Pat Nix's Offense of the Future

No Miami coordinator since perhaps Bill Miller who guided an inept defense in the 1998 season has been subject to the sort of vitriol from Miami fans as Pat Nix. Nix has been the pinata for Miami fans looking for an easy to attack scapegoat for the Canes problems. Those like myself who believe Miami's current talent level is lower than even during the depths of probation in the late 1990s have been patient with Nix: but we seemingly have been a minority.

Now after a 49 point explosion in Durham against a very improved Duke team (a team Miami had scored a total of 44 points against combined in the last two meetings, and those Duke teams won less games combined than the Blue Devils have won already this season) it seems Nix's critics are looking for a place to hide this week. What changed? Did Pat Nix suddenly become a better play caller or has something about Miami's offensive personnel fundamentally changed.? In my opinion it is the later.

We saw glimpses of what Pat Nix wanted to do last season against Texas A&M. But the personnel inherited from years of uneven offensive recruiting and constant turnover on the coaching staff took its tool. Miami had clearly lost its identity on offense, and running through offensive coaches as Larry Coker did his last few years on the job had stifled the confidence and continuity of the players Nix inherited. While Miami fans like to point fingers at the performances of players such as Ryan Moore, Lance Leggett, Kirby Freeman, Charlie Jones and Kyle Wright, none of these players was helped by coaching. When Nix came on the job he had to deal with a group of players that had clearly been beaten down and defeated. With those players he had to try and do something last season. Miami's five wins were probably reflective more of the talent level in Coral Gables than the coaching staff. But Miami's fans, constantly comparing every current player or coach to the championship greats of yesteryear don't seem to understand the virtue of patience.

Patience with Pat Nix has begun to pay off. In Miami's last four games against BCS league opponents, Miami has scored 41, 24, 39, and 49 points. Sure some of those points were created by the defense and special teams, but the bottom line is recently if Miami has had to move the ball they have been able to do it: This is a direct contrast to what happened in the 2005-2007 period where Kyle Wright and Kirby Freeman presided over some of the worst offenses Miami had since the mid 1970s. What Nix needed was a change in culture and that was not going to happen with players inherited from the Coker years.

Nix's offense of the future features more shotgun looks, with multiple WRs, and more reads the QB has to make than Dan Werner's offense did, and similar in the complexity to Rich Olson's offense. While the offense features some of the traditional Miami play action pass elements, many of these plays are run from the shotgun, not from under center as they traditionally were. As someone who prefers power running as an offensive gameplan, I am somewhat disappointed in the look of the offensive formation, but understand that is the wave of the future in College Football. With fast young receivers that can run outstanding quick routes, and two QBs who are athletic and mobile, the offense is doing about as well as can be expected considering the experience of the players.

This leads us to the subject of the week. The brewing QB controversy at the "U." As our readers can notice, we have a poll in the upper right hand corner of the website. The results thus far are very close. This is not surprising because their is not much to separate the two Miami QBs. Robert Marve clearly has a greater potential upside when compared with Jacory Harris. Marve is more athletic, quicker and has a stronger arm. Harris however is still athletic enough and mobile enough to be serviceable. Moreover, everyone I speak to about the situation tells me Harris is a lot "smarter" as a QB, something that can be surmised from watching both QBs operate.

Pat Nix was the primary reason why Robert Marve broke his commitment to Alabama and signed with Miami on signing day 2007. The regining "Mr Football" in the state of Florida at the time had committed to Alabama when Mike Shula was the coach (Shula had been a team mate of Marve's father with the Tampa Bay Bucs) and still appeared headed to Alabama after Nick Saban took over the Crimson Tide program. When Pat Nix was hired by Randy Shannon, coming from within the ACC he knew he needed a different type of QB to run his offense: he found the right man in Marve, or so he thought.

But now seven games into Marve redshirt freshman year, he has been eclipsed potentially by a less decorated, less recruited and less talented QB. The coaches led by Nix have clearly been growing more and more frustrated with Marve's reckless play, and obviously having a backup of Harris' caliber makes it easier to keep Marve on a short leash. With Aldarius Johnson, LaRon Byrd, Theoron Collier and especially Travis Benjamin all emerging as true freshman big play threats at WR, the only thing left for Nix is to settle the QB situation. Until then we can enjoy watching both signal callers duke it out while Nix's futuristic offense continues to grow with the big play ability of the group of freshman trying to restore luster to the "U."

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