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Canes primed to play lights out & return to prominence

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Finally this be the year the Hurricanes defense looks familiar to Miami fans.

Indeed, the Hurricanes coaches have been watching some Seattle Seahawks tape because they feel their depth fits a similar scheme; well OK, then. It is undeniable the Hurricanes have more depth on defense in places they haven't in a long time. Chad Thomas, Demetrius Jackson, Darrion Owens, Tyriq McCord, Al-Quadin Muhammad, and Trent Harris are all capable of getting to the quarterback; it just remains to be seen which player will step out and dominate.

At linebacker the competition is between Raphael Kirby, Jermaine Grace, Juwon Young, Marques Gayot, Terry McCray, Mike Smith, and Charles Perry; so there is plenty of talent to go around. In the secondary Deon Bush and Tracy Howard are sure to be worthy of potential star consideration. Add all these names up — most of which were highly recruited and coveted by other schools — and what you get is the ingredients for a defense that will be more than just alright, it should be a strength. Miami has the talent on defense, it's up to the coaches to finally figure out how to use it.

This Hurricanes offense team will succeed because of the sum of it's parts, not one individual.

Sure, Miami lost a lot of talent to the NFL; but they are returning more than enough bullets to fill Brad Kaaya's gun. Miami is returning key players such as: Herb Waters, Stacy Coley, Malcolm Lewis, Braxton Berrios, and Rashawn Scott. In addition to that, the Canes promise to continue the trend of having a shifty-play maker at running back with the return of Joseph Yearby.

Having a quarterback like Brad Kaaya tends to make up for the fact that you don't have a Andre Johnson looking freak-of-a-wideout to throw the ball to. This season the Hurricanes offense promises to be based more on team cohesion than individual play making; think New England Patriots, but speedier. No one is suggesting Brad Kaaya is Tom Brady, the Hurricanes are the Patriots, or Al Golden is Bill Belicheck; but that's the look they are going for.

With college football season three weeks from kicking off, Miami Hurricanes fans are in two camps: believers and non-believers. And let's be honest, most fans are playing musical chairs, switching from optimism to cynicism at the drop of a hat. Will this really be the year the team takes a step back into the national spotlight?

Well, listen up skeptics: there are good reasons to believe this Canes team is primed for a successful season by any schools standards, not just one coming off NCAA probation.

In the past the Canes relied heavily on a select few playmakers, this season everyone will be responsible for chipping in, regardless of rank.

Brad Kaaya had an entire offseason to improve; that's bad news for the ACC.
This was supposed to be the year of Brad Kaaya, but an injury to Ryan Williams last year thrust Kaaya into a situation that called for him to play a year early; and he killed it. Kaaya threw 26 touchdowns and just 12 interceptions in his freshman season, looking nothing like a guy a few days removed from his high school prom. This season, all that early experience has payed off. Kaaya enters 2015 as a dark horse Heismann candidate; if he performs well, and the Canes start off strong, he will at least be in the discussion.

Kaaya tossed for 3000 yards in a season that must have felt like it was moving at 100 miles-per-hour at the time. Kaaya now has an entire offseason under his belt — one that does not include moving 2,500 miles from his California home to enroll at Miami.

Canes players and coaches are preaching to anyone that will listen about their locker room culture change.
We've heard this one before, but **** if it doesn't sound legit this time. Yes, talk is cheap, but according to Brad Kaaya, the team has a Come To Jesus offseason:

“The last straw is when the whole team got out there,” Kaaya said. “It clicked and we said, ‘We’ve had enough. When is it going to stop? We can’t keep having this happen.’ That morning we came together, right before spring break.

“Ever since, it’s been different. [Rules violations have] been cut down tremendously. This summer, we had no major issues. That’s huge for our team. Coach Golden is not having any more nonsense any more. It’s all about business. Team leaders are holding guys accountable. We didn’t want to focus on all the distractions holding Miami back. This team is clean.”

Well, that's what's up. You can choose to be negative about this Miami Hurricanes team, or you can believe these kids have it in them to succeed; it's your choice.

The Hurricanes schedule sets them up perfectly for a successful season.
When you're replacing as much departing talent with young recruits as the Hurricanes are this season, it's vital that the Canes have worked some warmup games into this year's schedule. Games against Bethune-Cookman and FAU will give the less-experienced Hurricanes players the real game reps they'll need before taking on Nebraska, at home. The Hurricanes will not leave the state of Florida until the calendar flips to October and then they travel to Cinncinnati, a game that follows a bye week.


The Hurricanes could easily be 4-0 by the time they travel to Tallahassee to take on an extremely talented, yet transitioning Florida State. if they drop the rivalry game, it's early enough in the season for them to regroup. If they win the game against FSU, it could mean a Top 10 ranking. The rest of the schedule — outside of a tough home game against Clemson — features teams the Hurricanes are as talented as, if not more talented than.

The Hurricanes luck out and get a preseason to work on things, tough games at home, and a stretch to end the season with much momentum — there are no excuses.

