This post is mostly specific to football - as many have said - it is the driving force behind the change in AD that we are undergoing. Not the only facet of the athletic department - but the key revenue that drives the rest of the department. I'm not in tune with much about basketball so I won't speak there beyond the need for a new guy leading the program. Baseball is another story because of where that program's money is coming from and who is the HC - is DiMare the right guy for the job? Don't think so but if he's out then where does the money come from? It probably only gets worse for that reason alone. Fix the rest of the athletic department and then when it's self-sustaining - there may be additional funds for baseball. He still recruits at a high-level.
This is why it's deeper than Wins and Losses at their current school for an AD - what is their vision for the program? Old school guys are going to get left behind. Give me a young guy who commands respect from the administration, who they trust and will work with, that has a vision to grow the dept and has a business-like mindset to make moves in the changing landscape. There's no room to let someone learn on the job at a private institution like Miami. The money will dry up so fast - you have to know people and where the money comes from right away. Then, how to use that to generate your own self-sustaining revenue for the rest of the dept. First and foremost - fix your money maker (football)
We've heard talks of the $20-30M that is going to be committed to the football budget. It is totally necessary - and based on what I know of our previous budget in comparison to the rest of CFB - should put us in the top 10 nationally - that's how far we are behind.
This is mostly in comparison to programs I am familiar with and trends I have noticed or seen first hand. I can speak in facts regarding a few SEC schools that I have seen the operation from an internal perspective - relative to Miami. We're very far away and it's amateur hour at UM - but contrary to most people's belief - a lot of this gap could be bridged in a month with the right hire at AD and HC - guys with the right vision for the program and athletic dept - and with the assistance of these boosters that have seemingly jumped on board recently.
Facilities - This is where all of the debate comes in from other fan bases that say we are behind - news flash: We're not that far behind and it's not hindering us. Our IPF is brand new and more expensive than the others in the state. Florida is getting their upgrade but ours is still state-of-the-art and connects to the Schwartz center and Hecht building with the remaining facilities. Most of which are within 5 years old. The locker room is set to undergo another facelift in the near future from what I have heard - maybe it's this off-season (Blake's plan but maybe it changes now idk) The training table and nutrition center are virtually brand new. Weight room got a facelift with the IPF. No we're not Oregon, Alabama, Tennessee, Texas, etc but I don't think being flashy is making guys commit and sign. It does the job.
Stadium - Another focal point of debate - Of course it's an issue but it has nothing to do with Hard Rock. Hard Rock is state of the art, brand new, incredible venue. Yes, it's far away. The key downside is the loss of revenue from parking, concessions, ticket revenue, and the $1M per year lease expense. Bigger ticket losses include naming-rights revenue, sponsorships, revenue from other events, potential lease revenue, etc. I think the talk resurging about a stadium is because we have big money businessmen involved and they're trying to solve the issues - they're obvious - the see the ancillary items available and it sticks out bad in a budget comparison from ours to a school with their own venue... but it has nothing to do with it being off-campus or a 45 minute drive or that Hard Rock is a bad stadium. This can be addressed long-term.
Here's where we're behind that I think leads to what we actually see on the field. These need to be addressed IMMEDIATELY and are relatively affordable. I think Mario or any high-profile coach requires these as part of the deal or addresses it when they come in:
Sports science/Strength and conditioning: Not talking directly about Strength and Conditioning or Feeley. We took a serious step forward with the inception of the 'Catapult' system which tracks heart rate and energy exertion, assists in monitoring the athletes, making decisions regarding recovery and training, etc. However, there's more to it that is being handled by Feeley himself - we need to add a specialized sports scientist. Alabama has Dr. Rhea - he spent years consulting professional/Olympic athletes in training and recovery. It takes what you're doing and ensures it is the most efficient. Utilizing kinesiology towards training, rest, recovery, and injury prevention. Prior to Alabama, he was with David Ballou (also at Alabama now) at Indiana. If Indiana can do it, so can we.
