Learn more about Jacory Harris Behind the Facemask www.HurricaneSports.com
November 14, 2011
Get to Know Miami Hurricane Student-Athletes Kate Howarth, Rika Park, Garrius Adams
Video of the Week Raising Canes - Streeter’s Story
Click to play
Photos of the Week
The Hurricanes opened the 2011-12 season with a victory over Tennessee Tech in Coach Jim Larranaga’s debut.
2011-12 Calendar of Events
Click the text below for more information about each Hurricane athletic event
/miamihurricanes
@HurricaneSports
/canesallaccess
Games of the Week
UM Athletics ... Always On
Hurricane Hotline Radio Nov. 16 | 7 p.m. | 560 WQAM Nov. 22 | 7 p.m. | 560 WQAM Game Re-airs UM vs. Florida State | Nov. 14 | 7 p.m. | CSS UM vs. Florida State | Nov. 17 | 1 p.m. | CSS UM vs. USF | Nov. 21 | 7 p.m. | CSS UM vs. USF | Nov. 10 | 1 p.m. | CSS Hurricane Gameday Show Nov. 17 | 5:30 p.m. | CSS Nov. 19 | 11 a.m. | CSS Nov. 24 | 5:30 p.m. | CSS Nov. 25 | 11 a.m. | CSS
W. Basketball vs. Tennessee
Two national powers collide when No. 7 Miami travels to Knoxville to face No.3 Tennessee on Tuesday, Nov. 15. Watch the game on ESPN2 at 6 p.m.
M. Basketball vs. Rutgers
Save the Date
Catch the men’s basketball team in action against BIG EAST competition as UM battles Rutgers on Nov. 15.
November 19
If you can’t make the trip to Tampa for Miami vs. USF football, join the Hurricane Sports Properties Watch Party at the Calder Casino and Race Course at noon.
November 22
Start off your Thanksgiving weekend by attending the men’s basketball game against Florida Gulf Coast at 7 p.m.
November 25
Bring your kids and join the Junior Canes Youth Day at the Miami football game against Boston College.
Season Hoops Tickets
Both basketball teams took the court on Nov. 11 to open the 2011-12 hoops campaign. Get your season tickets or check out the ”CocaCola Grab a Six Pack for the Weekend Plan.”
Up Next at Home
11/15 M Basketball vs. Rutgers | 7 p.m. | Buy tickets here 11/17 W Basketball 7 p.m. | Buy tickets here 11/19 M Basketball vs. UNF | 7 p.m. | Buy tickets here 11/22 M Basketball vs. FGCU | 7 p.m. | Buy tickets here 11/25 Football vs. Boston College | 3 p.m. | Buy tickets here 11/26 Volleyball vs. Florida State | 5 p.m. | $5 Adult, $3 Kids
Quick Links > Are you following the rivoting Raising Canes series on HurricaneSports.com? Here’s a link to 30+ plus episodes on YouTube. > The UM Ticket Office can now be reached through Live Chat during standard business hours. > UM Athletics and Spanish Broadcasting Systems have inked a new deal to bring Spanish language radio broadcasts to CIMA 106.3 FM. > UM has launched a ProCanes Monday Morning Recap that highlights the exploits of Miami alums in the NFL. > If you can’t attend the football game this weekend, make sure you log onto the HurricaneSports.com Gameday Companion 2.0 which features a live chat, live stats, streaming radio and social media integration.
@HurricaneSports Tweet of the Week CoachKonkol: Great to have Reggie Johnson dunk with two hands today! First time since he hurt himself this summer. Big fella is working hard!
Hurricane Student-Athletes Set New GSR Record UM established department-wide GSR record two-straight years
The University of Miami continues to take strides in academic progress, raising the bar yet again in Graduation Success Rates (GSR).
Rowing and women’s swimming and diving each set team GSR record highs with 96 percent and 93 percent, respectively.
