Moving Forward From Here

So much nonsense has been written about the Hurricane Football program the past few days across the web taking extreme positions following the loss to North Carolina (some say Miami will never win a road game again, other say Miami has top 5 caliber talent: both views are equally extreme and foolish) I feel we need to bring some semblance of balance to future discussions about the program. In this post I will attempt to give some honest thoughts about where the program is and where it is headed for the rest of the year and in the next few seasons.
First of all the fashionable bashing of Kyle Wright is beyond anything that is appropriate. Those of us that have watched Wright carefully since he was a Freshman have always felt he was very limited in his pocket presence and that he has no ability whatsoever to improvise. (With the very notable exception of his TD pass to Darnell Jenkins in Blacksburg versus Va Tech in 2005) However one thing I have noticed this season is that if Wright gets protection he is deadly for the opposition. Knowing Wright's trouble with breakdowns in protection, expect Patrick Nix to call more plays with a rolling pocket, allowing Wright an extra second or two to pick out a target downfield.

Secondly, Miami does not have Top 5 talent. Miami despite several over hyped recruiting classes thanks to the "experts" at Scout.com and Rivals.com is one of the least talented teams in the ACC. That is a fact based on the production of the players on the current Hurricane roster. Every single team in the ACC except for NC State has a potential star at the QB position. Every single team in the ACC except for Duke has a quick speedy runner in the backfield and every single team in the ACC except once again NC State have more proven playmaking receivers than Miami. Lance Leggett has been a train wreck since he acquired the dropsies as a Freshman in a game at Virginia (he dropped five passes in that game, and as Terry Bowden calling the game for ABC that day said, "#9 Lance Leggett should burn this game tape." Unfortunately he clearly did not), and Sam Shields seems to have regressed thanks to his frequent run ins with Randy Shannon over discipline. (More on this in a little bit)

On the defense Miami has not a single proven player who can make plays and turn games. What many Miami fans fail to realize when they bash the offensive productivity of the Canes the past three seasons is that during the 1999 to 2004 time period, Miami's scoring offense was often times inflated by a defense that constantly created turnovers or scored themselves. Miami may statistically have still had a top 10 defense the past few years, but the ball hawking, game breaking instincts of former Canes like Ed Reed and Sean Taylor are clearly things of the past in Coral Gables. Besides for all the posters on other sites who have said that Larry Coker is to blame for the poor state of the defense, I remind everyone that most of these defensive players were recruited or coached by Randy Shannon under the previous regime.

From my perspective Miami has already overachieved this season. Beating Texas A&M was highly unexpected and given what we've seen from Wright and offense Miami very well could get to 7-5 and be bowl eligible something I quite frankly did not think would be possible before the season. While I played along (something I do now regret) on the fan sites saying the Canes could do as well as 8-4, (something I still got bashed for, because I was told at Miami you don't set the bar at 8-4) those of you that read this website realized I had actually felt 4-8 or 5-7 was more realistic. I still think that is the caliber of this team. But it's even worse than I believed in some respects. Randy Shannon's attempts to force a discipline on his team has not been successful in changing the culture of Miami football. When rival schools in the state can play players when they fail drug tests (Florida) or when they are charged in the attacking of police offices (Florida State) and when players slip academically into no man's land (South Florida), Miami has effectively crushed team morale and put itself at a competitive disadvantage by adopting coach Shannon's rules regarding team conduct. At Miami the coach now suspends or demotes players for carrying a cell phone or wearing a hat, something I applaud when trying to make boys into men, but something that maybe should have been eased onto this team. Coach Shannon himself this week admitted a disconnect seems to have developed between players and coaches. I do not believe Miami can afford to scale back or revisit any of the new player discipline rules which I feel have been adopted partly due to the stereotype of Miami football promoted by know nothings at ESPN and other national media outlets. However, it is important for Miami fans to understand that the new rules which include a minimum GPA to stay on the team which is much higher than most other schools means Miami will not be competing for National or ACC titles anytime soon.

One thing I must say I have been impressed with the past several weeks has been the play calling of Offensive Coordinator Patrick Nix. Knowing the very poor state of the talent pool on Miami's offense and the elements that are needed for Kyle Wright to be effective, he has done a remarkable job since calling a horrible game versus Oklahoma.

Miami fans need to bring some perspective back to this season. Going 7-5, with a 4-4 ACC record would be quite good for such a poor team in the first year with a new Head Coach. Ohio State was 7-5 in Jim Tressel's first season and the next year they played the Canes in the National Championship game. While I do not believe Miami has anywhere near the talent to compete for a BCS bowl birth for next several seasons, finishing above .500 and re-establishing some ability to win against comparable teams in the ACC is a nice building block for the future.