"“We’re not saying these are sleeper Playoff teams. They’re the chaos agents, the teams with enough talent and opportunity to challenge their conference’s frontrunners and disrupt the standings. These are the teams who look just good enough to mess everything up and make all the cautious preseason picks look foolish.”"
Staples published a lengthy profile on why he believes Miami has a chance to have a season like 2017 when the Hurricanes won their first 10 games and were second in the first College Football Playoff standings that season to Alabama. The new offense, confidence in the Miami defense and added talent are why Staples is confident.
"Miami “The Hurricanes are finally running the type of offense they should have been running 10 years ago, and instead of trying to retcon a quarterback into new coordinator Rhett Lashlee’s scheme, they went out and found a signal caller with experience in spread offenses. D’Eriq King ran three different spread offenses at Houston, and he had the most success in the one coordinated in 2018 by Kendal Briles. The offense Rhett Lashlee brings to Miami isn’t identical, but it has the same basic ethos of using between-the-tackles running to set up downfield throws.”"
The hiring of Lashlee might be the most important move Manny Diaz makes during his Miami football tenure. Lashlee ran the ninth-best offense in the country at SMU last season.
Lashlee is a spread offense guru and King might be the best QB he works up to this point of his career. King will help the Miami rushing offense.
Miami: always above average, almost never great. And over the last two years especially, the offense was wholly responsible for the lack of greatness. Do D'Eriq King and Rhett Lashlee change that? pic.twitter.com/nuw6v4wxMo
— Bill Connelly (@ESPN_BillC) September 3, 2020
"“You’ll know the offense is working if the Hurricanes have success on the ground. Lashlee comes from the Gus Malzahn tree, where the guiding principle is to spread the field to leave the defense light in the box for inside runs. Then, when the defense brings a seventh player into the box, the aerial show begins. Much of this will depend on an offensive line that struggled publicly last year, but this group should be better. Our Miami beat writer Manny Navarro believes left tackle John Campbell will be the Hurricanes’ most pleasant surprise this season, and right tackle Jarrid Williams is a Houston transfer familiar with blocking for King. Tailback Cam’ron Harris might be the biggest beneficiary of the schematic shift. Harris averaged 5.1 yards a carry in a barely functional offense last season. (We’ll pause here to imagine what DeeJay Dallas would have done in an offense that can turn backs into stars.) Harris and his new QB should thrive if the Hurricanes take to the run-first principles of Lashlee’s offense.”"
Lashlee has called his offense a power spread. King, Harris and freshmen Jaylan Knighton and Don Chaney junior can make Miami dynamic and explosive on the ground. In the Lashlee offense being able to run the football is critical to open up the deep passing game. SMU was one of the top passing teams throwing deep in 2019.
The Miami football team suffered losses on defense with redshirt sophomore defensive end Greg Rousseau who was destined for an All-American season and the graduations of four-year starting linebackers Shaq Quarterman and Michael Pinckney. During the Manny Diaz era, the defense has been constant and that should continue.
"“Even without Rousseau, the Hurricanes have help emerging from the transfer portal that should allow them to terrorize opposing quarterbacks. Quincy Roche had 13 sacks, a forced fumble, two fumble recoveries and six pass breakups at Temple. Meanwhile, UCLA transfer Jaelan Phillips is a former five-star recruit who has waited a year to prove that he can live up to his high school hype. The 6-foot-5 Phillips left UCLA after the 2018 season weighing 245 pounds. He’s up to 265 now, which makes him better suited to come off the edge, and to set the edge, in Miami’s even-front base defense. Besides, defense hasn’t been Miami’s issue. Since head coach Manny Diaz arrived in 2016 (then as the defensive coordinator), the Hurricanes have ranked in the top 12 in the nation every season in fewest yards per play allowed.”"