It looks to be another dreadful season for Hurricane football. This season began with some promise after last year's 7-6 record. New head coach Randy Shannon looked to be the disciplinarian needed to fix the team's losing attitude and instill the vintage Cane swagger from previous championship teams. Shannon has been raised in the Cane football program: he played Linbacker for the 1987 National Chamionship Hurricane team and then was an assistant for Canes for 13 seasons, including defensive coordinator the past 6 seasons. Altogether, he has been a part of 3 of Miami's 5 National Championships in school history. New offensive coordinator Charlie Nix, formerly Georgia Tech coordinator, was a questionable signing due to the Yellow Jackets lackluster offense in recent years, but promised to shake thing up on the offensive side of the ball.
After the first 7 games of the season, it appears Shannon and the rest of his coaches won't be turning the ship around this year. They have struggled against easy opponents such as FIU(0-6) and Duke(1-6) while also losing to UNC(2-5), Georgia Tech(4-3), and getting blown out by Oklahoma(6-1). While the defense and offense are both to blame for the poor production, the most glaring deficiency on this Hurricane team is the lack of talent, especially at the skill positions. Looking back at the 2001 Canes National Chamionship team, 20 of the team's 22 starters went on the play professional football.
While this team has talent at some positions, it almost certainly will not come close to producing up to par with the talent-stocked teams of the past at UM. Only two stars stand out on this UM squad, safety Kenny Phillips and lineman Calais Campbell, and even they have been somewhat quiet in 2007. Wide Recievers have been unable to consistently cause threats to opponents and defensive backs have been as reliable as my dad's 1988 Toyota pick up. Even the usually explosive running game has been somewhat inadequate. Some blame playcalling, but true playmakers put the ball in the endzone regardless of what play is called (for the most part).
Although this season doesn't seem capable of anything better than the MPC Computers Bowl that the team competed in last year, the future does show hints of Miami past dominance. Butch Davis, the head coach of the Canes from 1995-2000, was known for recruiting talent with few resources. The truth is his best resource was in his backyard. South Florida is known for producing the best high school football talent in the nation year in and year out, particularly Dade County. So shutting down South Florida and keeping all of the recruits here is what Butch Davis did to get Miami back on the map.
Randy Shannon is already using the same recipe to get UM back on the winning road. Going to Miami Norland High School and staying in Miami most of his coaching career, Randy has been able to form relationships with many of the high school coaches in South Florida and in turn find the best prospects. Already Miami has one of the top recruiting classes for 2008, with all but two of the commits coming from Florida and five of those coming from the nation's #1 high school football team, Miami Northwestern. Lets just hope the cream of the crop is as good as advertised.
1 comment:
I agree that this has been a very disappointing year so far for the Canes. I always believe that a coach deserves a minimum of 4 years at a school to prove whether or not the program has improved because by that 4th season, the majority of the roster will be players he has recruited. Although Miami is currently ranked high on Rivals and scouting websites, you have to remember that they are just one set of guys opinions and the coaches must continue to do their own recruiting to ensure success. Randy was an outstanding player and coordinator so I have no doubt he will be able to evaluate and have future All-Americans attend Miami once again
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