Like many of you – it has been a rough week to be a Canes fan. I needed to step away from this site and all podcasts for the 48 hours after the Cuse game and am still gathering my thoughts as NSD passed without the hoped for success. While many of my thoughts have been stated on the site already, I felt the need to write this to organize my own thoughts. I apologize in advance for length, but writing this down is cheaper than therapy:
- I went to my first Canes game as a 5 year old in 1978. I was able to attend every home game from 1982 until I graduated from high school in 1991 – so I was lucky enough to have a front row seat to the greatest and most fun dynasty in college football history. I was there in 84 when Kenny Calhoun deflects the 2-point conversion and was also in Arizona celebrating a National Championship for 15 seconds before Terry Porter threw his flag. I say this as a first-time poster so no one questions my bona fides as a true life-long Canes fan.
- The last two decades have been tough. Having spent the first 30 years of my life expecting Miami to compete for National Championships, watching the team lose almost as much as they won was painful. Even more painful during that time was watching the team roll over and get blown out a few times each season. Where was the pride? What happened? Each new coaching hire brougth hope – but limited success. With the exception of 2017 and any win against FSU, there has been very little to be positive about during this period.
- When Mario was hired, I felt that this was truly the last chance for Miami to ever be relevant again. Not so much that Mario was a great game coach, but he has shown he was a program builder, understood what Canes football at its best was and had the resources for the first time to put together a competitive team. My thoughts were the best case scenario was he would be like Butch in amassing so much talent that it would not matter how average an X’s ad O’s coach he was. As you know, year 1 could not have gone worse. Embarrassing blow-out losses to MSTU, Duke, FSU, Clemson and Pitt. Changing the culture and the talent would take time – and while concerned, still believed Mario could be the one to lead the program back to relevance.
- Interesting fact – do you know the last game Miami played in which the other team outgained them in yards? It was North Carolina (by 26 yards). 19 games ago. It was the only game in the last 2 seasons where we were outgained. I look at the last 2 seasons and see a team that has been competitive in every game they played. Even when they fell behind – they fought till the end. That they have lost 6 of those games (5 by 1 score) does show some of the limitations of Mario as a game day coach, but can you think of a 2-year period in the last 20 years where Miami played hard and competitive every game of the season? That is a huge change in culture and one of the most important changes that needed to be made to make this program relevant again. I remember back in the 80s after an FSU game – one of their players said something along the line that by the 4th quarter, both teams knew FSU was the better team and both teams knew Miami was going to win. When we get back to having that killer instinct to win close games, even against superior teams, only then can we say the “The U is back”
- I get the concern that with Cam Ward and this schedule – we should have been in the ACCGC. But no one expected Duke, Syracuse or GTech to be as good as they were this year. We can’t argue on one hand that close road losses to GTech and Cuse better position us for the last CFP spot vs the SEC teams and at the same time argue that these losses were inexcusable. Should we have won both games? Yes. But they were close games to good football teams.
- I can’t remember a season where the top 40 teams were as balanced and competitive and those at the top of the rankings are there because of how few of those top 40 teams they need to play (I am talking about you Indiana, Penn State, Oregon, Texas). As an ACC school, as we saw this week, we have a smaller room for error.
- The TVD to Cam improvement was huge – but I could argue that every other position group (other than TE) was about the same or worse this year vs last year. In particular – the drop off in safety play almost outweighed that improvement in QB play. I say this to highlight if we can fix the defensive backfield this off season and have a QB that that does not throw 2-3 red zone interceptions each game, we should be competing for CFP again next year.
- Yesterday, I would have loved to have had more success on the defensive side of the ball. Yes – that does put more pressure on us needing the portal. But even if we signed Pickens and Hanks – for next year we would still need 2 top end safeties and a CB#1. We do need to stack classes, particularly at DT and DB, but our immediate needs for next year are unchanged.
- As I get to the end of my missive, this turned out more optimistic than I have felt for the last week. I got to watch a full season of relevant, competitive UM football – something I have only been able to say 1 time in the last 2 decades. I believe that as long as we can be competitive in the NIL game (I know – a big if), we are going to have more seasons like this one. Most will end in tears – but they will be fun to watch.
