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Miami of old

The biggest difference is gradually becoming an asset, that is quality depth. The 80's teams, when someone went down his sub was equal or better. Richt is doing an amazing job under much different circumstances. The 80's had the big 3 in Florida...the U, The Noles, and The gator. Now we have UCF, USF, FAU, FIU, the Noles and gator siphoning off the depth of talent available. I admire that Richt recruits have been such high quality and so competitive. No team in Florida should be expected to ever match our 80's teams but the way Richt is building we can come doggone close, especially considering that the Nole and gator face the same problem and it seems Richt is doing a superior job recruiting and as he acquires quality players, more recruits will find us attractive. Throw in the fact our fans have become more active and more like the Orange Bowl crowds via their intensity and loyalty. I see nothing but good things for our future, a future that could rival those great Hurricane teams. As we own more and more of South Florida it is inevitable we will become a legitimate power again. The response of the recruits at Saturdays game is indicative of the attraction of the U. It is also great to see so many great alum on the sidelines, no other team can match the quality of player we have placed into the NFL and our recruits EXPECT to be NFL trained by the U.
 
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Simply, the school got complacent and tried to do things in a half ***/cheap way for over a decade while the entire CFB world changed and blew by us. Now, only now has the school started to play catch up in the last few years. When Larry Coker signed his extension, he was the highest paid coach in CFP, when we had Al Golden, schools like Vandy and Cincy were spending more on their coaching staffs than we were. It's not just the big boys that passed and outspent us, the bottom feeders as well.

While sanctions hurt us in terms of recruiting when compared to the big boys, we still had the top ranked recruiting classes in our division every year. The cheap coaching hires were best displayed in this area where we were consistently losing to teams in our division which we were much more talented then on paper.

With that said, the economic realities of CFB now, with the state schools, with huge student bodies, alumni bases, and their own stadiums are always going to be a much bigger challenge for us to overcome. Just look at Bama taking coach Kuligowski from us because they can pay more. Also I believe the ship has sailed for a stadium that we can build for ourselves. The mid 90's when you could build one for $50 million was the time, now you are looking at something between $350-$400 million to build your own stadium now. The on campus aspect is overrated because we have such a small student body. The upgrades to the Hard Rock made this a very viable product to watch a game, with a good home field advantage, but we suffer economically because we don't own it.

Side note, If there are further changes down the pike, such as allowing players to profit off their names, it will become even harder for private, smaller schools like ours. 500 people will wait in line at UGA to pay $20 to get the 3rd string RB autograph, where the starter at GT can't give away his autograph.

Also, 2 coaches Urban & Saban have been so dominant, that it warps realistic expectations for any program going forward. My honest view of the potential of this program going forward, under Richt is this...Richt was hired because of his "Floor" not his "Potential Ceiling". Richt is going to win at least 10 games every year. Due to the recruiting area and division Miami is in. We will win these games because we will be solid, but will struggle most of the time in games where we do not easily out talent the other teams. There will probably be a game like LSU or PITT where we shake our heads every year. We will be in the ACC Championship game at least 3 out of every 4 years. Then when the classes line up right, every 3-4 years, he will have a team that can beat Clemson, and make the playoffs where anything can happen.

But that is just my opinion and I could be wrong....
 
3GC said:
The 80s teams had the benefit of more Legal practices than today.
Coaches, coaches & coaches.
When Bear Bryant retired, Bama was just another FB.
Same at OSU when Woody Hayes was fired, for Slugging an opposing player during a game....and so on.
When we had JJ, Erickson, & Schnell we caught lightning in a bottle..
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Schnell is God when we talk U football. The architect. Lock down Dade/ Broward. He saw young players with speed heart and a love for the game. Speed speed speed. Jimmy loved to take as stated above. TE make DE. DE make DT safety LB. Again speed
 
I'll try to be as unbiased as possible in answering your question @ajsgolf . @Ethnicsands hit the nail on the head in his 2nd paragraph's response.

