AND.... there is NO WAY to rank or list the top 10/20/30 CANES of all time. Too many different ways to rank and too subjective. And way too many great players and great teams. But here’s my take. Main criteria... outsized impact on team success and overall growth of The Program due to individual player contributions. Some great players will have more championships or wins, but also played on insanely talented teams while other greats played on less talented teams and elevated those teams to success or greatness through their talent or will power or leadership. I favor the players that raised the play of less talented teams. IMO these guys paved the way for the recruiting success that led to the insanely talented rosters. So in no real order but kinda oldest first, here goes... Ted Hendricks Ray Bellamy - 1st black scholarship Football player at UM and at any major university in the southeast. He makes the list for pure courage. Jim Kelly Otis Anderson Bernie Kosar Michael Irvin Jerome Brown Vinnie Testaverde Steve Walsh Warren Sapp Michael Barrow Cortez Kennedy Blades - pick one lol Edgerrian James Reggie Wayne Ray Lewis Clinton Portis Dan Morgan Willis McGahee Andre Johnson Bryant McKinney Ed Reed Frank Gore Sean Taylor Ken Dorsey Devin Hester The ‘01 Defense Schnelly Jimmy Butch Al Golden Ha! Got U. Scratch Golden boy!

From the last blog: Tom: If this is indeed the end of the line, I’d like to THANK YOU for all your efforts and wonderful blog articles throughout the years. Your opinions and voice will most assuredly be missed by the Canespace Family and the entire multiverse of Canedom. I know there was a lot of frustration and anger when it seemed like people skipped over the articles you spent so much time writing. But many read and enjoyed the articles and many appreciated the sacrifices you made to provide new content as often as you did. It’s an unfortunate fact of life that positive reinforcement of harder to come by than negative. That’s human nature I guess. I recall when SOUP first started asking The Legion on Omar’s old blog about a brand new site called Canespace. Feels like yesterday. We’ve grown older (but not up!). I’ll be forever thankful for the friends I feel like I have because of Canespace and our brief but enjoyable meeting at Jerryworld - let’s NOT mention that game though! I can be reached at: kehinton@gmail.com That’s for anyone interested. I’ll miss this crew. But hope to run into some or most of you on other sites. I doubt there’ll be a home like Canespace though. Too many handles to mention all, but to the old-timers like Solar and CGNC - PEACE! Tom - give my best to your lovely bride. She sure has put up with a lot from you the past 15 years. She must be an angel. Hope we stay in touch - I ran into a chum with a bottle of rum and wound up drinking all night... Fair winds and following seas... GO CANES! Posted by: DallasTX Cane | May 26, 2020 at 10:41 PM

Posted by: DallasTX Cane | May 26, 2020 at 10:50 PM I am truly a moron. LOL. U changed the post format and I didn’t pay attention. Duh!

Tom - I just spent 20 minutes probably composing the most heart-felt post in my illustrious history only for it to disappear when I posted. It was basically a thank you to you, so if you can look... I don’t know much about Typepad, is there a drink tank for posts?!? Anyway, I doubt I can summon such eloquence a second time so I hope you can find my lost ode to SOUP.

Love this blog 86! Tip your hat and have a drink in memory of Steve “Nacho” Navarez from San Antonio. Naval Flight Officer, father, husband, and dear friend lost way too young. Yesterday isn’t about the mattress sales.

Looks like I may be the last one here and talking to no one... Tom: If this is indeed the end of the line, I’d like to THANK YOU for all your efforts and wonderful blog articles throughout the years. Your opinions and voice will most assuredly be missed by the Canespace Family and the entire multiverse of Canedom. I know there was a lot of frustration and anger when it seemed like people skipped over the articles you spent so much time writing. But many read and enjoyed the articles and many appreciated the sacrifices you made to provide new content as often as you did. It’s an unfortunate fact of life that positive reinforcement of harder to come by than negative. That’s human nature I guess. I recall when SOUP first started asking The Legion on Omar’s old blog about a brand new site called Canespace. Feels like yesterday. We’ve grown older (but not up!). I’ll be forever thankful for the friends I feel like I have because of Canespace and our brief but enjoyable meeting at Jerryworld - let’s NOT mention that game though! I can be reached at: kehinton@gmail.com That’s for anyone interested. I’ll miss this crew. But hope to run into some or most of you on other sites. I doubt there’ll be a home like Canespace though. Too many handles to mention all, but to the old-timers like Solar and CGNC - PEACE! Tom - give my best to your lovely bride. She sure has put up with a lot from you the past 15 years. She must be an angel. Hope we stay in touch - I ran into a chum with a bottle of rum and wound up drinking all night... Fair winds and following seas... GO CANES!

