Marve is Hurricanes’ starting QB … just not this week
Robert Marve has been named the starting quarterback of the Miami Hurricanes, but the redshirt freshman won’t be on the field when the Canes open their season Thursday against Charleston Southern.
True freshman Jacory Harris will start Thursday’s game and will be Marve’s backup this season, although Harris will see action in every game. Coach Randy Shannon said Marve will return as the starter the following week against Florida no matter how Harris performs.
Marve is one of seven suspended Hurricanes for Thursday’s game, Miami’s first as the new co-tenant of Dolphin Stadium. Marve will be benched for an off-field legal incident that occurred last October (charges were dropped), leading some to question why Shannon waited so long.
“Robert Marve will be our starting quarterback for the season… . We have two great quarterbacks,” Shannon said. “They did a great job of competing and getting this team ready to play. Jacory Harris will play in every game that we play this season. Robert Marve will be the starter. We will not have a controversy.”
Shannon said he waited until nearly 10 months later to tell Marve because “I wanted him to have a competition. Just to compete, like normal.” The coach said he knew all along he was going to suspend Marve because he broke team rules.
The other players suspended: running back Damien Berry, receiver Kayne Farquharson, fullback Eric Houston, long snapper Chris Ivory, defensive end Adewale Ojomo, and safety Randy Phillips. The possible starters among them were Farquharson, Phillips and Ojomo.
Shannon also released his starting lineups. With senior Eric Moncur and sophomore Allen Bailey not expected to play at defensive end (both projected starters are banged up), Miami will have true freshmen in three of the four end spots on the two-deep roster.
The Hurricanes also have 13 true freshmen either first or second team.
These suspensions won’t hurt UM against Charleston Southern, an overmatched I-AA team (I’ll never say Bowl Subdivison, etc.), but not getting Marve any game experience won’t help for next week’s game at Florida.
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Eddie
It’s a little strange to me that they wait this long to announce the suspension, considering how long ago the incident happened.
Nothing wrong with the punishment, and in the end, it’s better that it comes against Charleston Southern and not UF…but it doesn’t exactly help his cause that he won’t have been able to get his feet wet before he goes to the Swamp.
August 26th, 2008 at 7:33 pm