Thread: Herbstreit: A six-win Miami season would be outstanding

CORAL GABLES — With the final scrimmage coming up Saturday and just over two weeks until kickoff at Boston College, it’s time to get real. How good will this Miami football team really be?

That was one of the questions I posed ESPN analyst Kirk Herbstreit this afternoon in a quick phone interview. It was time to get some fresh eyes on the situation — someone from outside the bubble. He was honest about the Hurricanes’ success potential.

“I think it’s going to be a long year,” Herbstreit said. It’s incredible, I think, the challenge Al Golden has with that they’re trying to achieve this year. … I think if they’re a .500 team this year, I think that would be an outstanding year.”

Having so many young players potentially stepping into major roles will make for growing pains, Herbstreit said.

“From following the game so long, it’s very rare to see young players step in right away, especially when you have a big group of them. When I look at them on paper, you don’t know a lot of the names so it’s unfair to say they’re not talented or they can’t live up to the lofty standards of The U, but looking at the names that you see, there’s really nobody that stands out to me that strikes fear into the defense.

“Until they prove that, I think what they’ll face is a lot of 8-men up in the box trying to stop the running game and trying to get Stephen Morris into those 3-and-6, 3rd-and-7 situations and blitz him like crazy. Until the receivers can prove that they can get away from man-coverage, until this offense shows it can throw the football consistently, I think people will try to load up and close down the opportunity for this offense to make anything happen in the running game and put it all on Stephen Morris and the passing game.”

Now a decade after playing for its last national title, Herbstreit said the secret for Miami’s return to glory is not hard to decipher.

“They’ve got to get this whole Shapiro thing behind them. I think it’s impossible to know how long that’s going to take. They need that dark cloud to just go away. That whole thing — when they’re still investigating — it makes you really look at the Penn State thing and really go, ‘wow, that was fast.’ This Miami thing has been going on for over a year. It’s the fear of the unknown that has such a negative impact on recruiting and the brand.”

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Kirk picked us to beat FSU back in 2010 as well. I like Kirk points but there are just too many unknowns this season. I believe he is trying to be PC and neutral in picking a 6-6 season.

Good points considering you have 30 incoming freshman.We can be stout on defense, but it all lies on the offense again.

I really hope that Miami can surprise people, especially now Herbstreit, and win a couple more than 6 games. An 8 win season would be nice, but I just don't know. The defense is always good-great, but I agree with FlipT that the offense needs to step it up. Not sure if Stephen Morris will start the season under-center, but if we do, let's see how he does with his first full season of starting. He did well, at times, last year, but still has a way to go. Same goes for whoever else might start.

I thought this was a pretty fair article that's why i shared it. We cant expect to much this season when we have freshmen and sophmores all over the 2 deep. JMO if we can get through september with a couple wins this team should get better as the year goes on.

It is funny Kirk was asked about Miami. Just about every UM prediction he has made over the past decade has been wrong (obviously he was predicting success most of the time) so statistically speaking he is probably the worst person to give insight into UM.

Punishment1o1, Morris will be the starter. The coaching staff has already said as much.

Originally Posted by Punishment1o1

I really hope that Miami can surprise people, especially now Herbstreit, and win a couple more than 6 games. An 8 win season would be nice, but I just don't know. The defense is always good-great, but I agree with FlipT that the offense needs to step it up. Not sure if Stephen Morris will start the season under-center, but if we do, let's see how he does with his first full season of starting. He did well, at times, last year, but still has a way to go. Same goes for whoever else might start.

He has already been named the starter for this season...

GO CANES!!!!!!

I think 6-6 has to be attained, for team mindset, national perception & the almighty bowl ban.

But the more I consider that more than 1/3 of the team is about to play their first college snaps in two weeks, the more I shudder at the present & am very excited about the future.

Originally Posted by Ed La Fave

It is funny Kirk was asked about Miami. Just about every UM prediction he has made over the past decade has been wrong (obviously he was predicting success most of the time) so statistically speaking he is probably the worst person to give insight into UM.

Punishment1o1, Morris will be the starter. The coaching staff has already said as much.

It does usually result in Herbie being a bit of a homer. Dude likes Miami, it is what it is.. He's caught MUCH flak from Ohio State fans over it.

Thought it was worth pointing out a subtlety that some folks might have missed...

Guys like Herbstreit, Odoi, etc say that 6-6 would be a good year for Miami. As a result I've read a few comments that seem to think they're predicting 6-6. In actually they're predicting 4-8 or 5-7 because they think 6-6 would be a big accomplishment not the expectation.