miami maniac, often shortened to the maniac is the name of the miami hurricanes mascot.
what is the name of the miami hurricanes mascot?
miami maniac, often shortened to the maniac
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the 2009 season began on a poor note after two back up quarterbacks, taylor cook and cannon smith both transferred out during fall practice, leaving the young hurricane team with only one serviceable backup in true freshman a.j. highsmith. sophomore jacory harris directed the newly implemented offense. to make matters worse, starting defensive end adewale ojomo suffered a broken jaw in a locker room fight that led to a season-ending injury, causing the already young hurricane team to go into their season short handed. miami faced a difficult schedule to start the 2009 season with visits to #18 florida state, a home game against #15 georgia tech, a visit to lane stadium and the #7 virginia tech hokies and a home visit from the defending big 12 conference champions and bcs champion runners-up in #3 oklahoma. some national media outlets and sites such as espn predicted at best a 2–2 record for the hurricanes with some even predicting an 0–4 start. miami opened up their 2009 season against florida state on labor day night for a national broadcast for espn. billed as a "battle of rebuilding programs", quarterback jacory harris led a heroic comeback in tallahassee to beat the then ranked seminoles 38–34, overcoming a late interception and apparent injury to harris in the 4th quarter. the next week, miami welcomed the triple option offense of the #14 georgia tech yellow jackets in yet another espn prime-time game. georgia tech came in hot off of a big acc win against clemson university the previous week and held a 4–0 record against the hurricanes in the last 4 years, including the previous years pounding in atlanta (referenced above). the 2009 contest would be a different story all together, as the hurricanes handily beat the jackets 33–17 at home and allowed only 95 rushing yards in the process. the next week, with the hurricanes in the national spotlight for the first time in 5 years, the #9 miami team visited the #11 virginia tech hokies. in pouring rain, tech defeated the hurricanes by a final score of 31–7. beat up and embarrassed, miami then played oklahoma. without heisman award winner sam bradford, oklahoma took an early 10–0 lead after two early jacory harris interceptions. going into halftime, the hurricanes trailed the sooners 10–7 in a highly contested football game. miami came out for the second with a huge hit on the kick off team by cory nelms that forced the sooners to start inside their own 20. the following play, sophomore corner brandon harris hit oklahoma quarterback landry jones and forced a fumble that eventually led to a hurricane touchdown. the momentum stayed with the hurricanes as they rode to a 21–20 win over the #8 team in the country. following the opening four weeks, miami was 3–1 and was the talk of sports stations nationwide. following the gauntlet first third of the season, the hurricanes won against florida a&m at home and on the road against in-state foe ucf, moving all the way up to #10 in the polls. the canes then had to take on clemson in miami, florida, in what was a contest of speed and athleticism. turnovers, missed opportunities and stand-out back c. j. spiller led the tigers to a 40–37 overtime win against the hurricanes, knocking them out of bcs contention and putting the acc championship game in serious jeopardy. a win against wake forest on halloween kept the hurricanes in the conference race, which they followed up on with a 52–17 defeat of virginia in miami. the next week north carolina, led by former miami head coach butch davis, topped miami 33–24 with an unimpressive performance by jacory harris and the offense. miami finished up the 2009 regular season with back-to-back wins over duke and in-state opponent south florida. miami's final record was 9–3, finishing in 3rd place for the acc coastal division behind georgia tech and virginia tech. the announcement of the 2009 bowl selections stirred some controversy. instead of choosing the 3rd best team in the acc (miami), gator bowl officials chose florida state to represent the acc against west virginia instead of the hurricanes because of the retirement of legendary fsu coach bobby bowden, who served as west virginia's head coach from 1970–1975. the hurricanes were relegated to the 2009 champs sports bowl in orlando, florida, to play against the 9–3 wisconsin badgers. though the hurricanes were heavy favorites coming into the contest, the badgers beat up on the hurricanes consistently throughout the game. the hurricanes started off fast with a big return to open the game by sam shields, but the canes just could not maintain any offense throughout the game and had no answer for the power offense of wisconsin. going into halftime, the hurricanes trailed 17–7 and graig cooper blew out his knee on the poor turf just before halftime on a kick off return. though miami scored a late touchdown and recovered the onside kick, they fell to wisconsin 20–14 and finished the season at 9–4. after the 2009 season, shannon signed the #13 recruiting class in the nation according to espn. shannon addressed many depth issues including offensive line, line backers and running backs, however the media claimed that the staff missed out on several of the more highly touted recruits on signing day, including a couple of "5 star" players. coaching changes were made before and after signing day, including the departure of defensive line coach/recruiting coordinator clint hurtt to the louisville and the loss of running backs coach tommie robinson to the arizona cardinals. shannon replaced them with former hurricane and current kentucky defensive line coach rick petri as well as running back coach mike cassano from florida international university. subsequently, shannon named wide-receiver coach aubry hill as the recruiting coordinator for the program. in may 2010, the university raised randy shannon's pay and extended shannon's contract as head coach through 2014.
miami hurricanes football