Travel back to the beginning of December 2021, and you would see two raging dumpster fires in Coral Gables and Gainesville. Miami and Florida had classes ranking in the high 60's, and both its coaches were dead men walking. Meanwhile, while Mike Norvell and FSU had finished bowless, they did score a big last-second win against Miami and had an incoming Top Ten class. If you were an FSU fan, you had to think everything was trending your way. Miami had been a disaster for the better part of fifteen years, and UF was about to hire its fourth coach since Urban Meyer. Miami was "broke" and looking like it'd be stuck with Manny Diaz for another year. UF hadn't invested in football in a while, and nobody had any clue who they'd get. What a difference two months make.
Miami finally ponys up and says enough is enough, it's time to join the big leagues, and it poaches a top ten P5 coach in the country. Now we have a top ten paid coach in the country, the biggest staff budget in the ACC, and plans to build a stadium and even new multi-story football facilities. UF hired the best G5 guy out there who I (begrudgingly) admit could work out very well for them. They're also planning a major facilities revamp. Meanwhile, FSU extended an 8-13 coach for another year in anticipation of landing a top ten class on signing day. New facilities? Forget about it, they don't even have enough money for new urinals. And early signing day? We all know how that turned out for them.
So now, look at the current landscape. Miami went from a high 60's class to a top 15 class in two months. UF Made a jump to a top 20 class with FSU right behind it. The vaunted FSU top ten class went from something to nothing very quickly. Mario Cristobal and Billy Napier put together better classes in two months than Norvell did over the two years he's been building this class. You can it to the bank that if Norvell can't beat out Napier head to head, he sure as sh*t isn't beating out Mario.
The lessons from the last two months are straightforward. Miami got deadly serious about football and is going to be putting more money into it, moving forward, than all but a few blue bloods at the top of the CFB world right now. With half a staff, we put together a better class than the full FSU staff had the opportunity to create over two years. They extended an 8-13 coach with a career-losing P5 record. They don't even have a QB that can get them bowl eligible. For the cherry on top, don't forget that they're broke and don't have a revenue stream (UHealth) or even one big donor that can put up the money we and UF are going to be putting up.
FSU right now mirrors 2007 Miami. A team five years removed from big successes and coming off a 5-7 year. Like 2007 Miami though, don't expect them to get better anytime soon. I can't imagine a more embarrassing situation for them.
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