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And most of all congrats to the ACC Rookie of the Year, Duke Johnson!

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Highly Touted QB Recruit Kevin Olsen Chooses the Miami Hurricane, Follows in Big Brother’s Footsteps

Top ten quarterback Kevin Olsen shuns Wisconsin, Auburn and South Carolina, and chooses to follow his brother Greg to become a Hurricane.

Kevin Olsen is a great commitment for The U’s 2013 class, and is definitely the quarterback of the future for the Hurricanes program, but please don’t let anyone convince you that he is a “can’t miss” prospect. All signs point in that direction, sure, but does anyone remember Kyle Wright, Brock Berlin, and Robert Marve? That’s not to say this kid won’t be great. I tend to think he will achieve great things under Al Golden and Jedd Fisch, but lets not crown him King of Coral Gables before he even gets through one U-Tough season.

That being said I want to point out a few key factors to consider even if Kevin Olsen never plays a game for the Hurricanes.

First, a commitment as big as Olsen draws a lot of attention from other potential recruits. His signing will make every high school junior and senior in the country start thinking about Miami, but more importantly it will help a lot of the recruits who were on the fence make a decision. Golden seems to have developed a strategy for using players and recruits to expand his scouting staff. Randy “Duke” Johnson was a huge help in getting 5-star recruit Tracy Howard to sign with Miami this spring, and I expect that Olsen will be used in that capacity as well.

Second, as much talent as there is in south Florida, the Hurricanes need to establish some kind of recruiting presence in other states for just this type of opportunity. Getting Kevin Olsen into a Hurricane uniform will give the UM scouts a direct connection to the entire New Jersey, Pennsylvania, New York area, and that area of the country has rarely been accessible to Miami in years past.

The third thing Olsen’s commitment does is get fans excited. Fans love to hear about success in recruiting because it means there’s still hope, and for a Hurricanes fan base that learned to identify themselves with the recruiting and production of great quarterbacks over the years, getting a top ten recruit like Olsen gives us a nostalgic feeling of past success.

The last thing I want to mention is how Olsen’s reputation and early signing will affect the rest of the quarterbacks on the team. Olsen, if he lives up to the hype, will be competing for the starting job the day he walks onto campus. Make no mistake that this kid is as polished as they come, and above his physical skills, most scouts have put him in their top ten because of his ability to stay collected under pressure along with his great decision making. Good luck keeping this kid off the field once he arrives.

With over 6 months left in the 2013 recruiting year look for a few more big commitments to this Hurricane’s program, but also realize that recruited talent doesn’t always convert to wins on the field. Between Butch Davis, Larry Coker and Randy Shannon The U has had some pretty amazing recruiting classes over the past 15 years, but only one championship to show for it. So, Hurricanes fans, get excited about Kevin Olsen, and remember even if he doesn’t pan out he has already done a lot for the Miami program, just by wanting to play for them.

More from the Eye of the Storm: Kevin Olsen Junior Season Highlight Video, The Coach that Brought the Swagger to The U, Jimmy Johnson

Jonathan Vilma Suspension and the U’s Bad Boy Reputation

The NFL, and specifically Roger Goodell, have stayed the course on player discipline as more suspensions were announced Wednesday in connection with the New Orleans Saint’s bounty scandal.

The most severe penalty will fall on the shoulders of Jonathan Vilma who will miss the entire 2012 NFL season due mainly to his large contributions to the team’s bounty pool. According to the NFL, Vilma, along with teammates Scott Fujita (3 games), Will Smith (4 games), and Anthony Hargrove (8 games), have been identified as the leaders and largest contributors to the “bounty program, which paid players over the past three seaons for hits that injured opponents.” Vilma appears to match this description more than the others as it has been reported that he offered two $10,000 bounties to knock Arizona QB Kurt Warner, and then Vikings QB Brett Farve, out of games during the 2009 playoffs. Farve was indeed injured during the game played against the Saints, suffering some trauma to his ankle and causing visible discomfort for the remainder of the game….one which the Vikings lost in overtime clearing the way for the Saints to win the Super Bowl.

Until reports of the Saints largely player-funded bounty program surfaced the most popular bounty scandal in football history was quite possibly one that Vilma should be very aware of, as it occurred in his hometown and involved the university he attended for 4 years, the University of Miami.

During the late 1980′s, when the Hurricanes were winning championships, and were arguably at the height of their popularity, stories surfaced of players taking money from a man named Luther Campbell in exchange for touchdowns and specifically hard hits on opposing players. Campbell, also known as “Uncle Luke,” was a rapper in the band 2 Live Crew which hailed from south Florida. The scandal helped contribute to the bad boy image that the Hurricanes acquired during that time period….an era that is solely responsible for elevating the small private university to the national level in college football. This popularity led to a 14 year span between 1994 and 2008 during which the University of Miami had at least one player drafted in the first round of every NFL draft. Jonathan Vilma was one of those players, and how his involvement affects UM football is impossible to measure, but surely the current Hurricanes regime can look toward this incident and turn it into a lesson for future players.

Vilma also shares a connection with a much more recent Hurricanes scandal involving ponzi scheme booster Nevin Shapiro. According to Shapiro he specifically offered Vilma $5000 if he could take FSU QB Chris Rix out of a game between to the two rivals. Rix recalls “I do remember a few late hits — some of them were called, some of them weren’t. I remember one specifically in the 2003 BCS Orange Bowl game, after I had thrown a pass (Vilma) came in and led with his hand. He got it inside my facemask and gave me a black eye. I don’t remember that being called as a late hit.”

In March of this year another report was released containing quotes from a documentary that had been filmed about former Saints defensive back Steve Gleason. Some of those quotes, made by former Saints defensive coordinator Greg Williams who has been indefinitely suspended by the NFL for his involvement in the scandal, made specific reference to the harming of Frank Gore ,another former Hurricane and teammate of Vilma’s at The U. These statements, made during a team meeting before the Saints were to play the 49ers in the playoffs, were graphic and specific making multiple references to “killing the head,” and with Williams at one point rubbing his fingers together signaling the fact that he would pay the first bounty on any hit to San Francisco QB Alex Smith’s chin. Ironically Vilma and Gore have been at odds with each other since they were teammates at Glades High School where coaches reported their rivalry being so intense that they were often separated during drills so that they wouldn’t injure each other. However, no evidence has been presented that suggests Vilma had any intentions on specifically injuring Gore in connection with the current scandal.

Certainly this isn’t the first time players have been involved in this type of activity, but it is the first time that real evidence has surfaced pertaining to such a large operation, and you can bet that Roger Goodell was looking to send a message with the punishments he handed down today. Goodell has quickly gained a reputation for harsh punishment especially when the subject concerns player safety, and rightfully so as these are the same players who are fighting for retiree benefits under claims that the game is causing them excessive injury and increased wear and tear after they retire. You can also bet that this incident puts a big bargaining chip in the hands of the owners for the next CBA meeting as players who are intentionally trying to injure each other probably won’t be excited to defend themselves on this particular subject.

Sometimes, in situations like this there is a fall guy, a player or coach who takes the brunt of the punishment because they got caught, or because they were the first to break a rule after the rule’s implementation. This is not one of those cases. Jonathan Vilma specifically went to a university then known for their bad boy reputation, was directly involved in a bounty scandal while at that school, and has now carried that attitude into the NFL. There may not be anyone in the league more deserving of this harsh punishment than Jonathan Vilma.

More from the Eye of the Storm: Miami Hurricanes 2012 Schedule and Results Predictions

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