Podcast: The Miami Herald’s official Miami Hurricanes 2020 season preview
After one of the wildest offseasons in memory, the Miami Hurricanes are on the verge of playing a real-live college football game.
Miami’s offseason began by loading up on transfers — such as D’Eriq King, Quincy Roche and Andres Borregales — then ran into a once-in-a-lifetime pandemic. There were times when it looked like a season might not happen and times when it looked like it might have to wait until 2021. Instead, the Hurricanes will open the season Thursday against the Alabama-Birmingham Blazers in Miami Gardens, so the Eye on the U podcast is here to preview the 2020 season.
David Wilson and Susan Miller Degnan, the Miami Herald’s Hurricanes beat writer, try to answer the big-picture questions which will determine the season, such as: Will Miami’s new-look offense live up to the hype? And will the Hurricanes’ defensive line really be as good as we think they might, even after star defensive end Gregory Rousseau opted out?
Next, we run down some superlatives and make our picks for offensive and defensive players of the year, and offensive and defensive freshmen of the year, plus we pick out candidates to be either a comeback player of the year or a most improved player. Wilson capes for Maryland’s own Roche, of course, and Degnan obviously has to give her shout outs to running Jaylan Knighton and wide receiver Xavier Restrepo, the Hurricanes’ two freshmen from Deerfield Beach.
Then we wrap things up by taking a look at the Atlantic Coast Conference as a whole. The top-ranked Clemson Tigers, we agree, are the overwhelming favorites once again and the No. 10 Notre Dame Fighting Irish throw a wrench into the equation, but we’re not counting out Miami getting to Charlotte to play in the ACC Championship Game.
Will the season look anything close to normal with COVID-19 still spreading across the country? Probably not. We’re excited about football returning to Hard Rock Stadium anyway.
This story was originally published September 4, 2020 at 9:41 AM.
