Fixing interception issues Miami's top QB priority

"Jacory and Stephen, I think, are really competing," Miami coach Al Golden said. "I think the team has accepted the competition and the challenge there, and I think the team as well as the coaches respect and appreciate the way those two kids have embraced the competition and have not made it personal or anything like that. The net benefit is for the team and the program, and I'm excited to see what those guys are going to do. I grade the film."

"You learn from your past," Harris said Tuesday, five days before Miami opens fall camp. "You learn from your mistakes. Now I can learn, 'OK, don't go here, don't do this, don't do that.' Even though it's been a year and a half of interceptions, from the middle of my sophomore year to all of last year, it's been a learning process. And I'm glad that happened."

"We've tried to give them a road map of what it takes to be successful and give them an opportunity to drive the car and follow that path," Fisch said. "I don't think myself, nor coach Golden, has said, 'Here's the keys.' But what we've said is, 'Here's where you want to go.' And I think what the guys have really appreciated ... is the fact that they felt everything we were doing was going to help them succeed."

Memphis transfer and South Florida native Ryan Williams would become eligible to play without sitting out the typical year under NCAA rules if he's awarded a hardship waiver. Williams came to Miami after coaching changes at Memphis, plus with a desire to be closer to home for family reasons. Spencer Whipple actually held the top spot on the depth chart at one point in spring practice, and says he wants to be in the mix this season as well.

One more year! | VUhoops.com

In June, the CAA football conference decided to back a plan to provide a 5th year of eligibility for football players in the Championship Subdivision (formerly I-AA). Unlike other NCAA sports, where athletes may only play four full seasons of eligibility, if the CAA’s measure passes, players in the Championship Subdivision would be able to play in games across five different seasons without receiving any waiver from the NCAA.

The measure would effectively replace the redshirt year for FCS athletes. In many cases freshmen sit on the bench for a season when they might otherwise be able to play sparingly in order to save their eligibility for later dates and games when they are expected to be bigger, stronger, faster and more “ready” to play. Sometimes a sophomore or junior who misses a few games due to injury is redshirted and held out of the last few games of the year in order to give them a chance to play four full seasons instead of three and a half.

The use of the NCAA “redshirt” is commonplace throughout NCAA sports. A player is on a team, but does not play. He can practice, but will have no impact on games.

If the CAA has it’s way, however, the redshirt in FCS football would cease to exist.

The NCAA allows players a 5-year window of eligibility for college athletics, of which a player may use any four years to play a given sport. A famous example of how that window operates was the case of Gregg Paulus, the four-year basketball guard at Duke, who enrolled at Syracuse University after graduation and spent a year playing Quarterback for the Orange football team — it didn’t matter that Paulus had exhausted four years of eligibility in basketball, since the NCAA offers five years to be a student-athlete.

Under the CAA’s plan, players transferring down from FBS programs wouldn’t necessarily gain an extra year of eligibility. The new rule is more so designed to benefit and reward those players who choose to start their college careers at FCS schools and then stay in the subdivision. A redshirt year at an FBS school would be a year of used eligibility in the sport upon a transfer, for example, and a player will be required to spend two years at the “certifying institution.”

A four-year FBS player would not be able to transfer to an FCS school t play an additional year, but a player who spent one year at a Bowl Subdivision school could ultimately play four more years in the Championship Subdivision. Furthermore, players who complete a degree over four years at an FCS school would not be able to play a fifth year at another FCS school while pursuing a graduate degree.

NCAA convention proceedings

Essentials of Sports Law

Annual reports of the National Collegiate Athletic Association

Athletic scholarships for dummies

NCAA Division I manual