A season in review.
• The Expectations. There was little sign this summer of the goodwill that accompanied unanimous top-20 projections in 2010, and whatever there was after the flop that cost coach Randy Shannon his job went up fast in the flames of the most sprawling NCAA scandal in at least 25 years. Nine months after accepting the job, the theme of Al Golden's first season as head coach shifted from "rebuilding" to "survival."
But even the vengeful ghost of Nevin Shapiro was far too late to diminish the lingering expectations for Shannon's first full recruiting class, a 33-man haul that arrived in 2008 stocked with local talent and hailed as arguably the best class in the nation. Three years later, the core of that crop remained for Golden, led by five entrenched starters from nearby Northwestern High facing their last chance to live up to the hype.
• The Facts. Of the 60-plus Miami players implicated in Shapiro's allegations, 16 were listed on the preseason roster. Nine of them — safety Ray-Ray Armstrong, wide receiver Travis Benjamin, defensive end Dyron Dye, defensive tackle Marcus Forston, quarterback Jacory Harris, wide receiver Aldarius Johnson, defensive end Adewale Ojomo, linebacker Sean Spence and defensive end Olivier Vernon — wound up missing at least one game for their involvement, a roll call that included the starting quarterback, his leading returning receiver from 2010 and seven returning starters on defense, two of whom were preseason All-ACC picks by conference media types. Altogether, suspensions and injuries cost 13 regular starters more than 60 games between them, an average of nearly five games apiece.
Accordingly, the season was up-and-down mess: The only "streak" — winning or losing — came courtesy of back-to-back wins over North Carolina and Georgia Tech in mid-October. With bookend losses to Maryland in the opener and Boston College in the finale, the 'Canes limped in at 6-6, their fifth season in the last six with at least six losses, and their second without a bowl game.
• Positive Spin. Sophomore Lamar Miller was one of the most pleasant surprises in the ACC, putting a pair of injury plagued seasons behind him with seven 100-yard games on the ground — including a 184-yard romp in the win over Ohio State and 166 yards at Virginia Tech. His total for the year (1,272 yards on 227 carries) was the third-best rushing season in Miami history, behind only Willis McGahee in 2002 and Edgerrin James in 1998, and gave the offense a consistent, physical presence between the tackles it never had under Shannon.
Jacory Harris spent most of the season in the "pleasant surprise" category, too, quietly overcoming his reputation as a turnover-prone punchline with one of the most efficient seasons of any ACC quarterback. Heading into the finale, Harris had 19 touchdown passes to just five picks in his first ten starts, including multiple scoring strikes against Ohio State, Kansas State, Virginia Tech, North Carolina and Virginia. Under the circumstances, he may have been the most improved quarterback in college football.
• Negative Spin. Miller and Harris couldn't lift the offense as a whole out of the bottom half of the conference rankings, and didn't get much bang for their buck when they did show up: Three of the U's six losses came with the offense putting up more than 400 yards on more than seven yards per play. Under any circumstances, the losses to Maryland and Boston College — two teams that combined to go 2-18 against the rest of the Football Bowl Subdivision, including BC's win over Maryland — are two of the worst losses suffered by any team this year.
Still, the lame-duck finish is all the more disappointing considering how close the 'Canes were to a breakthrough over the first half of the season: With most of the suspended players back in the fold, they shut down Ohio State, beat North Carolina and Georgia Tech and played the two best teams on the schedule (Kansas State and Virginia Tech) to the final gun. The cracks were all too evident down the stretch, though, beginning with a Thursday night loss to Virginia on Oct. 27.
From there, they dropped the rivalry match to Florida State, barely escaped a second connective loss to South Florida in a 6-3 debacle and basically packed it in for the finale, where Jacory Harris returned to form by serving up four picks in his final college game. By the end, pulling the plug on a bowl game felt like a relief.
• The Takeaway. Before the scandal, Miami had a reputation as an elite talent magnet that's been unable to convert its potential into actual results, and to a large extent, that's true. But the Hurricanes' absence from the higher reaches of the polls in January has coincided directly with their decline in the recruiting rankings in February: Only one of the five recruiting classes feeding into this fall's roster — the hyped crop of 2008 — has arrived ranked among Rivals' top 15 classes nationally. It was also the only class under Randy Shannon that consisted mainly of four and five-star signees. And even then, only barely.
The contributors in the '08 class are all on their way out now, with nothing to show for the last four years except a few bit parts in the scandal that threatens to bring down the program. Lamar Miller is on his way out, too, leaving two years of eligibility on the table to declare for the draft while the gettin's good. Through no fault of his own, Golden is left with an underachieving program that has mold growing in the cupboards and not much hope of replacing them anytime soon.
In a case the size of the Shapiro Affair, a verdict from the NCAA is still a long time coming. But Golden made no discernible progress in his first year and has no good reason to expect it in the foreseeable future. In the meantime, the hovering cloud he inherited over Coral Gables is only getting darker.
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Matt Hinton is on Facebook and Twitter: Follow him @DrSaturday.