I think the writer sort of missed the real explanations for low attendance while basically the entire basis for his article (Miami fans will give their time when it's worth it) is in my mind another way of saying that Miami fans are bandwagon fans. I think the much bigger and important point is that Miami, as a private school, has a much smaller base of fans to fill the stadium on a game by game basis. As a private school, the number of students that attend games is obviously less than a state school, and the number of graduates yearly and over time is significantly less than state schools, resulting in fewer alumni to attend games. Also, as a private school rather than a state school, there are less students from Florida, which also results in more graduates going back to their home states.
And, to add to the smaller fan base, the stadium is way off campus. I went a big state school with an on-campus stadium. I could decide last minute if I wanted to go to a football game and be at the stadium in 10 minutes. Miami students don't have that luxury.
Along with the cliches of there being lots to do in Miami, etc., the reality is that the fact that Miami, as a private school, is able to fill a 65,000+ seat stadium as often as we do is nothing to be shamed of. Like the few other couple big city private schools with a successful football program (USC is one of the other ones that comes to mind), Miami has to rely more on fans that aren't students or alumni. Our fan base is much different than Florida, FSU and lots of other places, which is also why the OB was, and HRS is becoming, a much more difficult place to play. While it would be great to fill the stadium more consistently, to pretend that Canes fans are the same as fans of most other schools/teams in the country is just not true.