Brad Kaaya: 'No doubt' Miami will be playoff contender in 2017
Brad Kaaya is busy at the NFL combine, but he paused Friday to share a few thoughts on his former team.
"I think Miami, I think they’ll be in good hands," the quarterback told Joe Schad of the Palm Beach Post about the Hurricanes ahead of their second season under coach Mark Richt.
"We won the first bowl game in 10 years, finished on a five-game win streak, and that hadn’t been done since 2001. I think we made a lot of progress and changed the way that Miami is viewed in the public, in Florida and across the country. I think we reversed some of the, I guess, stigma that the U had. It’s been awesome. Coach Richt will have them back on the right page pretty soon. I think next season they’ll be a playoff contender, no doubt."
It was starting to look like a turnaround was going to happen for the Hurricanes last year, as Richt and company raced out to a 4-0 start. When the competition toughened in conference play, though, Miami dropped four straight, ending any shot at the playoff.
Richt righted the ship after that, and the Hurricanes closed the season with four straight victories, before topping West Virginia in the Russell Athletic Bowl. Perhaps Miami's late-season success will carry over and make Kaaya's prediction become a reality.
- With h/t to College Football Talk