“THE LATE KICK” WITH BETTER THUMB ON PULSE OF MIAMI HURRICANES’ REBUILD THAN MOST

(The Late Kick with Josh Pate)

Josh Pate gets it… and I’m not just saying that because he dedicated an entire early episode of Late Kick to a comment I’d made on a Canes message board years back. I’m just a sucker for logic, reason, common sense, practicality and educated conversations driven by facts over feelings.

Tuning into these Monday morning breakdowns; it feels infinitely more-productive than the contingent of Miami’s fan base that heads over to WQAM 560—ready to pounce-on and dissect every word Mario Cristobal shares with Joe Rose, in the wake of another Hurricanes’ loss.

The obligatory weekly appearance by a head coach answering softball questions on the flagship station—fueled by coach-speak and back-to-the-grind soundbites—before heading over to Greentree to actually get back to said grind; what kernels of wisdom are people truly expecting from what’s intended to be nothing more than fluff?

Conversely, Pate’s latest six-minute segment—in the wake of an offensive-less 20-6 showing at North Carolina State— all killer and no filler as the on-the-ball host spits knowledge and avoids the type of hyperbole the knee-jerk fans pointlessly dissect with in the aftermath.

A true professional knows to avoid the tired, cliché ramblings about Miami’s staff getting out-coached, while demanding change at quarterback or other emotional, way-too-long, cold takes—rants rooted in authentic embarrassment that comes by way of unabashed fandom in this modern-day, all-encompassing, social media- and message board-driven vortex… which is a bigger societal issue to unpack at another time, but is a real trigger nonetheless.

The Late Kick’s platform is dedicated to an objective view of college football as a whole, with agenda-less, unbiased takes on match-ups, storylines and an in-progress season unfolding in real time—which isn’t something your average, everyday super-fan YouTuber is going to deliver from his orange and green man-cave—triggered after a loss as the trolls lay him out for predicting a Canes’ victory, resulting in a shoddy recap video driven by the visceral shame that comes from being an overly-dedicated fan, opposed to an unbiased observer talking shop.

DECADES OF IRRELEVANCE REPLACED DECADE OF DOMINANCE

The trajectory of the diehard Miami Hurricanes fan has been sheer misery over these past two decades—based on self-imposed expectations—and especially for those who lived through the rise-up moment of the ’80s, the rebuild in the late ’90s and what looked like an infallible dynasty in the early ’00s, which soon became a two-decade long drought.

Longtime supporters of “The U” grew up embracing Miami being the villain in the black hat—which was gratifying-as-all-hell watching this counterculture program not just dominate, but do so while turning the entire sport inside out—which is what’s makes the mocking, hate and rival laugher sting that much more after every new hiring, firing and rebuilding effort since the demise.

The only thing worse than being hated-on for once being dominant and great; constantly getting laughed at for becoming inconsistent and irrelevant.

It’s a sentiment that’s taken its toll over the years—resulting in false bravado and overconfidence with every new hire—which quickly results in a desire to burn-it-all-down a year or two in when the new regime hits a few speed bumps early in the rebuild process… which is also why the overemotional contingent of this fan base needs to find a way to self-regulate.

All good things take time and lest anyone expect another microwave dynasty, this is the wrong place and time as college football has become big business and cutthroat competition across the board for ultimate supremacy.

“Everyone that doesn’t properly study the history if these programs leaves themselves vulnerable to mis-defining, or ill-defining expectations—and that sets you up for failure and disappointment,” Pate shared on this latest Canes-themed episode of Late Kick, in regards to fans moving the goal post on Miami’s win total now at 6-3 with three to play—many now pushing back that 8-4 or 7-5 should be deemed progress in the wake of 5-7 last fall.

Pate went on to legitimately ask what business to fans have taking a program with one double-digit win season since 2004 and “just blindly expecting 10 wins to be the baseline” in this situation—rightfully calling the reaction and expectations “illogical”—because that’s precisely what today’s entitled fan behavior has become.

RINSE, LATHER, REPEAT—JADED FANS ALWAYS CLAMOR FOR CHANGE

It’s a point re-litigated here ad nauseam, but as the insanity reaches new levels—due to years of incompetence and irrelevance—and patience wears thinner and thinner, it will continue being brought up in some way, shape or form until is resonates with the masses.

