ESPN's documentary on the University of Miami football program was such a hit that the creators have begun working on a sequel.

Director Billy Corben said the new film, It's All About the U, will focus on Hurricanes football between 1992 and 2002. The first movie, called The U, primarily focused on the 1980s, through 1991.

Interviews with former Canes are being lined up for the first three weeks of April. ``Then we'll edit it the rest of the year'' while juggling nonsports projects, Corben said. He would love for the sequel to air on ESPN but hasn't discussed it with the network. Corben likely will have other options if ESPN passes.

The idea of doing a sequel ``started as a lark,'' Corben said. ``[Former UM cornerback] Mike Rumph twittered after the first movie, `What about the U-2?' A few weeks ago, we said, `Why don't we just do it?'''

Corben said the sequel ``will cover the Pell Grant scandal and the program's downfall and give Butch Davis his due for rebuilding the program. Butch did something extraordinary that deserves to be acknowledged.''

The film will spend considerable time on the 2001 team -- put together by Davis and coached by Larry Coker -- ``which is considered one of the best teams of all time,'' Corben said. ``It all comes down to what Alonzo Highsmith said at the end of the first movie about the program's success: If they had accomplished all of this at a major football university like Alabama, the school would have built monuments.

``This sequel will be the monument to the 2001 team even if the university is not as enthusiastic to memorialize their accomplishments.''

Corben also will reflect on the 2002 team that lost the Fiesta Bowl (and the national championship) to Ohio State after a highly questionable pass-interference call against UM.

``We have Larry Coker talking about that,'' Corben said. ``We didn't use any of Coker's interview in the first movie.''

Corben said UM declined to cooperate with the first film but ``I hope they will be more reasonable this time around.'' He said he wants to interview only two people currently employed by the university -- former athletic director Paul Dee (who teaches at UM) and strength and conditioning coach Andreu Swasey.

The U was ESPN's highest-rated documentary ever, with a 1.8 rating and 2.3 million viewers on its first airing. By comparison, other documentaries in ESPN's ``30 for 30'' series averaged below a 1.0 rating. ESPN said it will release a DVD of The U -- with about 30 minutes of deleted scenes -- on Amazon.com, but it isn't available yet.

ESPN's upcoming documentaries include one on Ricky Williams (April 27, 8 p.m.), Allen Iverson (April 13, 8 p.m.), Rotisserie baseball (April 20, 8 p.m.). An ABC documentary at 4 p.m. April 3 will be on Loyola Marymount under Paul Westhead.

In the wake of our well-publicized issues with the University of Miami on THE U, the founders of back\slash magazine (three of the four are Miami students) had their publication banned from UM's Coral Gables campus.

According to their website, back\slash has a circulation of 50,000 at 17 schools nationwide (including FIU, MDC, FSU and UF) and experienced a 1,280% increase in ad revenue since their first issue.  If accurate, that is impressive for any magazine in this environment, let alone an upstart student-run company.

One of the student owners, after already taking out $90,000 in loans to finance his UM education, went so far as to leave the school to protest the ban.

The university is certainly entitled to regulate the dissemination of materials on their private property and, according to this letter, they are extending back\slash an invitation to reapply for campus distribution in the fall.

Regardless of your thoughts on the quality of the magazine's content or the manner in which its founders have conducted themselves, I know from personal experience that trying to work professionally and politely with the UM administration doesn't do any good.  If you're not writing them a big fat check (beyond tuition), they honestly do not care about you, whether you're alumni, a student or faculty.  Ultimately, it's a shame when the university disses fellow Hurricanes who are creatively and passionately pursuing their dream of building a business and trying to make a living in this fragile economy.

A wise person once said: “Academic freedom requires an environment where intellectual pluralism and the free expression of ideas are embraced. The University of Miami, as an institution dedicated to the pursuit of knowledge and charged with the duty of educating young adults from around the world, is committed to supporting the values of free speech, the rights of assembly and free association, and other basic civil liberties."  That was Donna Shalala on January 18, 2006. 

