For several years now, the strength of the UM football team was said to be its receiving corps, as stocked with talent as any team in the nation.

Miami's running backs may have just blown by them, headed for the end zone. Where there was once just a young Graig Cooper and a papier-mache Javarris James, there is now a veritable smorgasboard of talent -- guys in one of every shape and speed Randy Shannon could possibly want.

It's like a Choose Your Own Adventure Book where every page can break one for the house and no one ever dies in a cave.

Or maybe like a variety box of chocolates: the 'Canes are so stocked now that Cooper, the senior rushing leader of the last three years, will find himself fighting for a spot when as he returns from an ACL tear sustained in the Citrus Bowl.

"Mike [James] is strong, powerful, and he's shifty," said senior Damien Berry, last year's pit bullish breakout favorite and this year's presumed starter. "I'm strong, powerful, got a little shakes. Lamar [Miller] is the total package. And then we have [Graig Cooper], who is the total package, just small. Storm [Johnson] has the shakes out of this world. All of us compliment each other. We have a lot of guys with different talent."

The question is, which will emerge, presumably alongside Berry, as the Hurricanes' other go-to guy?

Mike James, Polk County's smiley finest, spent the majority of his freshman year filling in for injured junior fullback Pat Hill. He still managed to add 15 receptions for 105 yards and kick return duties, notching one over 40 yards at Georgia Tech and North Carolina. He's a bruiser, but with a similar running style to Berry, he'll likely split carries rather than star alongside.

Redshirt freshman Lamar "The Truth" Miller is faster at this stage of his career than 'Canes great Devin Hester, faster than NFL star Adrian Peterson, and faster than speedy teammate Travis Benjamin. Of course, speed isn't everything, so he proved he's got the goods by notching a Dade County record, rushing for 1,749 yards as a senior at Killian and scoring 22 touchdowns. Miller sat out last season with a shoulder injury, meaning he's more than ready to make good -- in his spare time, he helped set a school track record this spring in the 4x100.

That probably gives Miller the nod for variety, with Cooper getting his share of the load when healthy.

On deck: true freshman Storm Johnson, who's been making waves since his arrival in the spring and provides depth while other true freshmen Eduardo Clements and Darion Hall will likely incubate on the practice squad. The AJ-C's 2009 Player of the Year knocked a defender flat on his back on his first day of padded practice, then returned a kickoff 41 yards, recovered a blocked punt, and administered a downfield block on a 23-yard quarterback touchdown in the last week's scrimmage.

Not bad for the bottom of the depth chart.

"He's getting better, a lot better than he was in January,'' Randy Shannon said. "He's working on kickoff returns and all phases of special teams. But the running back position is very competitive right now. They're really giving us a great opportunity to evaluate and see who's going to be the guy.''

Where Hurricanes fans are concerned, the who may not matter as much as the fact that there's finally choice -- and that's reason enough to be optomistic in itself.