1997 Miami Hurricanes

[PittsburghCane]

YO OLD HEADS!!!

I am a bit on the young side and its rather difficult to research online so I figured I would turn to you all. What was the buzz like around the 97 team that went 5-6? How was Butch viewed and what was the climate like with the media and among the fan base?

 

[poncho0091]

Just keep in mind with the opinions you get here, buzz and reality are 2 different things. Dude was basically coaching under the death penalty and people wanted him fired.

 

[Hurracanes]

That was rough. I was only 15 years old so I didn’t truly understand what the impact of the lack of scholarships was going to do to this program. You got to remember, fans like me grew up never seeing Miami lose at home. 97’ was like the Twilight zone, especially that FSU game. Still, it’s understandable why we were so bad. Last couple years at Miami were far worse in comparison.

 

[Portal]

The Miami Hurricanes were stripped of 24 football scholarships and

MIAMI (AP) _ The Miami Hurricanes were stripped of 24 football scholarships and banned from bowl games for one year as a result of NCAA sanctions announced today for a financial aid scandal and other violations. Miami was expected to withdraw from consideration for a bowl game this season...

apnews.com

 

[JD08]

He got leeway with most fans. The NCAA had a raging hard on for us and it was understood that Erickson didn't exactly leave things in great shape. People just hoped it wasn't the beginning of permanent mediocrity.

At least that's the way it was up here in PBC around the fans I knew.

 

[PittsburghCane]

The Miami Hurricanes were stripped of 24 football scholarships and

MIAMI (AP) _ The Miami Hurricanes were stripped of 24 football scholarships and banned from bowl games for one year as a result of NCAA sanctions announced today for a financial aid scandal and other violations. Miami was expected to withdraw from consideration for a bowl game this season...

apnews.com

Thank you!

 

[26GOAT]

95 and 96 were a big letdown but alot of fans were blindsided by how bad the lack of schollies were catching up to us. 97 was a disaster but a ton of freshmen were playing and butch played the wrong qb I think. Anyways, people were getting tired of losing to va tech and fsu every year and then throw in the east carolina etc....when we lost to washington in 2000 the fans were done. We then ran off 35 or so in a row. To be honest our fans have never been happy.

 

[Rellyrell]

That was rough. I was only 15 years old so I didn’t truly understand what the impact of the lack of scholarships was going to do to this program. You got to remember, fans like me grew up never seeing Miami lose at home. 97’ was like the Twilight zone, especially that FSU game. Still, it’s understandable why we were so bad. Last couple years at Miami were far worse in comparison.

Same age here, and I completely agree w/ all of this. Didn't understand the depth of the ramifications those sanctions were going to cause. I was so spoiled as a fan and didn't appreciate the bull chit the NCAA forced down our throats. Just remember yelling at the TV at Butch. Hindsight being 20/20, Butch did a helluva job navigating us through that, and getting us back to the point where he was accustomed to under JJ.

Golden talked about this cloud, but nothing was like pell-grant scandal and the hammer dropped on us.

 

[Pentagon Cane]

YO OLD HEADS!!!

I am a bit on the young side and its rather difficult to research online so I figured I would turn to you all. What was the buzz like around the 97 team that went 5-6? How was Butch viewed and what was the climate like with the media and among the fan base?

Full impact of the sanctions combined with bad recruiting by Erickson last couple of classes left us with not much of an upper class. We played a bunch of freshman, although same classes, that would pay dividends by 2000. Butch was masterful with grayshirting concept which really ****ed off the NCAA, but nothing they could do about it. It was clear Miami was going to be competitive in 1999. Bowden was in a panic post-game because we were embarrassed in 1997 and not that competitive in 1998 and we gave them everything they could handle in 1999.

 

[AutoCANE]

That was my freshman year...I remember watching us lose to Pitt and realizing that it really was rock bottom. Then along came FSU...

 

[bdcane4eva]

no social media back then or places like this...that said...lotta people were hollering early and often for his head his entire tenure...still to this day my fave period of Cane football...those years when every bandwagon fan alive fled the team and only the real ones were around to see what was being built.

 

[TheOriginalCane]

YO OLD HEADS!!!

I am a bit on the young side and its rather difficult to research online so I figured I would turn to you all. What was the buzz like around the 97 team that went 5-6? How was Butch viewed and what was the climate like with the media and among the fan base?

What do you want to know?

The year before, we went 9-3, won the Big East, and finished #14 in the country.

We started 1997 ranked #14 and we beat Baylor (and moved up to #13). We then proceeded to lose 4 straight and after falling out of the Top 25, we never re-entered during that year (it took us over a year to get back into the Top 25).

Back then, people didn't understand how badly the probation and scholarship losses would be, as far as our depth and our overall competitiveness. That was the year that Bowden intentionally ran up the score on us, since we had beaten him by the same 47-0 score in his first year at F$U.

This year, in particular, was a real "ground zero" for all of the Butch-haters, as it was his third year and we were "regressing" (we actually won the Big East in both of Butch's first 2 years).

I don't know that the media was particularly harsh on Butch, but the fans were. The media was very nice to Butch a couple of years earlier ("new sheriff in town"), and I don't recall them actually turning on him, but the fans certainly got ****y.

If you think about it, Butch's Year 1, Year 2, Year 4, and Year 5 were nearly identical in record (though we finished 2nd in the Big East in 1998 and 1999). Therefore, the 1997 season was the only "bad" one for Butch.

 

[jkaz1]

Champs to Chumps were the banners in fashion at the time.

Erickson left the cupboard bare in some areas.

And we were probably in the midst of probation at the time, so we were low on players.