Brad Kaaya had an entire offseason to improve; that's bad news for the ACC.
This was supposed to be the year of Brad Kaaya, but an injury to Ryan Williams last year thrust Kaaya into a situation that called for him to play a year early; and he killed it. Kaaya threw 26 touchdowns and just 12 interceptions in his freshman season, looking nothing like a guy a few days removed from his high school prom. This season, all that early experience has payed off. Kaaya enters 2015 as a dark horse Heismann candidate; if he performs well, and the Canes start off strong, he will at least be in the discussion.

Kaaya tossed for 3000 yards in a season that must have felt like it was moving at 100 miles-per-hour at the time. Kaaya now has an entire offseason under his belt — one that does not include moving 2,500 miles from his California home to enroll at Miami. By Ryan Yousef
 
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I agree that this team has depth unlike any in recent memory. However replacing Duke is a huge task.. not just on O but special teams. You also avoid the topic of the O-line. But most of all you down play the schedule. Drawing FSU and Clemson from the Atlantic is a huge problem. If Clemson was replaced by Syracuse I would look at the schedule in a different light.

Aslo I see the rise of the coastal this year. Duke will not drop off, they are a solid well coached team. VT has NFL talent all over he D, GT just came off an orange bowl blow out of an SEC west team, UNC can only get better with Chizik on the D and their O is LOADED.

Nebraska is a key game.. I think that will give Miami a chance to show out on a national stage.. Split FSU/Clemson and win the toss-up coastal games and this would be a very successful season.
 
I agree as well. I do think the schedule is manageable for a large leap forward. Win Nebraska, split FSU and Clemson, and win the rest which needs to be an expectation. Just winning the games we should not lose is vital to taking the next step.
 
I see this a lot lately - Miami fans that have deluded themselves into thinking the loss of Ereck Flowers, Phillip Dorsett, Duke Johnson, Clive Walford, and Jonathan Feliciano won't matter much. That's 5 NFL caliber - 4 of them taken rather high - kids you're replacing. That's never easy.

This season the Hurricanes offense promises to be based more on team cohesion than individual play making
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Trust me, when you are searching for big plays, trying to move the chains, you'll desperately miss the "individual play-making" skills of guys like Dorsett, Duke, and Clive. Despite how much cohesion and unity fans have convinced themselves the team has built, being best friends with your slot wide receiver isn't going to help you beat FSU.

Licking snow cones and playing guitar hero isn't going to get you into the endzone, no matter how much you love your best friend. We got a big dose of reality coming up for some of these boys.
 
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I stopped reading when the Seattle Seahawks defense was mentioned in the same paragraph as a Dorito coached defense.

Typical off-season hyperbole and delusion. Happens every year.

Keeping the same coaches and schemes and expecting a different result after 4 years of futility with said coaches and schemes, is the definition of insanity. Especially when you lose as many top players as we did to the NFL.
 
Eric Burdon and The Animals must have had a premonition:

Well, Bo Diddley looked up at me and he said
With half closed eyes and a smile
He said, "Man," took off his glasses
He said, "Man, that sure is the biggest load of rubbish
I ever heard in my life"
 
I said it at the end of last season. Our OL is what will haunt us this season. We have the talent to beat everyone on our schedule but I'm not naive.
 
I agree with the OP. But improved as they may be, the schedule is daunting. Can't see anyway Miami beats FSU or Clem's son. G-Tech lost a lot of skill players but they gotz a good option QB and their O-line is the best Paul Johnson has had there. Canes gotta beat Nebraska, Duke, and V-Tech to have a good season. And watch out for Pitt, they are a team on the rise yo.
 
Lol, the OP sounds like he's trying to convince himself. Yeah bro, we have seen this story unfold a few times. Its still Albortion coaching.
 
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The biggest item in when a college football team succeeds or fails was not addressed by OP -- COACHING! In the NBA players are all that matters, but NCAA football there is a reason coaches get paid a fortune -- THEY ARE ALL THAT MATTERS. We have enough talent, sure, but we had more talent last year than we have this year. MAYBE these players get together an manage to OUT PERFORM their coaching like our last NC team did, but Larry was not a disruptive control freak and Butch left him a staff with several future NFL HCs on it.

I pray this team is different and when it realizes Al does not have a clue during a game, the team just starts calling its on plays and playing it own brand of football. Players can be the cause of losing a game but coaches lose whole seasons. Al keeps losing seasons. I am glad these players have come together, not if they would just put Al, Mark, and Paul back in a closet and take over the team maybe we can get somewhere. Keep in mind, we have the only HC in the country that thinks losing all those players to the NFL and your recording breaking RB at RB U is a frigging GOOD thing. Howard said that Miami always had the talent, all it needed was coaching.
 
The challenge (as it always has been) will be to execute. We have to be able to stay on the field when it's 3rd and 6 on offense. You are not going to consistently beat Division 1 defenses when you rely on 20+ yard plays to score all the time. We were 10th in the country in big plays last year, but 62nd in scoring offense, and 47th in total offense. That doesn't add up. It clearly promotes the theory that while we were talented last year, we were also 89th in red zone conversions, and only 50% of our red zone trips resulted in a touchdown.

