Hurricane Moves Hurricanes : Andrew’s Devastation Forces No. 1 Miami to Shift Practice to Vero Beach

Football never sounded better. Shoulder pads collided, young men grunted, coaches screamed, and the nation’s top-ranked team began to recover from wounds inflicted by a devastating hurricane.

At an unlikely site--the intersection of Pee Wee Reese Boulevard and Jackie Robinson Avenue in Dodgertown--the Miami Hurricanes resumed preseason practice Thursday.

Damage to the Coral Gables campus caused by Hurricane Andrew forced the team to relocate in Vero Beach until the season opener Sept. 5 at Iowa. Towering palm trees, a sunny sky and gentle sea breezes for the first workout contrasted with what the Hurricanes left behind.

The nation’s preseason No. 1-ranked team looked sloppy as it practiced for the first time this week. Home was 140 miles away but still on everyone’s mind.

“My family is back there and all that, but I made a choice to come up here,” said Coach Dennis Erickson, whose house was seriously damaged in the storm. “The reason I came up here and the team came up here is to get ready for a game.

“If we played Iowa tomorrow, we’d get beat.”

Andrew hit the team hard. Defensive lineman Marvin Davis didn’t learn until Thursday that his family was safe. Three other players lost their homes and the homes of several assistant coaches and staff members sustained extensive property damage. Erickson and his family rode out the hurricane in a closet.

As a result, emotions are raw. When a reporter asked about overcoming the “controversy”--a poor choice of words, he later admitted--Erickson exploded.

“Don’t ever tell me what this is,” the coach snapped, his whole body shaking with emotion. “I was in the middle of it.

“You guys can sit here and talk about it, but I was there. Don’t talk to me about controversy. It’s a . . . tragedy.”