By MIKE CASAZZA
Charleston Gazette-Mail
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – The Atlantic Coast Conference plays a championship game, and Miami was not involved this season. That’s been the case since the inaugural game in 2005. As hard as it may be to believe, the Hurricanes, who left the Big East after seven shared or solo conference titles and one national championship, haven’t played for the ACC crown, never mind won it, since joining in 2004.
(Photo by Christian Tyler Randolph)
Miami’s final regular season game was Nov. 26, and Clemson beat Virginia Tech for the conference championship on Dec. 3. Miami’s next practice was Dec. 10. Another followed Dec. 15. Head coach Mark Richt chose not to speak to the media afterward.
“I wasn’t really in a good mood after that one,” he said. “The practice was decent. Then we ran a little bit (for) conditioning, and everyone acted like they were dead. It was a bad image.”
The Big 12’s championship game returns next December, and No. 14 West Virginia was among the six Big 12 teams that played on Dec. 3 since the final weekend wasn’t reserved for a title game. The Mountaineers were then off until they practiced Dec. 15, and that was a welcome pause for a team that had both its open weekends in the first four weeks of the season and played on eight straight Saturdays.
“Not worried about that,” said coach Dana Holgorsen, who actually liked what he saw when his team returned to the field. “Excited about it.”
Both teams pressed pause at tricky times as they prepare to face off Dec. 28 in the Russell Athletic Bowl, a 5:30 p.m. ESPN game at Camping World Stadium, in Orlando, Florida.
The Hurricanes (8-4) started 4-0 and reached No. 10 in both major polls. They lost four in a row and have won their past four games. Richt, who did not make strength and conditioning workouts mandatory during the exam period and didn’t like how his team looked during the one practice, is confident the Hurricanes will be ready in time for kickoff.
“It’s like I told them, nobody studies 24/7 through exams,” he said. “There’s probably a day in there, or two days maybe, where you have to get after it. But in a five- or six-day period, you might have three exams. You can probably take an hour or two to get your blood pumping a little bit. I think a lot of them didn’t. Then when we came back to work, it was not good.”
Today will be the team’s sixth practice. Miami will practice the next three days, travel to Orlando Dec. 23, and practice the next three days before a customary walk-through on Dec. 27.
“The good thing is that we’re going to be going from here all the way through the game,” Richt said. “A lot of times, if you have a Jan. 1 bowl, you’ll practice, you go home for four days, then you come back, then all you’ve got left is those couple of days at the site.
“Those are the times you really worry about your conditioning more. I know we’ll be in good shape by the time we get to this game, because we’re going straight through. There’s one day for travel, but other than that, we’re really going every day.”
The Mountaineers (10-2) celebrated their final win of the regular season, one that made them the ninth team in 125 years of WVU football to win 10 games in a season. They rather enjoyed that, and they know five teams have won 11 games, which is the school record from the 1988, 1993 and 2005-07 seasons.
“That’s definitely been our goal all year,” safety Jarrod Harper said. “We want to get to 11 wins. Our goal was to get double-digit wins. We’ve accomplished that, but to be one of the best teams to come through West Virginia and have an 11-win season, that means a lot to us, and we want to send the seniors out on top.
“That’s our goal, and on the 28th, after the game, our goal is to be 11-2 and to sing Country Roads one last time and be remembered as one of the best teams to come through West Virginia.”
WVU practiced Thursday through Sunday, and Holgorsen let his players have a few days off with orders to be ready to practice in Orlando on Christmas Eve. That will be the first of three straight days of practice before a walk-through the day before the game.
“It gives you a little bit more time to prepare, which is good,” Holgorsen said. “I do think at this point of the season obviously, you kind of still are who you are. You’re not going to be able to change it very much.”
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