Why It Went South: Miami's Football Demise

The last several weeks have been interesting in south Florida from a fan standpoint. Every conceivable theory has been bandied about regarding the collapse of the once mighty program. I have my own theories based on watching UM for twenty seven seasons. Let's get into them below.

• College Football has become a game dominated by big public state schools. Small private urban schools are at a major disadvantage.
• Miami's facilities, never an issue in the 1980s and from 2000-2002 are now a major issue. Again large state school many of whom were never focused on Football have had major capital campaigns to upgrade football facilities. Miami on the other hand has stood pat or hardly upgraded its facilities wrongly depending on a Miami mystique that doesn't exist anymore to recruit players and to get them in proper playing shape once enrolled at UM.
• Miami under Larry Coker much as it had under Dennis Erickson began to abandon intensive south Florida based recruiting to chase 5 star "blue chip" recruits from other parts of the nation. While this philosophy had an impact in netting Miami high recruiting rankings from Rivals.Com and Scout.com, and the love of many recruitniks on the internet message boards, it killed Miami's chemistry, the "us against the world attitude" and allowed a mass exodus of kids who grew up loving the U to other schools. The final straw was the signing day defection of Preston Parker two years ago to Florida State.
  
• Increased academic standards. Ali Highsmith, Nate Harris, LeSean McCoy, etc, etc. Guys who have had big impacts for other schools and originally signing with Miami, but couldn't qualify under the new higher academic requirements for athletes that puts Miami in the NCAA BSD top 10 percent for admissions.
  
• The media: Yes I know it sounds like a Republican Congressional or Presidential candidate attacking the media, but Miami has been unfairly singled out by the national media. At a time where the three most successful programs of the 2000s: USC, Ohio State and Oklahoma have clearly cheated and broken numerous NCAA rules, the media continues to pick on Miami, who has had less players arrested in this decade than Florida has in the last six months as an example of College Football rule breaking and thuggery. Miami has been forced to take all sorts of steps to change its public perception, including ripping the names off the back of the uniforms, banning gun ownership (a 2nd amendment right, thus a lawsuit one of the players should file)by players, banning cell phone use by players on campus and many more steps. Yet the public perception hasn't changed.
  

Will things get any better for Miami in the near future? No, they will in fact get much worse. Here is why:

• Dolphins Stadium vs the Orange Bowl. Miami has essentially ceded its home field advantage and now is playing its home games in a neutral site stadium with no atmosphere and no history. The last links of the program to the dominant bygone era die when the Orange Bowl is knocked down.
  
• Poor facilities and small athletic budget. UCF and FIU have spanking new facilities to lure recruits and improve football. Miami has only its history to fall back on, which due to its move to Dolphin Stadium and its desire to change its national image is now being lost in the shuffle.
  
• The ACC: Every other school in the league save Wake Forest has a bigger athletic budget than Miami. Miami, I would argue would not have won a National Title in 2001 or played for one in 2002 if the Canes were facing the sort of schedules Miami played in the 1980s and early 1990s (when Miami earned all of its National Titles and perhaps would have won a few more had it not been for some crazy tough scheduling) or even playing in the ACC. The Big East was a league where small private schools like Miami didn't have the dollars to compete at the level the ACC schools do. Miami's move to the ACC, where it is a second or third tier school was suicide.
  
• Randy Shannon: He's a good guy whose life story and south Florida roots makes you want him to succeed. But it's obvious like other Jimmy Johnson deciphles who have guided UM or the Dolphins he has the same poor in game management of his mentor without the motivating quality. Like Butch Davis whose run at Miami has been subject to much revisionism, Shannon appears to be recruiting well but has surrounded himself with poor assistants and has made many bad decisions regarding players and their role on the team. Miami will never be more than a seven win team with Shannon at the helm, but the UM job is no longer attractive nationally and he'd the best coach Miami probably could end up with.