Miami's revived offense, Florida's question mark, poll insight, more

PRINT EMAIL FACEBOOK DIGG TWITTER RSS SHARE

Miami sophomore QB Jacory Harris glides across the field and makes long passes seem effortless, much like a lankier JaMarcus Russell. Doug Benc/Getty Images Stewart Mandel's Mailbag Submit a question or an opinion to Stewart. Name: Email: Hometown: Question: SEND Follow Stewart Mandel on Twitter

This was supposed to be Tebow/McCoy/Bradford: Year II. But during this early part of the season, while the Florida and Texas QBs have remained largely quiet and the reigning Heisman winner has been relegated to a sling, a new cast of quarterbacks has captured our attention.

Jake Locker. Tony Pike. Case Keenum. Ryan Mallett. And of course the Miami sophomore who, on Labor Day night, torched rival Florida State for 386 yards, then followed up with a Thursday-night masterpiece (20-of-25 for 270 yards and three touchdowns) against Georgia Tech.

And yet, it seems some of you still doubt Jacory Harris.

I was very impressed with Miami's dismantling of Georgia Tech. What I can't figure out is if Jacory Harris is for real. Every throw he made seemed to be to a wide-open receiver -- and I mean no defender within three strides. Do you think Jacory is a stud, or is a lot of this the work of new offensive coordinator Mark Whipple?
-- Matt, Gainesville, Fla.

No quarterback can succeed entirely on his own. Of course Whipple has played a role in Harris' success. But that's not the whole story. In Miami's first two games, three things have been abundantly evident:

1) Whipple is a masterful play-caller. After years of watching the same, predictable pro-style offense, it's been refreshing to watch Miami mix things up. Sometimes Harris is under center. Sometimes he's in the shotgun on first down. On one play Whipple will spread three receivers wide, the next he's featuring two tight ends. Harris play-fakes on first down. He makes short throws. He airs it out. The opposing defense must constantly guess what's coming next.

2) Miami's offensive line is rock-solid. The 'Canes have allowed just one sack. Georgia Tech's Derrick Morgan, who had five sacks in the Jackets' first two games, was rendered a non-factor against Miami. Credit left tackle Jason Fox, who has started 38 games in his career, and veteran left guard Orlando Franklin, who clearly have that unit clicking.

3) The receivers have gotten a lot better. Miami always boasts athletic receivers -- but that hasn't always guaranteed productivity. See the brutal Lance Legget/Sam Shields era. Travis Benjamin and LaRon Byrd have gone from promising but inconsistent freshmen to big-time playmakers as sophomores. Like Matt said, these guys, along with previous afterthought Leonard Hankerson, were running wide open all night long against the Yellow Jackets.

With all that said, Harris is clearly the guy who makes it all go. The way he glides across the field and makes all those long passes seem effortless reminds me of a lankier JaMarcus Russell. And it's not like Harris hasn't made some difficult throws -- like this one on the game-winning drive against Florida State.

This week, we'll see if he can keep it up against some real pressure. On Saturday, Miami travels to Virginia Tech. Whereas Bobby Bowden admitted his team got no pass-rush in the opener, and Georgia Tech, as mentioned, barely touched Harris, Hokies pass-rushers Cody Grimms and Jason Worilds will be coming after Harris like they did Nebraska's Zac Lee, who endured a miserable 11-of-30, two-interception day in Blacksburg last Saturday.

But that's where Whipple comes in. He's watched the tape. He knows Virginia Tech's first three opponents have rushed for a combined 200.3 yards per game. Don't expect to see Harris back there chucking it as much this week. His job will be to avoid mistakes, make a few big throws and keep things cool in the huddle when Lane Stadium starts rocking.

When will someone in the media finally start to realize USC's offense began a slow decline after Pete Carroll forced out Norm Chow and has now accelerated with the last of Chow's protégés (Steve Sarkisian) leaving? If anything, shouldn't this solidify Chow as the best college offensive coordinator ever and Carroll as maybe overrated?
-- Troy, Laguna Niguel, Calif.

I have nothing but the highest respect for Chow, and what you say may be true. But couldn't one also make the following assertion: that "USC's offense began a slow decline" when one of the greatest collections of skill players ever assembled on one team -- Matt Leinart, Reggie Bush, LenDale White, Steve Smith and Dwayne Jarrett -- left? Ever since that 2003-05 run, when the Trojans went 37-2, won two national titles and played for a third, everyone has just assumed USC would keep reloading without skipping a beat. Has anyone ever stopped to consider that the aforementioned group -- which, incidentally, posted its most productive season the year after Chow's departure -- has been pretty darn tough to replicate?

Obviously, this season's offense is off to a particularly inauspicious start, and while I had no problem with Carroll anointing freshman Matt Barkley his opening-day quarterback, last week's handling of Aaron Corp (keeping him in the dark about whether he'd start until the last possible moment) was bizarre. Meanwhile, the jury is still out on an equally big decision: hiring 33-year-old wunderkind Jeremy Bates as his play-caller. Whereas Sarkisian and Lane Kiffin were hand-groomed by Carroll, Bates is an NFLer, fresh from the Denver Broncos. It was obvious against both Ohio State and Washington, when he put extremely conservative game-plans into action. That hasn't usually been Carroll's style.

It's way too early to go passing judgment on Bates' hire, but it does feel like the offense has reached a crossroads. These are not the Leinart-Bush Trojans, but if they don't at least match the John David Booty era, Carroll will have some serious questions to answer.

Does the Washington win have you reconsidering labeling LSU overrated? Does it take Ohio State down a notch? Or would doing either of those overestimate the importance of one game?
-- Eric D., Gainesville, Fla.

Bingo. If LSU's only game so far was the Washington game, then yes, we'd have to look at in a whole new light. But when I say the Tigers are overrated -- and to be clear, by "overrated" I don't mean "complete fraud," but rather not yet the seventh-best team in the country -- I'm looking at their whole body of work. I see a team that's still highly suspect on offense (they currently rank 90th nationally at 325.7 yards per game). Les Miles expressed dissatisfaction this week with both the running and passing game. However, the one aberration from the Washington game was LSU's defense, which was hardly the first or last to struggle against Jake Locker and has played much better since.

And the same goes for Ohio State. If you judged the Buckeyes in a vacuum, you might say, "Hey, that defensive performance against USC doesn't seem so special anymore after Washington did the same thing." But as you may have noticed, Ohio State went out the next week and shut out Toledo, no small feat considering the Rockets came into the game having scored 85 points against Purdue and Colorado. The Buckeyes remain exactly where I thought they were after the USC game: a top 15 team with a chance to get much better by year's end.