1. It's a reason for rivals to knock Miami; UM "renting" a stadium and not having its own home—which is somehow a dig—and 2. the fact it's simply NOT the Orange Bowl.
Everyone has their dumb sentiments that Miami football leaving the OB was some final nail in the coffin; as if the Canes hadn't been a sub-par team for about three years before blowing north.
15-7 at the OB—from the OT loss to Clemson in 2004, to the 2008 beatdown from Virginia in the 2007 home finale—eight of those 15 wins against Marshall, Duke (three times), FIU (twice) and South Florida... while Miami was 24-18 overall from that loss to the Tigers to the end of the 2007 season (Randy's first year).
It's the same reason everyone loves the early 2000-era Nike jerseys; Miami was winning big then—but hated the mid-2000s and the "bra-strap" look, as that was the image of 9-3 to 7-6 kind of underachieving program.
I didn't see Miami lose a home football from the time I was 11 years old in sixth grade (9/7/85) until I was entering my junior year of college (9/24/94) and was a few months shy of my 21st birthday. Who WOULDN'T revere the Orange Bowl with THAT kind of history?
Once HardRock received its $400,000,000 face lift years back—better coverage and full blown upgrades—it became a **** of a home stadium and the only issue is that UM football has continued to suck.
Anybody who was at that stadium on November 11th, 2017 to watch the dismantling of #3 Notre Dame—you saw first-hand that the stadium isn't the problem; the garbage product the Canes were putting on the field was. The venue has hosted SIX Super Bowls, is in the running for 2027 and hosts the Orange Bowl annually.
Any notion HardRock isn't good enough for six UM home games annually is laughable... and yes, The Swamp is a complete dump site. So is Doak Campbell Stadium for that matter—but they get credit for being on campus in those one-horse college football towns.
