Who's best football coach in Hurricanes history? Poll. Vote!; plus Upset Bird Countdown (9 days), bizarre UM football photos, Kim Davis/gay marriage, Suh named Top 5, Heat intrigue, Canes' RBs, Dolphins get lucky, 'Concussion' trailer & more

GREG COTE'S RANDOM EVIDENCE BLOG: MIAMI. SPORTS. AND BEYOND.

1) It is WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 2. Dolphins change punters? If you think that's big news, you aren't very confident in your offense. 2) Wonder if it has occurred to Miley Cyrus (pictured) that the slut-persona has become so expected (ho hum) that she'd truly shock us more by being demure and fully clothed? 3) In The Previous Blogpost (ITPB): Hot Button Top 10, Dolphins beat Atlanta in third fake-game, Weighing The Fish, Fins' fantasy rankings, dodging the Cone of Doom & more. 4) Follow us on Twitter @gregcote. Also on Facebook, Instagram, Vine and now Periscope, too.

Herald's 'Fins at 50': Our massive "Fins at 50" coverage commemorating Dolphins' 50th season remains available online. Click FINS AT 50 to access. My contributions: COACHING LEGEND, column on Don Shula. 50 GREATEST, list of franchise's 50 top figures (not just players). ALL-TIME TEAM, my picks. And VIDEO INTERVIEWS, my talks with Shula, Jason Taylor and Zach Thomas. I also have a Shula-by-the-numbers column not in original package; click TOP 10 NUMBERS.

A Pair of Aces: I write, in today's latest column, that big seasons by quarterbsck Ryan Tannehill and Brad Kaaya will be lifesavers for the Miami careers of their Dolphins and Hurricanes coaches, Joe Philbin and Al Golden. Click on To The Rescue to read.

WHO IS GREATEST HURRICANES FOOTBALL COACH EVER?: Championships? Longevity? Recruiting prowess? Serving with do-right class beyond wins and losses? There are many ways a college football coach might be judged. Now, it's Judgement Day. We offer you, alphabetically, the 10 University of Miami football head coaches who have coached here a minimum of 50 games. (Randy Shannon and Al Golden happen to sneak in right at 50). By whatever criteria you hold most important, vote for your top two (2), then check back here often to monitor evolving results as we find out who is the greatest football coach The U has had ... and who isn't. Vote and say why you chose as you did.

VOTE FOR YOUR TOP TWO (2)!

Deciphering two-vote results: The highest possible vote total in this poll would be 50 percent if everyone cast the maximum two votes. Double a coach's total for a rough idea of the percentage of voters including that person in their top two.

UPSET BIRD COUNTDOWN: 9 DAYS: Our 25th Silver Anniversary season of Friday Page NFL predictions in the Miami Herald, featuring the creepy yet prescient Upset Bird, launches Sept. 11. And so we have begun a 10-day countdown. This year's countdown theme is bird-related nicknames from America's Big

Four sports, from newest (No. 10) to oldest (No. 1). There are 14 in all. Charlotte Hornets, Baltimore Ravens, Anaheim Ducks and New Orleans Pelicans were too recent to make the cut. This pains us, because we love Ducks and Pelicans as goofy nicknames, and the Raven, of course, is the hero and official muse of the Upset Bird. Don't look for Detroit Red Wings in our countdown, either; that nickname derives from a wheel, not a bird. Also no Jets here, even though they have wings. Our countdown began Monday with the 10th longest-serving bird nickname, Toronto Blue Jays, established 1977. Today, at No. 9: Seattle Seahawks, born 1976. Ornithological note: There is no "seahawk' per se in the winged kingdom but it is accepted in our countdown as a nickname for the osprey.

WEIRD CANES FOOTBALL PHOTOS: Here's a strange little story that first appeared on Bleacher Report on Sunday, headlined 'Miami Hurricanes Football Players Do Goofy Poses for Photo Day.' (Click here for the original report). The photos shown, by Eric Espada at Caneshooter.com, picture players in unofficial, casual poses, as pictured here. They're just having fun. Two minor problems. 1) As BR points out, "The student sections at Florida State and other ACC schools are going to have a field day with these photos." 2) As a few have pointed out to me on Twitter and in emails, the photos (at least this one) could be misconstrued as homoerotic or poking fun at gays. Like I said, it's a strange little story that I don't think is any big deal. But, for reasons 1 and 2, it's another example how athletes maybe should think twice before doing ... well, anything.

