{"id":3123,"date":"2015-10-26T08:54:20","date_gmt":"2015-10-26T13:54:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.gridironstuds.com\/blog\/?p=3123"},"modified":"2015-10-26T08:54:53","modified_gmt":"2015-10-26T13:54:53","slug":"will-we-ever-dance-again","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gridironstuds.com\/blog\/will-we-ever-dance-again\/","title":{"rendered":"Will We Ever Dance Again? The Past, the current and the future of the Miami Hurricanes"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"By Chad Wilson <\/strong>
\nEditor in Chief – GridironStuds Blog<\/strong>
\nTwitter: @GridironStuds<\/strong><\/p>\n

It had been two years since I had attended a University of Miami football game before Saturday’s contest vs. Clemson. \u00a0The reason I haven’t are numerous but irrelevant to the story. \u00a0What is relevant is that Saturday’s atmosphere prior to kickoff seemed eerily similar to Randy Shannon’s last game on the Hurricanes sidelines. \u00a0I was there for Shannon’s last game as I was working with the marketing department as part of my commitment while finishing my degree.<\/p>\n

Putting a finger on exactly what was in the air is difficult, \u00a0all I know is that it just seemed to be the same. So when Clemson drove right down the field on their first drive and put the ball in the end zone, \u00a0my mind said “yeah, that’s about right.” \u00a0What ensued thereafter was not similar to Shannon’s last game and caught all of college football by surprise. \u00a0Clemson walked down the field on their four ensuing possessions and accumulated a 35-0 lead early in the 2nd quarter. \u00a0While the operations were different, \u00a0sitting in the stands in the 2nd quarter of the game, \u00a0I felt I was watching Al Golden coach his last game for the Miami Hurricanes. \u00a0Walking into the stadium in 2011, \u00a0I had the same feeling.<\/p>\n

The mass of Miami Hurricanes fans will be ugly in regards to Golden as he makes his way out South Florida. \u00a0There’s no doubt he should bear the brunt of the blame for the lack of performance by the Canes during his tenure. \u00a0Golden came in with a detailed plan to catapult the program back to it’s glory days. \u00a0The plan was almost too detailed. \u00a0Golden ultimately had a focus on the things that don’t matter in Miami and for this football program. \u00a0The failed elements of the plan ranged from his game day attire to spring practices in obscure cities out of the region. \u00a0In between, he demanded he hold on to a defensive system that did not fit the type of talent available in this fertile recruiting ground (a cardinal sin for any coach).<\/p>\n

The first signs of trouble came in game #1 vs. Maryland in which the Terps repeatedly ran quick screens to their WRs with raving success. \u00a0The insistence on recruits\u00a0practicing on both sides of the ball during camps was another sign of trouble but hardly his biggest. \u00a0Golden’s stubbornness in recruiting was the knock in the engine for me. \u00a0His assessment of talent in the area was so off that it was alarming. \u00a0It was so off that in the beginning I had to ask myself “am I tripping?” \u00a0After a quick resolution to that thought in which my answer was no, \u00a0I realized that this would eventually bleed onto the field of play. \u00a0The obvious thing for everyone to think would be that I mean there would be a lack of talent so Miami would eventually start losing but that’s not what I was thinking. \u00a0You will always get talent at the University of Miami. \u00a0Talent will never be a problem here so long as we play Division I football. \u00a0What I was referring to was this: \u00a0if Al Golden is this willing to be this way off and this stubborn about recruiting this area, \u00a0he will be just as or more stubborn on other things of great importance. \u00a0In the end, \u00a0this is exactly what played itself out for the last 4.5 years at Miami. \u00a0I saw the trouble ahead.<\/p>\n

We all endured the mind boggling replies to questions about Al’s defensive schemes. \u00a0Week after week we watched mis-alignments, \u00a0in-adequate use of talent, etc. Week after week we listened to it get defended in much the same way the outlandish recruiting moves were. \u00a0In Al’s first couple of seasons, \u00a0we saw players leaving early who were not assured NFL roster spots. \u00a0That should have raised an eyebrow. \u00a0In years 2 and 3 under Golden, \u00a0we started to see coaches voluntarily leave the coaching staff for lateral moves or to no other coaching jobs. \u00a0Eyebrows and I’m talking both of them, should have been raised. \u00a0What came next were bizarre press conferences, a saga with the Penn St. vacancy and an eventual discord with the fan base that grew tired of the slogans. \u00a0Golden wanted to come and change everything about the University of Miami program. \u00a0The question is why did he think he could?<\/p>\n

There are many out there who think we can insert a new coach at Miami and all of the tears will be washed away. \u00a0This has not been the case with the last three hires. While I have detailed Golden’s failures, \u00a0I will now turn around and tell you that the situation and atmosphere at Miami built the Al Golden you just witnessed. \u00a0I can guarantee you that had Golden come into Miami in 2002, \u00a0he would not have been this way. \u00a0He would have had to fall into the Miami way. \u00a0However, \u00a0at the time that he came in, \u00a0Miami’s identity was eroding and Golden saw an opportunity to place his own emblem on a program that was 10 years past\u00a0 it’s glory.<\/p>\n

