There have been many conversations about how the Miami Hurricanes will finish this year, and the lines are fairly well divided.  Hurricane fans are very optimistic about the potential this upcoming season will bring, but of course all the other naysayers seem to doubt what the has been assembled down in Coral Gables.

The Atlantic Coast Conference preseason picks were voted on by media members, and they picked the Hurricanes to finish second in the Coastal division.  The Media members of course picked Virginia Tech to win it’s fourth ACC title in only it’s seventh year as a member of the ACC.  I think these media members felt that they can’t go wrong by picking Virginia Tech, they always have a solid team and have a very good team returning led by Tyrod Taylor.  The Hokies have never been able to win the big game when it counted, the Hurricanes on the other hand have slowly been returning to form and media members are not ready to jump on the bandwagon yet.

When you break it down the Coastal is really a two horse race this year.  Miami and Virginia Tech are the only two teams with a “Viable” chance to win the Coastal Division.  Duke and Virginia we can go ahead and toss out of the race those teams are still behind the curve in talent and ability to make any ripples in the conference.  North Carolina was not that good last year, going 4 – 4 in the ACC, and 8 –   5 overall the Hurricanes had no business losing to the Tar Heels last year.  I think Miami gets it right this year, plus with all the shady business hanging over North Carolina’s football program right now they may be in for a long season.

Georgia Tech lost Demaryius Thomas and Jonathan Dwyer, so the only returning player from their big three is Josh Nesbitt.  He won’t have an explosive receiver like Thomas on the outside to make enough big plays to keep teams honest against the options.  Couple that with   losing the speed and power of a Jonathan Dwyer and  giving ACC defenses a third year to look at this offense, and they will have a hard time threatening for the Coastal Division title.

It has been well chronicled why Miami is going to have a good season, so we will talk about why the Hokies will finish in second place.  People will look at Miami’s loss to Virginia Tech last year and say there is no way they beat the Hokies this year.  You can’t blame it on the weather or anything like that, Miami just failed to show up for that game.

Pride will win out this year, and comparing the two quarterbacks Harris is a much better passer than Tyrod Taylor which will help provided the Hurricanes stick to the running game.  The Hokies defensive line won’t have the same success they had last year, they will still be able to pressure Harris somewhat.  Miami will play smarter this time, and have a game plan to account the pass rush.  Looking at the stats Taylor only threw for 98 yards on four completions, Virginia Tech ran the ball well, but that was really it.

Most of their points came off of Miami mistakes, if the Hurricanes limit the turnovers and run the ball with authority.  The defense will be more than sufficient to shut down Taylor, they just need to worry about stopping the running game.  Looking at it closely if Miami takes care of the ball I do not see where the Hokies are going to get enough points to beat them.

Miami should win the Coastal Division without much of a fight, if they get past Virginia Tech none of the other teams are really built to win right now.  Unless Paul Johnson comes up with replacements who are Dwyer and Thomas’ caliber they won’t’ have enough to win it either.  Miami should have been the team voted to win the Coastal, but let the Hurricanes play the underdog role where they have always been successful.

But the odd picks started to come later in the draft.  We will focus on the Denver Broncos even though the Eagles moved up to get a defensive end, when the best player available was a need at Safety that they passed up on.  Before we get to the Broncos I also have to mention that San Diego moved up almost ten spots to take a running back, they could have re-signed LaDanian Tomlinson cheaply or even grabbed a Thomas Jones.

The Chargers instead elect to go into the season with undersized Darren Sproles and a Rookie Running Back out of Fresno State?  We will see how all of that pans out for them, pass protection is one of the most important jobs of a running back and entrusting that to a rookie seems like a mistake.

Now on to the Broncos, they selected Georgia Tech Wide Receiver Demaryius Thomas with the 22^nd pick.  Now he was expected to fall to the Jets about 29^th and be taken after Dez Bryant, instead he is the first Wide Receiver selected in the draft.  I was personally hoping he would fall to the Jets as I think he is a sleeper pickup, and will turn out to be dominant.

I think he would have still been available later in the draft, but they came up to get him.  The part that is odd was Broncos coach Josh McDaniel saying he picked him because he reminded him of Brandon Marshall.  Wait, did he just say that the receiver he just drafted reminded him of the receiver he just traded to the Miami Dolphins?

I do not see the logic here; Brandon Marshall has been the best receiver in the NFL the past three seasons.  He has three consecutive 100 reception seasons under his belt, and you draft a receiver because he reminds you of the guy you just traded?  I am sure things could have been worked out with Marshall, you do not trade a pro bowl receiver with talent like that and hope to get a guy in the draft that will be like him.  Lighting rarely strikes in the same place twice.

The 25^th pick of the Broncos was Tim Tebow, how they decided that Tebow was worthy of a first round pick is beyond me.  They have Kyle Orton in house who is not old, and had a decent season last year 21 touchdowns to only 12 interceptions.  You do not draft a wildcat quarterback with your first round pick; Tebow is not a polished passer and even though he has a “new” throwing motion it will take time for that to be natural for him.

