No matter where your allegiances lie, there truly wasn’t a whole lot to take out of Monday night’s Miami-Maryland matchup. The weather was lousy, Miami was without many of their starters, and given the hideousness of Maryland’s uniforms, it was hard to focus on anything actually related to football.
Of the few things that seemed certain though, was that Stephen Morris- who was starting the game in the absence of the suspended Jacory Harris- may have done enough to keep the Miami starting quarterback job. Morris was hardly perfectly Monday night, but given that he didn’t know he’d be starting until less than a week before the game, given that Miami was without big-play wide receivers Travis Benjamin and Aldarius Johnson, given that left tackle Seantrel Henderson was out with injury, and given that it was the first game of Jedd Fisch’s tenure calling plays, it seemed like Morris performed pretty well. He completed 19 of 28 passes, although he did throw for two interceptions and no touchdowns.
And really, with that performance, it appeared that Morris did enough to at least be in the discussion as Miami’s quarterback for their next game, September 17 against No. 17 Ohio State. While Harris has proven to have the higher upside through the years, Morris did assert himself well in the loss to Maryland.
Apparently though, Morris didn’t play nearly as well as many fans thought.
On Wednesday, Miami head coach Al Golden released his depth chart for Miami’s showdown in two weeks with Ohio State, and sure enough, there was Harris sitting atop. No questions asked. Not even a whiff of quarterback controversy. Needless to say, this is a bit surprising for a few reasons.
For one, whenever there’s even a bit of uncertainty like there might have been with Miami, it’s practically expected for a coach to drag out the process of actually naming a starter as long as he can. Sure Morris and Harris aren’t truly all that different as quarterbacks; if anything their games resemble each other pretty nicely. Both are true pocket passers, with big arms, average mobility and can at times, make poor decisions with the ball. Meaning that holding out on naming a starter likely wouldn’t have altered the way Ohio State prepared for the Canes all that much. Still, we’ve seen so many college football coaches play so many mind games through the years, that a little gamesmanship only seems fitting.
What makes the whole situation really surprising though, is that Harris was plenty erratic in 2010, leaving most fans to believe that Morris might have done enough to steal the starting spot.
Last year Harris took a fortuitous step back from the season before, throwing for 14 touchdowns and 15 interceptions, after throwing for 24 and 17 in 2009. Granted, some of Harris’ struggles were due to the almost too-wide-open attack of offensive coordinator Mark Whipple, some were due to injury (Harris was knocked out cold in a loss to Virginia) and some of were due to sheer ineptitude. Still, Harris was hardly believed to a runaway leader for the starting position headed into the Ohio State game. Especially given that Miami could’ve easily won the Maryland game with Morris under center. One has to wonder if Miami had gotten in field goal range on their second to last possession and won that game, if Golden’s decision would be quite so easy this week.
Either way, it looks like Jacory Harris will be the starting quarterback when the Hurricanes host the Buckeyes on September 17.
Who says all the news has to be bad in Miami?
