New here, longtime Canesport lurker, but can't take Gary Ferman's anymore. Wanted to share a conver with a Miami AD staffer.
After the Russel Bowl, I emailed Blake James about the state of the program and as a booster what could I do besides giving to some general athletic fund. After a few weeks, I received a long, personal, and well written email back from a UM athletic department staffer. This series of emails was filled with some positive and negative insights into the program.
First the positives: Miami for the first time since I have been a donor (since 2007) has what is called the UM Football Victory fund. It's a campaign that was launched in November of 2013, aimed at raising money for recovery facilities, a completely new practice facility with a lighted field, and a training table. If you care about football first, I recommend directing your donations here: http://hurricanesports.com/fls/28700/victoryfund/index.html
Secondly, this was the first time that I not only wrote an angry email and got a response, but got multiple responses. This is due to a new directive from Blake James to engage alumni/fans. I used to feel ignored, like my concerns were dismissed. This feels like someone there actually cares.
The negatives: This is the first time since I have been a donor that UM has a target football fundraiser. That screams of incompetence and neglect. When you see the laziness with which made some our recent hires, plus the lackluster effort to engage alumni, plus the horrible facilities and stadium, it cannot be stated that the administration or Donna Shalala were "huge supporters of football". I doubt Shalala wants it to be bad, but the idea that she has been a positive, or that the administrators she hired to handle football were a positive, is false. Too much smoke to the contrary.
Secondly, none of UMs new initiatives are staff related. They are building related. So while we may have a training table, it's unclear if they intend to staff it with a football only nutrition staff. An answer was refused when I asked if Miami had a football only strength and conditioning coach. For me, I'd rather hire more and better qualified staff than have a prettier place to eat.
And thirdly, the confusing issue of Miami's academic entrance standards. I was told, very carefully worded, that Miami will accept students who are NCAA qualifiers. In other words the sliding scale. What was also made clear, however, is that UM doesn't solely admit based on NCAA standards. Essentially, Miami has it's own standard that it wants it's student athletes to reach upon applying to the school, and if those standards aren't are met, a case by case determination is made. I believe in the past it was referred to as "exceptions". I was not privy to the number of allowances, but the process is pretty obvious: a kid who is an NCAA qualifier must either improve his scores/grades, or get a "waiver" by UM admissions.
What often happens is a coach will get a borderline kid to commit and hope for his grades/tests to improve. If they don't improve, the coach MUST ask for a "waiver". You can see how this not only requires extra work, which in itself is not ideal, but it delays the process in which a kid can be told "yes" he can come. Many kids with dozens of elite offers are not going to wait. In addition, if a kid does wait and he is NOT granted a waiver from UM admissions, he has to be cut loose. This not only costs us the recruit himself, but it frustrates his coaches, and often costs us backups who we were slow playing. As far as JUCO's, Miami is basically at a point now where it is very difficult to get many JUCO credits transferred. "We don't want to compromise our ethics for sports" was the quote.
I don't want us to be Stanford. But if we are going to have standards, it seems like a huge wasted process to recruit borderline kids and JUCOs. Either use the sliding scale and take em all, or don't allow any kids below the UM standard in, saving coaches time and energy. Of course, if we did just use the Stanford method, we'd rarely get a South Florida kid here again.
Thanks for letting me vent and share this stuff. I feel the program is at a tipping point.
After the Russel Bowl, I emailed Blake James about the state of the program and as a booster what could I do besides giving to some general athletic fund. After a few weeks, I received a long, personal, and well written email back from a UM athletic department staffer. This series of emails was filled with some positive and negative insights into the program.
First the positives: Miami for the first time since I have been a donor (since 2007) has what is called the UM Football Victory fund. It's a campaign that was launched in November of 2013, aimed at raising money for recovery facilities, a completely new practice facility with a lighted field, and a training table. If you care about football first, I recommend directing your donations here: http://hurricanesports.com/fls/28700/victoryfund/index.html
Secondly, this was the first time that I not only wrote an angry email and got a response, but got multiple responses. This is due to a new directive from Blake James to engage alumni/fans. I used to feel ignored, like my concerns were dismissed. This feels like someone there actually cares.
The negatives: This is the first time since I have been a donor that UM has a target football fundraiser. That screams of incompetence and neglect. When you see the laziness with which made some our recent hires, plus the lackluster effort to engage alumni, plus the horrible facilities and stadium, it cannot be stated that the administration or Donna Shalala were "huge supporters of football". I doubt Shalala wants it to be bad, but the idea that she has been a positive, or that the administrators she hired to handle football were a positive, is false. Too much smoke to the contrary.
Secondly, none of UMs new initiatives are staff related. They are building related. So while we may have a training table, it's unclear if they intend to staff it with a football only nutrition staff. An answer was refused when I asked if Miami had a football only strength and conditioning coach. For me, I'd rather hire more and better qualified staff than have a prettier place to eat.
And thirdly, the confusing issue of Miami's academic entrance standards. I was told, very carefully worded, that Miami will accept students who are NCAA qualifiers. In other words the sliding scale. What was also made clear, however, is that UM doesn't solely admit based on NCAA standards. Essentially, Miami has it's own standard that it wants it's student athletes to reach upon applying to the school, and if those standards aren't are met, a case by case determination is made. I believe in the past it was referred to as "exceptions". I was not privy to the number of allowances, but the process is pretty obvious: a kid who is an NCAA qualifier must either improve his scores/grades, or get a "waiver" by UM admissions.
What often happens is a coach will get a borderline kid to commit and hope for his grades/tests to improve. If they don't improve, the coach MUST ask for a "waiver". You can see how this not only requires extra work, which in itself is not ideal, but it delays the process in which a kid can be told "yes" he can come. Many kids with dozens of elite offers are not going to wait. In addition, if a kid does wait and he is NOT granted a waiver from UM admissions, he has to be cut loose. This not only costs us the recruit himself, but it frustrates his coaches, and often costs us backups who we were slow playing. As far as JUCO's, Miami is basically at a point now where it is very difficult to get many JUCO credits transferred. "We don't want to compromise our ethics for sports" was the quote.
I don't want us to be Stanford. But if we are going to have standards, it seems like a huge wasted process to recruit borderline kids and JUCOs. Either use the sliding scale and take em all, or don't allow any kids below the UM standard in, saving coaches time and energy. Of course, if we did just use the Stanford method, we'd rarely get a South Florida kid here again.
Thanks for letting me vent and share this stuff. I feel the program is at a tipping point.
