Tag Archive for: Miami Hurricanes

Hurricanes’ Running Backs big on Potential, Short on Experience

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The Miami Hurricanes enter the 2019 season with many questions, as do a lot of teams.

Uncertainty at the quarterback position looms, but there is time to figure out the starter.

Meanwhile the running back room has seen a lot of transition.

Beyond entrenched junior DeeJay Dallas there are many unproven underclassmen.

Dallas led the team with 1260 all-purpose yards in a breakout sophomore campaign, and will likely be a larger part of the offense this year.

 

Then Who?

After Dallas on the depth chart there are many questions, but the answers could be exciting and productive.

Sophomore Lorenzo Lingard showed flashes in limited action as a true freshman, averaging eight yards per carry in six games. A leg injury derailed his season but the big play potential is there.

Lingard finished 2018 with 17 carries for 136 yards and two scores. including a 64-yard scamper. He was a top recruit from not only the state of Florida but nationally as well, Lingard can be an excellent compliment to Dallas with his quickness.

Camron Harris enters the year with a similar profile to Lingard, except that his season ended better than it started. Another local product out of Carol City High, Harris was a four-star prospect when he committed to the Hurricanes, he finished with 166 yards on 28 carries (5.9 avg) last season and came on late in the year.

Latest UM Hurricanes Recruiting Outlook

Lingard and Harris should compete for the carries that don’t go to Dallas, each brings a change of pace to the offense. Their inexperience may be a factor, especially with a new quarterback trying to find his way as well.

Dallas is an exemplary teammate and should help mentor both, along with sophomore Robert Burns who fills out the depth chart. Burns is another highly recruited player from Miami out of Gulliver Prep.

If the Hurricanes can get complimentary contributions from their depth backs, along with another productive season from Dallas, this could be a group to watch.

 

 

Five 1st Round Picks From South Florida In NFL Draft. None From UM.

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As most first rounds are, the NFL Draft saw South Florida represented well beyond just the Dolphins picking at 13. Five players from the Dade/Broward area were selected in the opening 30 picks.

Nick Bosa, the Fort Lauderdale product who went to St. Thomas, went 2nd to the 49ers.

Devin Bush, the Flanagan alumnus from Pembroke Pines, went 10th to the Steelers, who traded up to get him

 

Brian Burns, from Plantation and American Heritage, went 16th to Carolina

Hollywood Brown is from… Hollywood, Florida and went 25th to the Ravens

Deandre Baker went 30th to the Giants, who also traded up to get him, and went to Miami Northwestern

The talent in our communities is staggering. Unfortunately, from a college point of view, none of those players went to UM. Bosa followed his brother to Ohio State. Bush came out of Michigan. Brian Burns from FSU. Hollywood Brown went to the least Hollywood place in America, Oklahoma. And Deandre Baker went to Georgia.

While none of this is a particular indictment on anyone currently in the program. Nor is there any reversing the reality that major college football programs are going to come to Miami and Fort Lauderdale on the lookout for the best players in America.

But we really won’t see the University of Miami back at the highest levels of college football until the commissioner starts saying “from the University of Miami” at the end of these picks. Which seems obvious, but Manny Diaz has a lot of work to do to regain his turf.

Everyone is here now, but this talent base is the reason why UM should always be at the top of this sport. And it’s his job to win these recruiting wars and have the NFL stars stay in their backyard and win ACC Championship for the Hurricanes.

Jeffrey Loria: Your worst person in Miami sports history

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We probably didn’t need to do this.

It was kind of a foregone conclusion, when we selected 52 of the least popular sports figures in South Florida history — split into Sports Figures and Athletes brackets — that the frugal, former owner of the Miami Marlins would eventually tear down the nets like he tore down baseball in this market.

Still, we went through it anyway, and Jeffrey Loria was the big winner… or loser.

(We won’t show his face because, well, why?)

He was never really challenged, not against another former Marlins owner (John Henry), not against former Dolphins GM Mike Tannenbaum, not against the destroyer of the University of Miami football program Nevin Shapiro, not in the Futile Four against former Dolphins coach Nick Saban — who upset Loria’s son-in-law David Samson in the Awful Eight — and certainly not in the Final against the person you oddly deemed the worst athlete (former Dolphins offensive lineman Jonathan Martin).

This was a rout.

And why not?

Loria did win a World Series as owner, but he also made decision after decision to destroy the Marlins franchise. (Oh, and he called me a “piece of crap columnist” once, so I’ll acknowledge some bias.

He’ll probably take this condemnation as a compliment.

What was strange was the other side of the bracket, where four former Dolphins (Martin, Dion Jordan, Mike Wallace, Jay Cutler) were the last four left, not exactly the quartet we expected. In fact, Dolphins kept beating Heat, Marlins, Panthers and Hurricanes players in terms of how much you disliked them.

But no one beats Loria, not at this game.