BUY OR SELL: 5 Miami Hurricanes storylines looking ahead with spring practice in the rear view mirror

With Miami’s spring practice in the rear view mirror, it’s worth taking five talking points looking forward toward the season and determining if they are a buy or sell.

In other words, am I buying it or not with my understanding of this year’s team?

Without further ado, your 5 storylines:

5. MIAMI’S DEFENSIVE LINE WILL BE DOMINANT

STATUS: SELL

I’m just not sold on what I thought heading into spring practice would be one of the ACC’s top defensive fronts. Nyjalik Kelly, who coaches once were super high on, was slow to recover off injury and is gone. So are DE Jayden Wayne and DT Jared Harrison-Hunte. Akheem Mesidor, who when at his finest is one of the best around, is coming off torn tendons in both feet and has to wear special cleats to practice and play. Highly touted NC State DT arrival CJ Clark spent much of the spring with the second team and didn’t stand out. Which leaves us with one sure-fired guy in All-American DE Rueben Bain, and I also think that Marshall rush end addition Elijah Alston looked very good. But I really wasn’t overly impressed with any other linemen this spring, so at this point I’ll just take an above average line. Dominant? Just don’t see it right now. The Canes are active in the portal right now looking for more DL help, which tells you a lot.

4. MIAMI’S OFFENSE WILL AVERAGE 39 POINTS OR MORE FOR THE FIRST TIME AT UM SINCE 2002

STATUS: BUY

I love, love, love what I saw from Cam Ward and this offense all spring. Ward is the real deal and can immediately make this offense a touchdown better than the 31.5 points Miami averaged last year with a turnover-plagued Tyler Van Dyke leading the way most of the season. And it’s not just Ward. I think the receiver room is as good as any in the ACC led by Xavier Restrepo and Jacolby George plus a rising Isaiah Horton and what looks like an extremely talented ready-to-play-right-away JoJo Trader. Miami also could still add more portal help at wideout. The all-but-forgotten tight ends room? That has Elijah Arroyo back healthy and true freshman Elija Lofton is going to be an immediate contributor while Riley Williams looks like he’s bulked up and is an asset. The O line returns three starters that are all very solid, added veteran Indiana starting center Zach Carpenter and has great competition for the fifth starting job with Samson Okunlola and Matthew McCoy. So all signs are flashing “yes” for me when it comes to Miami hitting that 39+ points per game mark.

3. THIS WILL BE THE LAST YEAR MARIO CRISTOBAL TAKES 10+ TRANSFERS

STATUS: SELL

Do I wish this was true? Yes. Those that know me understand that I believe in building a roster through recruiting … especially when your coach is one of the top recruiters in the nation. Add that to the just-another-guy transfer portal additions we’ve seen way to much of in the past and I’d rather take just the 3-5 “free agent” types and let the young talent on the roster battle to be the depth. Cristobal may say this roster is getting closer to what he wants, but the transfer portal just seems too much like a kid in the candy store type deal. Cristobal prefers having older guys compete even if it’s as depth pieces because of their experience … and because he has such a young roster and a lot of the transfers are one-and-done and need to be replaced a year later I can see him again taking a lot of transfers in the next cycle as well.

2. XAVIER RESTREPO WILL BEST HIS 1,092 YARDS OF LAST YEAR AND TE ELIJA LOFTON WILL BE THE TOP RECEIVING TE

STATUS: BUY AND BUY

Anyone who watched spring practice will understand that Restrepo is almost unstoppable one-on-one when you have a guy like Ward with his quick release and pinpoint accuracy throwing to him. And it’s tough to double a slot guy with a tendency to get open quickly off the line. Restrepo will be a premier go-to threat and really the sky is the limit for his receptions and yards. As for Lofton? He is so versatile lining up all over the field, including at tailback, and Miami is going to get him very involved this season. Given Elijah Arroyo’s injury history and the lack of production from the room last year with not one 100-yard receiver, I think the young guy is going to wind up the top threat in that room.

1. MIAMI WILL WIN 10 OR MORE GAMES

STATUS: BUY

I am pegging Miami right at 10 wins this year, and I expect a lot of high-scoring games given I think the offense will be very difficult to slow down while the Canes’ defense has a lot of question mark areas that need answering. The schedule certainly plays in Miami’s favor with no out-of-conference games against major programs that finished over .500 last year, and the two toughest ACC games are against an FSU team that lost a lot of talent and Louisville. On paper this is a 10-win team, and unlike how Miami teams have underperformed compared to expectations so many times the last 20 years I just can’t imagine that happening again.

The post BUY OR SELL: 5 Miami Hurricanes storylines looking ahead with spring practice in the rear view mirror appeared first on On3.