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1997 Miami Hurricanes

PittsburghCane said:
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?
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People were ready to behead Butch. I wanted to keep him, BUT his DC Miller HAD to go!! Butch's never been the best gameday schemer, so his lack of talent combined with that made for a really tough season. We were so thin at DT we had a well-meaning kid playing tackle weighing 255lb. And, that's what he was listed at, he was probably lighter than that!

At the end of each season, we continued to get better, so I had faith in Butch, but his DC was holding him back. With better playcalling and better scheme on both sides of the ball, we could have gone 8-4, but it is what it is.
 
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PittsburghCane said:
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?
Click to expand...

I remember Ferman had the below magazine out and in the publication it had an article discussing what needs to happen for a title season. I was 17 at the time hook line sinker, I was all bought in. But looking at the roster it was straight trash.

Our first game @Baylor I’m pretty sure that’s the day Princess Diana died.

All our good players where freshman, I remember Santana, Reggie, Bubba Franks, Edge and James Jackson being the only guys that would make plays but all super young.
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1997 HS QBs a lot of known names in that group

Ronald Curry- Mr everything in Hoops and football #1 player

Adam Dunn- All Star MLB

Dane Fife- Played Hoops indiana

Matt Holiday- MLB All Star

Luke Huard- brother of Damon and Brock

Carson Palmer

Some other interesting names

TOP DL- Gus Felder 👀 ended up OL

Earnest Graham- RB

Ben ***- STUD RB that didn’t do 💩 and great name

David Terrell

Jon Stinchcomb

Dennis Johnson- #1 D player went to Kentucky

Julius Peppers

Old time recruitnics would maybe remember these players Canes went after but didn’t land

*Montrell Flowers- Stud WR, blazing speed
*Osa Nosa- DT from South Dade who cried on signing day because he couldn’t sign with Miami because of grades and went to WVU
*Andrew Williams- Signed but didn’t qualify but went JC and came back to help us win ‘01 ship
*Steve Bellisari- QBs/Safety from Boca
*Lee Jackson- Safety from Texas I believe committed to us but night of signing day during that night said he woke up and Jesus told him to go to Texas
 
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MiamiChris said:
I remember Ferman had the below magazine out and in the publication it had an article discussing what needs to happen for a title season. I was 17 at the time hook line sinker, I was all bought in. But looking at the roster it was straight trash.

Our first game @Baylor I’m pretty sure that’s the day Princess Diana died.

All our good players where freshman, I remember Santana, Reggie, Bubba Franks, Edge and James Jackson being the only guys that would make plays but all super young.View attachment 109771View attachment 109772View attachment 109772
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I know that Martz is a homer, but that article is something else.
 
I also remember Ryan Clement was never really appreciated, wasn’t as talented as Scott Covington but dude put his heart and soul in every play and got the 💩 kicked out of him
 
Bringing back a lot of memories. Canes sport was the goto Cane periodical back in the day. Martz put out quality stuff that you couldn't get anywhere else. Used to pick up my copy at All Sports all the time.

I remember 97 FSU - that was so demoralizing. Talent gap was enormous and seemed like we would never get back.
 
Butch made the mistake of playing Clement instead of Covington... not that it would have changed the overall outcome too much.
 
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Guys on that team I liked a lot:

-I thought Dyral McMillan was underrated and ran hard before Edge being Edge took over. When Edge started to run you just immediately knew he would be a star.

-loved Mercier and Ty Wise. Guys were both undersized but so so tough and productive. They would have been our best OL last year.

-I always thought Covington, with his skill set, deserved more patience and playing time than Clement, whom Coker/Butch preferred probably because he seemed tougher.

-Denny Fortney always annoyed me. He had this barbed wire tattoo on his arm at a time when tattoos weren't highly prevalent and it looked cheesy to me because he sucked. Fake tough guy stuff.

-Wayne had a great year, and while his statistics didn't improve too much over his career all the little things he was getting better at each game/season.

-Couldn't stand Leonard Myers. Thought he was overrated despite his hype. Starks was a steal out of JC. Easily the best cb.

-Fulcher was another eventual underrated tight end who gets forgotten. Very solid tight end.

-Butch always had a lot of those rock solid players. People always comment on the stars and hall of famers but he would get the Ty Wise/Merciers/Fulchers and guys like Markese Fitgerald or James Lewis who were very good at what they did, but got forgotten. Very little actual filler and ***** boys on those teams.

