Sunshine Revival Part II: Miami Hurricanes

It doesn’t take Vince Lombardi to see that the Miami Hurricanes are probably in for another tough season. Last year’s losing record — the first in a decade — may be followed by a second consecutive campaign under .500 thanks to a roster that is greener than grass.

After finishing 5–7 in his first season as coach, Randy Shannon decided to clean house. Several players who performed key duties in 2007 — including quarterback Kirby Freeman, tight end DajLeon Farr and kicker Daren Daly — were gently nudged out the door and replaced by a recruiting class that numbers 33 signees. Of the nearly 85 players on scholarship, approximately half will be either true or redshirt freshmen. Many of those freshmen will be starters or primary backups throughout Miami’s lineup.

That’s not a recipe for success in the ACC, whose best teams recently have been long on experience.

But the lumps that the Hurricanes might take in 2008 could make them contenders for the conference championship by 2009, and beyond. Miami may be young, but there’s no questioning the talent that Shannon was able to bring in this year despite overseeing the school’s first losing finish since 1997.

A native Miamian, Shannon took advantage of his local roots by securing many of the top players in talent-rich South Florida. He signed eight players from Miami Northwestern, which finished as the nation’s top-ranked high school team last year, according to USA Today.

When Shannon went out of town, it was for big fish like Arthur Brown, a linebacker from Wichita, Kan., generally regarded as the nation’s top prospect at his position.

ESPN.com was impressed enough to rank Miami’s recruiting class No. 1. Virtually every other recruiting service had the Hurricanes in the top five.

Shannon did more than sign a top recruiting class. He got much of it into school early. Of the 33 signees, nine enrolled in January and participated in spring practice. Several of those players — linebackers Sean Spence and Brown, defensive tackle Marcus Forston, quarterback Jacory Harris and receiver Aldarius Johnson — performed well enough to enter fall practice battling for starting jobs. By getting a head start on their college careers, those freshmen also helped the Hurricanes speed up the rebuilding process.

And it’s not just about the new guys. There are several proven building blocks in place with juniors Jason Fox, Colin McCarthy and Javarris James and sophomores Graig Cooper, Orlando Franklin and DeMarcus Van Dyke. There’s also excitement around redshirt freshman Robert Marve, who broke Tim Tebow’s high school passing records in Florida and is in line to be the Hurricanes’ quarterback for years.

While all the inexperience may make for some ugly results in 2008, it could be a different story when that talent begins to mature collectively in a year or two.

The players aren’t the only ones who figure to get better at Miami. After a tough rookie season, Shannon showed the ability to adjust — something FSU’s Bobby Bowden has been criticized for not doing — by making key changes on his staff while slightly loosening the reins on his players.

There’s a steep learning curve for first-time head coaches, as Shannon found out last season. For an example, Shannon needed to look no further than former Miami head coach Butch Davis. Like Shannon, Davis took the Hurricanes’ job in 1995 with no head coaching experience. Davis muddled his way through for several seasons before resurrecting the program and turning it into a national championship-caliber team.

The turnaround should come quicker for Shannon than it did for Davis, who had to contend with debilitating NCAA sanctions before his rebuilding effort could take hold. Shannon, a member of Davis’ coaching staff at Miami, has no such concerns.

Shannon admitted learning plenty his first year, including the need to make painful staff changes. After one season as defensive coordinator, Tim Walton was fired and replaced with Bill Young, who turned Kansas’ defense into one of the nation’s best last year.

The move couldn’t have been an easy one for Shannon. Walton and Shannon grew close as members of Larry Coker’s staff at Miami, and it was Shannon who handed Walton an opportunity to run Miami’s defense in 2007. Walton’s defense wasn’t awful, but Shannon desired someone with more proven experience and settled on Young.

The change already is paying off for Miami. Young has installed a scheme heavy on blitzing that looks to take advantage of the team’s outstanding speed. During spring practice, Miami’s linebackers were consistently making plays behind the line of scrimmage.

If Young was able to mold one of the nation’s best defenses at Kansas, imagine what he’ll be able to do working with the speed and skill possessed by the typical Miami athlete. At least, that’s the thinking in Coral Gables.

Miami’s football program also figures to receive a future boost with its move this season to Dolphin Stadium from the Orange Bowl, where the Hurricanes had played since 1937. Despite some impassioned pleas from traditionalists, Miami is far better off by relocating uptown.

The move will provide the athletic department with a multi-million dollar injection that it would have not enjoyed in the Orange Bowl. For a program that’s had trouble making ends meet, that’s no small issue.

But playing in the modern Dolphin Stadium as opposed to the antiquated Orange Bowl will also help in other ways, including the continued attraction of big-time recruits. At Dolphin Stadium, players will enjoy far larger locker rooms and see themselves on giant video screens. At the Orange Bowl, players were cramped together and had to watch all their replays on SportsCenter. That’s a big difference for your average 17-year-old.

Which gets us back to the reason why it won’t be long until Miami football regains national prominence — the players. The ink was barely dry on the national letters of intent for the Hurricanes’ 2008 class when Wichita, Kan., running back Bryce Brown, ranked as the nation’s No. 2 prospect in the 2009 class by Scout.com, announced he was orally committing to Miami.

With the talent being accumulated, it seems only a matter of when, not if, the Hurricanes start flexing their football muscles in the ACC and in the national championship race.

Del.icio.us | Digg it | Athlon Sports RSS Feeds