Al Golden, head coach of the Miami Hurricanes, announced that true freshman Brad Kaaya will be the starting quarterback for the ‘Canes when they take the field on September 1 against the Louisville Cardinals. Kaaya beat out senior Jake Heaps, who has also played for BYU and Kansas in his career.
Kaaya is 6’4 and around 206 pounds from West Hills, California. Both Rivals and 247 Sports listed him as a 4-star prospect coming out of high school, so the kid can play. The following excerpt comes from USAToday.com:
Kaaya, a 6-foot-4, 206-pound native of West Hills, California, spent about 13 weeks on campus before training camp and rarely ventured out to see any of the sights of South Florida. Instead, he was often found studying Miami’s playbook for hours, and Golden has been often pointed out the sacrifices that Kaaya made to get into the quarterback race.
“For me, if I was coming to Miami to just go to the city, go out and have fun, I would’ve stayed back home,” Kaaya said earlier this month, on the lone day he’s been able to talk with reporters because of team policies regarding new arrivals. “I came here to play football. That was my whole decision. My decision was based on football. I wasn’t coming to Miami to just enjoy the extra stuff that Miami has.”
So while Will Gardner will be (likely) making his first career start, he is still in his 3rd season of college football. Kaaya will be playing his first college game on the road in what should be a great environment. Get used to hearing the name Duke Johnson, as the star running back for the Hurricanes should get plenty of carries on Labor Day.