There's a billboard off I-95

and several delivery trucks featuring the image

For years I was totally creeped out by the ad campaign, until I found out it was a spoof of an infamous Burt Reynolds Playgirl spread

Which only made it slightly less creepy, insofar as it was inspired by something and not an original concept.

Anyways, WLRN's fantastic Under The Sun program caught up with Don Bailey, discussed the 38 year old ad with him, and got him to pose for an updated version.

And yes, Don Bailey's son is Don Bailey Jr: former UM Hurricanes star, broadcaster and featured in The U.

Hot on the heels of the boxing debut of UM stars Quadtrine Hill and James Bryant, former 'Canes walk-on Brian Fuery enters the MMA octagon tomorrow night for Rumble at the Rock 2 at Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Hollywood, FL. (Buy tickets here).

We are shooting the event for the climax of our upcoming feature documentary DAWG FIGHT, an expose on backyard fighting in Perrine, FL. The main subject, DADA 5000, is making his pro MMA debut at THE RUMBLE tomorrow. 

• NBC Miami reports that the lowlifes at Tremont Towing in Miami Beach were caught on tape rifling through cars and stealing personal belongings.  Complaints have been lodged against the Tremont and Beach Towing duoopoly for over a decade.  What will the City of Miami Beach do now?

The plan as of now is to shoot interviews in March and April, edit through the summer and fall, and have it ready for December, around the one year anniversary of the premiere of The U.

Evans has begun putting together the interview list, so let us know who you most want to see in The U 2 in the comments. 

Snoop Dogg on the set of the new DJ Khaled video for All We Do Is Win

a die-hard Canes fan throws up The U with Tim Tebow

(about 3 minutes in "Don't wanna mess with us / We like THE U in the '80s")

The video for the song was shot last night in Miami and features a cameo from Uncle Luke

Snoop was also on The Dan LeBatard Show on Friday. He talked about THE U and Uncle Luke (listen below).

In the MTV interview, the band explains the album's last track, Grizelda:

Wilder: The subject matter is this woman Griselda Blanco. We had watched the movie "Cocaine Cowboys," and it was kind of all about the cocaine industry in Miami and how it was relatively violence-free, until this woman Griselda Blanco came around and just started ordering murders. And she's responsible for hundreds of murders. ... So the main interview of the whole movie is this guy who was a hit man for her, so I thought it would be nice to write a song from his perspective. Maybe he's in jail, and he's writing a letter to her, just as she's been extradited to Colombia, and all these people are coming to kill her. He's kind of afraid of her, but he's also kind of in love with her.

Keating: She's like the Colombian connection to America's cocaine industry in the '80s, just ruthless. So it's like this female mass murderer and had all these guys working for her who were kind of in love with her.

And then sometimes we get these:

Subject: the "U"
Message: I turned into to see this film only to discover it was about Miami.  The "U" is and always will be The University of Minnesota.  The real "U" has 6 national (or 7, depending on who was voting) titles in football, to 5 for Miami.  No add campaign by you or the marketing department in Florida is going to change this.  Minnesota never gooned it up trying to compete, no gang fights on the field, wearing fatigues, then getting their asses whipped.  I hope you covered all the shame and disgraces Miami has done to College Football as well.

So, maybe we reply to almost every email.

Feel free to email us at info (at) rakontur.com.

via NBC Miami:

Michael Irvin admitted last night during a private screening that the unflattering press he and his University of Miami teammates garnered during the Hurricanes' heyday was well-deserved.

"It wasn't some conspiracy on the media's part," Irvin joked Thursday night. "Our actions spoke for us. We were the bad boys of college sports."

Speaking in the defiant tone that defined Hurricanes' style 1980s football, Irvin talked about the team's legacy during a private screening of the ESPN documentary "The U" late Thursday night inside Lincoln Road's Colony Theater.