Miami Hurricanes: What Others Are Saying

The Miami Hurricanes are Tallahassee-bound to take on the Florida State Seminoles and as a result, it’s information overload on the Intrawebs.

Instead of adding another rant to the pile, it felt like a good time to read and break down what others were saying about the rivalry, head coach Al Golden and “The U” as game day approaches:

“Miami Hurricanes Football: Florida State Game Won’t Determine Al Golden’s Job” — by Juan Toribio at CanesWarning — Toribio goes right for the elephant in the room; asking if a loss to Florida State determines Golden’s future at Miami. His short answer; no.

He goes on to explain Golden’s season strategy of goal-setting and the lowering-of-the-bar regarding winning the Coastal Division, in order to keep dreams in tact.

Agree with the play-it-safe assessment on Golden (and have touched on it here before), but disagree in regards to what this game means for the fifth-year coaches’ future.

Toribio had a nice write-up after the Cincinnati loss, where he explained that as a 22-year old he’s never truly seen a good Miami team. What he should remember; five years back and precisely how the Randy Shannon era came to an end.

A loss against Florida State.

Shannon may have “survived” the rest of the regular season, but his dismissal came hours after Miami fell to South Florida at home in overtime. Translation? The decision had already been made and in the wake of Shannon’s firing, the reasoning all came back to a 45-17 home loss to the Seminoles earlier in the year.

Should Miami lose to Florida State this weekend, Golden won’t be left on the tarmac at Tallahassee International a la Lane Kiffin and his parting ways with Southern Cal years back—but you can guarantee it will go down as the final straw in the Golden era.

Going into 2010, Shannon had shown improvement each of the three previous seasons and taking out Florida State was another step forward that needed to be taken. It wasn’t and the rest of the year was marred in regression.

Golden is doubling-down right now; treating Florida State as just another game, while lowering expectations in making a Coastal title his benchmark. A loss to the Noles and the Canes arguably have to win out as Duke is in the driver’s seat for the division; and with a much lighter conference load.

A win against Florida State won’t necessarily save Golden—unless the success continues—but a loss will most-definitely be the beginning of the end.

What If? – FSU Edition — by David Cline at SBNation — Cline’s “what if” column (obviously) breaks down the scenario should Miami topple Florida State, as well as how things could play out of the Canes lose a sixth-straight to their arch-rival.

With a win, Cline points out that ACC play would be off to a great start, Golden would finally have a ‘signature win’, the streak would be broken, crowds could be improved for next week’s home game against Virginia Tech and the rest of schedule would look less daunting.

With a loss, the obvious—a 3-2 record and in an early conference hole, losing streak continues, another primetime defeat, recruiting takes a hit, empty stadiums for future home games and riding a two-game losing streak into the meat of the schedule.

Can’t argue with any of the above.

What Cline left out; the common-theme Florida State hangover that has emotionally plagued this program the past two season and an inability to recover from it; the Canes going 2-7 after losing to the Noles dating back to 2013.

A win in Tallahassee doesn’t ensure success down the stretch, but a loss seems to provide a predictable result.

Miami can downplay this week’s opponent all they want—a little psychological warfare from Golden—but will it really feel like just-another-game on that Saturday night flight home if the Canes fall? Of course not.

Beating Florida State is always the second-ranked unspoken goal of the season; right after going undefeated. If those two aren’t achieved, the third goal is always a conference crown, followed by a divisional title.

When you shift goal number four to the top of the pecking order, everything else gets thrown out of whack.

For Miami’s sake, it better beat Florida State or the next seven games are going to get messy.

“2 Live Crew’s Uncle Luke Brought Swagger to Miami. Now He’s Pissed it’s Being Erased” — by Steven Godfrey – SBNation — I have a heart for most things Luther Campbell. Rebel. Opportunist. Guerrilla marketing guru.

In sixth grade I used to bring a boom-box to school, keeping it under my desk. I eventually got it taken away for cueing up “Throw That D” every time our teacher left the classroom. (All Sports even got a shout-out in the liner notes for “Is What We Are”.)

While attending Canes games at the Orange Bowl back in the day, I loved seeing UM players rocking those black or white 2 Live Crew bandanas or the 2 Black 2 Strong 2 Live shirts off the field. Those old Luke records were the soundtrack of an incredible era of Miami football.

Three decades later the anthems are no more, while Campbell has become the biggest cheerleader for the way things were—which is both a blessing and a curse.

The curse? Campbell’s rowdy past that keeps him from being taken seriously. Outside of being banned in the U.S.A., Campbell was notorious for giving players cash rewards as well as threatening to take down the program in the mid-nineties if his choice of quarterback wasn’t under center.

All that said, Campbell is on-point in talking about an identity crisis at “The U”; a athletic department that wants to marketing “swag” on t-shirts, but doesn’t want a program (or the type of players) who display any.