The climate is what you'd think after having dominated college ball from '83.

But we were starting to fall before the '97 season.

You could see it and feel it before this season that we were dropping down a notch from where we'd been.

Didn't take Butch too long to majorly turn the ship around.

Unfortunately, he jumped to the Browns and we've been in decline ever since with the loss to FIU being the lowest of the lows during this 2-decade stretch.

YO OLD HEADS!!!

I am a bit on the young side and its rather difficult to research online so I figured I would turn to you all. What was the buzz like around the 97 team that went 5-6? How was Butch viewed and what was the climate like with the media and among the fan base?

 

[TheOriginalCane]

Roster

Player	Class	Pos	Summary
Player	Class	Pos	Summary
Player	Class	Pos	Summary
Ryan Clement*		QB	157 Cmp, 267 Att, 2089 Yds, 10 TD
Scott Covington		QB	27 Cmp, 60 Att, 318 Yds, 0 TD
Steve Kelly		QB	2 Cmp, 5 Att, 22 Yds, 0 TD
Edgerrin James*		RB	184 Att, 1098 Yds, 6.0 Avg
Carlo Joseph*		RB	15 Rec, 172 Yds, 11.5 Avg
James Jackson		RB	81 Att, 595 Yds, 7.3 Avg
Dyral McMillan		RB	31 Att, 144 Yds, 4.6 Avg
Trent Jones		RB	26 Att, 107 Yds, 4.1 Avg
Nick Williams		RB	13 Att, 40 Yds, 3.1 Avg
Will McPartland		RB	2 Att, -1 Yds, -0.5 Avg
Derryl Williams		RB	2 Att, 4 Yds, 2.0 Avg
Reggie Wayne*		WR	48 Rec, 640 Yds, 13.3 Avg
Daryl Jones*		WR	16 Rec, 252 Yds, 15.8 Avg
Jeff Popovich		WR
Santana Moss		WR	14 Rec, 269 Yds, 19.2 Avg
Omar Rolle		WR	13 Rec, 108 Yds, 8.3 Avg
Magic Benton		WR	6 Rec, 64 Yds, 10.7 Avg
Andre King		WR	5 Rec, 66 Yds, 13.2 Avg
Bubba Franks*		TE	19 Rec, 294 Yds, 15.5 Avg
Mondriel Fulcher		TE	5 Rec, 87 Yds, 17.4 Avg
Chris C. Jones		TE	2 Rec, 27 Yds, 13.5 Avg
Kerlin Blaise*		OL
Carlos Callejas*		OL
Damond Neely*		OL
Robert Sampson*		OL
Mike Wehner*		OL
Robert Hall		OL
Ty Wise		OL
Andy Crosland		K
Denny Fortney*		DL
Derrick Ham*		DL
Damione Lewis*		DL
Chad Pegues*		DL
Quincy Hipps		DL
Matt Sweeney		DL
Rod Mack*		LB
Dan Morgan*		LB
Michael Smith*		LB
Jevon Rhodes		LB
Nate Webster		LB
Nate Brooks*		DB
Eugene Ridgely*		DB
Dennis Scott*		DB
Duane Starks*		DB
Delvin Brown		DB
Leonard Myers		DB

More 1997 Miami (FL) Pages

 

[Ice79]

Real fans knew that opening win vs Baylor was fools gold and ******* arazona st sealed it. The 47-0 loss to fsu was icing on that season. I wondered if we would ever be back. Santana moss and EJ were the only ones who kept me interested in those Cane teams... It was hard.

 

[ThomasM]

Full impact of the sanctions combined with bad recruiting by Erickson last couple of classes left us with not much of an upper class. We played a bunch of freshman, although same classes, that would pay dividends by 2000. Butch was masterful with grayshirting concept which really ****ed off the NCAA, but nothing they could do about it. It was clear Miami was going to be competitive in 1999. Bowden was in a panic post-game because we were embarrassed in 1997 and not that competitive in 1998 and we gave them everything they could handle in 1999.

The summer before the 99 season, Bowden said he hardly had to coach anymore, because if you have the fastest horses, you're going to win the dog-gone race. He was shocked, as were their fans, after we gave them a scare in 99. I was sitting surrounded by FSU fans, and they kept asking me, "Is that guy a senior?" They were very uncomfortable when I told them "freshman" and "sophomore" over and over. They were nice about it, but they were shocked. They all saw the writing on the wall, and they didn't like what it said.

By the time Bowden realized what was going on, it was too late. He'd win the title in 99, but he saw that he had slept on Miami, and it was going to bite him hard.

 

[Halcyon Daze]

I remember 1997....That was the year before fire was invented....We used to kill wild brontosauruses that were grazing in Hialeah and eat raw dinosaur burgers during tailgates....Was also the year I bought this sweet ride....

 

[Brains]

We absolutely fell apart in games against ASU and WVU. We led WVU 17-7 and lost 28-17. The team had no depth, racked up tons of injuries, and just wilted in the 2nd half.

By the time we played Syracuse at the end, Edge was out.

The 1998 team featured many of the same players, a year older, and the offense was much, much better. Defense didn't start coming together until afterward.

 

[Yyy]

There was at least one plane that called for Butch Davis’ firing.

 

[DTP]

I hind sight, the deck was definitely stacked against Butch but that didn’t stop Miami fan from wanting to run him out of town. Don’t believe anyone who says they liked Butch from day one. They’re lying.

The probation was brutal but in those days there were ways you could get around reduced scholarships. Using track scholarships for football players that also run track isn’t allowed today. Thankfully the 97 season was my freshman year of college so being away from south Florida kind of numbed me to the pain.