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Calvin Ridley on why he didn’t commit to the U and mentions Mario

There's one very important factor everyone is overlooking. That's the gameday experience. When a recruit visits and the game is lit, the school sells itself.

We have our coach. Ticket sales are up. Fans need to "show out" for our team. A lot of hype towards the Spring game where I couldn't even get a ticket because they were all taken. I was very disappointed to see on tv that over 1/3 of the seats were empty. So, fans took tickets and didn't show. I hope that doesn't happen this season.

Fans need to be a part of the culture change. Many fans crack jokes about nothing to do within the college towns in the middle of Nowhere, USA. The very thing that many fans laugh about, is the reason football is king in those towns where fans show up.

In order for Miami Football to be great, the fans need to be great. So, if you can't get to the game, make sure someone has your tickets who can. That needs to be for the Bethune-Cookman's as well as the Noles. Show out for the experience, not just the opponent. Make every game a rivalry game.
 
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FL Cane said:
Good for him though. We would’ve wasted his talent here and he wouldn’t be where he is now.
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I mean he could still be where he is now. Sub-par Miami teams have still put talent into the league. His personal resume is infinitely better—two titles and what not—but was the #26 pick in the 2018 Draft. Hardly a stretch to say he wouldn't have had the talent and combine to go equally as high. Would've been part of a good 2017 team at Miami, as well—though 2015 would've been an abortion of a year for the kid; 58-0 to Clemson, Golden fired and a zillion laterals to beat Duke—doesn't quite sniff 2015 era Bama.


:ROFLMAO:
 
Number1CanesFan said:
There's one very important factor everyone is overlooking. That's the gameday experience. When a recruit visits and the game is lit, the school sells itself.

We have our coach. Ticket sales are up. Fans need to "show out" for our team. A lot of hype towards the Spring game where I couldn't even get a ticket because they were all taken. I was very disappointed to see on tv that at least 1/3 of the seats were empty. So, fans took tickets and didn't show. I hope that doesn't happen this season.

Fans need to be a part of the culture change. Many fans crack jokes about nothing to do within the college towns in the middle of Nowhere, USA. The very thing that many fans laugh about, is the reason football is king in those towns where fans show up.

In order for Miami Football to be great, the fans need to be great. So, if you can't get to the game, make sure someone has your tickets who can. That needs to be for the Bethune-Cookman's as well as the Noles. Show out for the experience, not just the opponent. Make every game a rivalry game.
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Lol, the ticket office dropped the ball on the spring game 100%. They offered free tickets but you had to order them ahead of time and everyone was allowed to get a maximum of 6 per person. This being Miami, every single person took 6 because...Miami. Then half the people who got the 6 tickets didn't bother to show up for the game. They should have just made it general admission and turned away people who showed up after the stadium was full. Instead, people like myself couldn't go to the game because I was stupid enough to think that Miami fans wouldn't just take every single ticket they could whether they needed them or not.
 
Number1CanesFan said:
In order for Miami Football to be great, the fans need to be great. So, if you can't get to the game, make sure someone has your tickets who can. That needs to be for the Bethune-Cookman's as well as the Noles. Show out for the experience, not just the opponent. Make every game a rivalry game.
Click to expand...

Never gonna happen.

Miami has something like 37,000 in attendance in 2001 for Temple in the beloved Orange Bowl—the Canes finally good again after probation and years of sucking.
There's always something better to do in South Florida on a Saturday in fall if the Canes aren't a hot ticket. Miami isn't a sports town, it's an events town—and the game needs to be an event.

The city was on fire for Notre Dame in 2017; star-studded event and packed house. You'll never see that for Bethune-Cookman or a run of the mill ACC game.

I lived in Tuscaloosa, Alabama and Gainesville, Florida for years (combined). Football is literally everything there. The university is all the town has. Kids in nearby apartments had 52-20 painted in shoe polish on their apartment window for a full year after the Gators won that 1996 title.

You also discount that these college towns are state schools with 30K-40K undergrads and a slew of alumni that stays in town after graduation—where Miami is a private university with 11,000 undergrads in a large, diverse metropolitan city. Most Canes fans didn't attend UM and there's not the same loyalty and devotion to the program (across the board) that you get from alumni, who stick it out think and thin as it is their school and not just their sports team. Most Miami fans treat the Canes like a pro franchise and check in or out depending on the quality of the product.

Regarding recruits, yes, these kids will be a bigger college football experience and more pageantry for six home games a year, but what about the other 46 weekends of the year? That is where Miami kicks the *** off of every one of these one-horse, podunk little towns. They're all rah-rah on game day but a snooze fest the rest of the year.

The kids who want to be the big fish in the little pond will choose the small college town, or will be pushed there by family who wants them to theoretically stay out of trouble ... but those who know; they realize Miami is a completely different ball game. Win big during the season, have fun in paradise the off-season.
 
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AlexCane said:
Yup. Sad but true. For a long time, I-and likely many others-attempted to convince ourselves that if we could just win a little bit more, some of these high 4 and 5 stars would commit here and we'd be back in business in no time. Guys like Bridgewater, Alex Collins, Amari Cooper and Dalvin come to mind. But no doubt it would have been fool's gold. There was something far more rotten here.
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Agree. The Canes would have been better, but not good enough. The program needed hit bottom.

