Is it terrible news or a blessing in disguise? We’ll see. Can’t really answer until the 2007 season is underway and Miami fans see first hand if Kyle Wright and Kirby Freeman can carry this year’s Canes on offense.
It’s been reported that super-frosh Robert Marve will miss the entire 2007 football season due to a non-throwing hand injury sustained as a passenger in a Monday evening car accident outside of Tampa. Surgery was a success, but the healing time looks to be much longer than expected. Eugene Marve, father, feels this could be a blessing in disguise.
“Robert will most likely redshirt, but that’s the way it is,” said the elder Marve, a former NFL linebacker. “We had a little setback in our program but he will recover. Even before the accident I went back and forth in my mind whether I wanted him to play or not this season — whether he could beat out Kyle [Wright] or Kirby [Freeman]. All those questions go through your mind. Unfortunately he was in the best shape of his life and he’s really disappointed all that training has gone down the drain. He’s the biggest and strongest and fastest he’s ever been — up to 200 pounds.”
“Mentally he’s very disappointed. He’s very hard on himself about what happened. You go through the could’ve, would’ve, should’ve. Maybe it’s like a game you didn’t win; you criticize yourself, you analyze, you go through the things you could have done better.”
Colin McCarthy walked away from the wreck unscathed, but Jermaine McKenzie is still in a neck brace and will be sidelined up to “a few months” due to three hairline fractures in his neck.
Both Marve and McKenzie have since withdrawn from summer school classes and will use the time off to recuperate. The current roommates are expected back on campus on August 2nd for freshman orientation and dorm room assignments.
The fathers of Marve and McKenzie both visited the tow yard where the totaled 2007 Dodge Charger sits and both were equally as amazed the three Canes walked away from the wreck.
“Scary,” Eugene Marve said. “Way scary.”
Said John McKenzie: “For those three gentlemen who made it through that accident, there’s no doubt God has a plan for them. You just don’t walk out of an accident like that with a minimal amount of injuries.”
All this begs the question, what could this ‘plan’ be? Personally, I believe Marve redshirting truly could be a blessing in disguise. There’s no shortage of insane message board posts and rants demanding that the freshman quarterback starts immediately.
I haven’t heard that kind of talk since 2004, when folks wanted the freshman Wright to replace then-QB Brock Berlin. Now, in an ironic twist of fate, it’s Wright that much of this fan base wants to see benched. Oh you gotta love the virtual head coaches pecking away at their keyboards.
News flash, people. Marve wasn’t going to come in, sweep the program off it’s feet, win games at Oklahoma, Florida State, Virginia Tech and Boston College year one. He’s a freshman and is going to make some freshman mistakes.
Even the great 38-2 Ken Dorsey looked like a deer in headlights when thrust into the spotlight as a freshman against #2 Virginia Tech in 1999 when starter Kenny Kelly went down injured. 6 of 17 for 45 yards and 1 INT as he was tossed around Lane Stadium like a rag doll in a 43-10 loss.
A year later, Dorsey still looked lost in his first road start (at Washington) early in the 2000 season, but picked up steam over the next few games and had his coming out party in a 27-24 comeback over #1 Florida State.
Marve will eventually be ‘the guy’. I don’t doubt that in the least. I just worried about the pressure put on him this early by a rabid fan base who wants immediate results and retribution for a 7-6 season last year. As if an inexperienced 18-year old deserves to carry the burden placed on the program after three straight sub par seasons.
All this talk about Wright, Freeman or Marve? 1/3 of that equation has now been solved. Marve can heal, workout, learn the playbook and rest up for 2008. The coaching staff won’t have to hear a delusional fan base call for a freshman to start over a senior (or junior) and it’s now a two-man race between two guys who have been around this program the past few years.
A tragic event which could’ve been worse and an intriguing question now answered.
.:Canes305:.