Graig Cooper is the most talented offensive weapon Miami has in this era or parity in College Football and perpetual decline of the Hurricane program. Cooper was supposed to make us not feel bad about LeSean McCoy heading to Pitt when he couldn't quality academically at the U, but Coop despite flashes of absolute brilliance has all too often fallen off when Miami needed him most. His performances last year against Florida State and Texas A&M were superb and Miami won those games, but other times his lack of durability and inability to break tackles became a liability.
Bigger ans stronger this year, much more was expected from Coop. For me personally he stood out at Spring Game as looking more confident and probably more durable. Now with Javarris James injured, Coop must step up.
The bottom line is this: Miami has lacked consistent big play ability on offense since Roscoe Parrish and Frank Gore left early for the draft after the 2004 season. Sinorce Moss provided some big plays in 2005 and Darnell Jenkins a few in 20o07, but Miami is severaly lacking in home run hitting ability from the skill positions. For all the talk about Travis Benjamin, Jermaine McKenize and others, Graig Cooper is the guy who based on some of the flashes he's had we know can be a game breaker. Now he's going to get more carries than ever, and be a focal point of Pat Nix's game plan on the road in one of the most hostile atmospheres around.
For a young team like Miami, playing in College Station is almost surely going to be intimidating. While SEC snobs believe Florida is the most intimidating atmosphere in College Football, the Swamp lacks alot of the pagentry and history that Kyle Field has had since the 1950s. From my vantage point Miami is a long shot to win this game: you cannot rely on freshman who've never tasted success in college into a road atmosphere like this no matter how bad Cane fans may believe A&M is (and they are not as bad as many think: they beat New Mexico on the road who is arguably a better team right now than Miami). Miami's one real shot is to run the ball, control the clock and make some big plays in the running game: that all starts with Coop.
ACC Power Rankings
1- Florida State
2- Wake Forest
3- North Carolina
4- Virginia Tech
5- Clemson
6- Georgia Tech
7- Maryland
8- Duke
9- Boston College
10- NC State
11- Miami
12- Virginia
Random Obeservations:
- The winner of this weekend's FSU/Wake game is likely to face Virginia Tech in the ACC title game.
- Christian Ponder is the real deal. Maybe EJ Manual wants to transfer?
- So long Peter Lalich. We hardly knew you. Can UVA simply forfeit the rest of their games?
- Maryland's win over Cal coming a week after losing to Middle Tennessee State should reflect well of Rick Stockstill's program. Instead it is simply used by an SEC/Big Ten centric media as a way to bash BOTH the ACC and PAC 10.
- Georgia Tech is a year away from being REALLY GOOD running the option under Paul Johnson.
- Duke will beat Virginia this week. David Cutcliffe could have Thaddeus Lewis and the Devils in a bowl game this year.
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