SUH ELITE, BUT DOLPHINS OTHERWISE LAG IN TOP 100 PLAYESR: ESPN.com's annual rank of the Top 100 NFL players is out today (full list here) and DT Ndamukong Suh (pictured) ranks No. 4 overall, after only J.J.
Watt, Aaron Rodgers and Tom Brady. That bad news? Miami place only one other guy in the Top 100: DE Cam Wake at No. 51. Meanwhile the Fins' AFC East mates all have four men make the list. The Patriots have QB Brady 3rd, TE Rob Gronkowski 5th, S Devin McCourty 56th and LB Jamie Collins 97th. The Jets place CB Darrelle Revis 9th, DE Muhammad Wilkerson 50th, DE Sheldon Richardson 61st and C Nick Mangold 88th. And the Bills place RB LeSean McCoy 41st, DE Mario Williams 46th, DT Marcell Dareus 64th and DT Kyle Williams 94th. You wonder why Miami's offensive line is such a concern? That's seven front-seven pass rushing opponents in the Top 100.

ON KIM DAVIS, FAITH AND DUTY: [Warning: The following item may upset the "STICK TO SPORTS!!!" crowd. Those are the folks who accidentally wander across this blog like Mormons discovering Bourbon Street, unaware that Random Evidence is a (mostly) sports blog that also delves into pop culture and issues like this one]. Here is a backgrounder on the Kim Davis story, for the unaware. She (pictured) is the Rowan County clerk in Kentucky. Her office issues marriage licenses. Or not! She cites her religious belief in refusing to issue licenses to gay couples -- despite a Supreme Court ruling that says she must. "Under God's authority," she justifies her stance. Dear Ms. Davis: What you are doing does not make you a bad person or a good person as much as it simply makes you a person spectacularly unqualified to be a county clerk in the United States in 2015. That you were not summarily fired for failure to uphold the law and do your job suggests the Rowan mayor and city council may be hibernating and unaware of current events. May I suggest another line of work, Ms. Davis? Perhaps one where personal/religious beliefs and the law of the land are not at odds? Bulletin: THIS IS NOT ABOUT YOU. Nobody gives a s--- whether or who you worship when not on the job. Nobody cares if, when not on the job, you hear your God telling you the love of same-sex couples is inferior and wrong. You are entitled to your personal beliefs. What matters is that, when on the job, you do what you are being paid to do. Or leave.

ARE HEAT THE NBA'S MOST INTRIGUING TEAM?: Grantland's Zach Lowe poses the question this week at ESPN.com; click here to read. The premise sounds like a bit of hyperbole, yet is not far-fetched. Dwyane Wade trying to hang on to "elite." Chris Bosh coming back. Hassan Whiteside emerging. Goran Dragic in his first full season. The elements for "intriguing" are here. 

EDWARDS INJURY A MEDIUM LOSS FOR CANES, NOT A HUGE ONE: Gus Edwards appeared to have won
UM's starting running back job when a foot injury knocked him out for the season just before the first depth chart was revealed. Now Joe Yearby (pictured) looks like the next man up to be the featured back, although freshman Mark Walton also is in the mix, with bigger Trayone Gray also still in the RB picture and more physically suited, perhaps, for Edwards' short-yardage and goalline role. Beyond Edwards' size advantage, though, otherwise, on paper, the Hurricanes should lose nothing with Yearby replacing him. Yearby ran for 509 yards and a 5.9 average last season to Edwards' 349 and 5.7. Yearby is a bit better receiver out of the backfield, too.

DOLPHINS CATCH A BREAK WITH COUSINS IN FOR RG3 IN OPENER: Don't let anybody tell you otherwise. Even a struggling Robert Griffin III is better and a bigger threat than backup Kirk Cousins (pictured), who'll start against Miami up there in the Sept. 13 season opener. Cousins is not as experienced (9 career starts to 35), is less accurate (59.0% completions to 63.9%), has a sizably lower passer rating (77.5 to 90.6) and, perhaps most important, is more than twice as likely to throw an interception (4.7 pick ratio to RG3's 2.2). Also, Cousins is not the least bit a running threat; Griffin definitely is. Suffice to say, Ndamukong Suh and Cam Wake are not unhappy it'll be Cousins in Week 1. As colleague Barry "Buzz" Jackson pointed out, the first six QBs Miami faces this season could be Cousins, Blake Bortles, Tyrod Taylor, Ryan Fitzpatrick, Marcus Mariota and Brian Hoyer -- a cornucopia of inexperience or ineffectiveness. Mariota is a rookie, Taylor has zero NFL starts and the other four have a combined 48-79-1 career record.

WATCH TRAILER FOR 'CONCUSSION,' THE NFL's NIGHTMARE MOVIE: Sony Pictures drops the new Will Smith film, Concussion, on Christmas Day. Here is the new 2-minute trailer:

 

Follow on Twitter @gregcote and revisit us here frequently because we constantly update and add to our latest blogposts...