Cristobal is Miami’s third head coach over a five-year span; one month from wrapping up year two after three short years after Manny Diaz assembled a 21-15 record—the former defensive coordinator taking over for Mark Richt, who was ready to hang it up after 15 long years at Georgia and the meat-grinder that is the SEC, but instead choosing to give his alma mater three years of his time—and $1,000,000 of his own money—to try his hand at a much-needed rebuild and infrastructure revamping.

That aforementioned 10-win season Pate referenced—Miami’s only double-digit win season since 11-2 in 2003—a fugazi of a 2017 campaign for the Hurricanes, who eked out miraculous early season wins which paved the way to two massive primetime night games against No. 13 Virginia Tech and No. 3 Notre Dame—before closing the season 1-3, struggling early before closing out Virginia, falling on the road to a four-win Pittsburgh squad, getting rolled by Clemson in Miami’s first-ever ACC Championship game and outlasted by Wisconsin in the Orange Bowl.

Mario Cristobal went 35-12 over four years at Oregon, where he won two Pac-12 titles, a Rose Bowl and had two double-digit win seasons.

Richt wound up going 8-9 overall after the Canes’ old school beatdown of the Irish—Cristobal eventually taking over a team that was 29-24 since final stretch of 2017 and through the Diaz era, which ended in 2021—roughly a 7-5 annual average over that span.

Need to run it back even further for some bonus context?

Miami’s record between that 2005 Peach Bowl debacle against LSU—a 40-3 ass-kicking that extended from the field to the tunnel post-game—the Hurricanes were 116-85 prior to the Cristobal era; an average of 7.25 wins per season and 5.31 annual losses over a 16-year span.

Miami’s current senior class were freshman in the COVID-defined 2020 season—one where Diaz’s roster got a quick boost after nabbing D’Eriq King from the transfer portal—replacing Jarren Williams, who famously missed curfew in 2019 prior to an embarrassing “home” loss to Florida International—on the hallowed grounds where the Orange Bowl once stood.

King’s run ended three games into the 2021 season, prematurely launching the Tyler Van Dyke era—which was relatively pressure-free for the redshirt freshman quarterback as expectations were in the tank after the 1-2 start—and quickly 2-4 after close losses to Virginia and North Carolina.

Van Dyke threw it all over the yard in wins over North Carolina State, Pittsburgh and Georgia Tech—before his first real career implosion in a road loss at Florida State—rebounding with wins over bad Virginia Tech and Duke teams for a 7-5 run that sent Diaz packing and welcomed Cristobal as next coach up.

Rhett Lashlee took his offense to Southern Methodist when getting his first head coaching opportunity, while Van Dyke was saddled with one season of Josh Gattis calling the shots in 2022 and was looking for a rebirth under Shannon Dawson—his third offensive coordinator in as many seasons—while his short-lived comeback has crashed and burned miserably over the past several weeks.

DREAM SEPTEMBER, NIGHTMARE OCTOBER, UNKNOWN NOVEMBER

Week Two of the 2023 season literally feels like a lifetime ago; a long-gone era where Van Dyke looked flawless, slinging it all around HardRock for 374 yards and five touchdowns against Texas A&M—sitting at 11 touchdowns and one interception four games into the season and statistically one of of the best quarterbacks in the game after one month of football.

Three games later—and sidelined for a win over Clemson—Van Dyke has since throw five touchdowns, ten interceptions and fumbled twice the past two outings.

The most-important position on the field—evidenced by a successful program that once owned the moniker “Quarterback U”, en route to four championships over a nine-year span, with four different gunslingers—where would this current team be if Van Dyke was merely playing pretty good and somewhat protecting the football, opposed to next-level awful and morphing into a world-class liability overnight?

We’re literally talking the difference between the reality of 6-3 and what could realistically be 8-1, or even undefeated right now.

Knowing the weakest link with this 2023 is literally tied to a quarterback who lost his mojo—one has to have bigger picture clarity and look past the numerical value of 6-3 with three games remaining—recalling that this team was absolutely passing the eye and smell text before the wheels completely fell off for a third-year starter being praised for making NFL-caliber throws and heady decisions just over a month ago.

