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Beckham circus in town: What's your interest in Miami MLS soccer team? New poll. Vote!; plus Chad 'n Brad top UM recruits, grade on Golden & more

1) It is THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 6. Thanks to Tony Kornheiser for having us on his radio show this morning. Only because I like you, Tony, would I talk that much about Bullygate. 2) In The Previous Blogpost (ITPB): Al Golden/confidence poll, D.Wade, Incognito/Martin mess plays on, Philip Seymour Hoffman & more. 3) Follow us on Twitter @gregcote and also on Instagram, Vine and Facebook.

CONFESSIONS OF A SOCCER FAN: "Hello, I'm Greg Cote. And I'm a soccer fan." That's right. During my college days at FAU I was a goalkeeper on the team. (Don't be impressed. It was a club team. I was the backup. In my only start, at FIT in Jensen Beach, I gave up eight goals). Friends and I would tailgate at 1aa1afusion 1aa1astrikersFort

Lauderdale Strikers games circa 1977-78 and chant "Maauurriicce!" when Mo Whittle aligned to take a free kick. Just after that, covering the Strikers was the first big break in a cub reporter's Miami Herald career. During the last World Cup my son and I joined a red-white-and-blue crowd at a local Duffy's to watch U.S. matches, high-fiving strnagers when the Americans -- when we -- scored. All in between, I've been the guy at the party talking up/defending soccer if the conversation turned to how it would never really go over in this country. So, yeah, the fan in me is happy Miami will be getting a Major League Soccer team if ownership frontman David Beckham can see a stadium built. As I write in today's latest column -- click on Betting on Beckham to read -- the 1977-83 Strikers did not fail as much as the NASL collapsed all around them. Likewise the 1998-2001 MLS Miami Fusion did not fail in terms of support; bad ownership doomed that club. The way Miami supports international soccer and our market's TV ratings for the World Cup make us ripe for a new team. You can shake your head at the ridiculous circus always surrounding Beckham, but his aim is true in seeing Miami as an area perfect for a top-level soccer team. Of course, many may not agree. There are still plenty of folks at that party scoffing at soccer or simply ignoring it. I'm curioous about your thoughts. Take a dip in our poll and say why.

CHAD 'N BRAD TOP A PROMISING HURRICANES' RECRUITING CLASS: The Canes' Wednesday National Signing Day bounty is ranked No. 10 nationally by ESPN and No. 12 by Rivals.com. I laugh at the rush to

immediately rank every school based on the inherently faulty guesswork on how a bunch of 18-year-olds 1aa1achadt 1aa1abradkmight turn out. It is impossible, which is why I don't have a poll here for you to grade the class. Nevertheless, we all have initial impressions, and I think Miami did pretty well, all things considered. As coach Al Golden told me this week, 85 percent of the recruiting of this class was done before the NCAA ended its case and the cloud lifted, and these recruits played their entire high-school careers with UM still under investigation as they pondered their college choices. Next year's recruiting class truly will be Golden's first without shackles. What I like most about the Canes' 2014 bounty: They bring in five defensive linemen led by Chad Thomas (pictured left) who can make a big difference in an area of pressing need. Running back Joseph Yearby looks like a game-breaker to augment Duke Johnson. And QB Brad Kaaya (right) from Cali has the advertised skills to immediately challenge for the job Stephen Morris vacated.

Poll result: Confidence in UM's Golden is solid: In a poll that surrounded National Signing Day, we asked in the last blogpost for your confidence level in Al Golden seeing the Miami Hurricanes back to a championship level, and 40.3 percent said "very" conifident and 39.1% "somewhat" confident. The other 20.6% said "not" confident.

Click back. Will be updating/adding to this latest blogpost...

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