‘It’s what The U is about’: Hurricanes embrace alumni support as playoff run continues
Carson Beck remembers walking to the 50-yard line for the coin toss in the Miami Hurricanes’ season opener against Notre Dame and seeing Andre Johsnon — Hurricanes legend and Pro Football Hall of Famer — on the sidelines.
“I’m shellshocked,” Beck said. “Like, dude this is Andre Johnson literally standing next to me so casually. That was the first moment that I was able to see guys from the past that are these amazing players that went on to have great NFL careers.”
It wasn’t the last.
Hurricanes alumni have been regulars on the Miami sideline throughout the season and even moreso during the team’s run through the College Football Playoff, which continues Thursday with a semifinal game between No. 10 UM (12-2) and the No. 6 Ole Miss Rebels (13-1) in the Fiesta Bowl on Thursday at State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Arizona (7:30 p.m., ESPN). Wide receiver Michael Irvin has been a mainstay the past two years. Coach Jimmy Johnson has been to practices. Andre Johnson, Edgerrin James and Ray Lewis are among the other notable players seen around the program nowadays.
Miami was at its peak when those players were on the field.
It has been decades since the Hurricanes have looked like the Hurricanes of the glory days.
Now, those greats from Miami’s past are seeing a potential Miami resurgence in the present, and they’re imparting their wisdom on the current group of Canes along the way.
“They’re passing on the torch to us,” offensive lineman Anez Cooper said. “We’re just trying to keep it the way they left it.”
Beck’s most recent memorable encounter came midway through the fourth quarter of Miami’s College Football Playoff quarterfinal against Ohio State. While the defense was on the field getting yet another key stop against the defending national champions, and Beck locks eyes with Lewis, his favorite linebacker growing up. They shook hands before Lewis simply told Beck: “Go win us the ball game.”
“And I was like, ‘Well, now I have to. We literally have to go score. I can’t let this dude down,’” Beck said Sunday, grinning ear to ear while reliving the conversation. The Hurricanes went on to run a 10-play, 70-yard touchdown drive capped by a 5-yard CharMar “Marty” Brown rushing touchdown with 55 seconds left in the game to secure the 24-14 win.
“It’s been awesome,” Beck said. “To have those guys just around the building and on the sideline, just bringing so much juice and energy, it’s what The U is about. They built this culture, and we carry it on to continue their legacy.”
And basically every player has a story.
For Cooper, it’s Irvin’s nonstop energy on the sidelines. He’s Miami’s top cheerleader and hype man on the sidelines.
“Even when he’s coming out here and watching us practice, he’s just screaming names,” Cooper said. “So me and Mike Irvin, that’s my guy. I’m just happy for him to just keep doing what he’s doing, keep coming to our games and doing all that. That builds us up. We get fired up every time we see him.”
For running back Mark Fletcher Jr., it was getting words of encouragement from James after a first-quarter fumble in the Ohio State game.
“He came up to me and was like: ‘Are you all right? Things happen, it’s all good. Just calm down, and then let’s get back into it,’” Fletcher said. “Then I was able to calm down and get back into the game and just go play. Just having voices like that around the building, here at practice, and at the games, it’s very helpful for us.”
Senior linebacker Wesley Bissainthe remembers Lewis telling him early on “hunter’s hunt.”
“I haven’t forgotten that,” Bissainthe said. “Every time I see him, I just remember that I’ve got to go out there and hunt, and we’ve got to hunt out there as one as a defense.”
Miami coach Mario Cristobal, a Hurricanes alumni himself who won two national titles as a player in 1989 and 1991, even shared a moment with Jimmy Johnson after the Cotton Bowl win over Ohio State. Johnson was in tears during the celebration.
“He changed our lives, my brother and I,” Cristobal said. “We were still kind of a nobody, you know what I mean? We pride ourselves on that. He offered my brother and I scholarships. My parents, may they rest in peace, they didn’t even know what a scholarship was. They’re Cuban-Americans that came over and found a way and tried to make a living. And fast forward almost 40 years later, and he’s out there on the sidelines supporting us. He set such a high standard.”
In a span of four years, Cristobal has elevated the Hurricanes back to that standard. He has Miami one win away from competing for a national championship.
And those Hurricanes legends of the past are enjoying the ride with them every step of the way.
“It’s a testimony to how much The U means to them,” nickel cornerback Keionte Scott said. “Seeing that, me as an older guy, it shows me how much The U was able to do for them and how thankful they are that they could be doing anything in the world, and they’re supporting their team and their college. It’s just something that makes you want to go harder and makes you honestly take a look back at The U in general, the school, the facility, all that it can do for a person, and how it turned a boy into a man for them.”
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