Twenty-eight days shy of the 2010 football games, the Miami Hurricanes opened fall camp training sessions on campus with two yours of intensive practice under a warm morning sun.

One of the attractions of the first day was the new recruit Seantrel Henderson. At 6’8″, the eighteen-year-old, 330 pound new recruit from St. Paul, Minnesota is the top one for this season. He came to camp looking fit and ready to undergo training for his first stint with the team. Florida and USC have been trying to get him in their line-up. He had wanted to join USC but had to wait for the two-year-bowl ban against the team to be lifted before doing so. In the end, he changed his mind and decided to team up with Miami

Current Hurricane coach Randy Shannon estimates it will take him three weeks to condition the big guy for the games. One week will go to breaking him in and that first week could be the hardest one for Henderson. According to Shannon, Henderson will get the feel of the game on the second week and will be fully primed to play on the third. This gives Shannon the time and the opportunity to prepare him well for his first game with the team. The way the big guy looks, he will probably make it.

Graig Cooper, Senior Running Back, was seen on the premises by his fans. Cooper was injured last year in Miami’s game versus Wisconsin and he tore his anterior cruciate ligament in that incident. He had slipped on the poorly conditioned field. However, he says he has fully recovered and is able to play in all 14 games. Randy Shannon has other ideas and is planning to observe if Cooper can take his first four games before fielding him for the entire season. Otherwise, the coach has alternative line-ups.

Cooper was on his way to the top before his accident. He had a record of 2,218 career yards credited to him as well as having been ranked fifth in the list of all-time UM rushers. He was said to have been eying the 2010 NFL draft.

He wasn’t the firs running back to sustain serious injury. The first one was Melvin Bratton who did not recover from it. Bratton is now employed as a sports agent. The second player who was injured is Willis McGahee. After some months in the hospital, McGahee managed to recover fully and actually became an NFL star player. During his hospital confinement, Bratton was able to pay him a visit

The USA Today preseason coaches announced one day after the opening of Fall camp that the Hurricanes currently rank 13 according to their polls. The teams occupying the top 5 positions are Alabama, Ohio State, Florida, Texas and Bois State. The hurricanes came up higher in this count than they had been in the same poll last year when they were number 19. The team is scheduled to play against six of the top 25 teams.

The USA Today poll being one of the criteria which are considered for determining the national champion for a specific year, it doesn’t seem like the Hurricanes are in a very good position to become champions this year. But anything can happen.

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Author Bio: Freddie Brister is a retired football coach who writes for SportsFanTreasures.com. Check out his Miami Belt or his St. Louis Rams Bedding or his Oregon Belt.

Category: Sports
Keywords: National Champion,alternative line-ups,Senior Running Back