Side note: To address a common misconception on here - the way we look on the field has almost nothing to do with S&C. Feeley is better than Swazey and Felder - but it's 90% who you recruit and 10% who you've got running the weight room. Alabama looks like monsters, mostly because they recruit monsters. Recruiting a 200 pound linebacker and expecting him to look like Reuben Foster or Devin White isn't going to happen. This leads me to the next topic:
Talent evaluation/recruiting strategy: We've got to revamp our recruiting department with legitimate talent evaluation. I know Andy Vaughn personally, great guy and he does a decent job, but he's not a good talent evaluator and he's never lead a department to field a championship caliber roster. We're so far behind in this area. We require position coaches to perform the majority of the evaluations after a GA or Vaughn and his assistants identify someone - and we're giving Banda, Patke, and that crew too much authority to say yes/no and give the final stamp of approval and they're not more qualified than those they're telling.
-Other programs have guys that make the evaluations, get all of their testing numbers, gauge interest, cut-up film, talk to people, and then get it to a position coach and coordinator to make the call to offer or not. Highsmith has to have a connect to improve this and make it a more centralized effort and let position coaches focus on coaching and building relationships and less performing their own evaluations (even Zo's son is in an NFL scouting department and would be a solid choice)
-We can get ahead of the curve and appoint a separate person to identify and scout guys that are in the portal that can help our current roster. Have a HS/juco guy and have a guy that monitors transfers
-We're not recruiting the right types of guys, in general, at a lot of positions. Our LB evaluations have been obviously poor since Manny got here. We're not prioritizing production at the HS level, we're recruiting guys that are too small, and we're expecting S&C and nutrition to do far more than it's designed to do. On the OL - again we recruit too small and it shows on game day. We've got to set base lines for guys height and weight and even testing numbers and let position coaches/evaluators go to bat for someone if they're smaller or don't meet those standard set for baseline testing numbers. Let them put their reputation on the line if they want to risk it for someone that doesn't fit your formula. Someone like Seymore would fall into that category. Rare occasion. Same can be said at DE and DT but primarily we just need more numbers at those positions. At CB we're just hindered by Rumph's recruiting. Stop whiffing on guys 5 miles up the road and it will self-correct. I can't complain too much about the other positions. Fix LB recruiting, recruit bigger OL and less guys that require a 3-4 year weight room transformation. Take a project every now and then, not 2 every year. Just recruit and sign more CBs and DLinemen.
Staff: This goes back to some of the points I have made previously - we need an additional nutritionist to support Kyle Bellamy. We need a sports science specialist. It also comes down to analysts. We have Bob Shoop - that's a step in the right direction. To get to the next level we are going to need to bring in 2 guys on each side of the ball with a similar pedigree to Bob Shoop - guys looking to make a 1 year pit stop to collect their buyout money and then move on. We're currently at 1 total and have GA caliber guys holding down the other analyst slots. They don't command a lot of money - you just need a coach respectable enough that guys want to work for them and maybe learn something or reinvent themselves a little. It helps with scouting upcoming opponents, self-scouting your own tendencies and weaknesses (which I've heard we do very little of), and they make great candidates for fillers on future staff if you lose a position coach or coordinator - like you saw Muschamp slide in for Georgia when Scott Cochran stepped away for a bit. Same thing Saban has done with Sark and several other coordinators and position coaches he's had.
Side note: Our current on-field staff is the 2nd highest paid in the ACC from my understanding. Slightly above FSU and well below Clemson. Manny had the approval to hire a DC at $1M per year and he chose not to - that is $650K higher than he spent on the coach that filled the final slot. Of the $20-30M increase in budget - In my opinion, it should have to be spent on something along these lines:
Head coach: From $3M currently to $7M+ on the next HC (+$4M) - looks like this number could keep climbing with these salaries I have seen lately
Position coaches and coordinators: From $6M currently (could be $6.5M with a DC) to $7.5M (+$1.5M)
Additional Analysts: It would be ideal to have 2 on offense and 2 on defense at all times (+$500K-$1M)
Nutrition: Hire an additional nutritionist and possibly an assistant: (+$200K)
Sports science/additional S&C staff: (+$1M)
Recruiting department overhaul and recruiting budget: We currently spend just under $1M in recruiting - putting us on-par with Kentucky. We need to allocate another $1M per year to that (putting us at a Texas A&M or LSU level) - this goes towards bringing in more official visitors, flying to see OOS prospects, etc - plus improve our staffing (+$2M total)
These numbers are rough estimate but that would leave between $10-20M per year leftover to allocate to facilities/etc beyond necessary staffing to compete with CFB powers.
Summary: Staff salaries, additional recruiting staff, revamped recruiting department and strategy, additional analysts, revamped S&C philosophy and staffing, additional nutritionists.
