This won't be a very popular post, but I wanted to expand on a post that caneaddict made on the football board and something that has been touched upon by other posters.
For whatever reason, this program has become resented and somewhat looked at as a laughing stock by a large number of people in the Miami community. Some people have made it almost a University of Miami vs. the Miami community thing. Of course, there will always be the same portion of people that will support this program no matter what, but I'm seeing recruits, coaches, "mentors", and the like really expressing their negative feelings towards the program and I'm not just talking about the Ermon Lanes and Dalvin Cooks of the world. Think about the way that a lot of people in Miami look at the Dolphins as a "joke".
It is the current staff's job to change this image that really began near the end of the Coker era and carried through the Shannon years. For a while (and I'm not talking about the first half of this season), it looked like Golden and staff had begun to recapture the "recruiting" community, but the end of this season seems to have sparked up the negative talk once again.
This is not about other programs giving South Florida prospects benefits or anything like that, it's about this staff gaining the respect of the coaches and players down here. Coley is the most well-respected coach on this staff and that's because he has made it his mission to reach out to the "mentors", youth coaches, etc. over the years. People don't respect D'Onofrio and there is not much love for his assistants either (including Barrow, who is from down here). As much as fans hate these behind-the-scenes individuals, they hold the key to landing many of the kids down here. Why do you think Joseph Yearby switched from FSU to Miami when Coley took the job here? Because Coley has had a relationship with one of the most important people in Yearby's inner-circle, one of his coaches from optimist ball.
I don't have the answers as to how this could be fixed and this is obviously not the only thing holding this program back right now, but the fact of the matter is that it's been a decade since Miami was truly relevant on the national stage and the recruits coming up over the next few years and beyond will have never seen a good Hurricanes team. Miami will continue to lose top talents until these relationships are patched up.
