400,000 reasons to leave happy

MIAMI — A true story about fake football. Charleston Southern and Miami played once prior to the Hurricanes' 52-7 victory Thursday night at Dolphin Stadium.

Immediately after Jay Mills landed the job as head coach, his proud sons Jared and Derek, then 13 and 10, were so excited. So thrilled they created a Charleston Southern team to play video-game football against Miami.

It was January of 2003. The top-ranked Hurricanes were taking a 34-game win streak into what would be a BCS Championship Game loss to Ohio State in Tempe, Ariz.

"We killed Miami," Mills recalled with a big smile.

That first "game" was played at CSU.

Well, so now the series is even.

This time, a deep and swarming Miami defense trumped CSU's no-huddle offense.

But the Buccaneers showed heart with a 10-play touchdown drive late in the third quarter and won at the bank, taking home a $400,000 check for their troubles.

Such cash goes far in any donation-strapped athletic department, but more at a school which fielded its first football team in 1991 and went 1-11 as recently as 2003, Mills' first season.

Florida in '09

Having played at Hawaii last year, CSU will open the 2009 season at Florida, play at Hawaii again in 2011 and is trying to line up more major conference foes for 2010, 2012 and beyond.

The next few teams on the Buccaneers' schedule aren't exactly pastry, either: Wofford at home followed by a trip to Ohio to face the other Miami.

It wasn't a conventional home-field advantage for the Hurricanes, who moved for 2008 from the dilapidated Orange Bowl up I-95 to newer if less collegiate digs. The Florida Marlins' infield dirt is a temporary inconvenience.

Miami has 14 true freshmen on its two-deep roster, including Jacory Harris, who started at quarterback.

CSU has almost as many players from Florida (41) as Miami, but not quite the promising freshman class Hurricanes head coach Randy Shannon plans to lean on.

The Bucs didn't fare much better off the field. No trip to South Beach. No Cuban cuisine or stone crabs or Key Largo. Traveling from Charleston by bus is rough.

The quest

The players did get a heavy dose of tourist stuff last season on Oahu, including a Pearl Harbor tour and a luau.

"We plan to do some things in New York City later this season when we play at Stony Brook," Mills said.

All part of raising the CSU profile, slowly but surely.

Mills rounded up the team at midfield after the game, asked the players to take a knee and gave a pep talk.

"Charleston Southern took a huge step forward with this game, and that's a reflection of our university," he said. "This is part of our mission and purpose, to be nationally recognized as a school that integrates faith in higher education. To be in a contest like this gives us that venue, and maybe athletics shouldn't be that way but it helps draw attention to your university."

The best part is, the check is worth $400,000 win or lose.

Reach Gene Sapakoff at gsapakoff@postandcourier.com.