And here we are today.
 
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ItsAUThing.com said:
Never gonna happen.

Miami has something like 37,000 in attendance in 2001 for Temple in the beloved Orange Bowl—the Canes finally good again after probation and years of sucking.
There's always something better to do in South Florida on a Saturday in fall if the Canes aren't a hot ticket. Miami isn't a sports town, it's an events town—and the game needs to be an event.

The city was on fire for Notre Dame in 2017; star-studded event and packed house. You'll never see that for Bethune-Cookman or a run of the mill ACC game.

I lived in Tuscaloosa, Alabama and Gainesville, Florida for years (combined). Football is literally everything there. The university is all the town has. Kids in nearby apartments had 52-20 painted in shoe polish on their apartment window for a full year after the Gators won that 1996 title.

You also discount that these college towns are state schools with 30K-40K undergrads and a slew of alumni that stays in town after graduation—where Miami is a private university with 11,000 undergrads in a large, diverse metropolitan city. Most Canes fans didn't attend UM and there's not the same loyalty and devotion to the program (across the board) that you get from alumni, who stick it out think and thin as it is their school and not just their sports team. Most Miami fans treat the Canes like a pro franchise and check in or out depending on the quality of the product.

Regarding recruits, yes, these kids will be a bigger college football experience and more pageantry for six home games a year, but what about the other 46 weekends of the year? That is where Miami kicks the *** off of every one of these one-horse, podunk little towns. They're all rah-rah on game day but a snooze fest the rest of the year.

The kids who want to be the big fish in the little pond will choose the small college town, or will be pushed there by family who wants them to theoretically stay out of trouble ... but those who know; they realize Miami is a completely different ball game. Win big during the season, have fun in paradise the off-season.
Click to expand...
As the program starts rolling I would love to see them drop the home noon games. No one seems to like them. 3:30pm or a night game.
 
Man that's just what it is with the fans and its not going to change. Miami just have to get a winning product on da field and they will come. I put the 20yr run from 80's- 00's up against any school yeah including almighty Bama and the fans never changed. Miami really should have 8 chips in dat run period. We were suppose to 3peat when they kept us of da champion and put FSpoo in who we beat and the PI against OSu and then da fumble call in South Bend. So if the fans never packed the house every week during those times expect for the big ones and the kids came just win and the will come. Oh and some think Vinny threw the PSu game so could say 9 but I don't count that cause we really don't know.
 
E1k said:
The one guy I think about is Lamar Jackson…Idk if those staffs put in an offense to fit him but he carried Louisville to big stages so id imagine he would of gave us a great spark in his time…

And he said he wanted to be a hurricane since a kid but we wanted him to play receiver
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Yup. I think he's definitely the first guy that comes to mind and then probably Bridgewater. I just don't think that would've spiraled into a longterm spark that lasted beyond his career here. Too many institutional deficiencies to be fixed just based off some big recruiting wins.

It's a very flawed comparison in too many ways but it's recent and in division so I'd say look at Pitt. They lucked into/hit a homerun with Kenny Pickett (and Addison to a certain extent). They even win the ACC last year. Do we think that trajectory remotely continues and has any snowball effect? I don't at all because they have a corch, a questionable AD and an administration and booster network not ready, willing (or able) to play with the big boys.
 
ItsAUThing.com said:
Never gonna happen.

Miami has something like 37,000 in attendance in 2001 for Temple in the beloved Orange Bowl—the Canes finally good again after probation and years of sucking.
There's always something better to do in South Florida on a Saturday in fall if the Canes aren't a hot ticket. Miami isn't a sports town, it's an events town—and the game needs to be an event.

The city was on fire for Notre Dame in 2017; star-studded event and packed house. You'll never see that for Bethune-Cookman or a run of the mill ACC game.

I lived in Tuscaloosa, Alabama and Gainesville, Florida for years (combined). Football is literally everything there. The university is all the town has. Kids in nearby apartments had 52-20 painted in shoe polish on their apartment window for a full year after the Gators won that 1996 title.

You also discount that these college towns are state schools with 30K-40K undergrads and a slew of alumni that stays in town after graduation—where Miami is a private university with 11,000 undergrads in a large, diverse metropolitan city. Most Canes fans didn't attend UM and there's not the same loyalty and devotion to the program (across the board) that you get from alumni, who stick it out think and thin as it is their school and not just their sports team. Most Miami fans treat the Canes like a pro franchise and check in or out depending on the quality of the product.

Regarding recruits, yes, these kids will be a bigger college football experience and more pageantry for six home games a year, but what about the other 46 weekends of the year? That is where Miami kicks the *** off of every one of these one-horse, podunk little towns. They're all rah-rah on game day but a snooze fest the rest of the year.

