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Miami . . . What is the problem?

arey1984 said:
Also, our o-line and d-line have sucked for the better part of a decade. As a former o-lineman I know that if you don't control the trenches, no matter how many athletes you have, you are doomed and we lacked in those areas.
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Agreed. At the risk of sounding like our favorite OSU fan, we really have been weak in the ternches. It's difficult to win when your RB's are consistently getting stuffed in the backfield, your QB is on his back before he has a chance to look downfield, and your d-line isn't putting pressure on the opposing QB.
 
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Not in any order

1. Player Development - I guess this is coaching
2. Strength and conditioning - we used to dominate the 4th quarter bc we were always better conditioned
3. Randy Shannon - too many recruiting misses and reaches. He is the reason we have lack experienced depth.
 
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I think it's more than just coaching, strength & development, etc. Although they do play a significant role, they are merely symptoms and not the actual disease. The administration has not adequately supported the football, or any sports program, to the degree necessary. Let's look at the track record on coaching hires. Although we have had successful coaches, who among them had ANY head coaching experience? Shannon? Coker? Davis? None of them. Why? Experienced, successful coaches cost too much. Why did we move out of the OB, a place where the college football experience was second to none; a place where opposing players and coaches dreaded and admired at the same time because of its intense and menacing atmosphere. Why are the facilities considered to be outdated and substandard when compared to other programs? It's not due to a lack of funds with the BCS games and other bowl payouts to a small, private university. Now don't get me wrong, I don't want us to turn into a university that panders to the football program to the degree that, let's say, Penn State did, but the investment into the football program seems to be more in line with a mid-major school than a top tier program. This attitude was fine 10, 20, 30 years ago when south Florida talent didn't have the access to other programs like they do today. As college football evolved beyond a regional sport to the second most popular sport in the US, the administration did not. As a cleveland resident, I see first hand what happens when the people at the top aren't as invested in a program (Browns, Indians, etc.) as they should be. The fact that UM is mired in mediocrity is a testament to the immense talent that S. Florida has. If not for that, we'd be awfully close to Duke football.
 
DCF, it's not 30 miles from UM's campus to Sun Life Stadium. According to Mapquest, it's 18.8 miles. Big difference.

I, too, miss the Orange Bowl having played there in High School and attended almost every UM home game since. Although I miss her, Joe Robbie stadium isn't all that bad. It's just not an appealing venue for college football.
 
One that hasn't been mentioned is LACK OF IDENTITY.
We never took on any type of Identify under either Coker or Shannon except for being soft and undisciplined.
 
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1. Coker- everyone blames the TCU LB coach first ,but Coker drove the car in the ditch. If you were a rational Cane fan before 2001 then you know this. You don't go from 20-30 1st rounders to beating Nevada by a point. Nevada! You don't bring in Brock Berlin who threw picks LIKE J12 before J12. He set us back at the QB position and that sets any football team on any level back.
2. TCU LB coach-first things first, he didn't leave the cupboard bare for AG. He never replenished the cupboard from Coker.Contrary to what a lot of fans think, he's a good defensive coach.Too many teams wanted his services and some will say no they didn't, it is the truth they did. I think he can be a HC somewhere, he's just not a big boy school coach. He did his job well as DS do-boy. He was over his head and consumed by a vicious fan base. He needs to go to a mid-major and build his own program. The guy has to work on the fundraising part of coaching. I wouldn't give a dime to him because he comes across as dry and bland.
1/2/3.Player development-I think I will blame this more on Coker because he didn't redshirt enough guys. Butch redshirted studs and Coker started duds. TCU LB coach redshirted Miller which was a good move,but he didn't redshirt enough.We should have followed the blueprint of LSU when we got smashed in the Peach Bowl. We were LSU 4-5 years before that but we started recruiting stars and stopped recruiting players.
 
1) Bad CEO's: Coker/Shannon may have been good to great offensive/defensive minds respectively, but they could not run a program. Big difference. Now that we have a true CEO, look at all of the things that have changed and started to take shape...S&C, meals the players eat, accountability, a meritocracy, heightened competition for positions, etc. Not to mention staff stability...Golden's guys appear to be sticking around to see this thing through.

2) Weak high school evaluation and player development. How many guys in Shannon's classes never made it to campus, transferred, etc. These "diamonds in the rough" we thought we were getting were usually a disappointment. The guys that did stay and progressed nicely were more of the the exception. The light came on for after Hank worked out with Duper in the off-season and magically became a bad ***.

3) Weak in the trenches.
 
excellent post.

RaiseCane said:
As the others have said in this thread, I think coaching has to be the #1 problem. While our talent level is definitely down from our successful days, I refuse to believe that we've struck out on so many highly-rated, nationally recruited kids. I think the more logical explanation is that the talent we've brought in hasn't developed.

I think the #2 problem has been QB play. Since Kenny D left, our best 3 QB seasons have been Berlin '04, Jacory '11 and Jacory '09? I think looking back, we definitely underappreciated Berlin when you compare him to the last few QBs we've had, but as a team that has run a pro-style offense, we've need either a good distributor or even a solid game manager at QB, and we haven't had that.

I think the #3 problem has been DT play. As a team that has run some variation of a base 4-3 defense for as long as I can remember, we've been at our best as a defense when we've had disruptive DTs. When our DTs blow up plays, it forces everything outside and lets our D use its speed, which has usually been the calling card of Miami defenses. Since big Vince left, we haven't seen great DT play, and I think our defense has suffered as a result
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Hiring Larry Coker and Randy Shannon back to back is the equivalent of putting yourself on probation and self sanctioning.

By my estimation we've been on probation for the last 10 years or so, whatever the NCAA hands down to us I can live with after what we've already been through.

If they REALLY wanted to punish us they'd make us rehire Shannon. Thankfully I don't think even the NCAA can be THAT cruel.
 
WhatTheHell said:
Paul Dee. He hired the two worst coaches in Miami history.
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At the time, I wanted Coker to continue what Butch started. y year 3 it was clear he didn't have it and i wanted him gone.
I admit I wanted Shannon, thinking he was UM through and through and understood what it took to bring back a championship attitude. Unfortunately he was completely unprepared and the program fell further.
I want to see Golden do better this year managing games (BC game was TERRIBLE last year) but I think he has other attributes to be a great coach for a program like ours.
 
Topgoon said:
DCF, it's not 30 miles from UM's campus to Sun Life Stadium. According to Mapquest, it's 18.8 miles. Big difference.

I, too, miss the Orange Bowl having played there in High School and attended almost every UM home game since. Although I miss her, Joe Robbie stadium isn't all that bad. It's just not an appealing venue for college football.
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JRS has NO atmosphere. The fans are too far from the field and artificial noise irritates more than it excites. OB was the best venue for the college game, but the city of Miami was not willing to pony up the $$ to maintain it and the (natural) hurricane finished it off.
 
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