I just heard about Coach Shula. RIP. Oh man... a promising day just turned to sadness. Feel like a little bit more of “Old Florida... Old Miami” has passed on also. Our days of youth are fleeting. When the giants of your youth pass away, you definitely feel it in your bones, in your soul.

Solar - reminder that my kiddo is playing soccer at UVA... ncaa athletic ban means no coach supervised activity at all. No practices no nothing.

So I was at the last Dallas Mavs game for the foreseeable future last night. Great game. Lot of fun. Weird world we’re living in now. The end of game line wasn’t at the urinals, it was at the sinks. And U said nothing could make men wash their hands! Ha ha. Wash your hands Canespacers!

DOH!

Dos??....

He meant 11 offensive players...

Ahh man... all this serious nostalgia going on makes me pine for those good ole days. Like when we all truly believed we were only 1 recruiting class away from “being back”. Or a single player or two, or a single coach, was The Problem. Remember 86 asking, no begging Omar bloggers to check out his new site Canespace. Now we’re 15 years removed from decent Canes football and 13 since Canespace was birthed. Hard to believe. Cool thing... as many “old” bloggers are still around as have drifted away. Some not as active perhaps, but still here. Life sometimes intrudes. THANK U Tom!

Been a while since I let one rip. Posted by: 86Cane | February 04, 2020 at 05:49 PM Find this difficult to believe...

Oh BOY.... good thing 86 isn’t looking for sponsors for the blob. When every post starts off, “well, I remember back when...” U know U r out of touch! LOL

The blob is aging.... NFL looking to hook the younger gen who grew up with porn at their fingertips. A crotch grab or pole dance doesn’t faze them. What the >50 demographic cares about isn’t relevant...

Ok, yeah... I was a little surprised at how far they took it tonight. SB tends to go back n forth. Push the envelope, then cross the line (Janet Jackson anyone?), then ten years of boring inoffensive crap. Oh and the game wasn’t bad either. After a sleeper of a 1st half

No wonder the world hates us. -Cause our 50 & 43 yr old pop stars are hot as F?!?

BTW - nice blog article 86

HUGE improvements this off season. Addition by subtraction in several cases. Players out past curfew the night before laying a massive turd vs FIU leave the team better off when they leave! Enos - and I admit being very hopeful re that crap addict - became the problem. 2 problems HAD to be addressed: The lack of even a semblance of an offense AND the piss poor losing attitude and lack of effort. CMD has addressed both. It’s on Lashlee to cure the offense. #20 will immediately cure the attitude. Boys better become MEN real fast. Only word of caution.... building a winning program doesn’t happen overnight and last. We’ve been fooled before by a single good season that is inevitably followed up with crap. We’ll be good before great and great before champions again. Success will bring in the “stars”... but CMD & Co must learn to win with what we got - the “stars” aren’t coming south based on words and promises. If the offense works and we start playing good ball, the winning will follow, and then the recruiting rankings will go up.

Our bus has a perfect record... when it comes to crashing & burning

Posted by: TheHerb | January 20, 2020 at 02:16 PM Herb - Coming from winning programs means those kids are used to winning. They’re also used to beating up lesser teams and in HS that typically means lesser athletes. The athleticism gap can be tremendous in HS. Easily out-talenting other teams means U don’t need superior technique or work ethic. Sometimes being a 4 star guy on a winning team equals believing less in hard work and effort and more in one’s innate ability. We’ve had way too much experience these past 15 years with guys used to winning but with no idea of what it takes to win at the next level and no stomach for the effort. Fingers crossed this too will change. The worm has to turn eventually, right???

VA - Sorry to hear about your friend. Tough. 62 is too soon. Hang in there. Al - thanks for the kind words.

Posted by: Go Canes!! | January 20, 2020 at 06:45 PM Whoa nelly! Slow down big fella. That’s a lotta superlatives in a short sentence even for U. “Remarkable” last 20 days? LOL. It’s certainly been better than expected. But then again, expectations been pretty darn low around here lately. I’m personally impressed when he gets thru an entire presser without inserting foot into mouth. Just messin w/U GO. Love your enthusiasm

Thanks Tony