The kids who want to be the big fish in the little pond will choose the small college town, or will be pushed there by family who wants them to theoretically stay out of trouble ... but those who know; they realize Miami is a completely different ball game. Win big during the season, have fun in paradise the off-season.
Click to expand...
I disagree completely. We averaged nearly 44k in attendance last year. That was down 17%. Hard Rock makes the empty seats stand out because they're aqua. In the 2017 season, UM had over 50k at every game. Just 15k more and the stadium is sold out.
www.si.com

Winning Matters: Increasing Miami's Home Attendance

Miami looks to win games and bring fans back to Hard Rock Stadium.
www.si.com www.si.com

From 2020: Attendance avergage 55k from 2016-2020
caneswarning.com

Miami football is close to top 25 percent CFB attendance last 5 years

In a study about attendance during the last five years throughout FBS, the Miami football team nearly finished in the top 25 percent.
caneswarning.com caneswarning.com

RAD planning to increase attendance:
247sports.com

Dan Radakovich aiming to increase attendance at Hard Rock Stadium

The Miami Hurricanes saw a sharp decline in their home attendance during the 2021 season.
247sports.com 247sports.com


I really wish people would stop comparing Hard Rock to the OB. I think attendance could average 60k moving forward. I think people will show out when the team is winning at a high level. The difference is those other schools show out even when their team is not winning at a high level.
 
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Number1CanesFan said:
There's one very important factor everyone is overlooking. That's the gameday experience. When a recruit visits and the game is lit, the school sells itself.

We have our coach. Ticket sales are up. Fans need to "show out" for our team. A lot of hype towards the Spring game where I couldn't even get a ticket because they were all taken. I was very disappointed to see on tv that at least 1/3 of the seats were empty. So, fans took tickets and didn't show. I hope that doesn't happen this season.

Fans need to be a part of the culture change. Many fans crack jokes about nothing to do within the college towns in the middle of Nowhere, USA. The very thing that many fans laugh about, is the reason football is king in those towns where fans show up.

In order for Miami Football to be great, the fans need to be great. So, if you can't get to the game, make sure someone has your tickets who can. That needs to be for the Bethune-Cookman's as well as the Noles. Show out for the experience, not just the opponent. Make every game a rivalry game.
Click to expand...
Truth. Not sure it will ever happen in Miami, but having been to games in a lot of these podunk towns where football is everything, there's definitely an excellent home field fans vibe weekend after weekend regardless of the opponent. Even at the HS level, its different elsewhere. I moved out of Miami years ago, but I remember going to some Glades Central games in their heyday, and to see 15,000 crazed fans at a game in the middle of nowhere was incredible. Many other great examples at the HS level in some smaller towns particularly but not limited to the south. Same reason: football was (maybe still is?) all they had (have) at least from a positive perspective. Except for huge rivalry games in Miami, far too many HS games there are dead.
 
ItsAUThing.com said:
Never gonna happen.

Miami has something like 37,000 in attendance in 2001 for Temple in the beloved Orange Bowl—the Canes finally good again after probation and years of sucking.
There's always something better to do in South Florida on a Saturday in fall if the Canes aren't a hot ticket. Miami isn't a sports town, it's an events town—and the game needs to be an event.

The city was on fire for Notre Dame in 2017; star-studded event and packed house. You'll never see that for Bethune-Cookman or a run of the mill ACC game.

I lived in Tuscaloosa, Alabama and Gainesville, Florida for years (combined). Football is literally everything there. The university is all the town has. Kids in nearby apartments had 52-20 painted in shoe polish on their apartment window for a full year after the Gators won that 1996 title.

You also discount that these college towns are state schools with 30K-40K undergrads and a slew of alumni that stays in town after graduation—where Miami is a private university with 11,000 undergrads in a large, diverse metropolitan city. Most Canes fans didn't attend UM and there's not the same loyalty and devotion to the program (across the board) that you get from alumni, who stick it out think and thin as it is their school and not just their sports team. Most Miami fans treat the Canes like a pro franchise and check in or out depending on the quality of the product.

Regarding recruits, yes, these kids will be a bigger college football experience and more pageantry for six home games a year, but what about the other 46 weekends of the year? That is where Miami kicks the *** off of every one of these one-horse, podunk little towns. They're all rah-rah on game day but a snooze fest the rest of the year.

The kids who want to be the big fish in the little pond will choose the small college town, or will be pushed there by family who wants them to theoretically stay out of trouble ... but those who know; they realize Miami is a completely different ball game. Win big during the season, have fun in paradise the off-season.
Click to expand...
Miami is a sports town. If anything, we have too many sports.

Miami isn't a college town in the traditional sense.

Alonzo says it best in this interview with "D" at Caneville: 22:09. The whole interview is great, but I clipped at the fan/stadium talk.
 
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i remember him and that other dude who was higher ranked (forget the name) went to bama and ghosted miami right after. aka got their check and the dodge charger
 
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Tad Footeball said:
He left the part out bout the free Camaro. 🤣🤣

Our recruiting "misses" can obviously be infuriating when you look back at them over that 15 year span but I really wonder if any of them individually (sans maybe the QBs) would've really made any difference in the overall big picture trajectory of the program during that run.
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Individually, no.

Collectively as a group, yes.

Remember, we won one two national championships under the genius corching of one Larry "Clappy" Coker...with the talent assembled by the great Butch Davis, who is @SWFLHurricane 's godfather.
 
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