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Miami QB Brad Kaaya in danger of sophomore slump with Hurricanes

By David Albiani

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Is Miami Hurricanes quarterback Brad Kaaya in danger of having a sophomore slump?

Quarterback is the most important position in sports. They touch the ball on every play, must limit turnovers, have a high football intelligence level, lead the team and have a strong work ethic.  The problem is good quarterbacks do not grow on trees and are hard to find. They also must be developed as they take time to mature.

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Going into the 2014 season the Miami Hurricanes had just lost starting quarterback Stephen Morris and were looking at candidates for the starting job. Replacing Morris was not going to be easy as Morris had been the Canes starting quarterback in 2011 and 2012, while also landing on the All-ACC third team in 2012. Morris was very athletic, had good size and a very strong arm.

Enter Brad Kaaya. He came in as a true freshman in 2014 and won the starting job with Al Golden deciding the future was now for Kaaya. He had a solid build, good football acumen and an extremely quick and efficient release. He also showed poise beyond his years, specifically playing well during the Thursday night prime time football game against Florida State. He showed a remarkable ability to limit turnovers, but also choose when to take necessary risks for the offense to move forward and score points.

Last season Kaaya’s touchdown to interception ratio was 26-12, but he also threw at least one touchdown in every game. More impressively, Kaaya never threw more than two interceptions in any game, and after throwing seven interceptions in the first four games, threw just five in the next nine games.

Now Kaaya isn’t going to take off and run very much as his longest run was five yards all year and he had just two games he finished with positive rushing yards all season. (a whopping 5 yards and 1 yards against Florida State and Pittsburgh)

These numbers are all great and you are probably wondering how I could make the argument that he will decline in 2015, after all most people improve and not get regress. Well let’s start with the supporting cast.

Miami Hurricanes
Miami Hurricanes /

Miami Hurricanes

Last season the Hurricanes main weapons were running back Duke Johnson (1st team All-ACC) , receiver Phillip Dorsett (2nd team All-ACC) and tight end Clive Walford (2nd team All-ACC). In addition they also had a stud blind side tackle in Ereck Flowers, who was also an All-ACC Second Team performer.

Flowers repeatedly kept Kaaya’s uniform clean against the best the ACC had to offer and allowed them much more time to throw deep passes to Dorsett. Furthermore, the trio of offensive weapons mentioned above combined for 3,620 total yards and 30 touchdowns last season. That production was the result of having arguably the top player at each of their respective positions.

This is important because this season he is unlikely to have the top players at those positions and he will once again have to build chemistry with the players replacing them. He also must get used to the fact his left tackle may not be as good as Flowers, meaning he may begin to feel ghosts if the performance is not consistent, resulting in him not keeping his eyes down field, rushing decisions or trying to salvage plays that aren’t there. There is also a higher chance for injury should the performance falter.

Moreover, there is also the schedule the Hurricanes must overcome. This season the Hurricanes play a brutal stretch of games including at Florida State, vs Virginia Tech, vs Clemson, at Duke, vs Georgia Tech and at Pittsburgh. That is a brutal stretch and they also have to play against Virginia and at North Carolina.

Neither of those games may seem tough as North Carolina’s defense leaves something to be desired, but they score in bunches putting pressure on Kaaya to keep up. Additionally, Virginia always has a relatively good defense and should be able to keep the Hurricanes out of the end zone on some possessions, pressuring Kaaya into bad decisions on occasion.

This schedule puts incredible pressure on Kaaya to lead this offense, which figures to take a step back as it is due to their defections.

The last reason is that, although this point is overstated often it has some merit here, and that is that there is now film on him. That can be a huge advantage when some coordinators do not have a lot of tape to go off when devising a scheme. This time the coordinators now have a full offseason to build a game plan against Kaaya, resulting in more diverse coverages and exotic blitz packages. This will really test his football intelligence and his dedication to reviewing his film and working on his game after making mistakes.

This season may be a trying one for Miami football and could be the end of the tenure for Al Golden. Kaaya will be key to their results and if he goes in the direction I believe he is headed then Miami football fans will continue to be disappointed in a program that has continuously been underachieving under both Randy Shannon and now Golden.

Next: Top 10 Coaches on the hot seat entering 2015

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