Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Chain, keep us together
New Turnover Chain highlights all of South Florida
CUTLER BAY — The Miami Hurricanes unveiled their fourth edition of the team’s famed Turnover Chain in Saturday night’s ACC opener at Louisville.
While last year’s installment had a flashy 305 charm to represent MiamiDade County, this one — revealed when Al Blades Jr. picked off a second-quarter pass — highlights all of South Florida. As UM didn’t force a turnover in the season-opening win against UAB Sept. 10, it allowed the Hurricanes to debut the new Turnover Chain to a national audience on ABC.
Attached to the 32-inch, 10-karat gold Cuban-link chain is a charm of the whole state of Florida in white with the South Florida tri-county area of Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties standing out in orange and green.
Of course, it also needs Miami’s ‘U’ logo on it, so it’s positioned over the northern part of the state with the intention, according to jeweler AJ Machado, of covering up the cities where the Hurricanes’ two biggest in-state rivals are located — Tallahassee, home to Florida State, with the orange left half of the U and Gainesville (UF) with the green right half.
Machado, Miami’s “King of Bling” that has been behind each Turnover Chain dating back to the original in 2017 and the Touchdown Rings UM added in 2019, says there are 4,000 sapphire stones in the charm between the orange, green and white, 1,400 of them in the U charm. The chain itself weighs two kilograms with the charm an additional 300 grams.
“I like the way it came out, and I like how we’re representing [South Florida],” Machado told the South Florida Sun Sentinel before shipping it out to UM.
Machado liked the idea of extending an emphasis into Broward and Palm Beach counties after 2019’s version of the chain was more exclusive to MiamiDade and its 305 area code.
“Now we’re taking over the southern part of the state,” Machado said. “That’s where all the boys are coming out from, so we’re trying to keep everyone here, staying home in the crib.
“We have so many good players locally here. We need them to stay here local. This one’s kind of setting it off.”
After Blades debuted the new chain with his secondquarter interception, senior safety Amari Carter got his own crack at it with a fumble recovery right before halftime. It was fitting that the first two to wear it were Broward and Palm Beach products with Blades a St. Thomas Aquinas grad and Carter out of Palm Beach Gardens.
“The ice is nice,” Blades said. “The whole theme of the chain is to really emphasize us taking over South Florida.”
UM coach Manny Diaz added that the new idea pays homage to how former Hurricanes coach Howard Schnellenberger looked to create the “State of Miami” by cornering off South Florida in recruiting.
Preceding the 305 Turnover Chain in 2019, Miami’s 2018 installment had the Hurricanes mascot, Sebastian the Ibis on it while the original in 2017 was the U logo.
“They’re all special,” Machado said. “This one, we put a little more detail because we have the different cities, the little counties and stuff.
“In my personal opinion — and I’ve seen it with a couple of my employees, designers, my team that did this — this is probably one of their favorite ones out of all four. I’m a little biased. I love all four of them. I thought the U was pretty cool. That was our first one. And then I loved the
Sebastian. The 305 was awesome too.”
With the emphasis on South Florida, Machado is proud to see how UM is recruiting the area, especially with a top-10 recruiting class based largely out of South Florida.
“I think this is good for the whole program,” Machado said. “If you see our 2021 commits already, a lot of five-star, four-star guys. Dudes are staying here instead of going to ‘Bama or Clemson or Florida or FSU, those type of schools, they’re staying home. Manny’s getting it right.”
Machado does not publicly disclose pricing for his jewelry made for any of his clients.
Machado’s jewelry store, AJ’s Jewelry, is located inside of US1 Discount Mall in Cutler Bay of south Miami-Dade County.
In the opener against UAB, UM debuted its new Touchdown Rings, a second edition which reads “The Crib.”