"I've been part of some terrific teams. Some terrific coaches and players, big games, winning in everything. But along the way we had some, some hard goings, ya know? In order to get to the good times you have to go through the bad times, and forge a bond with each other, and keep going so when you get to that next opportunity, you can get there."

"It's not a national championship year.It's a year that we build a team, and start to grow a team that can one day evolve into that. They need a chance to grow too, an opportunity to grow. Especially given our circumstances. The loss at Notre Dame, as hard as it is, will give them an opportunity to grow."

"It's going to be a challenge, but Ryan did a nice job moving us down the field the other day in a tough situation. We just needed to come through with one more play to get us down there. Hopefully he'll learn a lot from that. I don't think there's any question it's a challenge no matter who is playing for us at quarterback. We'll assess Stephen as the week unfolds, but right now we're going into it thinking Ryan is going to be the guy."

Haslem is so proud to be Miami. He doesn't even mind being hated. LeBron joked, after the Heat were called thugs on the road in Philadelphia, that Miami should travel in fatigues like those despised University of Miami Hurricane football teams did two decades ago. Haslem loved those rebellious Hurricanes. He was distracted during play early in the season, awed that Michael Irvin was sitting courtside to see Haslem's hated team.

"In my house on Saturdays," he says, "you were a Hurricane or you were homeless."

But, Udonis, you went to college at the rival University of Florida....

Haslem stares at you with those sleepy eyes.

"Business decision," he spits.

A little birdie who’s friends with someone close to Miami football coach Al Golden sends the following report: "[The person who's close to Golden] says Golden plans on getting rid of the current uniforms next season and going back to the uniform template of the ’80s. He also said they would only break out the Pro Combat uniforms for one game — home versus Ohio State."

"[Golden] really put pressure on us. He came at us. He was unreal. He was like: 'Sir I apologize for the old staff. We have a whole new staff. We evaluated your son, watched the state championship game and we were very impressed. We really like what we saw in him. And we want him, we want him bad. Whatever it is, I'm going to do everything I have to do to get him.'"

You’re talking about the epitome of intensity. You’re talking about the epitome of nastiness. You’re talking about somebody who is the epitome of in-your-face attitude and is probably one of the meanest sons of a bitch on a football field ever.

Uncle Luke wants to hire Gruden, Mike Leach, Tommy Tuberville, Trooper Taylor, or Dennis Erickson. We endorse four of these five hires, because four of them are terrible, terrible ideas. KEEP YOUR HANDS OFF THE PIRATE.

A second scout said UM officials ``believe [junior] Brandon Harris is going to turn pro..."

"Write this down,'' Whitt said of Shields, the Packers' No. 3 cornerback in their nickel defense. "Sam is going to be one of the top corners in this league in two years.''