Miami 2011

Miami 2010 Statistics

(ACC) The Hurricanes play on a grass field (P.A.T.) at Sun Life Stadium (seats 75,000)

• Al Golden is in his first year as head coach at Miami.  He comes over from Temple where he had inherited a team that had won
  

  Head Coach Al Golden

  a total of 11 games in five years including zero wins in 2005.  He started slowly, but the past two years went 9-4 (’09) and 8-4 (’10).  He now leaves MAC football for the ACC where he takes over for Randy Shannon.  In Shannon’s four years he averaged seven wins a season.  But expectations at Miami are much higher than that.

• In a contrasting approach to what fellow ACC head coach Tom O’Brien did at NC State (insisted that quarterback chose between baseball and football), Golden actually encourages multiple sports.  He says that “we’ve become too specialized in high school sports.  I really believe you can learn a lot and develop if you’re playing multiple sports.” (USA Today).
• Immediately it is obvious that the emphasis is on improving Miami’s defense.  Golden recruited three times as many defensive players as he did offensive.  According to Golden, “If anything that should give you an indication of my evaluation of our offense relative to our defense right now.”  (USA Today).
• Interestingly enough, this team had one of the best defenses in the ACC (and in the country) in 2010.  They were 1^st in the country in tackles for a loss, 9^th in sacks, 3^rd in passing defense and 5^th in pass efficiency defense.  The one area they really needed to improve was their rushing defense.  But apparently, there are many questions on defense this year.  This could be because they lose three starters from their secondary, the strength of their defense.  In addition, they lose their #1 tackler Colin McCarthy who played linebacker.  They do have linebacker Sean Spence who is known for his playmaking, but the other players are not as experienced and this unit is not as deep.  The defensive line returns a lot of experience and this is an area of expertise for Golden, but the questions remain on defense at linebacker and in the secondary.
• On the offense, the leading rusher and leading receiver both must be replaced.  The bigger concern is at receiver, where they lose Leonard Hankerson.  He had 1156 yards and 13 touchdowns and was selected in the 3^rd round of the NFL Draft by Washington.  Tight end Richard Gordon was also drafted (6^th round by Oakland).  As for running back, despite the loss of their starter, the position is deep and
  

  Quarterback Jacory Harris

  will be led by Lamar Miller, who was quite productive in his opportunities last year.

• The quarterback situation is a little unsettled.  Last year there were high expectations for Jacory Harris, but for various reasons, including his high number of errors and a shoulder injury, things did not go as planned.  True freshman Stephen Morris came in and had the exact same inefficiencies and mistakes.  Both quarterbacks are competing for the starting position and it’s difficult to say who should start