Easy answer. It was mid 2007 when we made the disastrous choice to leave the Orange Bowl and align with a bland pro facility nearly an hour removed from campus.
I don't care about Bar Stool caliber fixation on the latest game or players and coaches. IMO, a wide scope overview is exponentially more valid. Once we made that decision it regulated the program for as long as we remain in that building. It certified that we have no clue what we are doing, and that's almost guaranteed to transfer to the major decisions going forward. I had sent Paul Dee and Donna Shalala the specifics regarding the Dolphins sharp decline in home field advantage in the Robbie bowl compared to Orange Bowl.
Plus I emphasized in those letters that the decision had to impact recruiting. We'll never be bad in recruiting given our location but playing in that venue allows too much natural ammunition to use against us. Kids can see and compare themselves, the awesome on-campus connection between student life and football at everywhere else they are being wooed, and a bus ride and forced "walk" in our case. No way to fully overcome it.
IMO, we'll have an ongoing series of 3-5 year cycles of failed coaches and desperate comparison to the old days when we had special guys who knew what they were doing, like Sam Jankovich scheduling byes before each of the three huge road games in 1988. As I've indicated, at least I appreciated it at the time and savored those years, taping and saving almost every game, instead of pretending we were birthrighted to remain on top forever.