Miami Players Go for Cash

When Miami Coach Butch Davis released more than 100 players last Friday for the holidays, he expected about a dozen or so wouldn’t make it to New Orleans on Tuesday for the team’s first practice.

So he was pleasantly surprised when only four Hurricanes--none starters--missed the team’s first workout at the Superdome.

Backup tight end Jeremy Shockey, who caught the winning touchdown against Florida State, and two walk-ons were delayed because of inclement weather.

“At least none of the Florida kids were snowed in,” Davis said.

Reserve offensive lineman Ed Wilkins, who had throat surgery last week to open his breathing passages, also was missing.

Miami gave the players the option of traveling on the team’s chartered plane or taking the cash equivalent of round-trip airfare to New Orleans and getting to the Sugar Bowl site on their own.

With some Hurricanes getting as much as $1,000 in airfare, it shouldn’t have been too surprising when no players stepped off the team’s Boeing 767 at the New Orleans Airport on Tuesday.

More than a dozen Sugar Bowl representatives and a five-man band playing jazz greeted the team’s arrival. But only Davis, his assistant coaches, their families and some other university staff members were on board.

Wide receiver Reggie Wayne, from nearby Marrero, La., drove. He needed the extra cash to buy the 70 Sugar Bowl tickets he promised to family and friends.

Defensive tackle Matt Walters took his $750 allotment, found a cheaper ticket and made about $400.

“It’s a sweet deal,” Walters said.

It also gives the players some incentive to reach their destination on time. They know if they don’t, they might have to fly on the team charter in the future.

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Marshall (7-4), which has won four of its last five regular-season games and capped a turnaround from 2-4 with a 19-14 come-from-behind win over Western Michigan in the MAC championship game, faces Cincinnati (7-4) in the today’s Motor City Bowl at Pontiac, Mich. The Bearcats will rely on the foot of Jonathan Ruffin, who won the Lou Groza Award as the nation’s top college kicker. Ruffin made 26 of 29 field goals. . . . Texas Tech (7-4) and East Carolina (7-5) will offer pass-proficient attacks in the galleryfurniture.com Bowl tonight in Houston, the first bowl game played at the Astrodome since 1987.