Robert Marve’s first victory came on the road in his second road game as a Hurricane: the same as Kyle Wright who defeated Clemson in triple overtime for his first Hurricane win, twelve days after losing to Florida State (despite out gaining the Seminoles almost 3 to 1) in Tallahassee.
That’s where the similarities end. Robert Marve is not Kyle Wright and thank goodness for that. In that win against Clemson, Wright missed open receivers and had poor command of the game, until making a very good throw in overtime to Ryan Moore that saved UM’s chances. However, Wright’s overall performance in that game was shaky: on a series where Ty Moss was injured Wright missed two consecutive open receivers.
Yesterday by contrast, Robert Marve made plays. Be it on third and long, or even when the pocket collapsed. Marve’s command of the field and the offense was impressive. The gusto with which he sold the fake handoff to Graig Cooper and then the pass to Thearon Collier that appeared to be a Touchdown (which was called back due to an illegal shift) showed a veteran savvy that Wright quite frankly never exhibited even as a senior.
Marve has been in program from a little over a year: having a consistent coordinator in Pat Nix, whose offense is clearly been tweaked to reflect Marve athletic and throwing ability has helped. Kyle Wright never had the benefit of consistent or even competent coaching to fall back on, and that was his and Miami’s loss.
The Hurricanes still have many question marks as we enter ACC play. Poor tackling, bad lateral pursuit by the defense, lack of playmakers at receiver, poor kick coverage, etc. However, quarterback while a work in progress should not worry Canes fans the way it has the past few seasons.
Another thought, which I saw in the comments to my last post and completely agree with. Jimbo Fisher threw his young, talented QBs to the wolves yesterday by designing a game plan that attacked the best secondary in the ACC. Florida State was never going to have a big day throwing the ball on Wake Forest. The Demon Deacons for three years running now have had an amazingly good defensive backfield that creates more turnovers than just about anyone in the country. Fisher however trusted his young QBs and the results were disastrous. Now FSU’s coaching staff must work hard so that both Christian Ponder and D;’Vontry Richardson can regain their confidence.
Pat Nix took a completely different approach going into Gainesville. Knowing the crowd would be in a frenzy, Nix simplified his game plan so that Robert Marve and Jacory Harris did not lose their confidence. Nix knows what it takes to beat Florida. He beat them twice as a college QB, and is to this day the only QB ever to beat a top ranked Florida team in Gainesville. As a coach who has worked with both Marve and Harris he understood the long term need to keep Miami’s young QBs from having the same sort of game management and mental issues Kyle Wright and Kirby Freeman did. Having inherited an impossible QB situation a year ago, Nix has a clear understanding of what not to do.
Jimbo Fisher on the other hand in his first real game since being anointed coach in waiting for Florida State had an awful game plan which in typical Jeff Bowden style abandoned the running game almost entirely and forced his young QBs to try and beat what may be the top secondary in the nation. Florida State was at home, but the game plan showed an unhealthy bit of arrogance on Fisher’s part. Wake Forest has had their way with the Seminoles the last two years but inspite of that all of the buzz coming out of Tallahassee this week was how Florida State was back and motivated and that Wake Forest was going to get run over. FSU’s game plan reflected this arrogance.
While it’s certainly good to show some confidence in young highly regarded QBs, if you are not careful you could lose them at an early stage. Both Miami and Florida State have suffered from below average QB play for sometime now, although I would argue Drew Weatherford and Chris Rix were substantially better than Kyle Wright and Brock Berlin, save about a five game stretch for Berlin his senior year. But it is Miami who now seems to have taken a leg up in the Quarterback battle and that is largely due to coaching and game planning. Pat Nix deserves some apologies from those loudmouths that without understanding the game ripped him the last two weeks.
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