We had coaches other teams coveted. Not just other college teams, but other NFL teams. Look at the coaching trees under Howard, Butch, Jimmy, Erickson and the commonality is many of those guys went on to the NFL in some way or became head coaches at other universities.

Right now, we have a staff full of unproven men coupled with a coach who has a stigma surrounding him. Right now we haven't won much in the last 15 yrs. Perception is everything. Start putting guys in the first round and start winning consistently while being in contention for the CFP year in and out, and things will change.

However, if we had a team full of Trajan Bandy's, Deejay Dallas', Mike Pinckney's, Gerald Willis', and Jaquan Johnson's and I'm not so sure if we would ever lose a game. Having guys with dog mentalities was our recipe for success, as well.
 
First of all none of those teams were built instantly, 2nd is QB play. Everyone of our great teams had a great QB. We have to get back to that. The defense is playing at a championship level. We dont have the offensive identity and leadership yet. Perry has the opportunity to take over and take this team to the next level. And We have players who are dominating....Willis and Jeff Thomas for example.
 
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There’s a lot of revisionist history that goes on with our old teams.

Saban is the best college coach ever. We aren’t going to dominate like Alabama. Nobody has. Even Pete Carroll ran into the same problems Coker did when he had a 34 game winning streak (playing from behind, not showing up to games, etc.) somehow Saban has been able to avoid that. We aren’t close to as good as those guys and won’t be until Saban retires.
 
Shalla did not help, when schools were spending on everything regarding facilities, S&C improvements
coaches salaries we were harvesting money .... why do you think Nike took a pass on us a couple of years ago.
- we need the ACC network to become a reality, it means so much in terms of revenue. take a look at Big 10 & SEC networks, this might be the only way we can compete with the Bama's Clemsons, UGA ,OSU , OU etc.
- pay your staff, take a look at Jimmy staff vs. current group..with a good staff and player development you can sell the NFL dream. Saban walks in and says look at all our first rounders
- improve S&C, take a look at SEC clubs, they are big and lean, we need anS & C guy like Moffet was for Butch
- stadium it is what it is , miss the OB but recent renovations have give us a bit of a home field edge
- recruit the trenches....thats were games are won and lost, exciting game last week but both teams had 1 thing in common inferior line play
-keep stacking classes and supplement with JUCO talent
were getting back to respectability but that next step is gigantic and very difficult
 
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ajsgolf said:
Am a lifelong Canes fan but am trying to get everyone's opinion. Been a long time since Miami dominated teams like they did in the 80s and early 2000s. What is it about those teams that is missing from Miami teams of the last 15 years? Back then they can pretty much do what they wanted against their opponent. Remembering the days of players such as Warren Sapp, Ed Reed, Jon Vilma, Ray Lewis, Jeremy Shockey, Frank Gore, Andre Johnson, Devin Hester, etc. Granted these are the best players from the U but why is it that a team like Alabama, year in and year out has that dominance that Miami used to possess? I would have thought by bringing in Mark Richt who was well respected at Georgia would have helped immensely with recruiting at Miami. I know Miami currently has a lot of talent but what is Nick Saban doing at Alabama that Richt can't do here? Are high school recruits just looking to play for teams such as Alabama who has an amazing winning tradition? What is lacking at Miami that these 5 star recruits aren't coming to the U? Do they need to build a stadium on campus? Is the fact that they have to play their games at Hard Rock a deterrent since it's so far away from campus? I would think you would want to come to Miami to build on the tradition of old and make them once again dominant. I'm just frustrated as to why it hasn't happened yet, it's been over 15 years since their last NC but then again they were robbed of another NC with that stupid pass interference call that wasn't against that team that I hate more than any other so I refuse to say their name. What will it take to get back to what they once were?
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Coaching and Innovation
 
I think we were conceptually better--we used speed to our advantage on both offense and defense. Tougher now, because other teams have more speed than they did in the '80's.

In other words, the competition is tougher now.
 
