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Why Did Football In Miami Die?

Why Did Football Die in Miami?

  • The desecration of the OB and move to Joe Robbie (potential Indian Burial ground) hex

    Votes: 30 20.3%

  • A city that once had a lot of grit is now soft as charmin and the teams took on the personality

    Votes: 35 23.6%

  • a complete coincidental mismanagement of 2 once proud and dominant organizations

    Votes: 89 60.1%

  • they dont get their own homegrown players

    Votes: 21 14.2%
  • Total voters
    148
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It’s actually fairly simple. UM used to run the program like it was a small school without a massive talent advantage. They looked for top coaches. The program was run like TCU or boise state. We found great coaches who did something differently.

now, and for the past 15 years, UM has been run as if it is an established super power with no need for real coaching. The entire focus is on finding coaches who are a “fit” instead of finding good coaches. “Fit” has usually meant some purported ability to recruit down here, which means nothing because recruits are focused on playing for good coaches. They aren’t irrational like fans.

golden was a bit of a departure from this approach, but it turned out that he was a horrible coach. Richt is the only legitimate coach weve hired since Butch, and the results were better than anyone else.
 
Joining the ACC guaranteed money. They don't care if u show up to games at all. The effort to get into the ACC or the hunger isn't there from a leadership standpoint. The death of elite football was that move but I get the move. Someone up top is stealing money a few people are.
 
The kids Miami used to get from Miami grew up in a hard *** time, with tanks rolling thru the mean streets Miami is much softer than it used to be no question... That matters, desperation breeds hungry athletes like nothing else, kids now days are basically catered to from pee wee and know their $ worth...
 
Bad coaching plain and simple. The last good coach we had was Butch and he was the architect of our last championship team even if Clappy was standing on the sideline. Since then not one coach has been worth a ****, just look at what they've accomplished since leaving.....nothing. Go out and get a good coach and Miami will be good again. I don't think we can ever be as dominant as we were but we should be top 10 just about every year.
 
1. Administration listening to the players and going with the easiest choice and bringing in Larry Coker as HC, who could not recruit key skill positions. This was the first reason for Miami's downturn - our offense deteriorated each year beginning in 2003 and settled at 20 points a game in 2006.
2. Administration decided in 2003 not to keep up with the college football spending arms race. Facilities remained unchanged, with Randy Shannon eventually lamenting that the same couches at the athletic building that were there when he was a player, were still there years later when he was a coach
3. Per point 2 and 1, the Administration refused to overspend and went the easiest way - hiring DC Randy Shannon
4. Point 2 continues to affect recruiting more and more as Florida, LSU, and Alabama ramp up recruiting efforts. Meanwhile Shannon struggles to compete and alienates Florida HS coaches. Coming off of his best season in 2009, his 2010 class was the weakest in terms of blue chip recruits
5. The NCAA Scandal of 2010 eliminates any theoretical chance of Al Golden getting a recruiting bump, setting the table for an extended run on mediocrity. Some investments are finally made in the program, but Miami is now severely behind other schools
6. Mark Richt is hired as the school finally realizes how far that they have slipped. But Richt misevaluates offensive line recruits and features an old-school offense.
7. Administration panics when Richt leaves and convinces themselves that Manny Diaz is the best possible option. Manny in turn hires an OC who is not entirely suited to maximize a now terrible offensive line, and the Hurricanes further regress.
 
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dudenate said:
What used to a regional sport is now national. Recruiting, scouting high schools, communication b/w kids and prospective schools, sat. TV games, and many many more small contributing factors used to all be relatively small and regional.

It is now a national game. Conference affiliation taken a back seat to (the then) BCS polls and now the playoff. Recruiting and all that I mentioned is now a national process. Kids and coaches can see and communicate with one another with great ease. The country has gotten smaller in this regard. Kids can watch any prospective team-from a handheld device. Nothing is hidden any longer-very few ‘diamond in the rough’ types.

Teams that had a strong stranglehold on a fertile regional market have taken a downturn & need to amp up efforts ($$$) to keep up. Even small town high schools get invaded by the CFB big boys.

There is certainly more reasons. But, IMO, I wrote about part of one of the reasons.

