Is that almost every year we are duped into thinking we are ‘back’ and we never meet the expectations made by professionals.
We’ve been picked to win the Coastal so many times from the experts, even this year - by almost everyone - it’s just mind-boggling how even those who make a living out of predicting these things get Miami so wrong so often. It’s like every year we consistently under-perform.
That’s what drives us all insane. We buy into the pre-season hype that even many experts share (not fan boys who wear orange and green glasses) and we are all let down. Has there been a more disappointing team in the last 20 years?
If we were fans of Duke or Virginia, at least we wouldn’t be expecting much. Predicting a .500 season - sometimes it’s better sometimes it’s not. With Miami, when you are picked to win your division year after year and never do so, at some point it’s just insanity to think it will happen. Spending $14,000,000.00 on an elite staff has done nothing except shown that you can build a smoke screen - fooling even the ‘experts’ who thought we were back.
I think that’s the most frustrating thing about Miami. We never meet expectations.
My two cents; stop listening to the "experts" and realize why they do what they do.
For starters, most don't know squat about Miami—and even those that supposed do, still don't.
(Never forget, Kirk Herbstreit's title game prediction in 2006 was Miami against Notre Dame; the Canes went 7-6, brawled with FIU, almost lost to Duke, and eked out a bowl win over Nevada on blue turf, while Larry Coker got the axe—Herby with this silly prediction after the Peach Bowl blowout, a slew of assistants fired and second rate retreads like Rich Olson hired.)
It's good business for the media to hype a Miami comeback, as they know non-fans of the Canes will seethe over this and it's a polarizing topic. It's also a win-win for them, because IF Miami starts winning, it's good ratings as fans and foes will tune in for opposite reasons—but if the Canes falter, they can pile-on with all the, "The U isn't back..." stuff that the opposition eats up.
Like that scene in 'Private Parts' where Pig Vomit is asking about Stern's numbers; how the average fan listens for 20 minutes, while the Stern hater listened even longer, both with the same reasoning; the all wanted to hear what he was going to say next. Miami is a unique program that is both loved and hated; a national brand where more people tune in to see Miami lose than tune in to see the Canes win.
The Coastal has been wide-open abortion of a division for years; one that Miami theoretically should've won many times just based on talent level alone (in comparison to most of the competition) but that hasn't been the case with coaching turnover and ****ing away winnable games every year.
I've said it ad nauseam in these threads recently, but Miami entered this football season 118-85 since getting crushed 40-3 by LSU in the 2005 Peach Bowl. When that number is divided by 16 seasons, the Hurricanes have averaged 7-5 every year since.
Cristobal is now UM third head coach in five seasons and sixth since
Larry Coker was sent packing after going 7-6 in 2006. The Hurricanes are also on their third different offensive coordinator and system in four seasons.
Some of this has to be put on the fans, as well—who run their mouths all off-season or get way ahead of themselves. What was really expected year one under Cristobal—which is only halfway through and shouldn't be judged until December? Yes, beating MTSU shouldn't have been a big ask—but in a season where Marshall upset Notre Dame in South Bend, Appalachian State upended aTm in College Station and UTEP beat up Boise State—who is present-day Miami to think they're above not showing up against a feisty team playing like it's their national championship?
****, go back to that 2017 season and that 10-0 start. That was as fugazi of a season as the Canes had since 2013, when gong 7-0 against a bunch of nobodies, before rising to #7 and getting destroyed, 41-14 in Tallahassee.
10-0 could've just as easily have been 5-5—with no big night game, nationally televised energy for Virginia Tech and Notre Dame—where the crowd came alive for both.
Needed a miracle to survive FSU and another fourth down miracle a week later against Georgia Tech. Pulled away late against Syracuse, which was a one-point game late. Needed to force a fumble to survive at North Carolina a week later.
That 7-0 start could've easily have been 3-4 going into VT and Notre Dame, but Miami got a few breaks and made a few plays—with a veteran defense infinitely better than the one being fielded right now—and we fast saw who Miami really was after losing to a four-win Pitt team, getting blown out by Clemson for an ACC title and falling by double digits to Wisconsin in the Orange Bowl.
Until Miami PROVES they can do it; winning big games, beating the Coastal foes they are theoretically better than, etc.—there is no reason to give any benefit of the doubt. Not as fans and not because the moron media says so.
0-for-18 in ACC titles and 1-for-17 in Coastal crowns. The proof is in the pudding. Conversely, Virginia Tech won the ACC four times and took the division six times, between 2004 and 2013. They were an afterthought add to the conference after Miami defected, yet they hit the ground running and did what many hoped the Canes would do—their wheels falling off a few years later when Frank Beamer hung it up.
Seven one-game seasons remain, where this team needs to grow up, learn how to win and then it's back to recruiting and the portal to do it all again in 2023, with Cristobal and crew hopefully taking another step forward.
This is most-definitely another rebuild, whether fans want to accept that, or not—and the frustration from the last five regimes can't be lumped on the shoulders of a new staff, as they had nothing to do with the collapse of 2005 through 2021.
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