''The U'' is a 2009 documentary film about the University of Miami football program produced by

Miami Miami ( ), officially the City of Miami, known as "the 305", "The Magic City", and "Gateway to the Americas", is a East Coast of the United States, coastal metropolis and the County seat, county seat of Miami-Dade County, Florida, Miami-Dade C ...

-based media studio

Rakontur rakontur is a Miami-based media studio founded by Billy Corben and Alfred Spellman in 2000. History Rakontur's feature documentary debut, ''Raw Deal: A Question of Consent'', premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in 2001, making Corben the you ...

and directed by

Billy Corben William Cohen (born 1978), better known by the stage name Billy Corben, is an American documentary film director. Along with producing partner Alfred Spellman, he is co-founder of the Miami-based studio Rakontur, which has created films such as '' ...

. The film premiered December 12, 2009 after the

Heisman Trophy The Heisman Memorial Trophy (usually known colloquially as the Heisman Trophy or The Heisman) is awarded annually to the most outstanding player in college football. Winners epitomize great ability combined with diligence, perseverance, and hard ...

presentation on

ESPN ESPN (originally an initialism for Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by ESPN Inc., owned jointly by The Walt Disney Company (80%) and Hearst Communications (20%). The ...

as a part of their ''

30 for 30 ''30 for 30'' is the title for a series of documentary films airing on ESPN, its sister networks, and online highlighting interesting people and events in sports history. This includes three "volumes" of 30 episodes each, a 13-episode series un ...

'' documentary series. ''The U's'' premiere drew 2.3 million viewers, the most ever for a documentary on the sports cable network until the debut of ''Pony Excess'', a documentary about the

Southern Methodist University football scandal The Southern Methodist University football scandal was an incident in which the Mustangs football program at Southern Methodist University (SMU) was investigated and punished for repeated violations of National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCA ...

in the 1980s.Variety - 'The U' sets docu record at ESPN
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Home media

This film was released on DVD in 2010, both separately and as part of the ''

'' box set. The DVD cover, depicting

Michael Irvin Michael Jerome Irvin (born March 5, 1966) is an American sports commentator and former professional football wide receiver for the Dallas Cowboys of the National Football League (NFL). In 2007, he was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fa ...

, originally had the "U" logo on his helmet, but it was airbrushed from the cover after the

University of Miami The University of Miami (UM, UMiami, Miami, U of M, and The U) is a private research university in Coral Gables, Florida. , the university enrolled 19,096 students in 12 colleges and schools across nearly 350 academic majors and programs, incl ...

objected to the logo's use. Excerpts from

Florida State University Florida State University (FSU) is a public research university in Tallahassee, Florida. It is a senior member of the State University System of Florida. Founded in 1851, it is located on the oldest continuous site of higher education in the st ...

's "Seminole Rap" video that initially appeared in the documentary were also cut from the DVD release.

Sequel

In December 2014,

released a second ''

'' film about the Hurricanes' program, ''The U Part 2''. Part 2 documents the second rise to glory of the Miami Hurricanes football team in the late 1990s and early 2000s followed by the eventual fall of the program, due largely to a 2011 scandal involving rogue booster

Nevin Shapiro Nevin Karey Shapiro (born April 13, 1969) is a convicted felon who currently is imprisoned for orchestrating a $930 million Ponzi scheme. According to interviews, he engaged in rampant violations of NCAA rules over eight years as a booster for Un ...

References

External links

Official website
* American television films Miami Hurricanes football 30 for 30 2009 television films 2009 films 2009 documentary films Documentary films about American football Films directed by Billy Corben Films shot in Miami Films set in Miami 2000s English-language films 2000s American films {{Miami-stub