Five topics to expect for Miami Football at 2019 ACC Kickoff

A year ago the Miami football program was coming off of a 10-3 season, ACC Coastal Division title and Mark Richt, Ahmmon Richards and Jaquan Johnson were the Hurricanes representatives at ACC Kickoff days. What a difference a year makes.

Mark Richt retired after the Miami football program turned a three-game losing streak to end 2017 into a 7-6 season. Jaquan Johnson graduated after leading the Hurricanes in tackles as a junior and senior in 2017 and 2018 and Ahmmon Richards had to retire from football because of a neck injury.

Manny Diaz has replaced Richt as head coach, moving up from defensive coordinator following a 17-day stint as the head coach at Temple. Graduate transfer wide receiver K.J. Osborn is representing the Miami offense in Charlotte. A year ago Osborn was playing for Buffalo.

Four-year starting linebacker Shaq Quarterman is representing the defense. Quarterman is the perfect spokesman for the Miami defense. Quarterman has started all 39 of his games with the Hurricanes during his career. He has been named All-ACC in each of his three seasons at Miami.

Quarterman has gone from third to second to first-team All-ACC. He should finally challenge to earn All-American honors this season. Quarterman has been second on Miami in tackles in each of his three seasons with the Hurricanes.

Osborn was a questionable choice to represent the Miami offense. It could have been a strategic decision. The Hurricanes offense was abysmal last season. Osborn was in Buffalo during the ineptness of that offense. Osborn won’t be able to speak much from experience what went wrong with the Miami offense in 2018.

The more logical choice to represent the Miami offense in Charlotte would have been junior running back DeeJay Dallas. Dallas was Miami’s second-leading rusher in 2018. He projects to take over as the Hurricanes starting running back replacing Travis Homer in 2019.