ItsAUThing.com
Following 'The U' since '82—covering it since '96.
- Joined
- Sep 12, 2017
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Everyone has seen the glitzy, well-produced Rakontur-delivered ESPN "30 For 30" docs on Miami; made for the masses and outsiders—a simple rise-and-fall-and-rise-again story that even the non-fan would be captivated by.
Here's another plug for Najeh Davenport's "The U Reloaded : The Rise For Five" documentary from 2014.
A little lower-budgeted, but player-driven and a much deeper dive into that seven-year period from probation hitting (1995) to that fifth national title (2001)—and the hard work, attitude, effort and grind it took for Miami to rebuild itself—opposed to the program retrospect Billy Corben's two documentaries were.
Again, a different era and different type of dog player—no one is expecting the caliber of hard-*** Gen X ballers to walk through the door and rush to be the foundation-layers for a rebuild. It's still a TikTok generation and different breed of athlete in 2023—but there are still kids who want to come to UM to work hard, play football, take care of business in the weight room / with practice / with the playbook—as their goal is to win championships and reach the NFL.
The entire documentary is must-watch TV, but for those who don't want to watch, at least invest SEVEN MINUTES of your day—from the 2:00 to 9:00 mark—and listen to the culture shift from the Dennis Erickson locker room to the new Butch Davis locker room; the older guys that didn't buy in versus the guys who showed up year two that basically took over; Edgerrrin James, Al Blades, Damione Lewis, Bubba Franks, James Jackson, Nate Webster.
Those 1996 cats were the new face of the program and they talked about finding the next wave of dogs in future classes, taking them under their wing and getting them on board with their attitude and mindset (Najeh Davenport, Clint Hurtt, Daryl Jones, James Lewis, Dan Morgan, Santana Moss, Leonard Myers, Ed Reed and Reggie Wayne in 1997—the dogs that brought this thing back to close by 1999, mostly-back by 2000—screwed out of title shot—and fully back by 2001.)
Earl Little hits out the gate; says the new Davis era was "like an iron fist coming down" and that old guys weren't having it. Rod Mack was around for both and said there was a big transition from the old Dennis Erickson locker room to the new Davis-era locker room. Omar Rolle talked about older players not buying into Butch's "my way or the highway" attitude.
Delvin Brown said, “I think the thing that was unique about us when we came in—because we were so few—the camaraderie amongst ourselves forced us to compete harder and a lot of us were thrust into playing roles, or starting roles, right away"—while Franks mentioned that if the old heads weren't going to do anything about the program underachieving and losing football games, the younger guys would handle it (which the old guys didn't like.)
Joaquin Gonzalez talked about guys from the pre-Davis era not setting a tone in the locker room; something that changes when James, Lewis, Blades and guys like Webster. Gonzalez also went on to explain the cultural buy-in that workouts where were games were won. Training wasn't just about strength or agility, it was done to get players ready to face adversity—the former offensive lineman crediting the strength coaches as much, if not more than the X's, O's and game scheming.
If guys didn't make their time, they'd stay on the field as they knew knock-down, drag-out, tear-up-the-locker room scraps would follow—as the job was to be taken serious and the efforts personally.
“We didn’t allow weakness. You came in, you worked, you ran, you lifted, you got stronger, you competed in practice—all that, every day,” said Lewis.
Again, fully expect this fan base to remain at odds over Cristobal, Gattis, Steele and the speed of the turnaround / the depths of the rebuild—but when looking back at history there's no ignoring the cultural issues that can exist between and old regime and a new one—and in all the failed coaching changes the past 17 years (Cristobal the sixth UM head coach in that span), there is a pretty large chasm between the way Manny Diaz ran this program and the way Cristobal is attempting to run his regime.
Realistically speaking, it's going to take flushing out wrong-fit players this off-season, hitting the portal for guys who want to be here (a la Mel Tucker at Michigan State going into '21) as well as off-season personnel changes (getting rid of wrong-fit assistants) and making sure the new crop of recruits is on the right side of things culturally and not tainted by checked-out upperclassmen.