The NCAA announced the Graduation Success Rates (GSR) for all member institutions on Tuesday and Miami established a new athletics department-wide record with a GSR of 89 percent, up from the previous year’s recordbreaking 86 percent.
In the past six years, women’s tennis has made the most improvement, starting at 71 percent and currently earning perfect marks. Football has improved 21 points (67 to 88 percent) while women’s swimming and diving is up 11 marks (82 to 93 percent).
“Due to the remarkable commitment and effort of our student-athletes and the support they receive from our faculty, the administration, the coaches and our academic support division, we continue to celebrate their educational achievements,” said David Wyman, Associate Athletic Director for Academic Services. “We are striving to not only sustain our growth but to improve on our performance every year.”
The best year-to-year improvement goes to men’s basketball, who improved nine points from 73 to 82 percent over the past year.
Those numbers are also up from 82 percent in 2009 and the previous high of 83 percent in 2007. The Athletics Department has exceeded the NCAA average for GSR in each of the last seven years. NCAA.org: Defining Graduate Success Rate NCAA.org: Grad Rates Top 80 Percent Overall, the department has improved from 77 to 89 percent from 2005 to 2011. Four UM teams posted perfect 100 percent GSR marks, led by women’s golf and men’s diving with seven consecutive perfect marks. Women’s tennis has recorded fourstraight 100 percent ratings while volleyball improved seven percentage points from 2010 to earn 100 percent.
All of UM’s 2011 GSR percentages are listed below. Women’s golf, 100 Men’s diving, 100 Women’s tennis, 100 Volleyball, 100 Rowing, 96 Men’s track and field/cross country, 94 Women’s basketball, 94 Women’s swimming and diving, 93 Soccer, 91 Women’s track and field/cross country, 89 Football, 88 Men’s basketball, 82 Men’s tennis, 75 Baseball, 60
Jacory Harris MIAMI, FLA. | SENIOR | QUARTERBACK
They are stories of perseverance. Stories about growing up, becoming men and being a part of a family. One-by-one, we hear from them. These are the Miami Hurricanes... People might be surprised to know that I’m an all-around guy. I play football, but I can also play basketball. I pretty much try and play every sport. I can dance, I can sing, I can rap. I want to be an actor. In high school, I was doing the whole medical program, taking classes here at UM, and that was my love. I didn’t think it would fit well in college, based on the busy schedule of football, so I decided to stick with football. That’s why I’m here now. My favorite song right now is “Trust Issues” by Drake. It speaks about having trust issues with women and people in general. That’s my favorite song out right now. It’s probably Stephen Morris’ favorite song too (laughs). Me and Stephen listen to the same things. I always tell myself I want to get married before I have an opportunity to make it professional, but I’m trying to work that one out (laughs). My favorite thing about being part of the U Family is just being around my teammates. I’ve had best friends I grew up with since I was eight years old, and now that they’re not around me 24/7 like we had been all of our lives, I look at my teammates for that. I don’t have any problems with anyone on the team. I’ve never had any problems with anybody. I like all of them, and they’re my brothers, because these are the guys I see every day. These are the guys that make me smile; keep me happy when anything goes wrong, and the people I hang out with. They’re my brothers. At the U, I’ve learned so much from my past experiences. From an outside of football point of view, I’ve learned who’s really by my side through thick and thin. I’ve learned family is first. I’ve realized that the grass is not always greener on the other side, and you have to go through some things to realize where you want to be. Growing up, probably since seventh grade, I never lost a game as a starter. Coming to college and losing in my first game as a starter, it makes you look at things in a different light. You think maybe I needed to go through this. The season I had last year went from being me nominated at the beginning of the season as a Heisman candidate to having a bad season and getting knocked around by injuries. Ending the way it did in the Sun Bowl, I think it humbled me. It made me realize a lot of things, and there are a lot of people who were with me before who are no longer here anymore. It helped me a lot. It helped me be positive, helped me realize that keeping a smile on your face will get you through everything. One thing everyone should know about Miami football is that we’re some hard-working guys. We’re also a cross-country team, because we can run for days. We would probably beat any cross-country team if they lined up against us (laughs). We’re just a fun team. We’re like a big boy band, we all have