The Canes are prepping to take on a very strong Florida Gators team home field - The Swamp. How do you think the Canes can win this one?

The glory days of the University of Miami football team are over. National Championships are not a given anymore. In fact being the best team in the state is a hard goal to reach. With the recent success of the University of Florida and the continued competitiveness of Florida State University, the UM has a tough ladder to climb. Unfortunately for Hurricane fans, that ladder became even higher during last years college football season with the breakout performances of USF and UCF. Both teams made considerable gains in their football programs, and can no longer be considered pushovers. Florida Atlantic University also has improved over recent years and now sports a competitive football team. While UM may only have to focus on UF and FSU on the football field, they now have to battle these other schools every year for states rich high school football talent. Young athletes in the middle of the state look at schools like UCF, USF and FAU as not only an option closer to home, but a better chance to play earlier. When you go to UM, UF or FSU you are competing with high level talent from around the country. Your opportunity to play is limited because of the abundance of talent. Going to one of the “smaller schools” will give you the ability to compete for more playing time earlier in your college careers.

Where UM once had to compete with 2 other schools to grab up the Florida football talent, now they must compete with 5 other schools, not to mention other programs around the nation. However there is an advantage that UM has over the other programs, NFL talent. There are literally dozens of top rate NFL players today who attended the University of Miami, too many to list in fact. While FSU and UF have also added talent to the NFL ranks the schools combined can not match what UM has done. There is the mystique that UM must draw on if they wish to dominate in recruiting once again. If you are a young running back doesn’t the thought of following in the footsteps of Portis, McGahee, and Gore sound more alluring?

As the Canes are just about two weeks away from their season opener against Charleston Southern, there is still a huge question on the table for coach Randy Shannon. Who will be the lead man for the Canes this season?

The Hurricanes have a talented pool of QBs this season (Robert Marve - RS Freshman,  Jacory Harris - Freshman, and Cannon Smith - Freshman)  but the only problem is a severe lack of experience. For that reason, I believe that Coach Shannon will take the Charleston Southern game as almost a tryout. To see who comes up big.

Robert Marve is the early front runner because of the year he has under his belt on campus, last year being a red shirt, but I think that Harris is the best athlete out of the trio, and will eventually prevail as an elite ACC quarterback. He threw for just short of 3000 yards in his senior year, and ran a 4.62 40 at the combine. He has the possibility of being a deadly double threat, and might just be too good to sit on the bench, even in his freshman season.

Cannon Smith, on the other hand,  is the weakest quarterback of the three, and threw for 5  TD’s and 4 INT’s in his Senior year of High School. Without the double threat that Harris possesses, it looks like Smith will just lose out to a pair of more talented QB’s.

If the rumors of Coach Shannon platooning the QB position between two players this season are true, I think the obvious choices have to be Marve and Harris. Of course, we’ll have to wait and see how these two can perform on Saturday, when the pressure is on.