I heard this in 2008, 2011, 2016..etc
Understand the fans too
Just because you heard it in the past doesn't make it any less true.
As a football program, Miami never had any business being anything special in the first place—small private school, limited budget and resources. The fact it did what it did back in the day is a miracle unto itself; as was the rebirth under Butch Davis. The odds on that comeback itself are incredible.
Fact is Miami dominated when the college football landscape didn't have the money or parity it has today. It's going to be hard-as-**** for the Canes to get back on top in this era.
This also is nowhere near as desirable a job to coaches nationwide as our fan base seems to think it is. Most guys are going to a rah-rah college town for big money, massive fan support, packed stadiums and huge university support. Again, that ain't Miami.
Diaz is one on few guys who are a fit for this program—a guy that will go balls out to rebuild Miami; not use it as a stepping stone to another gig. He's two games in—two hard fought games that could've gone either way—and a portion of our loser fan base wants to run him out of town and refuses to acknowledge any progress made in comparison to the team that was fielded last season.
We'll see where the rest of this season goes. 9-3 regular season would be a step forward after the disaster that was last year and hopefully the Canes clean it up the next two weeks so they're prepared for Virginia Tech, Virginia and Georgia Tech all heading south.
This mess didn't happen overnight and it ain't getting cleaned up overnight. As the original poster said; Canes are thin at a bunch of positions. Defensive line doesn't look the same without G. Willis or J.Jackson and secondary has a lot of growing up to do to replace S. Redwide, J. Johnson and M. Jackson. This ain't 2002 where you can just plug-and-play an A. Rolle and S. Taylor to replace E. Reed, P. Buchanon and M. Rumph. That type of talent and depth is long gone.