The Hurricanes’ improvement at offensive line, running back and wide receiver had this offense humming out the gate under Dawson, while a feisty Lance Guidry-run defense was making a difference before Miami started massively losing the turnover battle weekly and a unit that was bending was now officially breaking.

This most-recent loss at North Carolina State; a microcosm of the entire second act this season in four quarters of football—ill-timed misfortune resulting in field goal attempts and points left on the field when Miami had been driving and was in position to find the end zone—as well as turnovers that gifted the Wolfpack points, while the Hurricanes’ defense stood strong on most drives and continued getting the ball back in Van Dyke’s hands.

Late third quarter, Miami had gone a methodical 72 yards on 12 plays—eating up 7:35 and getting to the 9:47 mark in the fourth—when the Hurricanes faced a 4th-and-Goal from the three-yard line, trailing 10-6.

Had Miami not missed a 45-yard field goal on the opening possession of the second half, a safe bet Cristobal and Dawson kick it again—as the goal was for the Hurricanes to finally get a momentum-shifting lead.

Instead, a battle of wills as Miami ran Mark Fletcher into the teeth of the line and the back was expectedly stuffed for no gain.

Manny Diaz went 21-15 over three years at Miami, including an 0-3 run against North Carolina and former boss Mack Brown.

While the focus was on the Canes going for it and not punching it in, the bigger issue was a non-threat, turnover-prone quarterback in the shotgun—everyone in Carter-Finley Stadium well-aware Van Dyke would handoff to Fletcher, as the odds of him rolling out to pass or run it himself were less than zero—which remains a philosophical issue for Cristobal and Dawson, leaving them deciding between a broken junior quarterback, a true freshman not quite ready to go, or an athletic, one-dimensional sophomore whose aerial attack leaves much to be desired.

The struggle is real, as all with ties to this program are painfully aware—but there has to be context within these three losses.

A flubbed kneel-down giving away the Georgia Tech game, while losing the turnover battle to North Carolina and North Carolina State—the Canes coughing it up eight times in those two contests—while the Tar Heels played clean and the Wolfpack had two turnovers.

They “why” in these losses couldn’t be more obvious, while the answer to solving the riddle remains murky—yet the second-year head coach and first-year coordinators remain the punching bags through this understandable, albeit misguided frustration.

CHAMPIONSHIP CONTENDERS BUILT FROM THE GROUND UP

Fans love to point at successful programs that are riding high, while often ignoring the arduous path that a successful team and coaching staff took en route to newfound, dominant ways.

Case in point, Georgia didn’t wake up one day as college football’s newest powerhouse.

The Bulldogs benefitted from 15 years of Richt running a very solid program that won two SEC Championships and six division titles during his 145 -51 run—averaging out to 9.66 wins and 3.4 annually. He simply couldn’t get over the hump and spent a big chunk of his career dealing with Urban Meyer and Florida dominating the SEC East, while Nick Saban turned Alabama around and began owning the conference halfway through Richt’s tenure in Athens.

Kirby Smart was handed the keys in 2016—another sign of the University of Georgia’s commitment to building a winner, along with dumping over $200,000,000 into their football program as part of their “Do More” campaign, aimed at outspending the likes of Alabama as their desire was to dethrone and replace the Crimson Tide.

By year six, Smart finally had the Bulldogs’ first national championship since 1980… nabbing another year seven and looking for a three-peat here in year eight.

Southern Cal and the Lincoln Riley narrative of 2022 was understandably compared to Miami and Cristobal, as both were hired around the same time and rolled up their sleeves to rebuild once-proud, private school football programs on opposite costs—Cristobal with a focus on culture and rebuilding “The U” in the mold he once knew as a former player and national champion.

Conversely, Riley brought his high-flying offense in from a powerhouse Oklahoma program; one that Bob Stoops built over 18 seasons, where he won 11 conference championships and one national title—amassing a 191-48 record that averaged out at 10.6 wins a year and 2.6 annual losses—which Riley maintained for five years before bailing and chasing a huge payday and rebuilding effort in Troy.