-Specific to '97, it hurt a lot. That 47-0 loss to FSU killed me back then. I used to take losses so hard to the point that growing up my parents had to calm me down. So that season crushed me.

-One more addition: Butch had (and still has) his game day issues but man: we haven't had teams as mentally tough as those kids back then. Even that depleted 5-6 team played so hard and tried their best. That effort and intensity blew away anything we've seen for the past 15 years. Like it or not.

-I always thought Derrick Ham would be better than he became, too. Guy was a specimen from what I can remember.
 
filmcane said:
People were ready to behead Butch. I wanted to keep him, BUT his DC Miller HAD to go!! Butch's never been the best gameday schemer, so his lack of talent combined with that made for a really tough season. We were so thin at DT we had a well-meaning kid playing tackle weighing 255lb. And, that's what he was listed at, he was probably lighter than that!

At the end of each season, we continued to get better, so I had faith in Butch, but his DC was holding him back. With better playcalling and better scheme on both sides of the ball, we could have gone 8-4, but it is what it is.
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Crazy thing to me about Miller is that when Butch let him go, he found work at MSU for Nick Saban. Saban did not take him to LSU though.
 
97-98 were fun to watch that team grow, the incoming class after the UCLA win, you just knew UM was going to be great again, the OSU game in New York sealed that deal on the national stage as well. The 99 team was frustrating, we just played a tough schedule and Butch always lost a head scratcher, the @ECU loss that year was about the most heated our fan base got towards Butch until the following year's loss @Washington.

In 97, I dont think Butch cared about the win loss total so much, he knew that team was going to take their lumps and as he said "freshen got their noses bloodied a little" or something to that affect. In 98, he was a dog to the team, they were playing like garbage at Rutgers and he came in at halftime and punched a hole in the wall and told them to stop the BS, they weren't freshmen anymore and losing and playing like **** were not going to be tolerated. After 98, he brought in Moffit and fired Miller, I think he brought in another coach on defense as well,but I'd have to look that up.

The only thing that really irked me about Miami, Butch, and joining the Big East was not understanding, and we still don't it seems, is the fact that VT built their program by beating us. If we beat VT in 95, Beamer would have been fired that day and they never ever ever would have been a program to worry about ever again. It's like we thought, well last year (and the year before and the year before and the year before) were flukes. We are their cot dam super bowl and it never seems like we really understand that. And lets not forget at one time the head of the Big East officials lived in Blacksburg, and we sure would have a lot of penalties during our games with VT, I'm sure that was a coincidence.
 
I think people overestimate how much better that team could have done.

That was the year the sanctions really had a grip on the program, and you could see it on the sidelines; it looked like we were a JUCO team of misfits.

There was some good talent, but absolutely nothing behind it. You had guys like Leonard Myers and Duane Starks at cornerback, but we were starting Jeff Popovich at safety. **** of a tough football player he was, but I recall watching receivers and running backs completely overpower and overmatch him.

There was a core of fans who were frustrated with Butch, which led to the banners, but most of us knew that it was mostly out of frustration with how good we had been just a few years prior. I do believe most people looked at our sidelines and realized there just wasn't much else the guy could do, but the talent he was bringing in was legitimate, there just couldn't be enough of it given the scholarship limitations.
 
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people wanted to run butch out of town until he beat FSU. you didnt have the internet so the general public didnt realize how bad the situation was.
 
poncho0091 said:
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.
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Love this thread. It is incredibly illustrious of how asinine and unrealistic a good portion of our fan base is. And don't buy any revisionist history. Not many massage boards back then but if there were Manny would be everybody's best friend now compared to what most fans thought of Butch in 97. There were literal banners flying over the OB.
 
Yyy said:
TBH, I think Butch should have been able to go 7-4 with that team, and not lose 47-0. Not that he should have been winning a NC.
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Wait ....what???
Don't be misled by the roster you see posted up top. Guys like Santana/Reggie, Morgan, etc., were ALL freshman. With little talent behind them.
 
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NJshoreCane said:
Wait ....what???
Don't be misled by the roster you see posted up top. Guys like Santana/Reggie, Morgan, etc., were ALL freshman. With little talent behind them.
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I know that. I’m not saying they were what they would become in later years.

I still don’t think that excuses 47-0.
 
Yyy said:
I know that. I’m not saying they were what they would become in later years.

I still don’t think that excuses 47-0.
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Losing 47-0 vs FSU in 1997 is A LOT more excusable than losing 45-17 vs FSU in 2010. I know that.
 
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