2014-15 Football Previews – (ACC) – Hurricanes
Given their fertile recruiting grounds it seems like only a matter of time before the Hurricanes have a Florida State like renaissance.
Miami Hurricanes
Head Coach: Al Golden
2013 Record: 9-4
Gambling Odds to win National Championship: 80/1
Gambling Odds to win (ACC): 15/1
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They have increased their win total the last couple of season under Al Golden but they are definitely not at the mountain top. This year it will be tough to continue to show that kind of improvement.
To do so they will need tremendous play and leadership from the quarterback position as well as a rise to prominence of that once vaunted Miami defense.
Strengths:
The last name Perryman is synonymous with the glory days at the U. This generation has Denzel Perryman who is first team all ACC and one of the best linebackers in America. He is a throwback to the 80s they way he blows up ballcarriers and he will need to be awesome once again for Miami’s defense to improve.
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Miami running back Duke Johnson was voted the toughest to bring down and is a first team All-ACC back.
He was well on his way to crushing his frosh numbers were it not for an injury that held him back. He may be short but he is powerful and he could push this team to victories behind an experienced line.
In addition to Perryman the defense should be set to take that next step. All of the starters are upperclassmen, mostly juniors who just need to stop thinking about making plays and actually start making them.
They are getting reinforcements from the second ranked recruiting class in the conference.
Weaknesses:
There was a while there when Miami was quarterback U…that is certainly not the case right now. This season Ryan Williams was supposed to take over but the transfer from Memphis has seen his season wiped out due to injury so they have brought in yet another transfer in the form of Jake Heaps.
Heaps was highly touted but this is his third school so the jury is out. He needs to be sharp for the Canes.
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Miami was shredded by the pass last season, almost hard to believe how many former Canes have been impact secondary players at the next level. The expected starting group is all juniors but most of their career they have been chasing air.
Sometimes experience can be a bad thing. Theses guys need to wake up.
When you watch Miami football these days the question you have to ask yourself is where is the attitude. The program that invented swagger just doesn’t seem to have much self confidence these days.
An extra win or two would be nice for sure but they need to start learning to step on some throats.
Gambling Prediction: 8-4
Hurricanes 2014 Schedule:
Sep 1- @Louisville
Sep 6 – Florida A&M
Sep 13 – Arkansas State
Sep 20 – @Nebraska
Sep 27 – Duke
Oct 4 – @Georgia Tech
Oct 11 – Cincinnati
Oct 23 – @Virginia Tech
Nov 1 – North Carolina
Nov 15 – Florida State
Nov 22 – @Virginia
Nov 29 – Pittsburgh
This is a tough schedule for a good but not great team. We will have a pretty good indication after the first month just how competitive the Canes are going to but the 5 games starting with @GT could easily all be losses.
One spot I am looking at closely is their trip to Nebraska. By then hopefully Heaps is comfortable and the rest of the team is too.
Nebraska is more name than anything right now and I think they can surprise their old rival.
