Thirsty Thursday, guys! See everybody at Sandbar in the Grove later tonight!! (is that still a thing? Idk if that’s still a thing)

Anyways, let’s get into today’s News and Notes:

Miami needs to keep building momentum with a win against Virginia

For his weekly Op-Ed, SOTU contributor David Perez penned this wonderful piece looking at the importance of this week’s Canes-UVa game.

Yeah, it’s only 1 game in a 12 game season, but beating Virginia, a bad team who doesn’t have the talent or skill to compete with Miami, is absolutely necessary.

As David quoted in the above-linked piece, Canes DC Manny Diaz said it best “We’re knocking against great”. To take another step in that direction, a win against a bad Virginia team is required. Period.

2001 MIAMI HURRICANES ARE THE BEST CFB TEAM EVER SO STOP ASKING ABOUT IT!

You see the headline.

Yes, Antrel is right. 01 Miami would beat 16 Bama. Easily. Period.

Canes Sports Enjoy Successful Early Signing Day

Wednesday was the first day of the early signing period for non-Football sports. On this day, several Miami Hurricanes teams got top tier players to sign their scholarship offers to be Canes, adding depth and talent across the board. A quick recap:

Women’s Basketball signed a top 15 class

Ranked #14 in America heading into the 2016-17 season, Miami WBB signed 5 players in this class, all of whom are ranked top 25 at their position in their class. Coach Katie Meier and staff continue to build this team into a top tier program. Good stuff.

And, speaking of Canes WBB, former star Tamara James was elected Mayor of Dania Beach, FL on Tuesday.

Staying on the court, Jim Larrañaga and the Men’s Hoops team got 2 top 100 players to sign their scholarships on Wednesday. First was 5-7 PG Chris Lykes:

Don’t let Lykes’ 5’7” height fool you. This is an elite and EXPLOSIVE player who will be a great asset on this team.

You can learn more about him and see plenty of highlights in our Welcome to the U piece.

Joining Lykes in signing with Canes Hoops was 6’10” F Deng Gak. He, like Lykes, is a top 100 player in this class, and a big get for the Canes.

You can find out more about Gak, yes, including highlights, in our Welcome to the U piece.

The 3rd commit in this class for Canes Hoops, New Zealander F Sam Waardenburg, will be a mid-year enrollee. He’ll be on campus in December and join the team, but will not play until the 2017-18 season.

Miami continues to recruit several players for the final scholarship slot in this class. That will probably continue until the normal/later signing, which takes place in the spring.

Even more signings came, as Canes Baseball got many of their top players to sign on Wednesday.

In those tweets, 1B Alejandro Toral and SS Mark Vientos have signed with Miami. Those are the top 2 players in this recruiting class for Miami, so getting them to sign is only half the battle.

In June, I wrote a MLB signing and 2017 recruiting/MLB look ahead. In the piece, which you can see here, I talked about the Canes commits, now signees, who could potentially be drafted in the top 8 rounds — the area of the draft which allows for higher signing bonuses where 99.95% of players taken sign contracts and leave or skip school. Leading the list of MLB Draft prospects expected to be taken that high? Toral and Vientos.

Full disclosure: I do not expect Toral or Vientos to ever wear a Canes Baseball uniform. Like so many before them, they’re far too good to set foot on campus. I fully expect both to be taken by the end of the 3rd round in next June’s MLB draft at the absolute latest.

But, for the time being, it’s a great thing that they’ve signed with Miami. Now, we just have to hope — even against overwhelming evidence to the contrary — that Toral and Vientos, among other top baseball signees, make it to campus next year.

As you can see from this section (which admittedly went longer than I’d originally planned), the future of Canes Athletics is bright.

Quick Hitters

Been a couple days since the last News and Notes, so let’s jump right into the rest of the links, shall we?

Ricky Paolillo was back with another week of ACC Power Rankings.

Daniel Tummeley celebrated the end of the Canes’ 4-game losing streak.

Mike Grunewald has your Sunshine State 7 rankings of all the FBS teams in Florida. Canes are moving up, but still a ways away from the top spot.

Justin Dottavio aka Ironman Football handled some X’s and O’s via mailbag. Be sure you check that out.

Matt Porter of the Palm Beach Post had an interesting article detailing how Virginia tried, and failed, to hire Mark Richt. Twice.

Susan Miller Degnan of the Miami Herald wrote about Stan Dobard’s transition to Defensive End.

Christy Cabrera-Chirinos of the South Florida Sun-Sentinel talked about DE Demetrius Jackson’s return from injury, which caused him to miss the last 3 games.

Shandel Richardson of the South Florida Sun-Sentinel wrote about how Miami’s freshmen are playing beyond their years for the Canes.

CBS Sports put out their ACC Hoops preview. Miami is ranked 5th overall here, substantially higher than in the preseason ACC poll.

WR Ahmmon Richards was named to Pro Football Focus’ CFB team of the week.

Alums TE Jimmy Graham and C Brandon Linder were named to Pro Football Focus’ NFL Dream Team from week 9.

Several Canes, led by Brad Kaaya, listed by Matt Miller of Bleacher Report in his new top 300 NFL draft prospects.

Canes alums Greg Olsen and Calais Campbell win midseason awards as best TE and DT, respectively, from Pro Football Focus.

Looking ahead to bowl season? Well then, you’re not alone.

Wooooo buddy. Sign me up for that. SIGN ME UP RIGHT NOW!!!!!!!

If you missed Tuesday’s News and Notes, click the link below. (RIP, Bryan Pata)

That’s it. See you in the Grove later. Drinks* on me.

(*Water only. Ice extra)

Go Canes