The Connect: 02/24/09

It's heeeeeeeeere! Practice starts today, and with two new coordinators there is a lot  of learning to squeeze in between now and Florida State. Storylines abound, not least of which are:  will Jacory Harris experience his own Transfiguration upon taking the field, or will he merely glow? Did Travis Benjamin break the sound barrier, or was that popping sound Anthony Reddick's knees (wherever he is)?  Will an orange traffic cone be recruited to stand in at tight end? 

Susan Miller Degnan covers five pressing questions, and then covers some more. Always be coverin', I guess. 

Hope the team likes Werthers Larry Coker has been named a finalist for the head coaching position at University of Texas-San Antonio's new football program. If he fails to get the job, he's also been named a finalist for a bed in the medical school's teaching nursing home. So he's got that going for him.

In the end, the Giants triumphed by kicking an oblong ball made of pigskin through a big "H". It was a most ripping victory. Frank Haith received two commitments yesterday stole a couple of those kids Sally Struthers is always yammering on about and grew them hydroponically in his shed. Suuuuuure "they just got here."

Monday afternoon, Frank Haith's team picked up two verbal commitments from players not only highly regarded, but who came to the U.S. recently from outside the country. They are: 6-10, 200-pound, Rwandan-born wingman Yvan Ngirabuakunzi (a 2011 commitment) and 6-10, 220-pound center Ismalia Dauda from Nigeria (a 2012 commitment).

Manny Hernandez reports that coaches didn't even need to see 15-year-old Dauda play - he was offered after they saw one practice.  Some might say this is due to his talent and size, others are pretty sure it's because the family pet can pull double-duty (part of Kirby Hocutt's cost-cutting plan).  We are now the University of Miami Fighting Mauajis.