The University of Miami program in it’s heyday was the most unique college football program the game had ever seen. The stadium was the most unique. The home\"\" win streak was never and has never been done again. \u00a0The on the field antics and bravado was unique. \u00a0The dominance on the field was unique. \u00a0The amount of NFL talent was unique and the city of Miami was unique. \u00a0On my way into the University of Miami in 1992, \u00a0we were called together for a team meeting by officials for the NCAA who showed a video tape of things that would no longer be allowed in college football. \u00a0The video depicted 10 clips from college football and roughly 6 to 7 of those clips were of Miami Hurricanes celebrating on the field. \u00a0The NCAA rules committee thought this was unacceptable. \u00a0Three years later, \u00a0on my way out of Miami in 1994, \u00a0the NCAA had reigned down on us with sanctions and then Miami Herald reporter Dan Le Betard published an article in Sports Illustrated stating why the University of Miami should cancel their football team. \u00a0LeBatard built his now successful career on that article. \u00a0My point is that after a decade of dominance, \u00a0people were tired of seeing Miami prosper. \u00a0Miami was now under attack. \u00a0It was as if someone out there studied Miami and thought, \u00a0how can we stop this from happening. \u00a0Step one, \u00a0take away their swag so start penalizing them for their celebrations. \u00a0Second, go down there and find some dirt on them. \u00a0Basically, find them doing things that every other major college football program is doing and\u00a0nail them for it. \u00a0The deconstruction of Miami football dominance had begun.<\/p>\n

In between the legislative moves to disarm the Canes, \u00a0other factors brought the rest of college football even with Miami. \u00a0Other programs started imitating the the personnel that made Miami unique. \u00a0Defensive linemen got more athletic, \u00a0linebackers got slimmer and faster while\u00a0defensive backs became more aggressive. \u00a0When schools could not find this talent in their regions, they made major investments in recruiting talent in the same South Florida areas Miami pulled their talent from. \u00a0With a long history and fat pocket boosters, \u00a0getting the money needed to get the talent out of area codes 561, 954 and 305 was not a problem. Slick talking assistant coaches replaced hard core\u00a0talent developers as the emphasis was now on physical metrics and athleticism. You can all thank the University of Miami for those things. \u00a0The University of Miami brought flavor to college football and the media took notice. \u00a0When the media took notice, \u00a0college football grew and so did the revenue. \u00a0The very team that college football was attempting to silence was the very team making all of America pay attention.<\/p>\n

\"\"While college football was growing at a rapid rate and college football teams were busy imitating the most dominant program in the game, \u00a0Miami was trying to climb out of the NCAA sanctions hole that it was in from 1995-1998. \u00a0It was as if someone had come out on the track and pulled on Miami’s shorts during a race and allowed the others in the race to catch up. \u00a0With one last diabolical plan and college football still in the infancy of it’s current boom, \u00a0Miami was able to break free of the shorts hold and sprint the finish line furiously. \u00a0Butch Davis creatively accumulated talent while tap dancing through the loopholes in the sanctions. \u00a0Inspired and angered by the NCAA slap down, \u00a0talent made it’s way to Miami. \u00a0What was created was the most awesome gathering of football talent in college football history that flexed it’s muscle in 2001 in a way few have ever seen. \u00a0 Miami had climbed the ladder to the top again but how much energy did they use to get there?<\/p>\n

What Miami created by 2001 was a great team but unfortunately not a new dynasty. \u00a0In the three prime years 2000-2002, \u00a0Miami managed one championship and by 2003, \u00a0the decline had started. \u00a0In 2004, \u00a0college football was on it’s way to it’s most prosperous ERA. \u00a0Television rights, merchandising, mega-stadiums and super conferences were making colleges rich. \u00a0The University of Miami was not a major player in any of that. \u00a0A choice to join the ACC instead of the SEC meant Miami would be pigeonholed into playing teams of little interest and connection to the South Florida crowds. \u00a0Wake Forest, North Carolina, NC State, Duke and the like do not inspire a transient South Florida fan base to forgo a night they may never forget on South Beach, the Grove or the Ft. Lauderdale Strip. \u00a0In 2008, \u00a0the University of Miami was kicked out of it’s beloved dwelling the Orange Bowl. \u00a0The site of so many triumphs, history and strength was now the uneven match of a construction bulldozer. \u00a0Combining the lack of appeal of an ACC schedule with dead like atmosphere of Sun Life Stadium has worked to strip the Hurricanes of two major advantages they had in college football. \u00a0During this time, \u00a0other major college football programs built palace like football facilities, boosted their recruiting budgets and descended upon South Florida like the feds on a cocaine lab. \u00a0Miami in response has attempted to imitate these other programs who have budgets far exceeding their own. \u00a0The administration has seemed to be halfway committed to a dominant football program and more focused on being Harvard of the palm trees. \u00a0This had shielded the effort to return to the glory years.<\/p>\n

At this point, \u00a0Miami has been stripped of it’s swag, kicked out of it house and has had it’s local talent pillaged as the rest of college football has taken delight in it’s plight. The bravado and in your face style of before angered many, inspired others and has ridden Miami to this low point. \u00a0The climb out of the hole will be steeper than ever before in Miami’s history. \u00a0It’s been 14 years since a national title and much has changed in college football. \u00a0The next staff at Miami can’t be all about recruiting. \u00a0The next staff can’t be all about marketing. \u00a0The next staff can’t be about slogans. \u00a0The only language South Florida understands is winning if you want them at football games and Al Golden could not speak the language. \u00a0There are a number of factors that will lead to future success for Miami. \u00a0The biggest of those factors will be talent development. \u00a0You can always get talent at Miami but the success will rely on aging that talent from 18 years old to 21 years old. \u00a0 A staff that can do this or at least get this started will be on their way to getting Miami to dance again. \u00a0That’s when the penalty flags will start to fly once more.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Chad Wilson Editor in Chief – GridironStuds Blog Twitter: @GridironStuds It had been two years since I<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3123","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gridironstuds.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3123","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gridironstuds.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gridironstuds.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gridironstuds.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gridironstuds.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3123"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/gridironstuds.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3123\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gridironstuds.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3123"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gridironstuds.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3123"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gridironstuds.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3123"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}