College notebook: University of Miami opens another football season amid uncertainty 

Time is running out if the NCAA has plans to rule on alleged University of Miami football violations by the start of the Hurricanes’ season Friday night against visiting Florida Atlantic.

Miami has removed itself from bowl consideration in each of the past two seasons but an NCAA cloud continues to hover overhead.

“I just think it’s a situation that’s out of our hands and let’s control the things that we can control,” said third-year Miami coach Al Golden, who had barely arrived in Coral Gables, Fla., before the Hurricanes had to answer allegations of extra benefits tied to booster Nevin Shapiro.

“We’re just focused on FAU. You know, opening games are tricky. They always are. They take a lot of focus, a lot of contingency plans. You have no idea what [the opponents] are going to do, We know there’s going to be a heated game Friday night between a lot of kids who know each other.

• Miami has chosen to honor its 1983 football team Friday night on the 30th anniversary of its 1983 NCAA championship. Guests are expected to include Howard Schnellenberger, who posted a 41-16 record as coach of the Hurricanes from 1979-83.

Schnellenberger later served as the head coach at Oklahoma and Louisville before taking over as the first coach at Florida Atlantic, where he remained from 2001-2011. Seventy-five members of the ’83 team are expected to join Schnellenberger, 79, at Sun Life Stadium.

Smoothed over

Wake Forest coach Jim Grobe said the Deacons suffered no ill effects from the controversy surrounding senior running back Josh Harris, who was declared academically ineligible by the NCAA and missed more than a week of practice before he was reinstated after a Wake appeal.

“Honestly, we weren’t counting on that happening,” Grobe said Wednesday. “We were prepared to move forward, and so when Josh came back, that had the potential to be the most distracting part of it.

“I think most young people take their ability and playing football for granted. But, when it’s about to be taken away from you, it tends to be a good wake-up call. And I think it’s been that way for Josh. He’s been nothing but great [with] his effort, his attitude.”

QB battles

Scott Shafer , the coach for first-year ACC member Syracuse, is looking at sophomore Terrel Hunt and Drew Allen, a graduate of Oklahoma, in the battle to be his starting quarterback.

Shafer has been playing a cat-and-mouse game with opening game counterpart Penn State coach Bill O’Brien . O’Brien hasn’t revealed his QB choice between prize recruit Christian Hackenberg from Fork Union Military and Tyler Ferguson, a transfer from College of the Sequoias, a two-year program in Visalia, Calif.

Another transfer, Tom Savage, is expected to start for Pittsburgh after spending time at Rutgers and Arizona.

Big South drama

Junior Desmond Rice is listed as the probable starter at tailback for Liberty on Saturday at Kent State but Virginia transfer Clifton Richardson looms in the background, as does 2012 first-team All-Big South selection Aldreakis Allen , reinstated this week after his April 2 suspension on a disciplinary matter. Allen will miss the first two games.

Recruiting

Virginia has received a women’s basketball commitments from a pair of national top 25 prospects, 6-foot-1 Aliyah Huland El from Randolph, N.J., and 5-6 Mikayla Venson from Yorktown High School in Arlington.

Venson’s father, Michael, played for Georgetown and James Madison and is a personal trainer for his daughter, who missed the 2012-2013 season following a concussion and may not play for Yorktown this year.

Local update

Kim McNeill, known as Kim Hairston during her playing days at Bassett High School and the Roanoke Stars travel team, has been promoted to associate head women’s basketball coach at Virginia, where she is entering her third season as an assistant. McNeill, whose husband also serves on the UVa staff, played collegiately at Radford and Richmond.

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