Opponent Notes: The Fighting Chuck Martins and the Other Miami

Former Notre Dame assistant Chuck Martin looked like a coach in his third year that was on his way to not seeing a fourth. 0-6 to start the season was not a great sign considering his first two years weren't exactly successful when it came to wins and losses. Then things started to change.

Not coincidentally it happened when Martin inserted quarterback Gus Ragland into the starting lineup. He went 6-1 and lead Miami (Ohio) to a bowl game while pretty much saving Martin's job along the way. Now Martin appears to be a coach that is leading a program on the rise with 17 returning starters. It's going to be interesting to see where he can take the Redhawks in year four and whether or not his success can lead him to graduate to a bigger job.

That may be premature to think that way, but he will certainly get some buzz if he can not only build off what they accomplished last year, but give Notre Dame a game in Notre Dame Stadium this season.

Time will tell if that can happen. Winning 6 straight MAC games and almost beating a 5-7 Mississippi State team doesn't mean they are ready to win a game against the Irish, their only Power 5 level opponent this fall.

What do we know about them so far? For one thing, they were too banged up to hold a spring game. They return four starters on the line, but the fifth starter is expected to be a transfer from Kentucky. That certainly can't hurt to have that experience coming back.

SB Nation's Bill Connelly came out with his always excellent preview piece, which he does for all FBS programs, on Miami (Ohio) and I highly recommend checking it out for more background on the Redhawks.

Some highlights from the preview:

- Ragland, who had a 17-1 touchdown to interception ratio last season, has his top two receivers coming back. They improved to 19th in passing success rate due to Ragland's insertion into the lineup
- The pass rush was meh last year in terms of passing down sack rate and they have three starters to replace on the defensive line this year, but the pass defense was solid. They've got a couple of good corners coming back in Heath Harding and Deondre Daniels and the defense had 14 interceptions last season.
- They only gave up five rushes of 30 yards or more last season. I'm not sure if that is going to happen again with Notre Dame's backs all capable of breaking long runs.

It's going to be really interesting to see if Martin can come into the Notre Dame game with a undefeated team. They are facing a Marshall team coming off a 3-9 season, FCS Austin Peay, a Cincinnati team with a brand new coaching staff, and a Central Michigan program they beat by 20 last season before they travel to South Bend.

Here come the Canes (if they can find a QB)

The U finished spring ball with a bit of whimper by also not having a spring game, but there seems to be a ton of excitement about the program right now. They ended the season on a 5 game winning streak after they lost a close game to the Irish in late October. That included holding Pitt's offense to 28 points. That's the same offense that scored 43 against Clemson the next week and 76 against Syracuse two weeks later.

The Canes also beat down a 10 win West Virginia in their bowl game to earn their 9th win. Recruiting is going extremely well with them currently having the top ranked class in the nation for the 2018 class and that's not just them compiling commitments to get that ranking. 12 commits are ranked as 4 or 5 stars.

But...they are losing 9 NFL Draft picks that were selected last week. And they still haven't figured out who the heir apparent to Brad Kaaya is yet. We know it won't be former 4 star recruit Jack Allison. He is transferring after running with the twos for most of spring ball.

Miami's defense dominated its final scrimmage where they picked off the competing quarterbacks four times. Those three stud sophomore linebackers will all be returning this year and they appear to be deep again on the defensive line. As of right now, I would expect them to have one of the best defenses the Irish face all season. (They finished 9th in YPP and 20th in total defense in 2016)

Right now it's a two man battle for the quarterback job between Evan Shireffs and Malik Rosier, both of whom were not highly regarded prospects when they were recruits. Neither were in the top 900 overall or had any other offers from FBS schools. They both were up and down in the spring and a true freshman is supposed to come in and compete with them this summer.

The quarterback will have weapons to throw to in deep threat Ahmon Richards and a really good tight end in Christopher Herndon IV. He'll also have a 1,000 yard back with Mark Walton returning. But if they don't get the quarterback figured out, and the options don't seem great right now, then the Canes hype could end up dying down quite a bit before they host the Irish this November.