Miami Will Have Senior Leadership at Quarterback... in 2011

Those with even a passing familiarity with Miami football last year know full well what an absolute horror show the offense was, especially at quarterback. As listless as the offense was under departing senior Kyle Wright, co-starter Kirby Freeman was absolutely brutal. We're relatively sure that had Freeman not transferred to Baylor, they would have locked them in the Orange Bowl before its demolition.

So this leaves head coach Randy Shannon with something of a quandary: Miami has three quarterbacks, all of whom are freshmen (Robert Marve a redshirt, Jacory Harris and Cannon Smith true). Of them, Harris and Marve are the only real threats to start; while Cannon Smith has a legendary name for a quarterback (topped only by, like, "Rocketarm Throwball-Manning"), the three-star prospect from Hargrave isn't "there" yet. So the question to Randy Shannon is, who's it going to be: Marve or Harris?

Shannon's answer, it seems, is "yes."

"Whichever quarterback that we name, we're going to play the other one," Shannon said at the Florida Sports Writers Association College Football Media Days. "We need depth at every position on the field and that's the one position that we don't have depth at because they're young. They're good quarterbacks, but they're young."

Shannon said it won't be a platoon situation. The way he envisions it, one will emerge as the clear starter, and the other will play at certain times to get a feel for game action - in case that person gets called upon for a bigger role, for injury or any other reason.

It's a smart move, especially with two freshmen, but this means two things:

Miami won't have a senior taking snaps for the next few years;
one of those guys is definitely transferring before his junior season.

At some point one of the quarterbacks will emerge as a clear starter, after all. Since we're dealing with the last two Mssrs. Football in Florida, certainly the backup will come to realize that there are much better things for a highly touted prospect than to exhaust his eligibility holding a clipboard.