Hurricanes
Toledo — freshman or not — after earning the honor with his play on special teams.
“We’re not afraid to honor a true freshman during the season,” Richt said. “If he keeps it up, he may become a permanent captain by the end of the season.”
Coaches select captains weekly based on a player’s performance on the field and how he fulfills his obligations off the field. Players vote on permanent captains at the end of the season.
Blades earned the honor for his play on the kickoff and punt teams, but he has done much more. He has pushed for playing time in the defensive backfield and was forced into action in the season opener against LSU when cornerback Trajan Bandy was ejected for targeting on the fourth play of the game, taking over as the nickelback.
Hurricanes defensive coor- dinator Manny Diaz called Blades “special.”
“The transition from high school to college usually does not have a lot to do with phys- ical ability, their talent,” Diaz said. “All of our guys are talented. It’s the ones who men- tally have that maturity to compete at that next level, and Al stood out from very early in training camp as a guy that was just not in awe of the speed of the game. “There’s something in his mental makeup and his wiring that makes him believe that nothing is ever too big for him, and he feels very confident in every situation that he’s in.” That makeup is from a bloodline that is royalty when it comes to Hurricanes foot- ball. His father, Al Sr., was a first-team All-Big East safety in 2000 and spent two years with the San Francisco 49ers. He was killed in car crash in 2003, the day after he turned 26. Al Jr. was 3 at the time. Al’s uncles, Bennie and Brian, played together at Miami from 1985-87. Bennie won the Jim Thorpe Award as the nation’s top defensive back, was drafted No. 3 overall in 1988 and is a member of the College Football Hall of Fame. Brian, a receiver, was taken in the second round of the 1988 draft and spent 11 seasons with the Seattle Seahawks.
The Blades name carries weighty expectations.
“He has had a lot of practice at that because he’s had that name his whole life,” Diaz said. “But now the fact he (wears) the No. 7 (his dad’s number) and he has the ‘U’ on the side of his helmet takes it to a different level.”
Said Blades, who starred at St. Thomas Aquinas in Fort Lauderdale: “I really think, no matter what, this is a blessing, to go to a university like this and play football. But when you add on the bloodline, I think it really adds on a lot of emotional things for me.”
Al’s phone blew up when Miami tweeted he was a captain for the week. Among those in contact were his uncles.
Senior defensive tackle Gerald Willis has watched plenty of old Hurricanes film, including Al Sr., and is not surprised that Al Jr. already has made his mark.
“He reminds me of his dad a little bit,” Willis said. “We used to watch old film upstairs. He’s excited and has so much joy for the game.”
Junior linebacker Zach McCloud said Blades reminds him of former Hurricanes running back Mark Walton because of his energy. “He doesn’t tire out,” McCloud said.
But beyond that, Blades is a student of the game,meticulous in his preparation and the way he studies his playbook.
“It’s one of those things that makes you really want to stand behind him,” said McCloud, who starred at Santaluces High School. “You can trust him. Not that you can’t trust those other guys just because they’re not captains, but he really took that big leap forward. We’re all so proud of him for that.”