"The off-season has long been as newsworthy for the University of Miami as the football season.

Player arrests, assorted misbehavior and general scandal often have kept the Hurricanes on the front page long after the season.

[M]ore recently, [there was] controversy surrounding Willie Williams' admission into UM after his extensive criminal history was revealed.

Few off-seasons have been quite as turbulent as this one, which ends Monday when the Hurricanes begin fall practice.

The latest issue occurred Tuesday, when coach Larry Coker announced the suspension of four players, including starting receiver Ryan Moore and tailback Tyrone Moss, for the season opener against Florida State.

That was the most recent of events - mass firings, shootings and a Jerry Springer-like attack on a UM player Saturday - that have affected Miami's football program since it ended the 2005 season with a 40-3 loss to LSU in the Peach Bowl.

"Lou Holtz had a statement that there are going to be three bad things happen to your football team," UM coach Larry Coker said. "(He said), 'I don't know what they are. I don't know when it'll happen. But there are three bad things that will happen.'"

The Hurricanes have made their quota and more in just the past month.

Among the lowlights:

•The suspensions of Moore, Moss, receiver Rashaun Jones and linebacker James Bryant for violations of team policy. Moore will miss UM's first two games, effectively sitting out a three-game suspension that began with the Peach Bowl.

•On July 21, an unidentified man fired gunshots to which UM safety Brandon Meriweather returned fire. During the incident, UM safety Willie Cooper was shot in the buttocks.

•A bizarre incident involving UM safety Lovon Ponder, who was physically and verbally attacked by his mother and aunt during CanesFest on Saturday in Fort Lauderdale.

"People are wondering, 'What's going on there?'" said Bruce Feldman, a national college football writer for ESPN.com and the author of Cane Mutiny: How the Miami Hurricanes Overturned the Football Establishment. "It's not that they're making news. It's that they're making weird news."

A dark cloud seems to hang over the Hurricanes since the Peach Bowl fiasco, the school's most lopsided post-season defeat.

Three days later, Coker overhauled his staff, firing four veteran assistants. The road has been rocky since then.

"We've had a couple of incidents," UM Athletic Director Paul Dee said. "I suppose you hope you don't have any incidents, but from time to time, things are going to happen.

"We've dealt with most of them in a good way. ... Overall I think we've had a good, but not perfect, off-season."

Dee insists that Miami's problems "get exaggerated a lot," and no UM player has been arrested in more than two years.

"Are they full-blown scandals?" Feldman said. "No. But the problem is people don't even read the story. They just read the headline and see it as trouble.

"If you're in Miami's position, you can't give people any ammunition, and they've given ammunition."

How UM deals with the off-season of discontent is what interests the fans.

"If you have strong, veteran leadership and guys who are really driven, it goes under the rug," said Joel Rodriguez, who played for UM from 2001 to 2004.

"Because once the bullets start flying and you're hot, sweaty and tired, it doesn't matter if the guy next to you was involved in a shooting or a cheating scandal or whatever. He's a guy that you have to count on."

Former UM quarterback Steve Walsh said despite the problems, the program will be fine.

"Miami has typically responded to situations where its back has been against the wall," Walsh said. "I see no reason why they can't do that again. I expect that to happen."

[In other news:]

Sooners release QB: Oklahoma starting quarterback Rhett Bomar and his roommate, offensive lineman J.D. Quinn, were kicked off the team after an investigation revealed they broke NCAA rules through their employment at a local business, according to a TV report.

Noteworthy: Southern California DB Brandon Ting tested positive for steroids before his surprise decision to leave the team last week, the Los Angeles Times reported. ... Tennessee freshman tight end Lee Smith, charged with drunken driving on campus, was dismissed from the team, and another freshman arrested this week, Marsalous Johnson, was suspended for an unrelated incident. Who can forget the spring and summer of 1996, when six UM players were facing criminal charges and a seventh - linebacker Marlin Barnes - was murdered on campus?"