The only “culture” Riley focused on what implementing his high-flying offense—a system where he calls his own plays, poached his own Heisman-caliber quarterback from the Sooners and reeled in the transfer portal’s top-dog, Biletnikoff-winning wideout—all of which helped the Trojans air-mailed their way to 11-3 in year one.

Fast-forward to the follow-up and the old adage that defense wins championships; it’s rearing its ugly head for USC as Riley’s squad got rolled by Notre Dame, lost its third game over the course of a year to tougher-built Utah and was outscored in a shootout with Washington—while almost losing in triple-overtime to Arizona in-between.

Now USC gets Oregon and UCLA down the stretch—with Riley and the Trojans legitimately staring down the barrel of 8-4 or 7-5 in year two—which would be major backsliding and reason for concern after a strong opening act last fall.

Still, no other comparison is better-suited to what Miami fans just witnessed these past three-plus seasons at Florida State regarding the trajectory of Mike Norvell and roller coaster ride Seminoles Nation has been on since bringing on the former Memphis head coach in 2020.

Norvell went 38-15 with the Tigers—handed the keys to a program future Virginia Tech head coach Justin Fuente built—before getting the nod at Florida State; a program that was rolling and hit a wall in 2017 when strong>Jimbo Fisher bailed out when Texas A&M backed-up the Brinks truck; leading to a failed two-year run with Willie Taggart, only to settle on Norvell when some bigger names didn’t want to take on the job in Tallahassee.

Sound familiar, Miami fans?

Norvell’s first year was nothing short of a complete disaster; a 3-6 run during the COVID-defined 2020 season—including a 52-10 loss to Diaz at Miami. By year two, it was 0-4 out the gate—including a home loss to Jacksonville State, on the game’s final play—while stumbling to 3-6 before a 5-4 Hurricanes’ squad rolled north and choked away a late lead in Tallahassee; a season that ended with a thud by way of a  road loss against rival Florida.

After two full seasons with the Seminoles, Norvell was 6-12 and any college football fan worth their message board weight saw Florida State faithful in full-blown meltdown-mode—doing that simpleton fan math and trying to figure out if and how FSU could even afford to buy Norvell out after paying Taggart eight figures worth of get-lost money.

It wasn’t a matter of “if” with Norvell those first two years; it was “when” as he was considered dead-man-walking in all Seminoles’ circles… until he wasn’t.

Somehow a No. 23-ranked recruiting class in 2021, No. 20 in 2022 and some moves made in the transfer portal—as well as the emergence of Jordan Travis at quarterback—and things finally got rolling for Norvell in year three and continue.

What a difference a confident and capable quarterback can make…

PATIENCE A VIRTUE FOR HATED RIVAL UP NORTH

A fast 4-0 start that was just as quickly 4-3 after Florida State lost to the only three ranked teams it faced in the 2022 season—N0. 22 Wake Forest, No. 14 North Carolina State and No. 4 Clemson—before bouncing back with wins over Georgia Tech, Miami, Syracuse, Louisiana and Florida.

Throw in a another fortunate bounce with big-named Oklahoma—despite the Sooners rolling into the post-season 6-6—and that eked-out victory in the Cheez-It Bowl had the Seminoles putting their stamp on a 10-3 season that ultimately set the tone for year four.

Since that mid-October loss to Clemson last fall, Florida State assembled a 15-game win-streak, is now 9-0 in and sits atop the ACC with a legit shot at the Playoffs this season—all while being led by the same head coach their fans wanted to run out of town two years ago, as well as a left-for-dead transfer quarterback who miraculously entered the Heisman conversation this fall.

Had Miami fans had their way, Butch Davis would’ve been canned in year three and not been around to assemble the most-loaded team in history.

None of this is any type of proclamation or guarantee that Cristobal will turn Miami into a championship contender, but 21 games into his tenure—it’s hardly enough of a sample-size to warrant any stick-a-fork-in-him, pull-the-plug chatter.

Especially in regards to the state of the program inherited, a broken culture needing to be stripped down the studs—fully rebuilt—and the fact that all three setbacks in 2023 have been mostly-tied to unprecedented quarterback regression, considering how good and successful Van Yips looked earlier this season.

