2008 Miami Hurricane
Written July 11, 2008 by Jason Lowry
Football season is right around the corner and Jason Lowry is ready to bring you his 2008 Miami Hurricane football preview. The Hurricanes are coming off another terrible season by their standards, as they finished the season going 5-7 and were only 2-6 in the ACC Coastal. Things aren’t looking much better for the Hurricanes in 2008, as they only return 11 starters in Randy Shannon’s second season as head coach. To get a good idea at what the Hurricanes will look like next season, we are going to take a closer look at what they will be lining up with on both sides of the ball.
Offense:
The offense only brings back 5 starters which will won’t help, but they do have one of the best backs in the ACC in junior Javarris James, and on top of that they got a pretty solid backup in sophomore Graig Cooper. If redshirt freshman Robert Marve can be the leader at quarterback this team is needing than things won’t be so bad on this side of the ball. Marve will be throwing to a fairly young receiving corp that is led by returning starter Sam Shields, but expect to see plenty of action to sophomore Leonard Hankerson and freshman Aldarius Johnson. The offensive line is pretty young and only returns two starters in right tackle Reggie Youngblood and left tackle Jason Fox, but there are a lot of people pretty high on the young sophomore Orlando Franklin at the left guard spot.
Defense:
It doesn’t get much better on this side of the ball with only 6 guys coming back from last year, but this side of the ball should be much improved from last season. The defensive line only returns two starters, but one of them is senior defensive end Eric Moncur who had 6 sacks a season ago. The team will be going young at the two open spots in sophomore defensive end Allen Bailey and freshman defensive tackle Marcus Forston. The Hurricanes should be above average at the linebacker spot, as they do have 3 solid players led by senior Glenn Cook and junior Darryl Sharpton, but the Hurricanes have what many say is the best linebacking recruiting class coming into this season.The secondary isn’t full of great talent but they should play pretty good as a whole. They return both starters at the corner spot, and it looks like Senior Randy Phillips will take over at the Strong saftety spot while fellow senior Lovon Ponder takes over at the free spot.
Prediction: 4th In ACC Coastal
This team is much better than what they put on the field last season, but they are still too young to be in the top 3 again. The Hurricanes need to get back in the right direction that had them not only winning but a national title contender. We think that Miami is going to likely win around 6-7 games and likely go 4-4 in the ACC.
If you are looking for a great site to get a jump start on the upcoming football season, head over to BetUS.com and get signed up today. Also be sure to check back soon as we get finished up with our NCAA predictions, as Jason Lowry will start on his NFL predictions.
