Miami Hurricanes Football: Is This Team Close to Being a Title Contender?

Miami Hurricanes fans are a spoiled lot.

An unparalleled run of success in the 80’s and early 90’s, as well as perhaps the greatest team ever in 2001, have created a bar of success against which the program’s on-field success will be forever measured.

The conceit is that Miami fans only care about a team that wins a title, but the reality is that Miami fans are starved for a contender right now. Relevance is what they seek more than anything else.

To wit: yesterday I was listening to Dan Rubenstein and Ty Hildenbrandt’s excellent college football podcast, The Solid Verbal. When the topic of the ACC Coastal division came up, they mentioned four programs: North Carolina, Georgia Tech, Virginia and Virginia Tech. A small part of me died as I sat in my cubicle.  Miami had been relegated to the same level as Duke.

The conditions being what they are, the question on fans' minds is “when will we be back?”

It is impossible to give definitive answers to those kinds of questions in the ever-morphing landscape of college football, but here are 5 reasons why the answer is “sooner than you might think”, in no particular order:

1.) Recruiting

Listen, this is not secret: all things being equal, talent always wins. Miami will always be a threat because they happen to be located in the most fertile recruiting ground in the country. The fabled “State of Miami” was the pipeline that fueled five national titles (and arguably four should be championships).

After several years of Miami getting beat for top local talent, Al Golden and staff served notice last year that the days of coming in and plucking the top studs from the area are soon going to be over. Players like Duke Johnson, Tracey Howard and Deon Bush were guys that everyone in the nation wanted and Miami, coming off a 6-6 season and in the cross hairs of looming NCAA Sanctions, reeled them in. This brings us nicely to reason no. 2…

2.) Head Ball Coach Al Golden

Golden has executed a complete turnaround since he took over. I was a Randy Shannon fan for many reasons and a detractor for several others, but after four years of mediocre football it was time for a change.

A change is what we got, and in a big way.  Discipline has been instilled, and his “UTough” off season workout program has become a major building block for the program. Nowhere is this culture change more evident than when it comes to…

3.) Leadership by Example

For years now, Miami has lacked a true leader on the field. There has been talent, but no one has stepped forward to fill the role of Ed Reed or Joaquin Gonzalez …guys who lead by word AND example.

In reality, it does not matter if you are Randy Shannon or Nick Saban; you only have 20 hours per week to work with players as an NCAA coach. Championship teams are forged when players take it upon themselves to do the extra work outside of those 20 hours and lead their teammates to do the same.

I could talk about this for hours, but the Hurricanes really went downhill when Larry Coker started recruiting talented players that had an entitlement issue. They came in and expected to be treated differently, like the stars they always had been in high school, without having to earn it. They did exactly what was required and nothing more, and then sat around and waited to be the next First Rounder.

The problem is that this program had been built on guys who were not only talented, but the hardest workers in the country. Losing the work ethic meant losing a lot of football games and, not surprisingly, your status as a star player. (Florida Gator fans are nodding along right now as they recap last season’s fall to 6-6)

The dead weight and bad character guys are gone; 50 of the players on this year’s roster will be in their first or second year, as Al Golden talked about with the Tampa Bay Times’ Greg Auman. 

In their place step leaders like Anthony Chickillo, Mike James, Denzel Perryman, Eduardo Clements and Stephen Morris, and a recruiting class that has shown more leadership than any in the past 10 years. Bringing in guys who are here because of Al Golden’s plan, and not adapting to it, is vital to the sustained success of this program. Anyone who the coaching staff did not believe in is long gone at this point, meaning these are all “Al’s Guys”. Not having to deal with bad apples in your own locker room makes it a lot easier to focus on the guy across the sidelines.

4.) Competition

The road Miami faces back is not exactly steep. Aside from Florida State and Virginia Tech, no team in the ACC consistently strikes fear in to the opponents. The Seminoles and Hokies will always be tough, but it has been proven in years past that when things are going right, Miami has the ability to consistently beat both. Even last year, when Miami was far less talented than either, they lost both games in the final minutes by less than a touchdown.

Outside of those two, the ACC is a crap shoot. Virginia and North Carolina State appear to be rising, but we have said that before only to see them backslide. North Carolina has NCAA issues to deal with a new system in place. Clemson is, well, Clemson. Georgia Tech runs an offense that the conference is starting to figure out. Maryland and Boston College are rebuilding; Wake Forest and Duke are good for the occasional upset but other than that lack the resources to consistently compete for championships.

When looked at through that lens, Miami’s position seems much more enviable. If Miami takes care of business against the schools it is supposed to beat, all that is left are the Hokies and Seminoles. Which means the distance between Miami and the top of the ACC is a lot shorter than Ty and Dan would have you believe.

5.) Resolution of NCAA Issues

The sad fact is Miami is going to be dealing with some sort of sanctions; worse than that, however, is not knowing what they will be. As the Bill Gates quote (which Al Golden loves) goes: “Information is the reduction of uncertainty.”

Uncertainty allows opposing coaches and national talking heads to say things like “Miami is getting the Death Penalty” without recourse. There is no doubt that this sticks in the heads of recruits and their parents.

However, the investigation has run its course and now the only thing left is to receive the verdict.

I am not going to speculate about the specific sanctions, because the only people who know at this point work for the NCAA and the university. However, barring something drastic, the sanctions will actually be a good thing. They will allow the coaching staff to tell recruits exactly how they will be effected by the penalty and eliminate speculative negative recruiting. 

After last season’s recruiting efforts under a dark cloud, that has to be the one thing that Miami opponents fear the most.