USA TODAY International Edition
QB KAAYA HAS ’ CANES CONFIDENT
With sophomore leading way, team changes culture
In the winter of 2013, the pursuit of a pro- style quarterback led Al Golden from the talent- rich environs of South Florida to West Hills, Calif., where Miami ( Fla.) had identified a lanky and under- recruited prospect named Brad Kaaya.
It was, as Golden said, love at first sight.
“We loved him,” the Hurricanes fifth- year coach said. “We loved him as a person, his intellect. All the qualities you’d want in your quarterback and the face of the program, he possessed and then some.”
Yet there are recruits, beloved for their untapped potential, and there are players; a recruit becomes a player the moment he steps on the practice field, and high hopes and aspirations are tossed aside in favor of harsh realities.
Despite his advance billing, Kaaya was not viewed as a firstyear starter — and he had no misconceptions about stepping right into a starting role, instead aiming just to contribute. “To be on the travel squad, honestly,” he said.
Then Ryan Williams, the projected starter, tore a knee ligament during spring drills. Williams’ potential replacement, Kevin Olsen, was suspended for a failed drug test and later dismissed from the team after being charged with driving under the influence. Enter Kaaya, the last man standing at a position of crucial importance.
“To have someone who had never played in our system come there in the summer and have to run the offense, it was not going to be ideal irrespective of who it was going to be,” Golden said. “He earned the job. He won the job. At the end of the day, was it an ideal situation? No, it wasn’t ideal.”
Yet an imperfect situation — that of Miami, with its desire for a national resurgence, starting a true freshman quarterback — has turned out nearly perfectly.
It’s not about what Kaaya did a season ago, Golden said, though the numbers speak volumes: He rewrote the school’s record book for freshman passers, starting every game and balancing out bouts of unevenness with swaths of allconference production.
“Week to week, I just learned from my mistakes and kept getting better and better and better,” Kaaya said. “Eventually, the game just slowed down for me.”
It’s about what happens next, beginning this season, and the thought that a more confident and controlled Kaaya is emblematic of the Miami program at large — one that within its own doors thinks strongly that championship contention stands within the very near future.
“If you ask any older player, they all say it’s different,” Kaaya said. “It’s something they’ve never felt in this locker room. A cohesive team like this. I can honestly say we’re a really tightknit group now. We’re a family.
“Our whole culture has changed to where guys are more accepting of holding each other accountable. Guys are more coachable. Our locker room has changed a lot. It’s a lot easier to hold a guy accountable when you know him better.”
This newfound cohesiveness begins with Kaaya, who one year after his arrival on campus has made strides in three vital areas, Golden said: in his conditioning, his command of the huddle and his willingness to inhabit a more vocal leadership role despite his underclassman status.
As Miami looks to move beyond second- tier finishes in the Atlantic Coast Conference — let alone last year’s 6- 7 record — it’s the latter development that stands as the most drastic change, Hurricanes linebacker Raphael Kirby said.
“He’s grown from last year to this year,” he said. “When he first got here and they named him the starter right before the season, he was kind of frazzled. But now you see he’s confident, calm, cool, collected. You can’t even tell if something goes wrong.”
Perhaps that’s because very little, if anything, has gone wrong with Kaaya since the end of last season.
Kaaya was in a different place during the spring in terms of his comfort level in the Hurricanes’ scheme, Golden said, and that in turn has allowed the coaching staff to widen the overall scope of its offense.
“He’s so far ahead right now from where he was a year ago,” Golden said. “There were some things he did in the spring, just innately, that were just incredible. I don’t know where we are culturally or from a leadership standpoint without him. He’s made a big difference.”
It’s easy to shine in April, however, and another thing to do the same in September. Miami will face nine bowl teams in 2015, from Nebraska and Cincinnati in non- conference play through perennial ACC contenders Virginia Tech, Georgia Tech, Clemson and rival Florida State.
Yet the sense of optimism that pervades the program — somewhat surprisingly, given last year’s losing record — has roots in one idea: For the first time in more than a decade, Miami has a quarterback.
How far the Hurricanes go, therefore, might hinge entirely on the shoulders of a talented sophomore only scratching the surface of his potential.
“A lot of people are placing pressure on me right now,” Kaaya said. “But for me it’s about making the guys around achieve greatness. It’s not about me. It’s not just the Brad Kaaya show. It’s the 2015 Miami Hurricanes.”