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This is Randy Shannon's third season as the Miami football coach, but in some ways it seems like the Hurricanes are starting over.

After all, they have a new offensive coordinator and a new defensive coordinator.

"Everybody's learning new plays on offense and defense," senior offensive tackle Jason Fox said this week at the ACC's preseason media gathering in Greensboro, N.C. "Everybody [in the media] keeps saying we're young. We're all kind of young because we're all still learning the new offense and the new defense."

So have the Hurricanes gone back to square one?

"No," Shannon said. "Offenses and defenses don't really change, except for when you play Georgia Tech, their offense. Everybody [runs] the zone play. Everybody [runs] the 'iso' play. Everybody [runs] play-action passes. It's just the verbiage that's different."

But if offenses don't really change, Shannon would not have fired Patrick Nix, who was his offensive chief the past two seasons. Miami ranked 89th in Division I-A in total offense (326 ypg) last fall.

The Hurricanes have gone just 12-13 under Shannon, including 7-6 last year. Shannon is under pressure to make Miami relevant again.

Perhaps his new offensive coordinator can help him do that. Mark Whipple was an assistant with the Philadelphia Eagles last season, and was the quarterbacks coach of the Pittsburgh Steelers from 2004-06. As the head coach at Massachusetts, he steered the Minutemen to the 1998 Division I-AA title.

"This spring was by far the most productive spring this offense has had since I've been here, so I think we're going to be putting up a lot of points," Fox said.

"When we want to run the ball, we're going to run the ball. And when we want to throw it, we're going to throw it. ... We're not relying on what the defense is going to give us. We're going to do what we do, and you try to stop us. That's Coach Whipple's mind-set.

"A lot of offensive coordinators think, 'Well, hopefully on third down they're playing Cover Three, so we'll run this and try to beat them at it.' No. [With Whipple], it's 'We'll do this, and you try to stop it.' "

Whipple tutored Ben Roethlisberger for Roethlisberger's first three seasons in the NFL. The mentoring worked -- the Steelers won the Super Bowl in Roethlisberger's second year.

Now Shannon hopes Whipple, who will also be the Hurricanes' quarterbacks coach, can work similar magic with Jacory Harris. Harris completed 118 of 194 passes (60.8 percent) for 1,195 yards and 12 touchdowns with seven interceptions as a true freshman last season.

"You're bringing in Coach Whipple, ... a great coach for Jacory," Shannon said.

Harris shared the QB job last year with Robert Marve, who threw for 1,293 yards and started 11 games. Marve has transferred to Purdue, so Harris will have the job all to himself this year.

The new defensive coordinator is John Lovett, formerly an assistant at North Carolina. He replaces Bill Young, who left to become the defensive chief at Oklahoma State.

"Coach Lovett, he always harps on chasing the football -- 11 guys running to the football," safety Randy Phillips said. "It'll be like the old days' defense."