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Addressing the fallout from UM's loss of QB's Cook and Smith
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Taylor Cook (left) and Cannon Smith (right) (From miamiherald.com)
The University of Miami's football team suffered a severe blow to the depth at its quarterback position today when, according to the Miami Herald, QB's Taylor Cook and Cannon Smith announced that they are transferring from the school.
Cook is a 6-7, 235-pound redshirt freshman and his departure is particularly surprising. He seemed to impress in practice with the velocity on his passes, and Cook seemed poised to enter the season as the #2 quarterback on the depth chart behind starter Jacory Harris. However, the allure of being a backup quarterback at an elite program such as Miami apparently wasn't enough to entice Cook to stay.
Smith is a 6-0, 205-pound redshirt freshman from Memphis, Tennessee. He played in last season's game against Charleston Southern and completed his only pass for 2 yards and also ran for 2 yards in limited action. His departure is less surprising, as it seemed from the get-go that his physical tools were not at the level of Harris, Cook, or former UM QB Robert Marve. Still, he would have been an adequate backup to Harris and provided needed depth at the position, so his departure also hurts some as well.
So what does this all mean for UM football? Here are a couple of quick takes:
1) A.J. Highsmith is now the backup quarterback. The 6-1, 180-pound true freshman is the son of former UM great Alonzo Highsmith. He was rated the #47 quarterback by scout.com in the 2009 recruiting class. Highsmith seems to have the athletic tools to be a good quarterback, and it's easy to forget that Jacory Harris himself was a true freshman and the backup quarterback last season and did OK for himself. While you ideally want to start someone with experience, I don't think the drop-off at the #2 position is that great from Cook to Highsmith.
2) UM's depth chart at the position is very unclear after Harris and Highsmith. Your guess is as good as mine as to who the 3rd-string QB is, and that's almost unheard of at a big-time college football program such as Miami. Ray Ray Armstrong played some quarterback in high school, but you have to think the coaches don't want to stunt his development at safety by devoting so much of his time to learning the offense as a quarterback. Could there be a walk-on as the 3rd-string quarterback at Miami? We'll see.
3) The offense will have to operate a bit differently without depth at quarterback. Jacory Harris will likely be strongly encouraged not to take off and run. The quarterback draws (some of which were much-maligned) from the Patrick Nix era are probably a thing of the past with Harris if they already weren't. At least Miami fans can rest assured that they have arguably the best left tackle in the ACC in Jason Fox protecting Harris' blindside. Also in UM's favor is that Harris has bulked up in the offseason which should help him in his efforts to play the entire season without injury.
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