MIAMI — Coach Randy Shannon announced the one-game suspensions of seven University of Miami football players yesterday, including redshirt freshman quarterback Robert Marve.

First-year freshman Jacory Harris, who led Miami Northwestern High to two consecutive state titles, will start the season opener against Charleston Southern on Thursday night at Dolphin Stadium.

Shannon also announced that despite the suspension, Marve has won the starting job and will start the first game of his career on Sept. 6 against the Florida Gators at The Swamp in Gainesville.

"Like I said before when I took the job at the University of Miami, we hold everybody to higher standards than most teams in the country," Shannon said. "We have our rules and our regulations as far as academics, curfew, study hall and doing the right things in the classroom. We have some guys who won't be (playing in) the game because of those reasons, and then we move forward.

"Robert Marve will be our starting quarterback for the season... . We have two great quarterbacks. They did a great job of competing and getting this team ready to play. Jacory Harris will play in every game that we play this season. Robert Marve will be the starter. We will not have a controversy.

"... Some people may think this is a harsh decision for this university because I'm such a stickler about doing the little things. But one thing I do know is that if you forget about the little things, they add up to the big things. We're going to build a championship team and we're going to do it the right way."

The other players suspended: running back Damien Berry, receiver Kayne Farquharson, fullback Eric Houston, long snapper Chris Ivory, defensive end Adewale Ojomo, and safety Randy Phillips. The two possible starters among them were senior Farquharson and redshirt freshman Ojomo.

Marve said his suspension was because of "what happened" last year. The incident occurred on Halloween night in Coconut Grove, when he was initially charged with two misdemeanors—resisting arrest without violence and minor criminal mischief. Police said he broke the mirror of a car and briefly tried to evade police on foot.

The charges were dropped in March.

"Whatever is best for the team," said Marve, who said he first learned of the suspension Friday. "I'm glad I'm at an organization where your actions are accountable. I made a mistake. I'm sorry for what I did. It was an accident. Of course, I'd take it back if I could, but I believe in Coach Shannon. And Coach Shannon said I needed to do this so if it's best for the team, that's what I'm going to do."

Shannon said he waited until Friday—nearly 10 months later—to tell Marve because "I wanted him to have a competition. Just to compete, like normal." The coach said he knew all along he was going to suspend Marve because he broke team rules.

Does Marve wish Shannon would have told him sooner?

"I trust whatever he did. I messed up. He didn't mess up. I'm just proud to be here. It is what it is. I believe in the coaching staff here and I believe in this team."

Harris was unusually serious.

"Whatever Coach Shannon says goes," Harris said. "He's a great coach, he makes things happen and I'm just happy that I'm here at the (Miami) right now with these great opportunities.

"I'm a team player. I'm not too worried about what's going to happen in the future. I'm worried about what's going to happen now. I just have to go out there and make something happen the first game."

None of the seven suspensions are due to players being academically ineligible, said a UM spokesman. However, some could be related to academic issues.