It makes sense that we struggled last year in the red zone when you consider the personnel. Besides Walford, there were no other red zone threats and all freshman quarterbacks tend to struggle as you cross the 50 and the field shrinks (unless you're Kessler the Gawd of course). I'm almost certain that will improve with an experienced QB now, but we still need to see it. Having the TE options and a guy like Rashawn Scott being back should help in that area. Dorsett is awesome, but at the end of the day, he's one of those DeSean Jackson types who is outstanding at exploiting blown coverages, bad technique, or someone who he simply has a distinct athletic advantage over, but he doesn't beat good coverage or make contested catches. I've always preferred a dude like prime Hakeem Nicks as opposed to the Mike Wallace's of the world. Those guys become non-factors in the red-zone because their ability to blow past guys is rendered useless. You have to be able to make a catch with a guy in your jersey.'

THE BIGGEST IMPROVEMENT ON THIRD DOWNS AND RED ZONE CHANCES NEEDS TO BE MADE BY JAMES COLEY. The complexity of our passing game has been **** going back what seems like ages. Our route combos don't even qualify as rudimentary. We have to be better schematically if we want to get better on the money downs. There are way too many times that I see us either not exploiting mismatches or running routes that muck up the spacing or timing. It's either a numbers/leveraging space game, or you draw something up that gets the guy you want on the guy they don't want involved with any level of significance. If he can figure out how to properly coordinate a passing game, we should be way better on offense. If not, we're in for another year of stalled drives and frustrating red zone trips.
 
It all depends on how you define prominence. Does that translate into wins or just having champion student-athletes where winning is optional.
 
On defense- I don't care what team's tape the Canes watch, they are still coached by D'No. Call me when they get rid of him and all of our linebackers run a 4.45 again (and DLinemen penetrate, and dbacks are ball hawks.... Etc)

Offense. No, having a Kaaya does not make up for not having a 'Dre Johnson. The Canes have always succeeded because of the sum of their parts. They just had better parts- they were smarter, better conditioned, more athletic, and better coached. Oh, no one should suggest that Kaaya is Tom Brady, they would be Baker Acted.

The line that Miami in the past relied on a few playmakers and now everyone will chip in is just pure BS. It's laughable. I guess your talking about Goldens past teams, because you can't be talking about past Canes teams. You can't.

While the team and coaches are busy "preaching" they might as well forgive everyone for the sin of not believing the hype. We are all "Doubting Thomas" until this team actually beats somebody good. They had me. They really did. That first half against FSU was a thing of beauty. They were kicking the **** out of that team. Then the moment became too big for Al. That's the issue right there.

Eff the schedule "setting up perfectly". This team can easily go 4-8. Do you recall the "anytime, anyplace" mentality? Does the team have it? Sounds to me like they're getting a little ****ed and their tired of losing. This is good. Very good. Can be a **** of a motivator. But if you have an angry frustrated team, and the coaches don't maximize their talents and put them in a position to win (see 8 guys 7 yards off the LOS on a goal line stand) forget it. They'll have a mutiny on their hands. This is my prediction. I believe Al and D'No are too set in ther ways to fundamentally change the way they think about football. Maybe I'm wrong.

Oh, everyone else in college football has had a year to improve, just sayin'.
 
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There are two camps, believers and non believers.... The non believers outnumber the believers 100 to 1. Maybe if we start the season 5-0 that number will change a little. Finish with 11+ wins and it changes a lot. Tired of the talk.
 
I totally agree that the schedule sets up nicer than first appeared. Talk from the team is coley is opening up the play book and considering that kayaa is now on everybody's preseason watch list I hope that means he knew what he was doing.

We only need the O-line to play good and not great. I think Kevin beard will have made the receivers better so it's not just one guy.

When is the last time in the past 4 or 5 years that we could honestly name more than one person that was to be feared on the defensive side. I could name them Burn, AQM, Bush, grace, thomas. The last 2 years was chic kinda but not really and Perryman???
 
freeman84 said:
I totally agree that the schedule sets up nicer than first appeared. Talk from the team is coley is opening up the play book and considering that kayaa is now on everybody's preseason watch list I hope that means he knew what he was doing.

We only need the O-line to play good and not great. I think Kevin beard will have made the receivers better so it's not just one guy.

When is the last time in the past 4 or 5 years that we could honestly name more than one person that was to be feared on the defensive side. I could name them Burn, AQM, Bush, grace, thomas. The last 2 years was chic kinda but not really and Perryman???
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Lulz, none of those guys have made a big time game changing/winning play at this level. Maybe two of those guys have NFL futures.
 
ThomasM said:
There are two camps, believers and non believers.... The non believers outnumber the believers 100 to 1. Maybe if we start the season 5-0 that number will change a little. Finish with 11+ wins and it changes a lot. Tired of the talk.
Click to expand...

Al goes up to Tally and loses, he'll be o'fer against the Noles. The drumbeat will begin to get louder.
 
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