Robert Marve has a full-time job.
The Hurricane quarterback signee is working out and studying the UM playbook anywhere from five to seven hours a day.
He's even forcing his high school coach, Robert Weiner, to quiz him on different plays.
One recent evening Marve waited patiently as Weiner finished up his team's high school spring practice session. At 8:30 p.m. Weiner arrived in his office.
The two sat down and went over Hurricane plays together for more than an hour.
"I'm definitely learning, am trying to get a head's up on it," Marve said. "Miami's playbook is a college version of my playbook. Our playbook is a lot greater than a regular high school playbook -- we do a lot of audibles, so I'm used to that. But I have to get used to more audibles, more protections, and translating the language from what I know to what I need to know for Miami."
Weiner says, "I quiz him, and Robert's been able to go through and understands every formation."
The ultimate goal is for Marve to know the playbook so well by the time he arrives at Miami that he will make a seamless transition.
And, Marve hopes, get immediate playing time.
UM offensive coordinator Patrick Nix has already said that Marve will get a shot to compete with Kyle Wright and Kirby Freeman for the starting job in the fall.
And Nix has gotten used to fielding Marve phone calls at all hours of the night.
"If I have any questions I call him," Marve said. "He answers my questions.
"He says the best player's going to play. Kyle and Kirby are both great quarterbacks, so whatever I can do for the program I'll do. If I need to redshirt, I'll redshirt. If they need me I'll be ready."
Marve is coming off a record-breaking senior season at Tampa (Fla.) Plant High School in which he had 4,372 passing yards and 48 touchdowns. He was intercepted 13 times.
His coach watched in amazement throughout Marve's career as he grow from a freshman and sophomore that struggled (he threw only seven touchdowns as a sophomore) into a star.
The secret to Marve's success?
"I've never been around a player in any sport who has more of a command of exactly what we're trying to do than he did," Weiner said. "And he kept wanting more. We got to the point that I couldn't feed him more because the rest of our team couldn't keep up with it."
It's rare for a true freshman quarterback to play college ball simply because the mental load is too great.
To expect a high school player to be able to pick up the nuances of a college offense is somewhat farfetched.
But Weiner says if any incoming college player can do it, it's Marve.
"If what Marve has done so far is any indication of how he'll continue to develop, I don't think he'll have a problem," Weiner said. "It's absolutely positively a strength of Robert's. He's already taken great strides, as many as he possibly can, to learn everything about Miami's offense. There's no substitute for experience. You have to go out and do that. But to get the terminology to spill out of his mouth is real important, and he's done a significant amount of studying for that already.
"At our high school what we run is fairly complicated. As Robert grew and developed I gave him more and more. And I explain it this way: What I asked him to do I never have and never will again ask a quarterback to do in terms of him truly understanding high school defenses. In the playoffs defenses weren't high school defenses -- we were seeing zone blitzes, safety blitzes and things like that. What Robert does amazingly, and you have to do it in about five seconds, is he'll diagnose exactly what the defense is doing and the threats, will know the play we have called and what the best possible avenue is to attack that defense with this play. Or, and this is what makes Robert great, he has such a great catalog of our plays in his mind that he knows six or seven plays that he can check to if it's better.
"Miami does it a little different, doesn't have checks, has sight recognition between the quarterback and receiver, which is a simpler way to do it. Of course defenses he'll be seeing are much more complex than what he saw in high school, but the process of doing that will somewhat be easier for him because of what was put on his shoulders already as a high school player. In the end he is a player with tremendous physical talent, is a fierce competitor, but most of all his strength is his intelligence. He's the smartest player I've coached."
In addition to learning UM's playbook, Marve is also concentrating on getting faster and stronger.
He's certainly on the right track.
He's working with a trainer, and his body fat is down to 5.4 percent from last fall's 13 percent. He's added 19 pounds of muscle, recently weighing in at 204 pounds.
His 40 time, recorded three times consecutively at his gym recently, was 4.55, 4.56 and 4.57 seconds.
It was a 4.65 during last season.
"His physical shape right now, he's a completely different human being than at the end of our football season," Weiner said. "His footwork, I've never seen a high school player's footwork as incredible as his is right now. I do drops with him and let him go through his footwork. I think, to be honest -- we had Miami coaches up here to visit the other day to do their spring recruiting. They've seen film and recruited Robert, but I think even Miami doesn't know what they're getting."
One thing UM does know it's getting: A tireless worker.
Marve is one of those kids who won't leave the football offices until late at night, and he'll be back there early in the morning.
"Right now I'm working out three hours a day just doing footwork and throwing with the [college] Nike ball," Marve said. "And I try to get an hour-and-a-half in the playbook. Some days I get more hours in.
"I'm concentrating on my diet, conditioning, how many carbs and proteins I take in a day, and I'm running."
Those hours are in addition to his school, and the hours will go up after he graduates.
The hard work is all for one purpose: To be ready.
"I haven't played down there, but I'm trying to get as ready as I can," Marve said. "I know my footwork has improved dramatically. My five-step drop, three-step, bootlegs are all so much quicker. The ball's coming out quicker. My footwork's been the most improved."
Weiner is asked if he'll be surprised should Marve wind up as Miami's starter this season.
"One thing he and I talk about all the time is that's not in our control," Weiner says. "And you don't want to go in talking like that or saying that. He wants to go in and compete because he knows competition makes everyone better. If he competes and gets the job, he'll make the most of his opportunity. He knows Miami is a tremendous place, and he has a great opportunity in front of him.
"He's like any kid. No one wants to sit on the sideline. But he's a consummate team guy."
* Marve says he has already received his acceptance letter from the University of Miami. And he expects to be assigned No. 12 when he arrives this summer. But that won't be his ultimate number.
"I'll get my high school number, 9, when Lance [Leggett] leaves," Marve said.
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