^^^COULD NOT AGREE WITH THIS MORE.
I've written about this several times at ItsAUThing over the past few weeks.
Two plays away from undefeated—
looking light years better than it did last December when Wisconsin pushed lifeless Miami up and down the field.
Win those two games and these same people are screaming about going undefeated and taking out Clemson—despite all the glaring weaknesses that the team still has regarding youth at some positions and a two-deep that is nowhere near contender level. Lose those two last minute on a play or two and it's "Cuban Al Golden" and "stick a fork in this program". The overemotional nature—swinging from "we're done" to "we're back" is embarrassingly short-sighted, over-emotional and immature.
"The New Miami" wasn't some off-season, insta-fix—yet many thought that the attitude could be changed over a few months and expected the Canes to roll the Gators. Instead, it's a long-term culture change that Diaz is working towards—from how these kids will play on the field (in due time) as well as the type of kid he's working to recruit to Miami; the guys like those late nineties players who wanted to be part of the foundation and comeback, living and dying for the Canes—opposed to divas who want to win immediately and run off to Tuscaloosa or Athens so they can plug-and-play for an immediate contender (lots of guys who grew up pulling for Miami but don't have the grit to be part of the rebuild.)
Thankfully Diaz has a better handle on it than the fans—constantly pointing out the strengths and the areas of deficiency, and how they're getting worked on. There can be more good taken from a close loss with a few mistakes than there is a win against a Bethune-Cookman where the team strutted out of that game big-headed like they'd just done something special.
A large part of this fan base has lost their mind; sick of being irrelevant for 15 years, while lumping all that failure on yet another new coach—Miami's FIFTH new head coach in 14 seasons—and judging things game-by-game, or even drive-by-drive. It's asinine. Logic and reason have gone WAY out the window.
Wrote about it here as well, if you're interested—
"Early Deep Dive Into The Manny Diaz Era & Meaning Of 'The New Miami'"
Side note; would've loved to see how these nut jobs reacted in 1984 if there was social media when JJ went 8-5 with the defending national champs—including losing the final three in shocking fashion; blowing a 31-0 half-time lead to Maryland, losing to Boston College on Hail Flutie and dropping a shootout to UCLA in the Fiesta Bowl. They'd have burned Hecth down and demanded that Tom Olivadotti take over as head coach, believing he deserved the job over Johnson in the first place, as the DC on Schnelly' staff.
