Three quarterbacks compete for No. 2 job as Miami Hurricanes open spring practice

Three quarterbacks compete for No. 2 job as Miami Hurricanes open spring practice - Jorge Milian, PBP

CORAL GABLES — There will be three quarterbacks vying for playing time when the University of Miami opens spring football practice today.

None of those players is Jacory Harris, who has started 14 straight games for the Hurricanes but won't participate this spring as he continues to recuperate from right thumb surgery he underwent in January to repair ligament damage.

Harris doesn't need the work. He saw action in all but about 50 of UM's 879 plays last season and faces a similar workload in 2010.

More uncertain are the players immediately behind Harris on the depth chart — A.J. Highsmith, Spencer Whipple and Stephen Morris — who will battle this spring to be the backup.

"It's kind of bad because Jacory is out, but the good thing is the young guys will get a chance to develop," coach Randy Shannon said.

Shannon said Highsmith, Whipple and Morris will divide snaps evenly between the first- and second-string offensive units leading up to the spring game on March 27.

Highsmith, a rising sophomore, was the Hurricanes' No. 2 quarterback last season, but was limited to playing at the end of three blowout victories.

Besides Harris, Highsmith was the only other scholarship quarterback on the 2009 roster and became the unexpected backup when two other quarterbacks, Taylor Cook and Cannon Smith, quit the team on the same day last August.

Asked if Highsmith had a jump on the No. 2 job, Shannon responded: "A slight advantage, but we always start from scratch."

Whipple, a walk-on and the son of offensive coordinator Mark Whipple, transferred to UM last fall from Massachusetts, where his father once coached.

Morris, a freshman, enrolled at UM in January.

There are also questions at tight end, center, right tackle and middle linebacker, but the focus of spring practice, Shannon said, will be to make the team "tougher."

Shannon pointed to defeats during last season's 9-4 campaign in which UM lost close games that were decided in the closing minutes.

"It's going to be physical football this spring," said Shannon, who is 21-17 in his first three seasons. "Some games we didn't have that extra oomph the last two minutes of the game to get us where we needed to be."