Miami Hurricanes Football: Al Golden Increases Access and Toughness at Miami
The Miami Hurricanes are set to kick off spring football in March, and this will be the true start of the Al Golden Era of Miami Hurricanes football. Al has talked a good game, saying the right things and doing some innovative things in recruiting.
His spring workouts were designed to shock the players and get them in the right mindset, but spring football is where we will get to see if Golden and his staff are truly an upgrade from Randy Shannon and his staff on the field.
The Miami Hurricanes created a “U Tough” video that gave a glimpse inside the spring workouts the Miami Hurricanes have been doing. It shows Al Golden and his coaching staff putting the players through a rigorous set of workouts that had them sweating and gasping by the time it was all over.
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Golden and his staff have instilled some new philosophies during spring workouts as well, like many schools there is a practice jersey tradition where players are awarded a certain jersey for effort. Miami has never really had this, but under Al Golden there are now four levels of jersey color a player can earn for their level of effort in workouts.
Black, green, orange and white are the jersey colors that are used, and if you are wearing a white jersey, then that means you are giving atrocious effort and need to step it up.
An interesting note on the workouts is that many people criticized Randy Shannon for conducting 6:00 am workouts, but on Wednesdays and Fridays, Al Golden has the team out there at 6:00 am as well. What people fail to realize is practices that early are designed to make you go to bed earlier, to get you out of a comfort zone and make you work harder.
The effort this new coaching staff is putting into getting the players to be more tough and well-conditioned is a good thing for this program, but the truth is, do the returning players have enough heart to make a difference with it on the field? What Golden is hoping it will do is make practice so much harder and grueling than the games that in the fourth quarter the Hurricanes will be fresh while the other team is bent over gasping for air.
There does seem to be a new air of excitement and high expectations around the University of Miami football program. Golden has opened up the program for the public to look into with a heavy social media blitz, and various video clips showing coaches meetings and workouts.
It seems apparent that Golden is in fact trying to reverse the tone of the Randy Shannon Era, which was to restrict the flow of information and keep the media and fans from getting a glimpse inside the program. It was not something that people understood at the time, but it’s clear now that fans are enjoying the increased access to Canes football.
Link to "U Tough" Video if you have not watched it:
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