Take A Breath, Miami Truly Where It Should Be

There’s no denying that Miami rolled into Florida State in search of a win this past Saturday night in Tallahassee. For the Hurricanes, a victory over the Seminoles is a top goal every season and having now dropped three straight to an arch-rival, losing ways are certainly getting old.

That being said, what we “want” versus what “is” are sometimes as far apart as Miami’s first-half effort against Florida State and the lopsided second-half result.

Year three of the Al Golden era began with hope for improvement, the goal of an ACC title game berth and a wish that the long-running NCAA investigation would wrap up with a favorable ending.

The Hurricanes were 13-11 in two years under Golden, resembling nothing more than a dumpster fire when the former Temple coach took over in December 2010. The culture was broken, the roster was depleted and UM was on the brink of unraveling for good, had the right leader not stepped forward to head up the clean up.

The infamous Yahoo! Sports story broke weeks before Golden’s inaugural game, forcing eight starters to the sideline in what wound up a heartbreaking season opening loss at Maryland and from there, the Golden era was underway.

August 2011 through October 2013 were sheer chaos for the University of Miami. As fans, we see things from our vantage point, but ultimately can’t put ourselves in place of these players and coaches no matter how hard we try.

The most-recent episode of the “Raising Canes” series gives a rare glimpse into the raw emotion that surrounded the recent delivering of the NCAA-related news.

Players were pulled out of position meetings, assembled and heard from athletic director Blake James, who held court and stated, “I’m pleased to tell you guys to pursue your team goals. Let’s go get it done”.

In other words, the aspiration of playing in the ACC Championship and reaching the post-season remained in tact, with no further, uber-harsh punishments being handed down.

A choked-up Golden took the stage moments later, thanking his players for staying the course and expressing that “it’s been a long two years”. Kids that could’ve bailed out stuck around, while others who were recruited, ignored rivals’ cries of “death penalty” and chose to stick with Miami.

That is the building block and foundation for a program that will be something in a few years. Mark it down. Over the next two years this team will look vastly different and will better resemble Miami of old—similar to the transition seen between the 1998 and 2000 Hurricanes squads.

As the video plays out, so does the release of emotion. The nail-biting win against Wake Forest? Easier to digest when seeing what the program went through that week and this recent setback at Florida State, a bit more forgivable as the Hurricanes obviously remain a few steps behind the Seminoles on the climb back.

A win at Doak Campbell would’ve been a best-case scenario on top of a few best-case scenarios that have already taken place this season. Since August, Miami has upset No. 12 Florida—which jumped the Hurricanes from unranked to No. 15 in one fell swoop.

Since then, a win-streak extended to nine games, a 7-0 start and undefeated in ACC play entering this past weekend. Miami climbed into the Top 10 and earned a primetime match-up against a Florida State team that is arguably one of the best in the nation.

Nothing about that last statement is conceding defeat. It’s simply admitting where Miami is at, what’s been accomplished and where things can go barring this program stay the course and follows its leader. It’s simply the truth.

A win over the Seminoles would’ve been a colossal upset. That doesn’t mean the Hurricanes should’ve settled for less, but a 22-point underdog hung tough for a half and eventually fell by 27 points—proving there remains a gap between these two programs, albeit not that big of one based on effort and early ability to go toe-to-toe.

Two years ago Florida State opened the season No. 6 in the nation. It was year two of the Jimbo Fisher era and the Seminoles were in pretty good shape talent-wise as Bobby Bowden left some good talent, though his squads underachieved in the twilight of his storied career.

Fisher and the Seminoles were considered a darkhorse in the national championship race, but had a few big opportunities early in the season to answer the “contender or pretender” question.

2-0 quickly became 2-3 for the Seminoles, dropping games to No. 1 Oklahoma, No. 21 Clemson and unranked Wake Forest. Miami hung tough in a 23-19 loss, but a week later Florida State dropped a 14-13 home game to lowly Virginia.

The Seminoles ended the year 9-4, a huge disappointment based on preseason expectations.

In 2011, a No. 7 preseason ranking, a few blowouts over nobodies, a home win against No. 10 Clemson and a 5-0 start. Early October, No. 3 Florida State fell 17-16 to a North Carolina State, blowing a 16-0 halftime lead.

