forums

Worst Miami Takes of the 2025 Season

Advertisement
Markel Bell played a lot better than I predicted preseason. The Round 1 talk was always insane though, and probably contributed to his stock being inflated and to setting unreasonable expectations, which directly contributed to my criticism.
 
FrancisSawyer said:
Right after the SMU loss I'll admit I was very down on Mario. It seemed to me like he would never "get it". It was about that time that the whole "Let it Rip" thing was going around the team and staff and I remember thinking how lame it thought it was. Then a funny thing happened. The team began to gel. Just a bit at first then came the first big clue the NC State game. No Keonte Scott no CJ Daniels and maybe a few others but we opened a can of Woop A$$ on those fools! 41-7. I wanted that shutout so bad!

Girard Pringle gave our rushing attack the spark it had needed all year and I thought he would take Mark Fletcher's job. Then the playoffs began lol. Sorry Mark! You are the man! Keelan Marion stepped up like a man among boys and Malachi Toney did his thing. CharMar Brown joined in and Beck was super solid. Keionte Scott came back from injury like a boss and Toure and Fitz saved the A&M game! Bain and Mesidor literally destroyed every offensive line put in front of them. All that and Mario underwent a metamorphosis. What a ride!
Click to expand...
Yeah, after the SMU loss was my lowest of the entire Mario era. I questioned whether or not he had it mentally to take us to the promised land. Then, for the first time in DECADES, we finished strongly and lived up to our potential. And, we should have won the natty, but the fact that he got us there means a lot.

I've largely been cautiously optimistic about Mario, but the SMU loss was the Rubikon. If the team had tanked after that, then I think he would've eventually failed here. But, thankfully, he used great leadership and now there's no team in the country that's hotter than Miami.

And, as non-homer-y as I can say this, I genuinely believe that we are the true #1 team in the country entering this season AND, I don't mind it at al if they undervalue us and put us as low as 8-10 in the country. I would actually prefer they undervalue us, because I think that our literal floor is 10 regular season wins, but I believe our realistic floor is 11-1 and wouldn't bet against us running the table.
 
ST26 said:
To be fair, Lofton was injured the whole year. He'll feast next year if he can stay healthy
Click to expand...
la la land lol GIF
 
scrantoncane said:
Markel Bell played a lot better than I predicted preseason. The Round 1 talk was always insane though, and probably contributed to his stock being inflated and to setting unreasonable expectations, which directly contributed to my criticism.
Click to expand...
Accountability for yourself while mixing in some accountability for others. Well played, sir.
 
BigDikDaddyFromCincinnati said:
If our fans who want that on/near campus stadium were at that game in Dallas and saw what a 32,000 seat stadium looked like, all talk of wanting one would cease.
Click to expand...

Yeah, in the real world it makes zero fiscal sense and JRS is a much, much better and smarter option

But the idea of a 40k stadium in Coral Gables for a couple games each season seems pretty cool — even though it's a pipe dream.

I get all that
 
Advertisement
Hold My Beer said:
Yeah, in the real world it makes zero fiscal sense and JRS is a much, much better and smarter option

But the idea of a 40k stadium in Coral Gables for a couple games each season seems pretty cool — even though it's a pipe dream.

I get all that
Click to expand...
Agreed. Don't take this as an attack - were you at the SMU game? If you were, you know. Their stadium was "nice," but it literally felt like an overdone high school stadium. The atmosphere was cool with their on campus tailgating, but the stadium itself was really, really disappointing from the perspective of big time college football....because it felt like anything but that. When I was in high school, I got recruited by a ton of D3 schools and I declined largely because it felt disappointing when I saw their stadiums. The SMU stadium brought back similar feelings. I just know that our fans would be amazingly disappointed with a 40,000 seat stadium on top of the old Pike House or SAE house, let alone in Tropical Park.
 
BigDikDaddyFromCincinnati said:
Agreed. Don't take this as an attack - were you at the SMU game? If you were, you know. Their stadium was "nice," but it literally felt like an overdone high school stadium. The atmosphere was cool with their on campus tailgating, but the stadium itself was really, really disappointing from the perspective of big time college football....because it felt like anything but that. When I was in high school, I got recruited by a ton of D3 schools and I declined largely because it felt disappointing when I saw their stadiums. The SMU stadium brought back similar feelings. I just know that our fans would be amazingly disappointed with a 40,000 seat stadium on top of the old Pike House or SAE house, let alone in Tropical Park.
Click to expand...

Correct on all accounts.

And that sized stadium is perfect for SMU — their fan base is what it is. Even if they were rolling big-time, 32K would be enough with all the UT, A&M, Tech, TCU, Baylor (not to mention OU) fans in DFW. Those people will never give two flips about Mustangs football.

Canes with our nationwide appeal are an SEC/B1G brand. SMU is a lower-end ACC/XII brand at best (and good on them doing whatever they needed to do to get a spot an that level)
 
Last edited:
Advertisement
Didn't think we'd done enough to get talent and depth at DT last a off-season.
Didn't trust Mesidor or his special (magical?) football cleat to keep him healthy and playing at a high level.
Thought kicker would be a bigger problem than it ended up being.
Expected typical November collapse after taking an L on 11/1.
 
Back
Top