IMO, Miami has not kept up with these small incremental changes and has suffered a downturn.
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Strategic failures generally don’t come from a lack of goals (ends), or ways (how to accomplish them). They come from a poor understanding of what your means are, and aren’t (strengths and weaknesses relative to competitors). Without clarity on that, you can’t have a useful plan or set of priorities.
 
Mismanagement. Hurricanes did not invest in the football program and kept trying to win without spending for coaches and facilities. Dolphins drafted horribly (Jamar Fletcher was an all time head scratcher) and did horrible in free agency.
 
jdmorgan76 said:
The kids Miami used to get from Miami grew up in a hard *** time, with tanks rolling thru the mean streets Miami is much softer than it used to be no question... That matters, desperation breeds hungry athletes like nothing else, kids now days are basically catered to from pee wee and know their $ worth...
Click to expand...
Tanks?

Go Canes!!!!!!
 
ShlomoShekelberg said:
Multiple reasons in no particular order:

1. Administration decided it wanted to "clean up" the football program and its rogue national image.
2. Poor hiring choices across the athletic department and coaching staffs.
3. The loss of the Orange Bowl and the home field/recruiting advantage it gave Miami.
4. The disparity between the quality of high school football in South Florida and the rest of the country closed.
5. Losing Florida off our permanent schedule hurt us in a profound, immeasurable way.
6. Joining the ACC and playing a stale, largely uninteresting schedule every year.
7. Falling behind in the facilities arms race.
8. The college football landscape changed. Bigger schools with larger financial resources now have a more pronounced advantage than smaller schools with smaller financial resources. Hiring a top-flight coaching staff is out-of-reach for most of college football.
9. No on-campus stadium.

I could go on, but you get the idea...
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That's a great description of the Canes. The OP seemed to be focusing on Dolphins and Canes as a combo, but few if any have addressed the Dolphins.

The Dolphins made an awesome hire with Joe Thomas. Consequently the team was loaded before Shula ever arrived. I was a kid but it was obvious at the time. I'm sure it was one of the reasons Shula took the job in the first place. Then along with Shula there were a string of sharp guys like Monte Clark and George Young and Bill Arnsparger and Bobby Beathard and Howard Schnellenberger. I associated the Dolphins as sharper than the next. That's why the move to acquire Paul Warfield was not a surprise. Intentionally surrendering the safety to the Steelers in the 1973 Monday Night game was not a surprise, even if the Monday Night Football crew on ABC didn't see it coming.

That franchise got lazy once Marino arrived. Instead of Shula maintaining everything he believed in and using Marino as a sweetener, Shula succumbed to cupcake football late in the 1984 season. There is a clear dividing line when the rushing attempts plummeted. Then they never came back. There were absurdities like leading the Chargers by considerable margin throughout the 1994 playoff game yet being out rushed 40 attempts to 8. That stuff was being mocked in Las Vegas circles. The Dolphins under Marino were always a laughingstock when I was there. The sharp guys were always looking for spots to oppose the Dolphins.

I assumed that was consensus everywhere. Then when sports message boards popped up on the internet I was beyond stunned when Dolphins boards somehow lauded Marino and praised those years. It is still difficult for me to believe. I considered it insulting football, given the physical resourceful roadmap predecessors of the early '70s. But the AFC in general was insulting cupcake football for a full decade, leading to one refreshing NFC Super Bowl massacre victory after another.

Obviously the new stadium and its site were a disaster. Joe Robbie was broke by ownership standards so he sought cheap land. That stadium was open to view while under construction at Christmas time 1986. I'll never forget it. My dad drove the family there to take a look. You could literally drive up the ramp. It was such a nothing location. I was shocked. The configuration could not have been more bland. We drove away and I felt confident the Dolphins would never win anything of consequence at that location.

I had no idea the Canes would be idiotic enough to follow. But it was preceded by idiotic enough to join the ACC, which owns the devastating combo of non-interesting opponents but ones which own plenty of talented enough and scrappy enough athletes.

On the Rivals board more than a dozen years ago I basically predicted how the ACC switch would pan out.

I don't feel awful about it because I remember when this program was nothing and never expected to be anything. We aren't being cheated now. We were gifted over those 20 years. These days given the format a national title requires three postseason victories and no worse than a 14-1 record.