Late November, a 37-26 loss against Florida and a lackluster ACC Championship game win over Georgia Tech, 21-15. Florida State went 12-2, but more disappointment regarding the games that were lost, and how.

This season, it’s all coming together as teeth have been cut. Florida State has dominated the competition and with Wake Forest, Syracuse, Idaho and a hobbled Florida remaining, should roll into the ACC title game undefeated at 12-0. A national championship game berth is within reach and Seminoles are back on the scene in a way the program hadn’t been in over a decade.

Fisher took over a good-yet-underachieving squad in 2010 and after falling short the past few years, is just now getting Florida State to a point where it can be considered “back”.

The Seminoles fell in the ACC title game Fisher’s first season, didn’t reach year two and finally claimed a conference crown year three, reached the BCS and won the Orange Bowl. The step-by-step process had it’s pitfalls, but they’ve since been overcome and Florida State is just now ready to go next-level.

While Miami faithful are tired of losing and feel entitled to have won the ACC by now, reached the BCS, or earned title-game consideration, the fact remains this program has truly been in shambles since 2005 and progressively got worse over the next six years.

Golden started a mile behind Fisher and didn’t coach his first game free of NCAA drama until 30 games into his career at Miami.

Depth is improving, but is still miles from where it needs to be. Miami tossed three linebackers off the team this past year—Gionni Paul, Gabe Terry and Eddie Johnson, arguably one of the Canes’ best last season—while welcoming in defensive line transfers Justin Renfrow (Virginia) and David Gilbert (Wisconsin).

Both newbies cracked the second string within weeks, which never happens if Miami is where it’s supposed to be talent-wise.

A.J. Highsmith has shown his father’s heart at the safety position, but was again exposed. Florida State ran circles around the quarterback-turned-defender, again proving the gap in talent is fierce in certain areas.

The desire to be “back” is understandable, but emotion can’t cloud logical judgment and reasoning. Miami wasn’t “overrated” going into Saturday night’s game against a loaded Florida State team. If anything, these Hurricanes have overachieved all season.

Miami had no business being 7-0 to start this season. Not with the NCAA hovering. Not the way the past few years have played out. Not coming off a season where the defense was ranked 116th out of 120 Division-I squads.

Over the years, these Hurricanes have reinvented ways to fall to conference opponents, yet this season, trailing by double-digits in three games against decent ACC competition, Miami clawed their way back to late victories.

Revisit some of those games in the Randy Shannon era, or even the first two years under Golden. When games were on the line, Miami unraveled. The kids lacked the character to persevere and hadn’t yet learned how to win. Now, they’re finally starting to get it.

Trust in teammates and coaches sounded good in theory, but come game day with everything on the line, bad habits and instinct took over en route to heartbreaking losses.

Four games remain and Miami’s season goal of reaching Charlotte remains in tact, though more of a challenge with all-world running back Duke Johnson being lost for the season with a broken ankle.

Still, with a struggling Virginia Tech on deck this weekend, @Duke, Virginia and @Pitt to close out the season, Miami had enough in the tank to manufacture some big wins. Johnson’s absence will be felt, but if this team truly buys in and plays to its potential, an 11-1 finish is possible—that in itself impressive and program-definining as 2013 draws to a close.

Charlotte was the goal this year, not Pasadena. It was easy to flirt with the notion of something bigger as Miami continued to win games and felt like a team of destiny, but a monster loss at Florida State was a full-blown reality check.

The Seminoles deserve their current path while the Hurricanes must continue climbing the hill.

Reaching the conference championship without Johnson would be another feather in the cap of this current squad. Miami already “won” this season by staying undefeated until November and shaking he grip of the NCAA, who had its sights set on crippling the program.

As good as it felt to beat Florida, knocking off Mark Emmert and his cronies was the true season-defining victory.

With four regular season games remaining, it’s a great time to take inventory regarding what this Miami team is, what it isn’t and to give credit for what’s been accomplished thus far.

The big primetime wins against the likes of Florida State are just around the corner, but for now the goal is simply to show up, go balls out and do everything possible to find a way to success.

Virginia Tech is next and Miami’s goal is to not let Florida State beat it twice. Come to play Saturday, shake off the loss, get to 8-1 and keep living that Charlotte dream.

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