They said the same thing about David Carr when he was drafted, they were going to get him to hold the ball up near his chest instead of near his waist when he dropped back to pass.  Well that did not work out well, and now Carr is a journeyman backup who has played for several teams.

I know that McDaniels is attempting to make some kind of statement about character over everything else, but he is taking a big leap in putting his coaching future on the shoulders of Tebow.  I have talked about this to friends many times there are a lot of cases where talent needs to be taken over character, if you can find a guy who has both great.

If Tim Tebow is starting in a few years and he turns out to be a bust, do you think Denver fans will really care if he is a great guy?  Fans want to see wins, that is why they spend their money to come to the games, if a guy has good character and turns out to be a great player that is the best scenario.  But if he is unable to hit receivers, and does not consistently win games he will not be able to lead effectively.

The pick does not make much sense to me, but I have to assume that Josh McDaniels is an NFL coach for a reason while I am running a website.  Maybe he knows what he is doing, and has a master plan for Mr. Tebow.  Only time will tell how this works out.

I just whipped his team, shouldn't I make more money than him?

There is an 800 pound Ibis in the room no matter what subject comes up regarding Miami Hurricanes Football.  That would be the contract extension of head coach Randy Shannon, who right now is the 11^th highest paid coach in the ACC.  Not to mention that he is not really the 11^th highest paid he is tied with the guy in 12^th place Frank Spaziani of Boston College.

In one of my other articles I talked about how “cheap” Miami can be when it comes to paying their coaches, and the fact that Coker was making near $3 million a year when he left shows they are willing to pull out the cash when needed.  I can understand starting Randy off at the lower end of the scale he is a first time head coach, but a decision needs to be made.

Any time coaches sign a new contract goals are set forth, and either he has met the goals you want or not.  At that point you need to make a decision and either fire the man, or give him an extension based off of his current body of work.  I know that Kirby Hocutt was not the person that hired Shannon, but he has had time to lay out what his vision is for where the football program should be and go from this point.

The cruxes of the matter currently are a discussion over the new base salary per year, and buy out amount if he gets fired before the end of the contract.  It seems that the administration is offering Shannon about $1.4 million in base salary and Shannon wants about $2 million a year which is a little bit over the ACC average of $1.75 million per year.  Here is the table of coach’s pay in the ACC:

1. Paul Johnson, Georgia Tech. – $2.3 million ($3.33 million possible with bonuses)

2. Jim Grobe, Wake Forest – $2.17 million ($2.5 million)

3. Butch Davis, North Carolina – $2.15 million ($2.26 million)

4. Ralph Friedgen, Maryland – $2.03 million ($2.56 million)

5. Frank Beamer, Virginia Tech – $2 million ($2.42 million)

6. Jimbo Fisher, Florida State – $1.8 million ($2.6 million)

7. Dabo Swinney, Clemson – $1.75 million ($2.63 million)

8. Mike London, Virginia – $1.7 million ($2.27 million)

9. Tom O’Brien, North Carolina State – $1.52 million ($2.63 million)

10. David Cutliffe, Duke – $1.5 milliion ($1.5 million)

11. Randy Shannon – $900,000 ($900,000)*

12. Frank Spaziani – $900,000 ($900,000)

(Data provided by http://www.sun-sentinel.com)

What the administration at the University of Miami are saying to the fans publicly is Randy Shannon is our guy, and he is going to be our coach for a long time!  Well the administration’s actions are saying we want to pay this guy the least amount we can, but put gigantic expectations on him to win and make sure the buyout is small enough so we can easily get rid of him.

$1.4 million is a slap in the face; they are saying that Randy has not done enough to be paid the median salary in the ACC?  I have heard all these Shannon detractors talk about top flight coaches getting it done; well they get paid the salary and are given the resources to get it done.

In Shannon’s case he has not even cracked $1 million dollars per year yet, but Mike London who has not coached a game for UVA is almost at $2 million per.  The new contract they are offering is still less than Jimbo Fisher, Mike London, Dabo Swinney, Tom O’Brien, and David Cutliffe all coaches that have been hired after Shannon.

That is why it will be difficult for Miami to land a big time coach that all the naysayers are clamoring for; they do not want to pay for it.  They pinch pennies where they can, and even though the football program has brought so much into the school they continue to choke it off whenever they get the opportunity.

This is hurting the team on the recruiting trail, and if you notice this year’s recruiting class was the lowest ranked in the Shannon era.  Much of that had to do with the fact that every living room Shannon went into he had to field the questions, are you going to be there when my son graduates?  How do you answer that question confidently without looking like a liar if things change later, uncertainty breeds mediocrity.

I won’t play the racial angle here, but it would be easy for someone to make that case.  The bottom line is the administration at Miami needs to pay Randy Shannon or give him his walking papers, this waffling in the middle looks like the program has no direction and that is as good as blood in the water to the competition.

I will leave you with this tidbit, when Miami played South Florida this past season Jim Leavitt was being paid about $1.3 million dollars per year.  While Randy Shannon at a “better” program, in a tougher conference, and a better record than Leavitt’s team was making a paltry $900,000.  Miami beat USF soundly 31 – 10, and not only that Shannon has out recruited Leavitt every year as well, but still makes less money?

