Randy Shannon Staying With Multiple Quarterbacks

Stubbornness and genius aren’t separated by very much and while it is still too early to tell Miami Hurricanes Head Coach Randy Shannon is walking that fine line. After last year’s dual quarterback experiment yielded a 5-7 record Shannon is going down the road of multiple quarterbacks again in 2008.

Robert Marve, Jacory Harris and Cannon Smith are all competing for the starting job while another will be chosen for spot duty in order to get game experience. The reason why is because Miami was left with a stable of young quarterbacks after the graduation of Kyle Wright and the transfer of Kirby Freeman to Baylor.

“Whichever quarterback that we name, we’re going to play the other one,” Shannon said earlier this week noting that he needs experience at the position.

“We need depth at every position on the field and that’s the one position that we don’t have depth at because they’re young. They’re good quarterbacks, but they’re young. “We can’t go into the season not getting this other guy any experience and then have something unforeseen happen, like it always does in football,” Shannon added. “So we’re going to make sure both get reps.”

The problem with this approach is that there is a very real possibility that one guy could be having an off-day while the backup makes some plays during his spot duty. From that point on you have fans making the backup the most popular guy on the team and a starter who begins to look over his shoulder with every mistake. With young guys this is a situation that could leave irreparable damage.

The best thing that could happen for the Hurricanes is that there is some significant separation among the three quarterbacks by the time the season starts on August 28th. That way there is less of a chance that a backup would get playing time during any crucial moments of a game.