allCanesBlog.com : Q&A

Over the course of the summer, Canes305 and The Beast will be answering your questions regarding some of the hottest topics surrounding Hurricane Nation. This question comes from Layne in Atlanta:

“Does Miami have specific strategies for being elite despite the Mammon’s-den realities of today’s mega-monied college football landscape?”

The Beast: I sure hope so but the reality of the situation is that the University of Miami has succeeded despite that according to logic it shouldn’t have.

The U, with only 14,000 students (combining both graduate and under graduate), being a private school and located in a city with competition from four professional sports teams and a million other distractions, has a ton of obstacles to compete in this modern day era of college athletics.

I think the new ACC media deal that will be announced soon will certainly help UM financially as it will significantly up the money that The U takes in from the league’s television contract.

New athletic director Shawn Eichorst has been asked this same question many times but has put forward the thought that he needs about six months on the job to have a good feel for how the The U can proceed. Obviously with the help of Blake James, Jesse Marks, Amy Ferguson, Chris Cohen and everyone else leading the fund raising charge there’s been a rash of new big money donations.

Just yesterday we found out about the contributions of brothers Mark and Jason Squillante who stepped up to bring us the Mark and Jason Squillante Strength and Conditioning Center. Of course we know about the amazing efforts of the Schwartz family who donated $5M to help build the Schwartz Center for Athletic Excellence.

There is one thing I know about UM President Donna Shalala, I’ve never seen anyone fundraise like her and the people the work for her. This bodes well for The U’s long-term success. The bottom line is this, winning helps all. In order to win, you need players. The U sits in one of the most fertile areas for high school football players in the country. As long as the ship is steered in the right direction we should always be at least relevant.

If you add in the funds that this staff is able to fund raise, things are looking up for The U.

Canes305: I’ll let Beast go first as I have a lot to say on the subject.

First off, you’d be hard pressed to think that the new athletic director doesn’t have a plan in mind or he wouldn’t have gotten the job. That said, we know that it starts and stops with the head football coach and having someone in charge who ‘gets’ the culture, the brand, the history and what makes the program tick.

I believe Miami has again found that in Al Golden, who made it clear at this press conference that UM’s brand is strong and it’s the tradition and former players which keep this thing humming.

If you go back and watch “The U” documentary, pay attention to the Howard Schnellenberger era. Prior to Howard, Miami had five coaches (Walk Kichefski, Fran Curci, Pete Elliot and Carl Selmer and Lou Saban) over a nine-year span. Saban started the turnaround with his recruiting efforts which laid the foundation for the Schnellenberger era. Saban landed Jim Kelly and of thirty total signees in two years, eleven went on to play in the NFL.

UM was literally ready to drop football before Schnellenberger agreed to take the job (on his wife’s advice after turning it down at first). Once on board, his formula was simple; run a pro-style offense and keep the best local talent at home. When Miami has been on top, the best kids have stayed home and when the Canes have struggled, the top programs were winning rings with South Florida’s best on their rosters.

When offensive line coach Art Kehoe talks about Schnelly in documentary, he stated that his former coach had “visions, themes, directions and dreams” for UM football. Howard then goes on to talk about his gameplan for an overhaul of all things football; the ticket office, advertising, athlete housing – every facet of the program had to be upscaled and “needed life breathed into it”.

Howard also called for a five-year road to a national championship, which he delivered with the stunning upset of top-ranked Nebraska in 1983. He talked of doubt and pessimism surrounding the program when taking over in 1979, so something dramatic needed to happen — which is why he boldly called his shot and stating that his first recruiting classes would earn a title before leaving Coral Gables.

All of that is a roundabout way of coming back to the most necessary ingredient for success; a head coach with a vision which Coach Golden has.

It was easy to root for Randy Shannon as a Miami guy, an old school Cane and a long-time assistant – but when it came from making that transition from coordinator to CEO, Shannon failed miserably. He was a good cog in the system. When the talent was there and wasn’t faced with the tough decisions, he was a great fit in the UM coaching assembly line.

Many folks – in the media or close to the program – have stated that Shannon the defensive coordinator and Shannon the head coach weren’t the same guy. Shannon was much looser as a coordinator, but as a head coach, the pressure pushed him to the brink.

There was no glad-handing. No playing the game regarding ‘shaking hands and kissing babies’, schmoozing boosters and bringing in donations. Bridges were burned with local coaches and the “my way or the highway” management style with players caused a rift. Shannon has often been long accused of playing favorites, while sticking others in a doghouse they couldn’t work their way out of. A recent interview with Ryan Hill has the former cornerback / receiver talking about players openly mocking Shannon behind his back.

The Golden One came to Miami in December with a vision and and ‘how to right the ship’ manual several hundred pages long. In have a year Golden has saved a recruiting class, put together what looks to be a quality staff, has cut dead weight, has changed the culture regarding conditioning, has promoted competition, has handled the media well, mended fences with local coaches and his one-day camps have Miami at seventeen verbal commits as of late June. Come September it’s time to prove it on the field, but everything since day one and now has been positive.

At the end of the day, nothing is more important than winning games. In the city of Miami, the mantra isn’t “build it and they will come” – it’s “win and they will come back”. There are many levels that Miami will never be able to compete with a Texas, Ohio State or Florida – so simply put, don’t try to. Play to your strengths and the things those schools don’t offer. Like Schnelly or Jimmy Johnson after him, embrace the big city life as well as the small private university and charm of Coral Gables. Show that you get the best of both world at UM and remind everyone that on the football field, there’s no better pipeline to the NFL than through Greentree.

Succeed at “The U” and you can succeed anywhere. Just ask the ten Canes that broke records by earning invites to last year’s NFL Pro Bowl.

As Beast mentioned, on paper UM really can’t “compete” with big money programs and in all reality has achieved more success than a small school of Miami’s caliber should. That said, because of that success, UM now has new-school tradition and those five titles over the past three decades are something that big money schools can’t buy.

The brand that is “The U” is something that must continue being built on and sold. Former players coming back to Golden’s one-day camps. NFL highlight reels full of legendary Canes. Golden knows the importance of both and will continue merging that tradition with his core values.

In time, it will yield success and in all reality is the ongoing answer regarding competing with the big boys; sell what you have instead of focusing on where you can’t compete.

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