A Cane Life Without Marve

By Todd Brown
Canes Rising Staff

He was Mr. Football in the state of Florida. He was the most hyped QB in the state not named Tebow in the last several years. He was to be our savior.

When Robert Marve was at Plant High School in Tampa he showed the same exceptional athleticism and arm strength that he's shown at the "U. " But at the very same time he showed the same sort of reckless play and poor decision making that has plagued his time at UM. I watched him at Plant and must say I was never as impressed with him as the recruiting experts were. To me he was a totally unfinished article, and given our recent history with QBs that had four or five stars assigned to them by the recruiting services, I was unimpressed.

Originally committed to Alabama, Marve changed his commitment to Miami following Mike Shula's firing. Now two years into Robert Marve's Miami tenure their is at least a very good chance he will not play again for the Canes.

My theory is that new Offensive Coordinator Pat Nix and Head Coach Randy Shannon panicked seeing only two scholarship QBs for 2007, the pathetic Kirby Freeman and the absolutely useless Kyle Wright. Freeman was coming off a good bowl game against Nevada but he could not be counted on to lead the Canes and Wright seemingly was going to fade into oblivion. My theory is that Marve was recruited without weighing his downside because of Miami's desperation.

But Robert Marve got into a car accident and never saw the field in 2007. His window of opportunity was gone. Once Jacory Harris saw the field this season, a year after leading his High School team to a #1 national ranking he was always going to be the man at the "U." Marve's window came and went. Complicating matters is Marve's lack of maturity which has led to him being the only Miami player in Shannon's tenure to be arrested and also the only one to be suspended from a bowl game for Academic issues.

This is now Jacory Harris' team. Robert Marve was never supposed to be the Canes QB long term. The second Harris resisted the opportunity to play in Mike Beloiti's offense at Oregon which would fit him like a glove, this was always going to be his job. Harris has the maturity Marve lacks, as well as the polish as a passer that Marve may never develop. Besides, he's alot smarter and playing QB for Miami requires brains more than athletic ability as history has taught us.

Robert Marve's time at the "U" is over. I wish the kid the best of luck and thank him for his effort these past two years but he just wasn't the right fit for this program. Even Shannon and Nix I am sure will admit that after he is gone.

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."

(THIS IS THE 1,000TH POST ON THE SITE SINCE WE OPENED 3 1/2 YEARS AGO. THANK YOU FOR YOUR CONTINUED PATRONAGE!)

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Nix vs Young

Winning a game on the road in conference is always a good thing. It's especially good when you have not won a game in your league at home in almost thirteen months. Miami's victory over Duke was the Canes third win in the last six games on the road versus BCS conference opponents. However, Miami last won a game against a team from a BCS league at home last September, so if Miami is going to win, I suppose it will be away from Dolphin Stadium.

This is a difficult game to breakdown. The message boards are so toxic right now, I feel I must answer the misconceptions of many Miami fans with my postgame analysis every week. For example Miami being ranked 110th in the country in offense entering this game was a deceiving stat. Miami has scored points when it needed to this season and has generally been let down by a defense that collapses when games are on the line. But the misleading stat which is skewed because thanks to an excellent special teams unit, Miami often operates on a short field, has been used by bashers and haters to call for Pat Nix's firing.

Miami entered this week ranked 2nd in the ACC is rush defense and 27th in the nation in total defense. The same clowns on the message boards who have attacked Pat Nix have talked about an aggressive hungry defense. This is the same defense who minus fumbles and bad snaps gave up about 350 yards rushing to Florida State, a team that has ranked below 100th in rushing offense nationally each of the past three years. This is a defense which allowed North Carolina to go right down the field two times in the 4th quarter blowing a 10 point lead late. This is the same defense that now gave up 31 points to a team Georgia Tech shut out in their last ACC game. But yet many Miami fans keep blaming the offense for losing games, when Miami has given up 28, 41 and 31 points in ACC play. That's 101 points in three games, and that is way too many.

Pat Nix began calling plays in the 2nd half today as if he had to score on every drive. I have quarrels with many of his play calls despite scoring 42 points on offense between the last drive of the first half and the second half. However I realize it is because Nix has learned sitting on the ball when your defense is atrocious could mean a loss even if you are leading 42-24 with 7:00 left in a game. Nix learned a harsh lesson against North Carolina and it is affected every call he made in the second half today.

Bill Young on the other hand came to Miami with an established reputation as a defensive guru. However I believe Miami's schemes are vanilla like and the poor tackling and positioning of defensive starters indicates a lack of coaching on that side of the ball. Miami's defense right now is one of the worst in a BCS league. You can point to meaningless statistics talking about yards allowed per game, etc, but Miami's defense has the look of an over matched side that often is just going through the motions. The defense doesn't create turnovers and often times commits stupid penalties. But if you read the message boards you probably believe Pat Nix is responsible for this also.

