Beating Florida takes on new life for Miami

For months now he has talked about the injustice of something he doesn't understand and can't control, and how it has negatively compounded the enormous task at hand. Frankly, you can't blame Al Golden. But you also can't ignore this: Nothing the NCAA can say or do to Miami will have as much impact as beating Florida on Saturday. MORE: First-and-10 | Week 2 picks | Week 1 upsets "We can't let the stage get too big," says Miami quarterback Stephen Morris. It's too late for that. Once the NCAA decided to -- again -- delay the process of finalizing the nearly two-year investigation, this game, this moment, became the focus of Golden's third year in Coral Gables. Miami was supposed to know its final punishment 4-6 weeks after its early summer hearing with the NCAA. That six- week date of July 26 is long gone, leaving one-time bitter rival Florida the measuring point for all things Canes and Golden over the last two years. They've fought the NCAA. They've fought to protect Dade and Broward counties from Florida and Florida State swooping in and stealing elite recruits. They won enough games last year to win the ACC Coastal Division and get a rematch with rival FSU in the league's championship game, but a self-imposed postseason ban eliminated that. They've done all they could do to rebuild and rebrand a program whose last seminal moment on the field was an all-out brawl in 2007 during a game with FIU. And now it has come to this: beat the bully, the flagship program in the state with the deep pockets and gold standard conference and two BCS national championships since 2006, and everything changes.

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