ACC Spring Football Wrap: Miami

Al Golden's first spring as the Hurricanes' coach came out with no clear resolution to the QB battle, but he couldn't ask for more at RB...

Reviewing Key Spring Issues: 1) Harris or Morris? – To be continued. Neither senior Jacory Harris nor sophomore Stephen Morris secured the Miami QB job out of the spring – a virtual dead-heat. Morris took over after Harris sustained an injury midway through the 2010 season and completed 50.5 percent of his passes for 5 TDs and 7 INTs. Harris is a three-year starter who's had his share of troubles with 6,340 career passing yards, 50 TDs and 39 INTs.

2) Sharing the carries – If the spring game was any indication, sophomore Lamar Miller will be getting the bulk of carries among a strong class of running backs at Miami - coming off a 166 rushing yard and 3 TD performance. He led the team in carries and no other rusher cracked 50-yards.

3) Finding next great cover corners – The post-spring depth chart winners were seniors Lee Chambers and JoJo Nicolas as far as starters, but their backups picked off a couple passes in the spring game.

Spring MVP: RB Lamar Miller (Sophmore, 5-11 212, 646 career rushing yards with 6 TDs)

Breakout Offensive Player: WR Kendal Thompkins (Junior, 5-10 182, 5 catches for 42 yards in career at Miami)

Breakout Defensive Player: DE Olivier Vernon (Junior, 6-4 265, 6 sacks and 10.5 tackles for loss in 2010)

Key Injuries: WR LaRon Byrd (knee injury, expected to be back this fall).

Spring Game Notes: 1) QB competition dead even – Jacory Harris went 18/30 on pass attempts for 149 yards and 2 INTs…Stephen Morris completed 14 of 22 for 140 yards with 2 INTs and a TD. Golden says he’s confident in both, but we'll see who runs on the field for game one on Labor Day night at Maryland.

2) Lamar Miller goes off – He’s showed glimpses of his talent last season as a true freshman and made statement to close spring practice – he’s the Hurricanes’ No. 1 back. With 166 rushing yards on 10 carries (16.6 yards per carry if your scoring at home) and three TDs, Miller firmly established himself as the back to beat in a talented Miami RB crew.

3) Mix of stars and no-names perform at LB – Sean Spence, one of the top LBs in the nation, had nine tackles, an interception and a sack on the day. Scout team veteran LB Sean Goldstein led tackles on the day overall with 14.

Quotable: Al Golden on the QB competition: “I'm really not leaning. I thought both of them did a good job. We had over 300 scrimmage reps, and I think we only totaled five or six interceptions…I think this is going to go right up until the middle of August in terms of who we're going to select at that time and then build our offense around them. But clearly the competition has a long way to go.”