Nix Deserves Time

The last few days have been toxic on the message boards and on local talk radio. Miami offensive coordinator Pat Nix is being thrown under the bus it seems for the ineptitude of the Hurricanes offense. Miami who has lost five consecutive games to FBS (Div 1-A) opposition simply doesn't have the experience yet offensively to run an aggressive game plan. No doubt that Nix's play calling last week in Gainesville against Florida was conservative, but at the same time Miami's offense with few exceptions has been inept since 2005.

The solution has always been to blame to offensive coaches, not the lack of talent in Coral Gables. Under Dan Werner in 2004 Brock Berlin had a banner year and Miami's offense kept the team afloat while Randy Shannon's defense was being ripped apart by among others, Louisville, NC State, North Carolina and Virginia. But a year later when Miami's offense could not develop consistency with Kyle Wright at QB, Werner was fired. Larry Coker than reached into the pro ranks to bring in Rick Olson, one time Miami offensive coordinator who had been fairly successful in the NFL. But again when Wright couldn't get on track and Miami's running game was shaky, Olson bailed to Arizona State. Former Army Head Coach Todd Berry took over the play calls for the MPC Computers Bowl, and from my vantage point called an excellent game for Kirby Freeman who had maybe the only outstanding game of his career that night. But Berry was not retained by Randy Shannon who tried to lure Dirk Koetter to Miami but after he went to the NFL, settled on Nix instead.

Last season Miami's offense was an embarrassment. Much of this was due to the recruiting mistakes of the Coker years in addition to almost constant injuries. Kyle Wright and Kirby Freeman were both poor at QB (save one drive for Freeman in Tallahassee which gave Miami its only win in its last eight games against D1A/FBS opponents) and Miami's running backs were inconsistent. Nix flirted with the spread offense and then reverted to a Power I, and eventually a simple pro style offense. I've heard commentary that these changes meant Miami lacked an identity: What I believe was that Nix having inherited two below average quarterbacks and set of WRs arguably the worst for a non option team in the BCS league, meant that he had experiment and find something that worked. Nothing did work, but Randy Shannon stuck with Nix knowing the constant shuffling of offensive coordinators is bad news for the team.

That brings us to last week's matchup in Gainesville against a Florida team that was being torched by Michigan when we last saw them. In fact, Florida gave up a ton of yards to Florida Atlantic last year in a game which many forget was closer than it needed to be for a while. Against this backdrop a frustration exists that Miami didn't do more against a Florida team that seemed to be lacking killer instinct until the fourth quarter. But consider this: Miami's game plan was predicated on a big dose of Javarris James and less of Graig Cooper who'd serve simply as a change of pace back. James' injury on the second series of the game completely changed Miami's ability to control the clock and wear the Gators down. Nix did what he could with a Quarterback making his first start, but the bottom line was the deck was stacked against Miami.

Pat Nix has to be given the season to sort things out. When you consider Miami is 3-10 in its last 13 ACC games, and has not beaten BCS conference opponent at home in twelve months, you must realize that despite having a recruiting class ranked by many as the top in the country, things will take time to turn around.

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