Football has (somewhat) replaced rap in Campbell’s current day-to-day, as he coaches the defense for local high school power Miami Norland. Campbell’s foray into football has him delivering players to UM’s doorstep, opposed to shelling out bounties for monster hits.

Campbell describes local players like Devonta Freeman and Amari Cooper wanting in at Miami, not getting offers early and winding up elsewhere; Freeman to Tallahassee and Cooper to Tuscaloosa. Both were on national championship-winning teams and are making plays in the NFL.

Could Campbell’s efforts and presence be a recruiting violation in the making? Maybe. But regardless, it’s impossible to read Godfrey’s piece and not revel in the fact that the University of Miami has lost it’s true identity and continues working overtime to shun its image; turning into something it’s not.

As life rolls on, we all learn the same lesson—you can’t run from who you are. For the University of Miami to succeed, it needs to play to its strengths and embrace the culture which made it thrive.

That doesn’t mean 202 yards and 15 penalties—nine for unsportsmanlike conduct—like the Canes racked up in the 1991 Cotton Bowl against Texas; but Miami needs to act like “Miami”.

“The U” will never thrive with a Penn State-like culture and a Virginia-type defense. Play to your strengths. Stick to your guys. Be who you are.

“Miami’s Twitter Account Is Tired Of Hearing From Florida State Fans This Week” — by Dan Lyons – College Spun — To that last point, an sad-bastard segue into this piece by Lyons, where he reported on UM’s limp approach to social media and the influx of Florida State fans taking pot shots.

Instead of letting the commentary roll off their back, or simply deleting any over-the-top blah-blah-blah, @MiamiHurricanes let the bullies win with this weak-minded tweet:

“We’ve noticed an influx of FSU fans tweeting at us this week. As such, we encourage you to post here, instead: unsolicitedfsufancomments.com”

The result? More excuse as expected, of course. Did the admin readjust their pocket-protector, slick their part and nudge their horn-rimmed glasses further up the bridge of their nose while requesting that?

Florida State has won five in a row and is favored to make it six. The result? You’re going to get worn out on social media, so deal with it and the bullying will eventually subside. Meet it head on and the abuse will come ten-fold.

Flying banners to fire a sub-par coach? Guarantee that your rivals will fly a plane asking him to be retained? Hell, they’ll even make shirts in their team’s colors requesting the same thing.

To that last point; it wouldn’t hurt to take a temperature reading before pumping out more new uniform marketing content.

All the adidas hype was awesome during the dog days of summer and the event thrown at Club LIV was a great way to play to Miami’s strengths as a small private school in large metropolitan city. Thumbs up.

Hyping this week’s uniform look and combo a week after an embarrassing loss to Cincinnati and two days before taking on Florida State? It’s going to be met with understandable sarcasm and frustration.

The new cleats look neat-o, but timing is everything.

Most folks could care less if Miami wears cowboy boots or sandals this weekend. Just beat Florida State for the first time since 2009.

“Where Have All The Big Plays Gone?” — by Christopher Hayes – State Of The U — A solid piece  as it’s a great reminder that each win or loss is a series of steps in the right or wrong direction.

Hayes breaks down seven games over the past 15 years where certain moments either went for or against Miami and how said moments impacted the final outcome.

While the obvious turning-point play at Boston College in 2001 was broken down here—deflection, interception, strip and score—two recent negative turning point moments do a great job showing how missed opportunities eventually caught up the with the Canes.

Hayes talks about the recent Cincinnati loss and Brad Kaaya overthrowing an outstretched Tyre Brady for what would’ve set up a huge red zone opportunity for the Canes. Instead, a missed field goal and the Bearcats marched down the field for seven. The 14-point swing obviously cost Miami big in an 11-point loss.

There was also mention of last year’s home loss to Florida State. Kaaya had Braxton Berrios open on a wheel route and the freshman couldn’t haul it what would’ve been a touchdown on 2nd-and-8. A third-down pass was incomplete and on fourth, Michael Badgley missed a 29-yard field goal.

Instead of leading 30-10 and having momentum, it was 23-10 and changed the course of the game. Miami came out tentative offensively, eventually punted, was hit with a personal foul, fumbled twice over the next two possessions and by the middle of the third only led by six.

Even a would-be third down red zone stop became a tipped pass for a touchdown. The Canes only scored three in the second half and lost, 30-26.

While all games come down to a play here or there, that notion always seems ten-fold when it’s Miami and Florida State going toe-to-toe. How will this year’s showdown play out?

IN CONCLUSION: No shortage of opinions as a one-loss Miami team heads into Tallahassee for a make-or-break game against a Florida State squad that hasn’t lost a regular season game in two-and-a-half years. Conversely, the Canes have dropped five of their past eight and are now 31-23 under Golden. Something’s gotta give.

Full Miami v. Florida State preview and breakdown coming Friday at allCanesBlog.com.

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