Miami Hurricanes Football: Is It Time To Bench Jacory Harris?
The Miami Hurricanes had a fairly convincing victory over the Clemson Tigers on Saturday, but the game was much closer than it needed to be. The primary reason for this is miscues on the offensive side of the ball, and the penalties that continue to be racked up by the Hurricanes. Let’s be honest though, the real problem is Jacory Harris and his decision making. That is the #1 thing that will keep this team from making any noise in the polls this season.
Harris threw two more interceptions in the game against Clemson, which brings his season total to eight. He can be forgiven for some of the interceptions in the Ohio State game because of mistakes by the wide receivers, but the last four he has thrown were avoidable and were squarely his fault. Many have defended Harris over the past month hoping he would get better, but after this last game it is apparent that there is an issue.
.jpg?w=256 "Ohio State Team Doctor")
We don’t want to pile on Harris here, but it seems to the naked eye that he is just throwing passes up for grabs hoping to connect on a bomb. He hooked up on two to Leonard Hankerson against Clemson which broke the game open early, but the countless times where he dropped back and just threw the ball 30 or 40 yards became a bit too common. The commentators calling the game tried to explain it by saying that “it’s part of Miami’s offense”, and that Randy Shannon and Mark Whipple expect Harris to throw these passes deep.
This just proves just because you are calling a game does not mean that you always know what you are talking about, there are deep routes on almost every pass play. These routes are called to stretch out the defense and create windows for the quarterback to complete shorter passes, and occasionally when a deep route comes open you throw it. Harris behaves like the deep route is the first option on every pass play, other than screen passes. You could easily see that he would drop back, lock onto a deep target and just throw the ball up hoping for a miracle. A vast majority of these passes were nowhere near being a completion, batted down, or intercepted.
It is inherently obvious that Harris is making careless decisions, and lacks patience on pass plays. There were several situations where shorter routes were open, and Harris went for the home run. All of this contributes to the mistakes on the offense, because Harris throws deep all the time the lineman have to hold blocks for longer periods of time. This leads to the numerous holding penalties called on the Hurricanes, and the false start penalties because lineman were anticipating blocking for a longer period of time.
Harris does not seem to be a man in control of the offense; he plays like a player who knows that he will not be benched. That fact is probably true; there are not many scenarios where Harris will not be quarterbacking this team, which may be the source of the problem. The lack of anyone at the quarterback position to push Harris for the starting position may be a problem, what is the incentive for Harris to get better at making decisions? He has no fear of being benched, so why not just throw it deep every play?
The Hurricanes appear to be stuck with Harris as he gives the team the best chance to win at this point, but it will be tough sledding in big games unless Harris improves his decision making. The Clemson game could have been a two or three touchdown blowout, but with the interceptions and impatience shown on offense it kept the Tigers in the game. The better teams the Hurricanes will face down the line will capitalize on those mistakes, as it is clear that Harris has almost regressed in his development since last season. He has all the tools to be a great college quarterback, but his decision making is keeping him as a mediocre one.
Check out More Sports Articles From the Sports Session:
.jpg?w=480 "Ohio State Team Doctor")