special talents and we all want them to be shown. We all like to have fun, and that’s how we are. It’s just about unity. Miami Northwestern is the greatest. It’s the greatest high school program there is. We always have talent there, and we always produce a lot of kids, but I think since it’s in the inner city, and there’s not a lot of structure, a lot of kids get lost in the mix of everything. School’s not always the top priority for kids there. It’s usually football, and if football doesn’t work, they turn to the streets. I feel like if that mentality could change at Miami Northwestern, then we’ll be even more recognized as a great school and a great place. The song no one would believe I have on my iPod is “You Smile” by Justin Bieber. I have his whole album, and I went to the movies to go see him (laughs). He worked hard to get to where he is, so I can respect that. No one can believe I’m afraid of bugs. I hate wasps, and if I see a bee anywhere on the football field, I’ll start running (laughs). I’m telling the truth. If I were under center and there was one on Tyler Horn’s back, I would literally not take the snap. I’d go to shotgun and find a way around it (laughs). I’ve been stung three times, and I think mentally it messed me up, because I hate bees. I hate them. I’m afraid of spiders. I actually got one tattooed on my hand to face my fears, but it still didn’t work. Me and my father, we’re scared of the same thing. There was a spider in the house once, and that’s the only time I’ve seen him act like that. He wouldn’t touch anything, he doesn’t like them. He grew up in the inner city in the projects, and he was always freaked out by them. If I could spend a day with anyone, it would be my best friend that passed away. He passed away when I was in tenth grade, and it pretty much changed my whole outlook. The reason I kept playing football was because he played football with us, and he was the one who really wanted me to play quarterback. I used to play around the neighborhood, but I never thought I was good enough to actually play. He helped me get to the necessary mentality. He would be the one I would want to spend a day with. The best advice is something I say every day to my teammates, which is to stay positive and always look in the mirror at what you could have done better. If you stay positive and you do that, you’ll never have a reason to blame anyone else. I spent most of last season trying to find ways not to put it on myself, but I pretty much now see it that if something bad happens, I could have done something better to help myself. I could have watched more film, I could have done this, I could have done that. You have to keep on fighting and keep on taking the positive things that you improve on, and then you’ll be at one with yourself. It’s easy to blame the coaches, but you’re the one who’s in your situation, so you have to help yourself get out of it. When you think positive, only positive things come out of it. Coach Fisch is an interesting guy. He’s pretty young. He just turned 35. He keeps everything interesting when it comes to football. It makes you want to learn more every day. You go into practice actually happy to be there and willing and ready to work and give your all for him. He brings it out of me. He’s the type of guy that everybody can really rally around and play for. He stays positive about everything, and there’s a lot of negativity he doesn’t focus on. No matter what, it’s a fun quarterback room and it’s all smiles in there. Competition is what it is. It’s exactly what it means. It’s about going against someone who really wants your job, or trying to get that person’s job. I feel like the world is a competition. Everything in life is a competition. No matter what, you’re trying to get to the top. You have to keep working to be on top, no matter what you’re doing. I feel that’s how it is on the field, between me, Stephen, Spencer Whipple and Ryan Williams, it’s a competition everyday out there. We compete in drills, in 7-on-7. Even though I’m a three-year starter here, I could be a Heisman winner, anything, it doesn’t matter, I wouldn’t think I’m the first one to go. I’m always going to give everybody an opportunity. Me and Stephen play rock, paper, scissors every day to decide who goes first in drills. It’s a competition, always. Everybody needs equal opportunity, I’m not the type to say I’m getting this many reps or that many reps. Everybody has fun, and we get equal amount of time out there, it’s about the best man winning. I’ve been competing since my freshman year here, going into my sophomore year and even now. Competition brings out the best in you. Miami is a city that loves and hates you at the same time. It’s kind of weird and it’s kind of crazy, but last year I didn’t see it that way. I put it as a city that hates you. The people here want to see their team do well, and they want to see you do well also. They’re mad for you, they’re not mad at you. It’s a cool city, and I wouldn’t want to be anywhere else. I played a lot of receiver in the streets growing up. When I used to pass the ball in the street, people always said I should play quarterback. My friend who passed, he was like an older brother but he wasn’t that much older. He was the most mature out of the bunch, and he sat me down and told me I should really
