UM football coach Al Golden opened up Thursday about his decision to name Jacory Harris the Canes' starting quarterback for their September 17 clash against Ohio State.

Harris' experience was the difference in winning out a summer-long battle for the starting job over Stephen Morris.

"He earned it in training camp — his body of work, his experience," Golden told the Miami Herald.

Stephen Morris started in the Canes opener against Maryland as Harris served a one-game suspension for taking improper benefits from disgraced booster Nevin Shapiro. But Morris' night was marred by mistakes Golden though Harris would not have made.

"Clearly there were some things in the game the other night that I think his experience and his maturity would have helped immeasurably," he told the Herald.

Those "things" included a number of illegal procedure and delay of game penalties on offense, as well as a Morris interception that was returned for a touchdown in the game's final minute.

Not that the quarterback competition wasn't tight.

"They were [close]," Golden said. "They were right there."

Golden was asked by the Herald why he was so quick to promote Harris to starter a day after telling the media he would give Morris and Harris three more practices to compete with each other.

"Obviously, I wasn't really thinking right after the game, 'What are we going to do on Thursday?' But my natural instinct is to say, 'Let them compete,'" he said.

However, once he watched some tape on Tuesday and "kind of slept on it Tuesday night," he had already come to a decision, telling Harris and Morris of the move Wednesday morning before the team released its latest depth chart.