Hurricanes legends discuss what’s missing in UM program, what must change

When a current Miami Hurricanes player complained privately about several of his teammates breaking curfew before at least two games this past season -including the loss to FIU - this question kept coming to mind:Would this type of thing happen with the great UM teams?

A couple of former players insisted to me that it would not. The reason? As Canes greats Bennie Blades and Ed Reed said Wednesday, the players on those teams policed themselves.

“How can we right a ship if you’re not willing to right the ship?” Blades told me on Wednesday, while making the rounds on Radio Row in advance of Super Bowl 54. “It comes down to players. Don’t give coaches credit or discredit for what players do.

“The night before the game, your mind should be on the game itself. Jerome Brown, Melvin Bratton, Alonzo Highsmith, Winston Moss, all those guys would say, ‘Coach, can we talk to the players for a minute?’”

Blades said he could only imagine “the rippings we would have gotten” from teammates if those players broke curfew or did something to cost their team before a game.

“It’s all about us in this room,” Blades said of players policing each other. “And that’s what it needs to get back to - police each other.”

Blades’ nephew, cornerback Al Blades Jr., is a mature, diligent young man who comports himself well. But there were a few teammates, including Jarren Williams, who decided they would go out late the night before the Golden Panthers game, long after they were supposed to be in their room for the night, according to a player on the team (not Blades).

In a Fox Sports “ReUnion” Special that aired Wednesday night from Lummus Park on South Beach, Canes great Ed Reed also spoke of players policing themselves on his elite UM teams.

“It was that accountability in the locker room first,” said Reed, who was joined by Canes legends and fellow former NFL greats Michael Irvin, Ray Lewis and Reggie Wayne on the panel.

“You wouldn’t make it out that locker room if you didn’t do the right thing. When I was there, them lights would go off, you’d hear that, Whoa.’ You’d hear that noise you heard when we played against Florida down there ... but for me, man, I wanted to uphold that legacy. We wanted to be those guys. We only had 16 scholarships when we came. Coach [Butch] Davis said, ‘Y’all will be the guy to change this back,’ and I didn’t want to leave without a national championship I could’ve came out with Reggie and all them, first round and everything -- I actually would’ve went higher -- but I would’ve never got to Baltimore.

“God don’t make no mistakes and I would’ve never won this national championship for the school, for the team, with the team, so that accountability starts in the locker room. It wasn’t the coaches policing us. They didn’t have to, but they did their job and we had to listen, like Reg said. You have to be coachable. These youngsters today think just because you go to Miami these teams are going to lay down. No! They hate you. They don’t like you. We knew everybody, every game was a national-championship game.”

But the issue is bigger than that, Wayne said. It’s also not wanting to let down your teammate.

“We did everything together,” Wayne said. “Wherever we went, we went together. It didn’t matter, so when you do everything together, when you get out there in between those lines, I didn’t want to let Reed down. He played on defense, right? I didn’t want to let him down and if I did something wrong, I didn’t take it personal because he corrected me. Like a lot of guys get sensitive. We did everything together. We took coaching. It didn’t matter if our teammates corrected us on something. We took it in stride, we critiqued ourselves and we went out there to get better.”

Irvin said: “You spend that time together eating and hanging out, but in those times you’re committing thoughts to what you want to do. Like, Dude, we’re going this year. This is where I think we miss a lot right now because when you don’t hang together, you’re not planting those championship seeds and that’s what needs to be planted. It doesn’t start in September when the season starts. That thing has to start right now, going through offseason training and you’re looking at each other, talking, Dude, this year’s going to be different. We’re going to do it this year. You’ve got to start making those commitments.”

And Lewis said: “It’s the self critique that’s made us so great. That’s what you’re talking about, right? It’s what made us great in Baltimore. Man, we critiqued each other. Coaches didn’t have to critique. Coaches just had to put in the game plan. From the game plan, when me and this man got on the field together, I’m looking at him saying, ‘Hey, 2-0, stay backside, I’m going front side and ain’t nothing getting past us…. What we’ve done needs to be taught all over again because it’s leaving us.”

And players cited other issues.

A few other highlights:

Irvin said: “If you win in Miami, you got this city for the next 40 years.”...

Jimmy Johnson joined them for a short time: “As much as I love the U, I love you guys.”...

Wayne said good-naturedly to Irvin: “I’m still the best receiver in Hurricane history.”

NEW O-LINE COACH WEIGHS IN

New offensive coordinator Garin Justise, appearing on WQAM’s Hurricane Hotline, told Joe Zagacki and Don Bailey Jr., that when he was coaching at FAU, he told himself that he would take a job at UM if he ever got the chance.

When he goes to high schools now as a UM assistant, “there’s no more, ‘that guy is probably too good for you, coach.’ It’s a pretty amazing power of the brand. It’s a national brand.”

He said playing up-tempo, which will be the Canes’ new approach, “is a great equalizer” to teams that try fancy blitzes.

Justise said “it helps to have a mobile quarterback” and UM has a couple of those now.

Of new quarterback D’Eriq King, he said “the thing that makes D’Eriq great is the play within the play” in terms of avoiding sacks and negative plays.

Justise was told that King is a “tremendous athlete, leader, person.”

He said his new offensive linemen “have been responsive to me. I’m their third offensive line coach in three years so there’s trust involved.”

Asked about his players having to block Greg Rousseau (15.5 sacks last season) and Temple transfer Quincy Roche (13 sacks) in practice this year, Justise said when he arrived, “I said we need to gain confidence” and admitted blocking Rousseau/Roche won’t help in that area.

But on the positive side, “they’re not going to see anything better than what they see in practice.”

Here’s my Wednesday piece on Teddy Bridgewater explaining to me what went down with him and the Dolphins, and a Preston Williams update.

Here’s my Wednesday piece on my conversation with Jason Taylor on numerous issues, and the Dolphins finalizing a position change.