Miami Football 2011: Why Were the Canes Left out of the First Coaches' Poll?

The USA Today Coaches Poll came out today and the Miami Hurricanes were missing from the list.

Other major publications, such as Athlon and Lindy's, have Miami ranked in the top 25 due to the quality of players that are coming back from last year's 7-6 team.

Those players that have been put on award watch lists include, Ray Ray Armstrong, Brandon Washington, Sean Spence, Marcus Forston, Lamar Miller, Ramon Buchanan, Tyler Horn and Seantrel Henderson.

This doesn't mean that they are all going to win the awards, but it does mean that the committees truly believe that these players are good enough to win them.

Maybe it's the new coaching staff that has the voters unsure of Miami, although Al Golden turned a very bad Temple football (3-31 the three previous years) team to a 9-3 bowl team in his last year coaching there.

Then I was thinking maybe the reason is the questionable quarterback play as both quarterbacks threw for more interceptions than touchdowns last year.

The problem with this is Jacory Harris has proven he can play at a major college like Miami.

Just go back two years when he become the first quarterback since 2003 to throw for 3,000 yards, fourth-best in Miami history.

In that same sophomore year, Harris also had 24 touchdowns and completed 60 percent of his passes, but then threw for 17 interceptions.

Many people thought that Harris was the answer last year so Miami came into the year ranked 13th.

As we all know that did not work out and after the four interception game against the Buckeyes in the second game of the year, Harris was never the same.

Morris came in as a true freshman midway through the season and replaced the injured Harris and did an admirable job considering he got thrown into the wolves.

Miami has other question marks, especially at cornerback and depth at wide receiver, but not enough to where they would be placed behind three schools that didn't even have winning records last year.

Even Florida was given the No. 23 ranking and they not only have a new coach, but they are having to learn to play a totally new offensive scheme.

In my honest opinion, Miami should have at least been ranked in the top 20, but as everyone knows, it doesn't matter where you start a season, it only matters where you finish.