(Editor's note: Miami wide receiver André King, a junior, will file a weekly diary with ESPN.com throughout the season. For more on Miami, visit the Hurricanes' official athletic site.)

Oct. 20, 1999

The Hurricanes' much anticipated home game against Temple on Saturday was canceled because of a stronger hurricane: Hurricane Irene.

We were looking forward to coming back home and playing in front of our home fans, but it won't be until another two weeks before that will happen. The team was very psyched up about finally having a home game in the "OB" (Orange Bowl), especially since our last two road defeats. There is just nothing like playing at home -- the fans are great and they encourage you when you need it.

	THE FULL DOSE OF DIARIES
	Oregon State's Ken Simonton: Getting back on track
	UCLA's Danny Farmer: Credit the Cal defense
	USC's Travis Claridge: Time to put up or shut up
	Oregon's Reuben Droughns: Getting his groove back
	Oklahoma coach Bob Stoops: Consistency is the key

We were supposed to practice on Friday, but that is when the heavy rains came. About half of the team had already come over to our locker room since classes were cancelled for the day. Many of us just watched ESPN and music videos on MTV and BET. Other guys played friendly games of dominoes and spades.

But that all changed at about noon. There was a big storm surge and the power went out in the Hecht Athletic Center, which also houses our locker room. At first guys didn't know what to do but just sit there, wondering when the lights were going to come back on. I didn't find out about it until a few minutes had gone by because I took advantage of the free time to get a lower-leg massage from our training staff.

During the outage, the domino game was played under a very dim emergency light and that spades game was lit up by a flash light that hung from the locker room ceiling. Others took advantage of the darkness and slept, and I was on the phone making sure that my wife would be safe driving home. Later that evening we learned that the Temple football team had not left Philadelphia and the game had been rescheduled for Dec. 4.

About our upcoming opponent, we are anxiously looking forward to beginning our Big-East conference schedule, and it will start on Saturday at Boston College. The Eagles are a very good football team and they have always played us tough in the past. Two years ago, when we played them up there, the game went into double overtime. That was a game we won and I recorded my first two collegiate receptions.

This should be a challenging game for our team because they always have special plays designed to beat us. It seems like when they play us, they pull out all the stops and do whatever it takes to win.

We didn't want the week off, but the Hurricanes will take it. It's just another week to give everyone's body a rest because we've been practicing pretty hard. We are just looking forward to getting back on the field this week and getting to know Boston College.

Of course, after the hurricane had passed on Saturday, it was housekeeping time. My wife, Jessica, and I cleaned the house top to bottom, and I had to do some work in my backyard such as get rid of all the debris that had blown in because of the strong winds. I also took the time to call some of my friends to make sure that they were all right.

I called Brian Harff, one of my childhood friends, to make sure he was OK because I knew that it was his birthday and I didn't want him to feel disappointed. Other than that, I just kicked back and watched some of our future opponents play and enjoyed the day off relaxing.

Well, to all the 'Canes' fans, keep supporting the home team and we'll see ya' in two weeks against the West Virginia Mountaineers.