I grew up in south Florida. In the 70s, and the university of Miami was a good school but hardly known for its football.
Along came Howard Schnellenberger in the early 1980s, who guided the team to bigger things. They became the scrappy upstarts who upended college football. They beat powerhouse teams in their own stadiums, and capped it with a national championship at the end of the 1983 season.
They were on the map, and became a premier team for the next two decades.
They won five national championships, played in a few more, lost out in the pre-BCS era on voting in other years.
Everyone loved to hate them. And as a student at the university, it was hard not to get caught up in the hype.
I watched them play as often as I could over that span, and it was fun.
Then there was that weird game at the end of the 2002 season against Ohio State. In the 2nd OT, Ohio State failed on the last play - hey Miami won! Except … wait for it … there was a flag for pass interference a few moments later. Ohio State got another try and "won." That moment sticks with a lot of fans and we talk about it a lot.
Why? Probably because it was the last time Miami played an impactful game.
That was 22 seasons ago. Kids who are seniors on this years team either hadn't been born yet, or were infants.
The Hurricanes have struggled mightily since then. They have had some big games here and there. They have had a stretch at times where pundits say things like "is the U back?"
But here's the reality of it all. They have been through very many coaches. 8 if you include the guy who led the team in that 2002 season and stayed around for a few years. That's about 3 years per coach, on average. New guy says he wants to do away with whatever the last guy did and starts over. But he doesn't have instant success and is let go only to repeat the cycle.
And so here we are. Most seasons have been mediocre at best, and the overall win percentage is around 60% which isn't terrible, but isn't great either.
In that 22 year span, they missed bowl games 7 times. And their record in the other games is 4-11.
About 32% of the time, they didn't even qualify. Consider that it's an indicator of success to a point, since you have to win 6 games and not be on probation to play in one.
And 50% of the time, they lost.
So they won a bowl game 18% of those years. It's not like they played top tier teams. Typically bowl matchups are planned for teams that will be competitive and thus sell more tickets. And yet, they weren't competitive.
We're currently in year 2 of a new coach. Team started off well and won a big game against a quality opponent. They scored a lot, and played good defense. Maybe this could be something.
Then, last week, they faced a team (at home) who isn't very good. Miami was a huge favorite. They'd played terribly, but still almost eeked out a win, except for a coaching decision to run with less than 30 seconds left. The player fumbled and the defense gave up two long plays and a TD to lose the game. It was pathetic and the talk of sports media for the week. How can a team blow that?! It was the number one on the "not top 10"
But hey a loss happens sometimes, even it's embarrassing. There are still 7 weeks to play. Come out and play hard and smart the following week, and you can erase that from memory.
Last night, they played. Led at halftime. And then it was one little thing here. One little thing there. And suddenly they are down by 10. And then by more, and the team seemed to give up. Sure the final was "only" a ten point loss. But it was so much worse.
Why do I keep watching? Rooting for this team? They're terrible and have been terrible for a long time now.
They joined the Atlantic coast conference 18 years ago, with the hope that they could help some of the football programs get better. Which they did. But Miamis got worse.
Inconceivably, Miami has never won an ACC title. Heck they have only qualified for a title game one time - but they were on probation and couldn't play in the game.
I guess it's time to finally admit that they aren't even worth wasting time on anymore. This feeling comes every season, and when they start off hot, I get into it. And then every year around this time, I just throw my hands up and stop paying attention.
I think it's time I start the season throwing my hands up. There's really no point in wasting three hours and getting the emotional letdown that inevitably happens.
I'll do what I do with pretty much every other game in the college world. If it's close in the 4th quarter, I'll watch it. Otherwise I'll just check the box scores. And enjoy my Saturdays.
By the way, I had occasion to visit UMs campus recently and it was vastly different. Almost unrecognizable from when I was there 40 years ago. Much like the football team is unrecognizable.
Thanks for the memories, UM.
