....MIKE JAMES!!!!

Information Cupcakes: Saturday Spring Scrimmage

The Great Barstoolio — Sun, 08 Mar 2009 15:46:00 -0000

The Canes' first scrimmage of spring yesterday was open to media. What they're saying [read more here, here, here, here, and here]:

Jacory Harris was killing it. He went 17-for-17 passing until Vaughn Telemaque made a crazy one-handed, backward-reaching INT in the end zone on his last pass, meant for TE Daniel Adderly. Several sites noted that Jacory's throwing motion has been corrected into something more compact and he seems extremely comfortable and capable in Whipple's pro-set. Jacory says Whipple has been throwing 40 plays a day at them in practice to get them up to speed, and the team is at this point where they were in two-a-days last year.
Speaking of Whipple (who is reported to have said upon being introduced at a UM function, "Happy to be here, and I plan on fixing everything that has gone wrong with your offense...thank you."), the recurring theme among scrimmage reports is that the offense is a MAJOR upgrade. Whipple is using all available weapons, the qb's are allowed to thrown downfield, and the tight ends are involved heavily. Attendees say it couldn't be more different than last year's offense (THANK GOD).
Randy Phillips positively destroyed Tommy Streeter with a hit that left Streeter on the ground for 30 seconds and seemingly wobbly even as the scrimmage ended.
Arthur Brown stuck Lee Chambers in memorable fashion at the goal line, getting a huge reaction from those in attendance. Brown is excelling as the second-team's middle linebacker. Chambers later suffered a separated/dislocated/is there a difference? shoulder but is okay.
Daniel Adderly, who nearly transferred and agreed to use this semester as a try-out, is having a great spring - he made several memorable plays including a TD catch in the end zone and winning a jump battle against DeMarcus Van Dyke.
Early enrollees: All six took part in the scrimmage. Mike James continues to impress Randy Shannon: "He had some nice runs today. No, he doesn’t look like a freshman. He’s a smart kid, who’s picking up the offense well. We added some stuff this week in practice, and he might have had one little bust on it, but for the most part, he’s picking up the offense. He’s catching the ball well and running the ball good. It’s only going to make Javarris and Cooper a lot better. When you see those guys competing with a Mike James, it’s only going to make us a better football team." Brandon McGee returned aCannon Smith INT all the way, diving into the end zone for a score. McGee recently suffered a spiral fracture to a finger and will be out for six weeks after surgery to insert two pins.
Travis Benjamin was held out after a minor leg injury suffered in track.
Graig Cooper threw a 45-yard TD pass to LaRon Byrd after receiving the ball on a swing from Jacory. Unfortunately, it was likely the best ball of the day not thrown by Harris - Taylor Cook and Cannon Smith have a long way to go.
Oh, yes: the defense won by 1.