Juvenile Banner Prank Bad For Miami Program

Another set of struggles by a Miami Hurricanes coach equates to another boneheaded move by a frustrated fan base. Just another day in Coral Gables.

In this latest edition of the inmates attempting to run the asylum, UM enthusiast Danny Vazquez is choosing modern technology for a relic of an idea that will not only fall on deaf ears, but will bring negative press to a program that doesn’t need it—as witnessed by the Miami New Times jumping on the “story” Monday, completely with quotes, links and screen caps.

Stop me if you’ve heard this one before—Miami fans pooling money together to fly a banner over the stadium on game day, calling for a coach’s job as a result of poor play.

While folks have every right to be frustrated with the product on the field, ways in which said frustration is processed needs to be better thought-out than another banner fiasco.

For starters, what does this drop-in-the-bucket effort accomplish? Vazquez feels that “board members will take note”—as if this $1,000 endeavor is going to move mountains.

No chance.

Season ticket sales are up entering this season and unless the likes of the DiMare Schwartz families threaten to stop donating millions to the program unless Golden is terminated (and offer to buy out his contract), this effort isn’t going to move the needle in the least.

Where it is going to have an impact—recruiting.

Should this sophomoric prank take place on Saturday November 15th when Florida State is in town, the top recruits in the state and nation—all in attendance—will see a disgruntled fan base on one side, and the defending national champions on the other.

Not the best play when these kids are there to be sold on “The U”.

Rewind back to late September 1997 and that now infamous, “From National Champs to National Chumps … Thanks Butch!” banner that flew over the Orange Bowl while Miami was in the process of losing to West Virginia.

Butch Davis was blamed by fans for a faulty program he inherited and needed to rebuild. No one has happy with his coordinators. His game day preparation and coaching abilities were called into question. Folks were clamoring for yesteryear and wanted to run Davis out of town. (Any of that sound familiar?)

Three years later his squad went 11-1, won the Sugar Bowl and set the stage for back-to-back title games, one national championship, four consecutive BCS games and a 34-game win-streak.

Davis left the program after the 2000 season and six years later fans were banging the drum for him to return. Many still are—despite running a dirty program in North Carolina that pushed him out of head coaching for the past several years.

None of that is to imply that Golden is on a Davis-like path or that Miami is setting up for a similar run. It’s simply a reminder to let things play out and to not hurt the program in the process.

This is a fan base that refers to itself as the “U Family”. Should family drama stay in-house? Putting it on display to the college football world—it only invites negativity and gives rivals and critics more ammunition to trash a program that’s in-repair.

This unoriginal, lame idea that will do more harm than good. In the end, it won’t get Golden fired, or send him packing—but certainly could have that outcome for potential recruits in attendance mid-November, driving would-be Hurricanes elsewhere.

Here’s hoping this nonsense never comes to fruition and that more logic and innovation is used moving forward by Miami’s disgruntled fans.

Comments

comments