Lastly, if you are going to comment talking about how bad the economy is, and he should be happy to get $1.4 million you just have no understanding of a free market economy.  This is not an economics article, so I won’t get into it here.  If Saban and Meyer can get over $4 million why can’t Shannon get his $2 million?

As much as it may hurt I will be the first to admit it, the Big Ten has been impressive this bowl season.  You can count me in the group of people at the beginning of the season who talked down about the Big Ten.  It was widely discussed in college football circles all season and most believed it to be true.

Well in the Orange Bowl the Big Ten capped off a successful bowl season with Iowa’s 24 – 14 win over ACC champion Georgia Tech.  Not only did the Hawkeye’s win, but they dominated the Nation’s 11th ranked offense, and held them to 156 yards of total offense.  The Yellow Jackets couldn’t get anything going for most of the night, and one of their touchdowns was on an interception return for a touchdown.

Jonathan Dwyer, Josh Nesbitt, Darian Hagan, or Calvin Johnson it wouldn’t have mattered who Georgia Tech put out there on the field tonight.  They were out classed and beaten in just about every phase of the game by Iowa, and they made it look relatively easy doing it.

Many thought before the game that there was no way Iowa would be able to slow down the rushing attack of the Yellow Jackets, but on this night the coaching genius of Kirk Ferentz showed.  The biggest weakness of the Yellow Jackets is when teams have over a week to prepare for their offense, that was the case against Miami and Iowa who shut them down.  You could see that Ferentz and his staff had this team ready to play, and they were focused on assignment football which is essential to stop the spread option attack.

Even if the game was played right after the season ended I don’t think it would have mattered much.  In some ways I think the Big Ten took all of the doubt they received all season, and came into bowl season with a chip on their shoulder.  Let’s take a look at each Big Ten matchup from the bowl season.

The first game was Wisconsin vs. Miami where many picked the Hurricanes to win this game relatively easy (myself included), but Wisconsin dominated the Hurricanes in the trenches the entire game on their way to a 20 – 14 win.  What makes this win even more impressive is Wisconsin fell behind early, and stuck with their game plan picked apart the Miami defense passing to their tight ends and wore down the Hurricanes with their power running game.

The Minnesota Golden Gophers lost to Iowa State 14 – 13 in the Insight bowl, and if not for a fumble by backup QB MarQueis Gray at the Iowa State 17 late in the game the Gophers might have pulled out a victory.

In the Outback Bowl Northwestern narrowly lost to Auburn 38 – 35 when a fake field goal was snuffed out by the Tigers just short of the end zone.  Northwestern trailed by two touchdowns late in the fourth quarter, and managed to send the game into overtime when it looked like the game was out of reach.

Over in Orlando Penn State beat LSU 19 – 17 in the Capital One bowl.  Penn State handled LSU for most of this game, but the Tigers managed to put a drive together in the second half and take the lead.  But Penn State QB Daryll Clark drove the Nittany Lions deep into LSU territory to setup the game winning field goal with 57 seconds left.

The Rose Bowl put Ohio State versus the Oregon Ducks, and the Buckeye’s came out with a 26 – 17 victory.  It was believed that Ohio State would not be able to score enough to keep up with the Ducks high powered offense, but Terrelle Pryor showed he can win games with his arm.

Michigan State posted the worst loss in the bowl season for the Big 10 falling to Texas Tech 41 – 31 in the Valero Alamo Bowl.  The Spartans were leading for a majority of the game, but Texas Tech coming off the emotional firing of their head coach banded together and pulled out the victory.

Then of course the aforementioned Georgia Tech vesus Iowa game discussed earlier in this article.  What makes this bowl run impressive wasn’t the overall record, but instead the fact that no team from the Big Ten was blown out in any of the games.  I can’t think of any game where a Big Ten team was dominated.  All the games were close, and the Big Ten with a few fortunate bounces could have gone undefeated in bowl season.

There will still be many pundits and disbelievers in what the Big Ten accomplished, but you have to say the represented themselves well while other conferences like the PAC-10 and ACC had several underwhelming performances.  These conferences did not put themselves in great situations as both of them were viewed equal or better than the Big Ten top to bottom this season.

This will come into play for pre-season rankings next season, and by now we should all know the importance of those rankings whether we like it or not.  If a team starts the season ranked highly, then they have a much better chance of being in a position to play for a National Title.

With the Big Ten’s overall performance during bowl season especially with big wins over the ACC, PAC-10, and SEC schools the pollsters may put several Big Ten teams in great position for a title run.  Bowl season should have no bearing on what happens next season, but its common knowledge that pollsters are swayed by such things.

This will open the debate for next season, which conference will be better?  The Big Ten has most of it’s top players coming back on it’s top teams pending players declaring for the NFL, and Michigan showed flashes of being relevant again.  Does that mean the Big Ten is poised to take over as the number one conference coming into next season?