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LMAO. Even if we did need to build a stadium on campus, we couldn't. Whenever I read someone say that, I know they don't know what they are talking about.
 
ajsgolf said:
Am a lifelong Canes fan but am trying to get everyone's opinion. Been a long time since Miami dominated teams like they did in the 80s and early 2000s. What is it about those teams that is missing from Miami teams of the last 15 years? Back then they can pretty much do what they wanted against their opponent. Remembering the days of players such as Warren Sapp, Ed Reed, Jon Vilma, Ray Lewis, Jeremy Shockey, Frank Gore, Andre Johnson, Devin Hester, etc. Granted these are the best players from the U but why is it that a team like Alabama, year in and year out has that dominance that Miami used to possess? I would have thought by bringing in Mark Richt who was well respected at Georgia would have helped immensely with recruiting at Miami. I know Miami currently has a lot of talent but what is Nick Saban doing at Alabama that Richt can't do here? Are high school recruits just looking to play for teams such as Alabama who has an amazing winning tradition? What is lacking at Miami that these 5 star recruits aren't coming to the U? Do they need to build a stadium on campus? Is the fact that they have to play their games at Hard Rock a deterrent since it's so far away from campus? I would think you would want to come to Miami to build on the tradition of old and make them once again dominant. I'm just frustrated as to why it hasn't happened yet, it's been over 15 years since their last NC but then again they were robbed of another NC with that stupid pass interference call that wasn't against that team that I hate more than any other so I refuse to say their name. What will it take to get back to what they once were?
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Only thing missing is OL quality and solid QB play. Of course we had future hall of gamers all over the defense which may be the case now. Time will tell. But mostly I'd say OL.
 
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Ethnicsands said:
You're skipping over a lot of logic to ask the question you do. Saban is perhaps the most successful college coach ever. What does he do that Coker couldn't do? That Shannon couldn't do? That Golden couldn't do? You seem to assume that Richt is somehow Saban level good. We should all hope the future proves your case, but the past doesn't.

The coaches who built greatness at Miami were top of their profession guys. Guys the pros coveted. Guys who were great talent evaluators (not just recruiters) -- with the exception of DE, who was good at winning with Jimmy's guys but didn't maintain the program despite being a terrific schematic innovator.

Richt is clearly better than the past three coaches we've had. But that doesn't mean he's going to rebuild a dynasty. That takes more than good. It takes great.

Things have changed, also. Word gets out. Camps and social and digital media and the Internet and now all the best local kids know what they can get elsewhere, and the best national teams know what they can get in So Fla. So it's not easy to hang onto all those guys, or even most of them. If we win enough, then it will get easier. Until you can say that the right decision for local kids is to stay home, you can't really complain about them not doing so. As fans, we want that. But if you're Amari Cooper, do you regret going to Alabama? For most of the past 15 years, the kids who left in many cases made reasonable decisions. Until we prove as a program that staying home is a great decision, we won't be back. And when we do, most kids will want to stay home. For all the reasons most kids everywhere do.
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facts, Sabans gift is evaluation and closing same **** Butch was great at.
 
In answer to OP.

For the most part, soft corches produce soft players. Always a couple exceptions but as a standard rule it holds true.
 
If you're an old fan the answer should be fairly obvious: Miami got that way by owning South Florida recruiting. Remember the recruiting line that was drawn on the 30 for 30 segment of The U? They locked that up from Orlando to Tampa South - no better place in the country to pull talent.

Not Texas and Not Cali, nowhere - and those "also ran" places have two and three times the population of high school aged kids as Florida does. But they don't have kids from Belle Glade running down rabbits in the Cane fields - **** I played with two guys who did that in the 70s in small college ball, two of the fastest human beings I've ever seen. They showed me the front page of the Clewiston Paper with two little black kids in only shorts holding a couple of rabbits they ran down for grandma when the Cane fields were burning. They said "that's why we're so fast" - and that was 35 years before ESPN ran that piece.

Florida, Florida State the SEC and everybody came down here to recruit after Miami's early success. Remember the big deal it was when Rutgers and Schino was down running camps in the 305?

Plain and simple until we can recruit again like that (if ever) its going to be tough. Won't be hard to get/keep quality coaches once that recruitment gold mine is locked up again.
 
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