Behind the Facemask
Click here to learn more about Jacory
think about playing quarterback. When I came to JV my ninth grade year, I was out there and one of my coaches knew I could throw. I was at receiver, and quarterbacks were throwing the ball behind us. The coach told me to come and show them how it’s done. I was doing it just to play around, but I completed a couple of passes and from that day on I never played receiver again. That’s why I have it in my heart every time I get on the field, I know I can play receiver. I can run routes as crisp as the other guys, and if the ball’s in my area, I know I can get it. That’s when everything started though. I went 5-0 and got moved up to the varsity level. I came in as the second-string quarterback in tenth grade, played in five games and threw five touchdowns to Tommy Streeter. Since junior year of high school, the rest is history. No matter where you play, you never hear the crowd. It’s not even on your mind. I don’t know why, because it’s loud, but you hear the offensive line tell you to speak up a little bit and you don’t even think it’s that loud. You step into another realm. The fans aren’t there, everything around you is black, and you just have the field and the coaches and that’s it. The only time you recognize that the fans are there is when you get to the sidelines and you step out of that realm. Then you start to hear everything. Other than that, being on the field is like being in a movie. It’s exciting, and it’s sometimes scary, when you see guys that are 300 pounds running at you. The good part is, I get to talk a lot of trash being the smallest. They’ll say, “we’re going to get you, we’re going to take you out of this game.” But when you take a nasty hit and get right back up, that’s when I start talking. Next thing you know you’ll throw a touchdown over their head. It’s fun how you can mentally mess with people like that. It’s fun being on the field. Some people call the offensive line “the big uglies.” That’s what Jon Gruden told me at the Madden camp, he asked how my “big uglies” were doing. I told him, those aren’t my “big uglies”, those are my big babies. They’re the softest people on the team. They’re the most physical, but they’re the softest. I want to be on the front of the Wheaties box with them. I always tell them, I say we’re going to pose together on front of a Wheaties box. Hopefully we can make
that true. I like those guys, they take care of me. They protect me. And at the same time, they love me, and I love them. I was raised in a good home. I was fortunate enough to have my mother and my father with me, and I had my brother and my sisters. They’re a great family. I didn’t live in the inner city, but I didn’t live in a good neighborhood either. My neighborhood still had kids that had to deal with a lot of things inner city kids deal with, just not as much. I grew up moving a lot, probably from when I was born up until eighth grade. I moved six or seven times in that span. I first lived with my mother’s mother, then I moved in with my father’s mother, then into apartments, then back with my mother’s mother. We finally moved into where we are now, in Carol City, which is where we’ve been for a while. Playing football has given me a great window of opportunity. I’m the type of guy to make sure I have good relationships with everybody. I never burn any bridges with anyone, at least not on purpose. I’m a pretty good guy, so I make sure I maintain the good relationships I have with people. The Golden Era is going to be a great era. He started off with U Tough, getting the best out of us, and it brought the best out of me and it showed me where I can be and how hard I can work. He’s a great coach. He’s someone who’s inspirational. He’s very passionate about what he does. He loves football, and he wants to make sure that we love the game of football. Everything we learn, we have a test on. We have to know the pillars, different fight songs, things about being better conditioned, about being tougher and smarter. Some people at the beginning looked at it and thought about what it would help us do. But if you can learn all of that stuff, and take the time to learn it, then it shows you that you can always spend the extra time to learn stuff on and off the field. It’s about unity among the team. I believe that in life, the small things make the big things work. The things we’re learning now are going to help us further down the line, and outside of football, later in life. Check out more player profiles on Miami’s athletics website at Behind the Facemask Central.
