Monday Musings: re-living your favorite Cane moment ever; big win at the Light

It’s Monday, which means it’s time to dive into the deep recesses of my brain and see what Canes-related content is floating around in there......

1) The 4’s Up Podcast run by Jordan Nelson and Marsh is fantastic. It’s insightful and entertaining, and it also came up with an interesting talking point last week. If you could hop into a time machine and go back to any moment in Hurricane history, which moment would you go back and re-live?

Man....there are so many. I’ve continued to dream at night about the Orange Bowl. I remember great moments looking out at the “The City of Miami Welcomes You to the Orange Bowl” from the student section, with rap musing blaring, folks standing on the old orange bleachers, and the cold beer flowing. Those were among the best moments of my life. That said, if I’m choosing one, I’m choosing the 2003 Miami-Florida game.

We started off day drinking at our condo on South Beach (we were living at the Grand Flamingo), then we got a ride to the stadium in the early afternoon. We walked around at hit up various friends’ tailgates on the west side of the stadium. As the sun set, the crowd really got amped up, with Gator and Cane fans taunting each other (lord, there were a ton of Gator fans there that day). We made our way around to the southeast student gate, and I remember my jaw dropping when I saw how many fans were jammed into the place. The temporary bleachers set up in the east end zone were filled with Gator fans. We ended up in the second row of the upper deck in the student section, so we had a pretty good view for the game.

Devin Hester’s return was pretty much the sole highlight of the game until Brock Berlin and the offense woke up in the third quarter and flipped the script on a 38-33 all-time win. We exulted. We tackled each other. We cackled at Gator fans. To quote Clark Griswold, if I woke up with my head sewn to the carpet, I wouldn’t have been any more surprised than I was right then. To beat Miami’s biggest rival (yep, I said it) and to do it in such a dramatic fashion in a rare home game, it was the highest of highs that I’d witnessed in person. Had I traveled to the Rose Bowl or any other prior title win, that might have been my moment.

But hey, that was mine. 2002 Florida-Miami, 2002 Miami-FSU, and 2017 Miami-Notre Dame were all honorable mentions for me. Again, these were games that I went to in person, not ones I watched on TV. Which are yours? Let’s hear them.

2) On the diamond, the Canes bounced back and claimed a huge series win over the weekend against Coastal-leading Georgia Tech. After dropping the opener 14-3, the Canes thumped the Jackets 10-3 on Saturday, and rallied on Sunday for a 5-4 win after trailing 4-0. The win moves Miami to 29-16 overall and 17-15 on the season in the ACC. With a win this week against Florida Atlantic, they would hit the 30-win mark (and the first ACC team to hit that mark) and likely all but put themselves in position to qualify for the NCAA tournament (absent a total flameout in Louisville this weekend and next week in the ACC tourney).

Coral Gables was not listed among the 20 regional sites earlier this month as far as hosting a regional, but Miami conceivably could earn a #1 seed nonetheless. To do so, they’d likely have to win the series at #15 Louisville this weekend, and then also claim the ACC tournament title. A tall task, to be sure. In any event, any time you’re playing in the postseason, it’s always fun, and hopefully Miami can end the season the way they started it - with a pleasant surprise.

Go Canes!