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The Honolulu Advertiser
Updated at 3:23 a.m., Wednesday, December 31, 2008

CFB: Former Miami QB Marve, family not going quietly

By Susan Miller Degnan
McClatchy Newspapers

Hawaii news photo - The Honolulu Advertiser

Miami quarterback Robert Marve started 11 of 13 games for the Hurricanes this season.

JOHN RAOUX | Associated Press

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The University of Miami granted Robert Marve a release to transfer Tuesday, but don't expect the 20-year-old quarterback to go quietly — not with coach Randy Shannon fueling more controversy with his release stipulations.

Marve's father, former NFL linebacker Eugene Marve, said he and his family are infuriated with UM's transfer conditions and that he will initiate the appeals process.

"Shannon is trying to bar Robert from playing for any Atlantic Coast Conference school or any Southeastern Conference school or any school in Florida," Eugene Marve told The Miami Herald in a phone interview. "This goes in relationship with his contempt for and arrogance toward my son, Robert.

"Shannon gave him the release with that stipulation. I've never heard of that before. The ACC ban is reasonable. The SEC is ridiculous. There are a lot of schools in the SEC that never see Miami. This has gone to a personal attack against my son, and it will not go without challenge. This is a shameful day that Shannon has brought to the University of Miami. This is a shameful day for Randy Shannon and what he represents, and every recruit should watch out for what you're seeing happening to Robert Marve.

"Robert expressed his displeasure, and right now we are in our information-gathering. We're going to fight this tooth and nail. I don't know why Shannon would want to bring this type of disgrace to UM and himself in trying to dominate my son and have control over his decision. If he perceived Robert as that big of a threat as a football player, he certainly didn't treat him like that."

Shannon released a two-sentence statement: "When Eugene Marve speaks, he has Robert's welfare in mind, which all fathers should. I have respect for Robert and wish him nothing but success in the future."

On Tuesday morning, Shannon told WQAM radio host Joe Rose that Jacory Harris, who was the quarterback in UM's loss to California in the Emerald Bowl, would go into the spring as the No. 1 quarterback regardless if Marve returned.

"We've got Jacory, we've got Taylor Cook, we've got Cannon Smith, so we'll be fine," Shannon said, including two backups who redshirted this season.

Marve, from Tampa, just finished his redshirt freshman year, meaning he has three seasons of eligibility remaining. NCAA rules stipulate that Marve would have to sit out for one season should he transfer to an upper-division school, leaving him two seasons to play.

Transfer stipulations are common in college football, but not necessarily as broad-ranged as Shannon has made them. Players usually aren't allowed to transfer to a school in their old team's conference, or to a school that is on their former squad's schedule in the next few years. But the SEC condition would keep Marve from playing at the schools in which he is most interested: Florida, Tennessee and LSU.

"We felt that was fair," Shannon said later on WQAM, indicating that Miami might play SEC schools — although none is scheduled before UF in 2013.

Former UM quarterback Marc Guillon was released by UM to transfer to Alabama, an SEC school, in August 2003. And former Gators quarterback Brock Berlin was allowed to transfer to Miami in January 2002. Berlin later played for UM and beat the Gators.

Marve would have to let UM know which school he wants to attend. If that request is denied, he could appeal to the four-person UM athletic-appeals committee, made up of non-athletic-related staff and administrators. If he loses an appeal, he could still go to that school, but he would not be allowed to receive an athletic scholarship for one year.

Marve started 11 of 13 games this past season in a two-quarterback system with Harris. Marve was suspended twice, once for the season opener because of an arrest on Halloween night 2007 for allegedly breaking the side mirror of a car and briefly trying to evade police on foot — the charges were dropped in March — and once for the Emerald Bowl because he missed too many classes.

Marve completed 116 of 213 passes for 1,293 yards, with nine touchdowns and 13 interceptions. "I had to get out," Robert Marve told The Associated Press. "I just decided that I can't play for Coach Shannon."

Eugene Marve said Robert requested a release to transfer "because coach Randy Shannon has shown my son no respect and no relationship, and, in turn, there is no trust in anything Coach Shannon did. They never had a relationship. Even the first time I talked to him, I asked him to support my kid because Robert was constantly saying there was no support for him. He's leaving because of a bad relationship and no trust."

The news of Marve's departure came the day after Shannon fired offensive coordinator Patrick Nix.