Getting to Know U RIKA PARK | FR | FUJIEDA SHI-SHIZOUKA, JAPAN What is your favorite meal? Fish and noodles.
What do you have to have on your iPod? Japanese music.
My sports hero is: Annika Sorenstam.
Who has had the biggest impact on your life?
My dad because he’s the one who made me interested in golf.
What is the best thing about being a Hurricane? We always get the best weather.
What one superpower would you like to have?
The power to be able to be anywhere I want to be ,at any time.
KATE HOWARTH | JR | GRAND BLANC, MICH. What is the best thing about being a Cane?
Having the privilege and opportunity to wear the U on your jersey.
What is your favorite holiday? Fourth of July.
Nobody knows I ... Danced for 12 years.
What is your favorite home-cooked meal? Nothing is better than chicken pot pie.
What is one thing on your bucket list? To to the Olympics.
If you could invite three people to dinner, who would they be? My mother, my dad and my brother.
GARRIUS ADAMS | JUNIOR | APEX, N.C. My favorite meal? Lasagna.
My first job was... Mowing lawns.
When I was young, I wanted to be ... A banker.
What is the best thing about being a Hurricane? My teammates, on and off the court.
My first basketball memory is... Palming a Fisher Price ball.
No one knows I can... Play the drums.
TexT To Join text
“Canes” to 55888 to join the
Canes Mobile Fan Club
Men’s and Women’s Hoops Tickets
Greentree Practice Field AUTHENTICS: UM Football Practice Jerseys Auction Begins Nov. 9 | Auction Ends Nov. 16
2010 Season
2010 Season
2010 Season
2010 Season
2010 Season
2010 Season
2010 Season
Click Here to Bid Now
Proceeds Directly Benefit University of Miami Athletics Gameday AUTHENTICS: UM Football Game Worn Jerseys Auction Begins Nov. 16 | Auction Ends Nov. 23
2008 Season
2008 Season
2008 Season
2008 Season
2008 Season
2007 Season
2007 Season
2008 Season
2008 Season
2008 Season
A Note From The
This week on Hurricane Hotline we will recognize long-time Hurricane Club member Fred Smith. Mr. Smith has been a Hurricane Club member since 1980. He participated in our NEXT LEVEL campaign by jumping up to the next giving level. He currently donates at the Loyalty giving level. Save the Date: 2011 Miami Hurricanes Football Banquet, Saturday, December 10 Time: 12:00 PM – 3:00 PM Location: Jungle Island For more information call the Hurricane Club at 305.284.6699. For 2011 we are asking all Hurricane Club Members to consider participating in our NEXT LEVEL Campaign by increasing their annual gift to the Hurricane Club to the next giving level. Our scholarship costs continue to rise annually and with the increased support of all of our Hurricane Club Members we will continue to meet the needs of our dedicated student-athletes. Our goal for this campaign is to have 500 active members jump up to the NEXT LEVEL of giving. As of November 14, 689 Hurricane Members have participated in our campaign. Thank you to all Hurricane Club members who helped us reach our goal by jumping up to the NEXT LEVEL. Stay tuned for information regarding recognition of our NEXT LEVEL donors at the Miami vs. Boston College football game. As a reminder, all Hurricane Club donors at the Coaches Level and above have access to the Sideline Club during Miami Hurricanes home football games. Please be sure to bring your 2011 Hurricane Club membership card to Gate G and you and a guest will be allowed to enjoy the excitement of Hurricane football from the sideline. If you have any questions, please contact us at 305.284.6699.