Opinion: Despite Scandal Florida State Still Miles Ahead of Miami

I've gotten a lot of hate mail recently from fans who are unhappy about my column a month ago which contended that Florida State was on the fast track to contention in the ACC while Miami would be a bottom feeder in the ACC for years to come. While I sincerely hope my premise is wrong, I see no reason despite the current media induced scandal at Florida State to change my thinking on this subject.

I watched a grand total of three halves of College Bowl action this season. The entire FSU-Kentucky game and the second half of Florida-Michigan. I find it difficult to justify watching a National Title game that includes a team that lost two games to teams with a combined ten losses. Simply because a team plays in the SEC where if a bad team beats a good team the media anoints the bad team as a good team, as contrasted with the Big Twelve or ACC where if a bad team beats a good team both teams are considered bad teams doesn't mean they deserve a title shot.

I stand by my strong feeling that Miami will unlikely be bowl eligible until 2010 at the earliest. I see random musings on other websites about Miami hitting rock bottom at 5-7. Once again Miami fans, as has been the case for the twenty seven seasons I have been a Cane fan live in an alternate universe of reality. Miami has very little going for it other than a now distant history in a return to glory when every other school in the ACC has better facilities, better coaching staffs and a bigger budget for Football (with the exception of Wake Forest on that last point).

Now back to Florida State. I don't like that the University has a President whose primary interest seems to be the Football team. Nonetheless, the President is so concerned about Football, he's willing to make any sacrifice to ensure FSU returns to the mountain top. (This I should point out is not the proper role of a University President particularly at a taxpayer funded institution. President Wetherell's predecessor Sandy D'Alemberte was one of the truly great Floridians at any level. It is unfortunate that he was succeeded by someone totally unqualified to follow in his footsteps) But as I said a month ago, Florida State has one of the best staffs in the nation when you look at who their position coaches are and their overall body of work. Miami's staff on the other hand is skewed towards guys who can recruit. Randy Shannon has an opportunity to stem this tide with his defensive coordinator pick but my guess is he will opt for another recruiter or someone who will run his basic scheme.

This season despite having the same final record as 2006, Florida State showed an ability to run the football against quality opposition, hang in tough games on the road, play lights out on defense and to make big big plays on offense when needed. None of this was apparent at this time last year. In addition Florida State's players didn't quit on the season or the coaches despite the turmoil. Had Miami been in a similar situation, I am convinced Miami's opposition (Kentucky in this case) would have scored at least 60 points while Miami struggled to score more than 10. The majority Miami's players completely lack the character or desire to be decent college football players, whereas Florida State has so much talent that is just beginning to benefit from Bobby Bowden's coaching shakeup last season.


Miami, on the other hand from my vantage point (where unlike many UM fans I watch the entire nation and get a sense of national trends and also have a historical perspective on my statements and thoughts) is steeped in a long irreversible decline, and went 2-6 in the ACC this season, and easily could have been 0-8. I will say it on the record here and now: Miami will be the worst team in the ACC next season. Worse than Duke led by new coach David Cutcliffe worse than North Carolina and NC State. It is entirely possible Miami will not win a game versus at Division 1A team next year. (It appears Miami will fill the spot vacated by North Texas on its schedule with a 1AA team) Again, I hope this isn't the case but my gut has been right about every step of Miami's decline over the past four seasons, and this past summer I got nothing but abuse for picking Miami to finish 2-6 in the ACC and below .500 overall. Well guess what, I was the only person on the web making such a pick and thus the one who was correct. Miami next year will start a Freshman QB, new WRs (unless Sam Shields grows up but my hunch is that he won't be around next year), several new D-lineman and a new corner and two new safeties. With this flux in the lineup Miami will travel to Florida, Texas A&M, Virginia and Georgia Tech. That's four losses easy. Add home dates with Wake Forest, UCF, and Virginia Tech and you are staring seven losses in the face, although UCF could be beatable. Games at home against Florida State, at Duke and at NC State won't be easy either, and Miami should be an underdog with a shot to win in all three. North Carolina at home, Miami should win but you never know.

Randy Shannon has to improve dramatically as a Head Coach for Miami, even post 2010 to ever be a team consistently winning more than seven or eight games a year. The in-game mis-management of this team was mind boggling. Anybody who has the most basic understanding of College Football has to recognize that the number of coaching mistakes made by Shannon and his staff this year were so numerous that it puts Ron Zook and Larry Coker both to total shame. Recruiting well isn't everything in this game. Like Zook, Shannon seems the type coach that needs to have miles more talent than his opposition to win a game. Miami based on its current recruiting class may have that talent down the road, but with poor coaching will be in a dead end long term. In addition, if Miami is as poor as I expect in 2008 and 2009 recruiting won't come as easy to this staff as it has in 2007 when Shannon can claim he is turning around a traditional powerhouse.

Given the current circumstances as I see it it would be easy for many in Miami's fan base who aren't really Canes fans but simply fans of "winning" to adopt a new team, perhaps Florida or South Florida. But for me, this is a fun time to be a Canes fan. We are finding out who truly cares about the program, who truly appreciates the rich history of UM Football and who is willing to take some lumps as a fan to help right the ship for the program. As someone who believes College Football is the game we enjoy today specifically because of how Miami changed the game for the better in the 1980s, (pro style attack in an option oriented game, speed on defense in a game dominated by big strong players) my love for the program will never ebb. But the bottom line is these are going to be very rough times for the "U" and I don't see anything on the horizon that will change that, and see no sense in sugarcoating the reality in front of us.