Dynasty, I feel confident that when Miami approached the BC games, the team almost discounted the BC team as an automatic win as they were looking forward (and backward) to other opponents. I saw Miami do this so many times it just burned my butt!
They'd beat 'greatest football team in history' opponents, but would barely be able to squeak by 'easy' opponents who couldn't win five games a year. I seem to recall Syracuse giving us fits as well.
I'm hoping that Golden can keep them on point. Focused on this one opponent. Winning this ONE game. Every week.
I don’t disagree with you regarding the Canes occasionally playing down to their competition. Honestly, I think that is understandable because we aren’t always going to be on our game each and every week. I can remember during the JJ era Miami struggling to beat a sorry Toledo team in ’87. During the Erickson era, Miami struggled all day in the Orange Bowl to beat a mediocre Arizona squad by one point. I will agree that we often look ahead to big time games. However, the one time I actually thought we handle business in a major way was during the ’87 season when we went into Fayetteville and administered an old fashion thrashing on a decent piggy squad before heading to Doak Campbell for the showdown in hoe town. The Arkansas beat down showed an amped up Canes team focused on the task at hand, and after knocking off fSu the following week we took care of business by convincingly spanking the turtles the next week.
Syracuse had its moments. In games we were favorites, however, the Orangemen took us to the wire once and that was in ’92. We won that game by 6 points, but it was a tough, tough win in the dome. Sure, they did us in ’98, but they were favorites going into that game. The remaining games during that era in which we were favorites, we handled them pretty well, IIRC.
As far as the Boston College games you may be correct. For whatever reason, it seems as though we just flat struggle up there. Out of the ten trips to that place we’ve only put foot to *** twice. I don’t know but it appears that we’ve been trending on something other than looking ahead or behind. I hope we smash that *** this year, but I’m not counting on it. I’m expecting it to be a typical Miami at Boston College football game. The type of game we struggle to get a tough, hard-fought win at a place I consider a snake pit.
As it pertains to coach Golden, I really believe he can turn this program around, but it is going to take time. I think we’re looking at roughly four years before he is able to field a national championship caliber team. Imo, it isn’t just about the starting 22, but more importantly it is about building quality depth. The kind of depth where there is very little drop off. I tend to focus on the play of special teams, particularly kickoff and punt units, as those units are usually the first place where you can see developing depth and future playmakers emerge. I’ve always said that UM will return to glory when its defense leads the way. We aren’t there yet. So, until that time, I’m hopeful the fans will show patience because we’re likely to face some crucial moments moving forward, especially this year.