49 points on the road against a conference opponents who gave up just three points in their first league game at home (a 31-3 win over UVA.) I wonder if the haters will still call for Pat Nix to be fired this week.


The good and the bad:

• Robert Marve is reckless. Sometimes a football team needs that but I get the impression the coaches are running out of patience with it. The bottom line is this: Pat Nix has gotten a lot of flack for play calling but when Jacory Harris played QB the play calling wasn't holding the team back. Perhaps Marve is improvising too much? Or did Harris just get locked into a zone? Only time will tell.
• I still don't like Miami's new found aversion to running the football. I dislike running from the shotgun even more. Why cannot we just line up under center hand the ball off to the tailback and gain positive yardage? Perhaps this is a reflection of the direction of college offenses in general which is why I am more impressed than ever with the variety of looks and formations Jimbo Fisher is using at Florida State. West Virginia, and Florida started what I believe is an awful trend in College Football or running gimmicky plays exclusively from the shotgun.
  
• The Miami defense looks like it is going to get gashed for the rest of the season. Each of Miami's three ACC opponents have essentially moved the ball at will for large portions of the football game against this defense. The front four are inconsistent. I know Shannon and Clint Hurtt like to shuffle linemen in and out of the game but it is hurting consistency.
• Aladrius Johnson is turning into Miami's go-to reciever.
  
• I could be mistaken but I do not believe Khalil Jones or Leonard Hankerson lined up at WR at all. Sam Shields had only a few snaps late in the game, and Kayne Farquason also saw limited duty. Obviously Aubrey Hill and Pat Nix have finally made the decision to let the freshman WRs win or lose games for the Canes.
• The ACC is full mediocrity. Hopefully Miami can at least join that mediocrity by winning a few more league games. Right now, Virginia is the team to watch, having won three straight against impressive opposition since being dumped by Duke 31-3 three weekends ago.
  
• This was an important win. Duke as I predicted the day they hired David Cutcliffe is a much improved team. In fact I think the Blue Devils will be in a Bowl game next year. For a team that has won so little the last few years and has actually struggled to beat much worse Duke teams, this was a critical win. However, the defense is in shambles and it appears like the Canes will have to outscore most of the remaining teams on the ACC schedule. Miami now can stake a claim to joining the pack in the ACC (every team other than Florida State at the top and NC State at the bottom) with a win against Wake Forest next Saturday. That of course will be easier said than done.
  

Pat Nix vs Jimbo Fisher: Different Game Plans mean Different Results

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.

What Role with Jacory Harris Play ?

Most people assume that Robert Marve will be the starting QB for the Hurricanes this year and for years to come. Marve is a pure passer whose High School career is among the best in state history. Marve will be a good QB at Miami erasing the legacy of Kyle Wright whose recruitment to Miami was supposed to erase the blight Brock Berlin left on the Miami QB tradition. However when comparing Berlin and Wright, the chief difference was Berlin's guts and his willingness to sacrifice himself for the team. Robert Marve hopefully will return these qualities for the Hurricanes. Many forget but in his senior season as some fans were calling for Freshman Wright to play, Brock Berlin threw 22 touchdown passes and only 6 interceptions.

Two years ago Rich Olson and Larry Coker claimed to have developed a package of plays for Kirby Freeman to take advantage of Freeman's running ability. However this package never seemed to be implemented until Kyle Wright was playing so badly that Freeman was essentially allowed to audition for the starting job. With Harris playing well in scrimmages and adding a dimension in terms of mobility and flair that Marve lacks, will Pat Nix and Randy Shannon develop a package of plays which gives Harris several snaps a game?

I think working Harris into the offense could be a key this year. Virginia Tech has effectively juggled two different style QBs last season while Florida State struggled. Florida won a national championship working in a package for Tim Tebow while not threatening Chris Leak's starting position. (except by some drunk typical Gator fans at home games who booed Leak). Unlike some College programs Miami has always been reluctant to shuffle QBs. When Dennis Erickson decided in 1991 to start Gino Toretta over Brian Fortay, the later transferred and decided to sue the school. At the very same time many Miami opponents shuffled Quarterbacks effectively.

If done right this partnership can be a four year one for the Hurricanes. The reluctance to flip between QBs at UM owes itself to the pro style offense and the almost NFL like setup at the "U." However as times change and the Canes struggle to rebuild innovation and taking advantage of the talent at our disposal will be key. I like the idea of using Harris in his own package.