I don't know about Hurricane fans, but my instinct when I read that new offensive coordinator Mark Whipple is seeking to install "an NFL feel" at Miami through film sessions of the Philadelphia Eagles and Pittsburgh Steelers was something like "Aiiiieeeee!" The "pro style" system is a red flag: There aren't many pro pedigrees running college offense -- Notre Dame, Boston College, Pittsburgh and Stanford were the most prominent examples in 2008 -- and none of them finished in the top 40 in total offense last year. The very term "pro style" conjures up visions of the tongue-twisting, encyclopedia-sized playbook Bill Callahan dropped on a perfectly good option scheme at Nebraska. Whipple hinted ominously at such complexity on the first day of the U's spring practice: "I kind of said let's make it a minicamp and try to tax their brains with a lot of formations and plays."

But I dunno, outside of the option and its spread cousin, the zone read, there are few distinguishing characteristics of the "college offense," especially at a place like Miami, which has operated almost exclusively with pedestrian pocket passers for the last 25 years and never run anything resembling a spread or option, much less both at the same time. Patrick Nix's system was generic and conservative, and the 'Canes' outgoing coordinator strongly suggested that boss Randy Shannon is very cool with the wet blanket approach. Save for some terminology, "pro style" seems par for the course.

Quarterback Jacory Harris seems ideally suited for a spread-to-run/zone read kind of scheme, but the Xs and Os in this case seem far less important than the inevitable maturation of Harris and the similarly young talent around him -- this is, after all, the offense that put a record five freshmen in the end zone in one game, and four of the top five returning receivers will be sophomores. So whatever Whipple calls it, this offense has to be better than what it's been here for the five years. It has to.