Miami enters spring football on the cusp of being back. Here are the five storylines Hurricanes fans should follow this spring.
Miami head football coach Mark Richt returned home to repair a broken Hurricanes program. When Richt took over in Coral Gables the roster had talent but there were gaps in recruiting, fundraising and aged facilities.
Richt put his money where his mouth was and donated $1 million of his own money to improve facilities. He took over a Miami program ranked 47th by Bill C’s S&P+ analytics back in 2015, and now Miami is the early pre-season 13th overall by those same metrics. The Canes’ recruiting has jumped up along with their win total driven by the Turnover Chain.
In order to knock off the Clemson Tigers as the ACC’s elite program, Miami will have to continue their recruiting prowess but also develop and deploy those talents at another level. A program is only as good as its offensive and defensive lines and Miami’s offensive line has been a weak point over the past decade. However, offensive line coach Stacy Searels has put together a solid starting five for his third year in Coral Gables.
Miami is vastly improved from the Shannon and Golden eras but not quite back to perennial top-five status. Here are the five storylines to follow heading into spring football in 2018.