00:00All right. The college football season will begin next week. It's week zero. And then week one begins. And then just when you think week one is over, it doesn't end because August 31st, University of Miami Hurricane is going to square off with the Notre Dame Fighting Irish. That's the lone game on Sunday night of week one of the college football season.
00:18Let's get the very latest on the Hurricanes with Manny Navarro from The Athletic, who has covered South Florida sports and the Hurricanes for decades. And he joins me here on the show. And I don't want to make you feel old, Manny, but thank you for coming on Newswire. It's great to catch up.
00:33Great to catch up with you, Craig. And you don't need to make me feel old. I can see my gray beard in the reflection here. So I know I'm old.
00:39Not that old. Still doing your thing, man. All right. So, you know, I mean, you kind of nailed last season with us when you were talking about the Hurricanes.
00:49You were always like, I'm optimistic, but I don't know in the end how this is going to go. And that optimism and optimism and optimism.
00:56And then, I mean, I kind of ended with a thud. I don't know. It's not that, Manny, I'm concerned with the Hurricanes because I'm not.
01:03I think they're going to be good. But it's like you had Cam Ward and you didn't get his number one pick in the draft.
01:10And there were still some really funky endings to some games as well.
01:15And I know Carson Beck is there and he's made a lot of news in the in the offseason, too.
01:20But I mean, look, like a lot of college programs, a pretty critical year, I think, for Miami coming.
01:24Yeah, this is year four for Mario Cristobal. And really, at this point in time, you start to if you're a recruit or you're somebody outside the program who's interested or invested in potentially getting involved with them.
01:37You're looking at this year as, hey, this this better be the year you do something right.
01:41You better make the college football playoff. You better win an ACC championship.
01:45You better do something because you've had ample time now to build this roster and make it look the way you want it to look.
01:51And look, Carson Beck is not Cam Ward. Cam Ward was a special talent.
01:55I told you that on day one when I watched him in practice, it just felt different.
01:59The ball coming off his hand. But this team, it's going to look different.
02:03I think they could potentially be better because of what they brought in on defense.
02:07But still, it's you go into another year not really knowing if this is going to be the year for Mario as far as the breakthrough.
02:13OK, so so here is what the fans will say.
02:17They'll say that Mario, a homegrown guy who's an incredible recruiter, most of the time does a good job coaching, but some late game decisions and issues continually plagued him.
02:30And this is going on now two years. Is that a fair assessment that that has happened?
02:35He's also his team has come back and won some big games where things didn't go right in the first three quarters, too.
02:40I mean, those things are fair.
02:41It feels like Miami's played a lot of close games that they shouldn't have because they were big favorites or shouldn't have been in and they came back and won.
02:50Yeah, certainly you look back at the middle of the year when when they, you know, sort of won on a miracle against Virginia Tech, came back against Cal and then survived that shootout at Louisville.
03:00And you're thinking to yourself, man, is this really a top 10, top 25 team?
03:04Do they deserve to be there or is one guy just carrying them there in Cam Ward?
03:08And I think by the end of the year, you saw that many of those defensive flaws that they had, especially in the secondary, were real.
03:16You know, you get up 21-0 at Syracuse.
03:18You blow that lead, miss the ACC championship game because you just can't tackle and get guys down on the ground.
03:24And look, Syracuse was a good team, but up 21-0, run the football, right?
03:28And so you still question Mario Cristobal in terms of what what are they actually doing on the sideline?
03:34What kind of decisions are they making?
03:36And no excuse for last year.
03:38Like you said, they had the number one pick in the draft.
03:40They had an all-time great quarterback at the university there and a really, really good offense.
03:45Number one in the country in terms of points and yards and all that stuff.
03:48And they still didn't get the job done.
03:50So you're right.
03:51This is a very important year for Mario Cristobal.
03:53I don't know whether or not to trust them on the road.
03:57But I think this is a 9-10 win team in terms of talent on paper.
04:02Yeah, and I think that that's fair.
04:05I guess we would probably ask why Carson Beck, you think, Manny left Georgia and why he picked Miami.
04:14He was really good at Georgia.
04:17He also had some down moments as well.
04:19Is there any insight to kind of where things are at with him?
04:23Because as you said, I don't think anybody could be Cam Ward since Dorsey.
04:27I haven't seen anybody close.
04:28And I think he was better than Ken Dorsey.
04:30I mean, clearly, without the same amount of talent.
04:33Where on that scale is Beck going into the year?
04:36Because I mean, Georgia is such a good program for him to leave and come to Miami.
04:39Yeah, I think he was really sold on going to the NFL draft.
04:43And then he had that injury and then had second thoughts.
04:46And I think ultimately what happened at Georgia was they had other financial needs.
04:50They put their money in other places.
04:51And they were okay sticking with Gunnar Stockton if that meant not sort of going over whatever budget that they were trying to maintain there.
05:00And ultimately, Carson Beck was going to get a boatload of money at Miami.
05:03And he did.
05:04And that's a big reason why he's here.
05:06I also think he was intrigued by the fact that Cam Ward had so much success with this offense, with this offensive coordinator, Shannon Dawson.
05:14And so I think ultimately that's why he's here.
05:17I think he is a top three quarterback in the ACC.
05:20I think the only guys that are on his level are Cade Klubnik and Kevin Jennings, who's over at SMU.
05:27So I think he has the potential here to have a big year.
05:31But this is going to be a more balanced offense.
05:34I think Miami's going to run the ball more.
05:35They've got four starters back on the offensive line.
05:37The fifth guy that they brought in from TCU, James Brockermeyer, was a full-time starter for the Horned Frogs.
05:42So he's got a really good offensive line.
05:44He's got a good backfield.
05:45And the receiver room is young.
05:47And so I think this is going to be one of those where you're going to see a more balanced Miami approach and maybe not so many big numbers from Carson Beck.
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