Lotsa luck. I am not kidding myself. 2001 is going to be 20 years, then 30, then 40...
 
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Awsi Dooger said:
That's a great description of the Canes. The OP seemed to be focusing on Dolphins and Canes as a combo, but few if any have addressed the Dolphins.

The Dolphins made an awesome hire with Joe Thomas. Consequently the team was loaded before Shula ever arrived. I was a kid but it was obvious at the time. I'm sure it was one of the reasons Shula took the job in the first place. Then along with Shula there were a string of sharp guys like Monte Clark and George Young and Bill Arnsparger and Bobby Beathard and Howard Schnellenberger. I associated the Dolphins as sharper than the next. That's why the move to acquire Paul Warfield was not a surprise. Intentionally surrendering the safety to the Steelers in the 1973 Monday Night game was not a surprise, even if the Monday Night Football crew on ABC didn't see it coming.

That franchise got lazy once Marino arrived. Instead of Shula maintaining everything he believed in and using Marino as a sweetener, Shula succumbed to cupcake football late in the 1984 season. There is a clear dividing line when the rushing attempts plummeted. Then they never came back. There were absurdities like leading the Chargers by considerable margin throughout the 1994 playoff game yet being out rushed 40 attempts to 8. That stuff was being mocked in Las Vegas circles. The Dolphins under Marino were always a laughingstock when I was there. The sharp guys were always looking for spots to oppose the Dolphins.

I assumed that was consensus everywhere. Then when sports message boards popped up on the internet I was beyond stunned when Dolphins boards somehow lauded Marino and praised those years. It is still difficult for me to believe. I considered it insulting football, given the physical resourceful roadmap predecessors of the early '70s. But the AFC in general was insulting cupcake football for a full decade, leading to one refreshing NFC Super Bowl massacre victory after another.

Obviously the new stadium and its site were a disaster. Joe Robbie was broke by ownership standards so he sought cheap land. That stadium was open to view while under construction at Christmas time 1986. I'll never forget it. My dad drove the family there to take a look. You could literally drive up the ramp. It was such a nothing location. I was shocked. The configuration could not have been more bland. We drove away and I felt confident the Dolphins would never win anything of consequence at that location.

I had no idea the Canes would be idiotic enough to follow. But it was preceded by idiotic enough to join the ACC, which owns the devastating combo of non-interesting opponents but ones which own plenty of talented enough and scrappy enough athletes.

On the Rivals board more than a dozen years ago I basically predicted how the ACC switch would pan out.

I don't feel awful about it because I remember when this program was nothing and never expected to be anything. We aren't being cheated now. We were gifted over those 20 years. These days given the format a national title requires three postseason victories and no worse than a 14-1 record.

Lotsa luck. I am not kidding myself. 2001 is going to be 20 years, then 30, then 40...
Click to expand...
That plot of land Joe Robbie bought was tabbed locally as " the ponderosa " it was an anything goes wasteland. As a kid I crossed it numerous times on foot using it as a short cut. I'm pretty sure it was used a a dumping ground to unload dead bodies like Cardsound road was used for once upon a time. Joe Robbie had to get out of the OB. The city of Miami is to blame for the departure of the Dolphins not Joe Robbie. Joe Robbie was a visionary. He went all in with the idea of a multi sport stadium. He really thought international soccer was going to be a draw as well. It just didn't pan out the way he thought it would. Long story short.
The City of Miami and only The City of Miami is responsible for killing football in Miami. If the city would have just sold the stadium to Joe Robbie. Everything would be different today. The stadium could have been renovated and we would have hands down. The most historic, intimidating and nostalgic stadium in the country. The city forced Joe Robbies hand and he had no choice but to leave. The place was borderline condemned right before they chased off the Canes. And I don't give a flying rats *** what you say as about Marino.. Watching Dan Marino throw the football live is one of my all time favorite sports memories. We may never see another person throw the football like Dan did. The guy was Magic. Just never got the help he needed nor the breaks.
Have no fear. Everything in life is cyclical. The Dolphins and the Canes will win again. I just hope it's in my lifetime. I'm 52 and counting. Ouch!!!

Go Canes!!!!!!!!
 
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