CORAL GABLES, Fla. -- Getting ready for a season-opening matchup with No. 12 Florida State is daunting enough for 11th-ranked Miami.
Now, the threat of Tropical Storm Ernesto will make that chore even tougher.
University officials have canceled classes until Thursday in anticipation of the storm, which could begin lashing South Florida with up to 10 inches of rain and sustained winds of 50 mph or more sometime Tuesday or Wednesday.
The Hurricanes will practice again Tuesday morning, long before Ernesto's anticipated arrival, then probably won't resume workouts until at least Thursday -- an interruption that Miami coach Larry Coker didn't want to see coming.
"I was concerned about football practice," Coker said after Monday's workout. "But I still see a lot of the blue tarps on roofs and people still living in FEMA trailers from past hurricanes. I guess that really puts it all in perspective. We're going to make sure to have our players safe and our staff safe."
Florida State visits Miami on Monday night. The storm will be long gone by then, and -- barring any unforeseen major problems -- the game is expected to be played as scheduled.
The Seminoles' last trip to the Orange Bowl also coincided with weather woes. Hurricane Frances forced the teams to push the 2004 season-opener back four days. After that storm, a grandson and former son-in-law of Florida State coach Bobby Bowden were killed when their car was hit a by a utility truck helping to restore power outages caused by the storm.
Also, last year the Hurricanes' final days of game prep leading into the Florida State game were interrupted by Hurricane Katrina -- which hit South Florida before moving across the state, venturing into the Gulf and pounding the New Orleans region days later.
"It's obviously Florida State week," Coker said, "because we have a hurricane in the soft, warm Caribbean waters."
