CHARLOTTE—New Miami center Matt Lee will have played on a wide swath of the offensive tempo spectrum when all is said and done for his college career. A UCF transfer, Lee spent the earliest parts of his college days under Josh Heupel in an offense that injects fast pace into absolutely everything it does, even instructing ballcarriers who go down on which ref to hand the ball to in order to restart the play as quickly as possible. Then entered Gus Malzahn, who made a name for himself for going fast, but maybe not as fast as the now-Tennessee head man whose Vols were second in the nation at 20.1 seconds per play. Lee transferred to finish his college career at Miami, where depending on how new offensive coordinator Shannon Dawson calls a game, the Canes have the ability to drop the hammer, or play at the more moderate pace a Mario Cristobal-coached team is used to operating on. Why’s it matter? Well, when you’re a center and you’re calling the shots on the most important position group on the offense besides quarterback, time is of the essence.
“At some point you’ve either gotta prioritize identifying and being everyone hat on a hat perfectly or you want to prioritize your tempo,” Lee said, speaking at ACC media day. “With Heupel it’s tempo tempo tempo, it’s get it hiked and let’s go play football.”
These Canes might just huddle at times, which for some college football teams is a truly lost art.
