Find a fan base that wants to write checks the way alum do at big time state schools with 40K undergrads—and you'll have a start.
Miami fans want a mansion, but this program can only afford a tract home.
Georgia just dumped $200M into their program—the majority of which came from alumni-related donations and fans supporting that program through donations, as well as undying support—living and breathing Bulldogs football, showing up every Saturday in droves. Same stories in Tuscaloosa, Baton Rouge, Auburn, Columbus, Ann Arbor, State College, Gainesville, etc.
Miami has 11K undergrads in a pro-sports metropolis—where most UM fans aren't alum and don't write checks back to the program. When things go south, they check out just as they would on the Dolphins or HEAT.
Fans wants to talk about ACC rev-share or adidas money—great. All these other schools get massive SEC or Big Ten money, as well as massive alumni financial support. Georgia's Magill Society had 1,100+ new members in 2018 at a minimum donation of $25,000-per-head—on top of what they're already raking in from their alum.
Miami better figure out how to do more with what it has, as it's never gonna see the financial backing that will result in a $13M coaching staff salary like Georgia sees—or their NCAA-leading $7M annual recruiting budget.
All these big money schools are playing chess. Miami ain't even playing checkers; it's going Chutes And Ladders style, while missing half the game pieces.
Congrats Captain Obvious, you pointed out that Miami is at a significant disadvantage, due to things the institution can't control. That said, the powers that be shouldn't handicap the program even further by being utterly incompetent. It doesn't take millions of dollars to conduct a decent coaching search. It doesn't take a huge alumni/donor pool to not make a panic hire less than 12 hours after a coach retires. Those are things that should come naturally to anyone with any semblance of common sense. Miami doesn't have an AD that can do the basic crap in the job description, and there isn't anyone holding James accountable. No one on the BOT seems to care, and it's apparent that the big money boosters don't truly give a **** either. If they did, they would pull support and force significant change.
Miami will NEVER have the financial resources that the typical state football factory does, but the BOT and others can be better stewards of the funds we DO have. In other words, don't settle for Manny Diaz without looking at available options. Maybe if you hire a Bill Clark, he doesn't work out, but odds are his floor is significantly higher than Manny Diaz, as we saw this year. Miami has to make rational hires, and then hope that they hit. You look at the last 20 years of hires, the ONLY two you could possibly believe were made by competent hiring managers were Al Golden and Mark Richt. Think about that, Coker, Shannon and Diaz were awful hires(It didn't pass the smell test after Day 1 for all three), especially when one noticed that the school did relatively little in searching for a qualified coach. Golden ultimately failed, but when you look at a lot of the good stuff that has happened with the program, especially in regards to updating facilities and outreach programs, the dude had something to do with that. He brought in fresh ideas, and while he was undone by being overly loyal to garbage assistants, you could at least make a case that he left the program in better shape than what he inherited. Richt led Miami to their best overall record since 2003 in year two, with a ton of Golden guys. You look at Richt's first two years, he should have easily won 10+ in both years, especially year one. Miami was trending upwards, and then crashed as inept QB play and stubborn play calling forced Richt to either make a change, or retire. He did the honorable thing and retired.
Instead of building upon the good the two sane hires did, James went right back to the "Promote from within" well and grabbed Diaz. It's most likely going to be a miserable failure. If Miami had merely taken the best mid major guy they could have found, within their budget the last 5 hires, odds are they would have hit on one, if not more. Instead, Miami made three awful hires, and two sane ones. Good luck getting that to work out. It is extremely unlikely that any of the awful hires were going to succeed, especially at a program in which you can't cover for mediocrity at the top. Ed Orgeron isn't a great HC, he's average at best. That said LSU has the money and resources to surround Ed with the best assistants money can buy, which allows him to do the ONE THING he's outstanding at and that's recruit. Miami has to find guys with upside, guys that have cut their teeth somewhere, to where they aren't trying to learn the basics at Miami. You have a small window to make significant change, you need someone that can come in and at least be decent out the box. Bill Clark would have been that, even a guy like Jay Norvell could have filled that role. I love Scott Satterfield, Miami could have had that guy, but that takes a forward thinker at AD.