Miami ready for the heat

RedHawks football team’s season opener at Florida expected to be hot and humid.

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By Pete Conrad, Staff Writer Updated 8:30 AM Wednesday, September 1, 2010

OXFORD — Most people in Florida love a cool breeze and a little shade in the afternoon. Not Urban Meyer.

The University of Florida football coach wants heat. And he wants Miami University’s football players to sweat out all of their stamina.

“I hope it’s real hot,” Meyer said. “I hope it’s nasty, and I hope we do the best we can to wear them down in the first half.”

Meyer’s wish is the National Weather Service’s command.

The forecast for Miami’s season opener in Gainesville, Fla., on Saturday, Sept. 4, is partly cloudy with a stray thunderstorm, a high temperature of 94 and humidity at 68 percent.

The least surprised person in the world is Miami head coach Michael Haywood.

“People in the Midwest really don’t realize what it’s like to go down South for a game,” he said. “You don’t want to go down South for a game in September.

“When I was at LSU and at Texas, we welcomed all comers who wanted to come from the Midwest,” he said, “because not only do you have the heat, which is going to be 90-some degrees, but then you have humidity.

“They talk about ESPN giving us a break because we’re kicking off at 12 (noon), which is true,” Haywood said, “because the hottest part of the day is 3 o’clock. So we’ll be in the third quarter, going into the fourth quarter, in the hottest part of the day.”

Haywood said the RedHawks will be prepared.

“We’re really working on it,” he said. “Paul Jackson is doing a tremendous job working with these guys and their conditioning. We’re trying to prepare the best way we can, but you have to hydrate. Our team hasn’t experienced that kind of heat.”

Jackson is Miami’s new strength and conditioning coach for football, a native of White Plains, N.Y., who was hired last week after working at LSU for three years and for the New York Giants for six months.

James Carsey, Miami’s head strength and conditioning coach who worked with football until this season, will continue to oversee Miami’s other sports.

Haywood said the recent 90-degree weather in Ohio doesn’t compare with Florida heat, but the heat wave that socked it to Butler County in early August did feel more oppressive than usual.

“I think everybody’s faced a little of what it will be like down there during camp,” Miami quarterback Zac Dysert said. “It was 105 out here one day. Everybody’s been doing a good job drinking fluids throughout the day.”

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