Joining Forces: Dequan Finn Hopes to Lead Miami to Special Season
4/24/2025 9:55:00 AM | Football, Front Row Features
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OXFORD, Ohio— Veteran quarterback Dequan Finn takes the snap, looks for a receiver downfield, and then scrambles to try and elude the Miami pass rush.
Where have we seen this before?
But wait, something's different.
This is not a Toledo-Miami game in 2023. Finn isn't trying to score a touchdown and defeat the RedHawks at Yager Stadium. He's not battling against the Red and White for a MAC Championship trophy at Ford Field.
Instead, it's a weekday afternoon in April 2025, and Finn is wearing RedHawk practice gear.
That's right. The player sporting a gray Miami No. 1 jersey and racing around Ben Roethlisberger Field is Miami's new QB1.
Finn signed with Miami Football in January out of the transfer portal after spending the 2024 season with Baylor in the Big 12. He is no stranger to the Mid-American Conference, though, previously putting up record-setting numbers during his time with the Toledo Rockets.
From 2019-2023, Finn amassed over 7,000 yards through the air and rushed for 1,840 more. The electric signal-caller produced a total of 88 touchdowns in his UT career (including seven scores in one game!), helping the Rockets win back-to-back division titles in 2022-23. Finn earned MACCG Offensive MVP honors in 2022 when Toledo captured the MAC Championship, and he won the Vern Smith Leadership Award as the conference's most valuable player in 2023 after leading Toledo to 11 consecutive wins (before Miami ended the Rockets' quest for a repeat).
Finn said the RedHawks' reputation for success was a big reason he chose head coach Chuck Martin's program for his seventh and final year of college football.
"I was recruited by Coach Martin before, and we've always kept that relationship. I've been watching Miami and heard about Miami since I was a little kid as well," Finn explained. "It's a rich tradition and winning tradition here.
"And I played against Coach Martin, so I know what he's like. I know what his expectations are on the field and on game days.
"He likes to win, and that's what I like to do as well, so we've got something in common!"
"I think what was appealing to him was, 'Hey, they're really going to build this thing around my strengths, not their system that I've got to fit,'" Martin said. "He saw that, because he went against us [in 2023] when our offense looked quite a bit different with Brett [Gabbert in October] and then AV [Aveon Smith that December].
"So he's like, 'Not only do they say that, but I've seen them actually do it': Flip gears in the middle of the season to curtail it around the trigger guy…"We are not so tied to our system," Martin continued. "We are tied to the talent. We're tied to the players. Players make plays…I think when he got here, he realized, 'Hey, this is going to be cool. We are going to do it together.'
While someone with a MAC MVP award already to his credit might understandably be tempted to rest on his laurels somewhat, Martin said Finn has been the exact opposite. The Miami coaching staff has been incredibly impressed by their new quarterback's attention to detail and desire to improve.
"We knew he was a competitor. He always ran around and made a bunch of plays. We knew how talented he was. But how much did he love the game? We didn't know that before we got him," said Martin. "He's a junkie; he's in here all the time.
"For somebody who has accomplished a lot in his career, obviously, we didn't know how much he wants to get better, how much he wants to learn, and how much he wants to grow as a player…
"He never takes a play off, and he's very hard on himself. When he doesn't succeed at a very high level, it's personal for him. But it's been awesome so far."
"I want to be great," Finn said simply. "The greats are always hard on themselves. That's what I strive to do: Push myself to the fullest and strive for greatness…I just need to keep going and keep trying to find my fullest potential."
Watch a spring practice or two, and it's clear that the potential for Finn and the RedHawks can be sky-high. "Every day, he will make plays that a lesser athlete couldn't make," Martin raved. "I knew he was a great scrambler; obviously, we watched him and we lived it. But he is really good at finding guys on the [move]…
"We're trying to get to the point where our offense has two plays every down. We've got the play we called, and if things go according to plan, great. But, if they don't, a lot of times Dequan creates a second play for us. So let's be good at the second play.
"If he starts to move, let's start to move with him. Go find open grass, and he will find you…if that first play doesn't work, he may buy us some time and create a second one all on his own that's just as good, or sometimes, it's even better!"
Finn agreed, adding that he's currently focused on learning the 'why' when it comes to what play the Miami staff might call in a certain situation or area of the field. "That way, I can have a better understanding of the offense; better command, better poise," he said.
"We've got a ways to go, but I like what I'm seeing so far in terms of the effort, the commitment, the attention to details and the will to get better. You see that with our group every single day.
"The talent is there, obviously, but we're just doing a better job of gelling together…trying to get our timing down and synchronize it with each other so when game time comes, we can all be on the same page."With Miami's 2025 opener at Wisconsin just 18 weeks away, early returns are promising as Finn and Miami's other new skill-position players acclimate to one another. "We are getting along better than I could have ever hoped, with us losing so many guys on the team and bringing in so many," Martin said. "We have 11 early enrollees and 13 transfers, but credit to our older kids and our coaches: Everybody is blending together really, really well."
And it all starts with the 6-foot-2 quarterback from Detroit, Michigan who turned 24 earlier this week. So whether or not Finn wins Miami Football's first league MVP since Big Ben in 2003…whether or not he succeeds in breaking any of Roethlisberger's records…keep an eye out for the man wearing No. 1 as QB1 chases his number one goal this fall.
And what exactly would that goal be?
"Having the best season in Miami history."
Find more Front Row Features at: MiamiRedHawks.com/FrontRowFeatures
Check out Dequan Finn and the 2025 Miami Football team at the annual Spring Showcase, presented by Raising Cane's, on Saturday morning, April 26 at the Dauch Indoor Sports Center. Click here for the complete schedule of events and more information.
Players Mentioned
Quarterback
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