Too much of the conversation around Cristobal still treats him like the former Florida International head coach of yesteryear, while leaving out a four-year stint under Saban at Alabama—where he earned Recruiter Of The Year honors in 2015—as well as what he pulled off at Oregon after replacing FSU-bound Taggart.

An impressive 35-12 run over four seasons, two Pac-12 championships, two double-digit win seasons, a Rose Bown win over Wisconsin and an upset over No. 3 Ohio State on the road in 2021—not to mention, recruiting like a beast and leaving the cupboard full in Eugene.

Lest not forget the last time Miami had an alpha dog head coach in this mold—who was also a tireless recruiter that was oft knocked for some game day blunders early in his career with the Hurricanes—fans always wanted to run him off, as well.

Butch Davis was lambasted from day one, up through an early year six loss at Washington—constant bearing the brunt of the blame for turning “champs into chumps” after a 1-2 start year three back in 1997, where a banner flew over the Orange Bowl before a loss to West Virginia and fans openly talked about his ousting.

That third-year Davis-led squad bottomed out with a 5-6 run that season and a 47-0 loss at Florida State, but the head coach continued recruiting like a beast, stockpiled talent, got Miami to 9-3 in 1998—including an upset of No. 2 UCLA a week after losing the Big East title at Syracuse, 66-13—before an improved 9-4 campaign in 1999, which featured some big-time moments (an upset over No. 9 Ohio State), a head-scratcher (blowing a 24-3 lead to East Carolina) and a few close-but-not-quite-there outings (No. 2 Penn State, No. 1 Florida State).

Still, the growth was obvious and the talent upgrade undeniable.

By year five in 2000, it was smooth sailing and an 11-1 run—including upsets of No. 1 Florida State and No. 2 Virginia Tech, as well as a Sugar Bowl win over No. 7 Florida—which should’ve been an Orange Bowl match-up against No. 1 Oklahoma—but the glory eventually came in 2001 when the most-loaded roster in college football history rolled on to 12-0 and the Hurricanes’ fifth national championship… which never would’ve been the case if the savages had their way, running Davis off in year three.

In short, progress it taking place on a macro-level even if there are some micro-level setbacks that have ruined a handful of Saturdays this weekend—so buckle in for the bumpy ride and pray for smooth sailing over the next couple of seasons—as progress it taking place, even if it felt like one step forward and two steps back these past couple of weekends.

(Editor’s Note: Pate’s deep-dive into the history of “The U” and breaking down why Miami was hated in the ’80s and ’90s—a good use of one’s time—an informed outsider explaining what us veteran insiders and 305 natives lived through during that iconic era.)

Christian Bello has been covering University of Miami athletics since the mid-nineties. Getting his start with CanesTime, he eventually launched allCanesBlog—which led to a featured columnist stint withBleacherReport. He’s since rolled out the unfiltered, ItsAUThing.comwhere he’ll use his spare time to put decades of U-related knowledge to use for those who care to read. When he’s not writing about ‘The U’, Bello is a storyteller for some exciting brands and individuals—as well as a guitarist and songwriter for his Miami-bred band Company Jones, who released their debut album “The Glow” in 2021. Hit him on Twitter for all things U-related @ItsAUThingBLOG.

MIAMI HURRICANES FALL SHORT TO BETTER, FURTHER-ALONG NORTH CAROLINA TAR HEELS

Original photo courtesy of Ainsley E. Fauth (TarHeelBlue.com)

The only remedy for a gut-wrenching loss to Georgia Tech would’ve been the Miami Hurricanes showing up huge in Chapel Hill.

Instead, North Carolina proved they were the bigger dog in this fight—beating Miami a fifth-straight time in year five under head coach Mack Brown—while second year leader Mario Cristobal and his Hurricanes now attempt another regrouping effort for the visiting Clemson Tigers next Saturday at HardRock.

What a difference eight days can make.

Miami went into last Saturday’s home black-out against Georgia Tech riding high with a 4-0 record and now sit at 4-2, with the reality of dropping a third straight unless it rebounds quickly for another home night game against a Tigers program that’s won six of the past eight showdowns, dating back to 2004.

For longtime fans, a return to those seven stages of grief as another Hurricanes season fails to go as planned—coping mechanisms galore once those first couple of blows are absorbed and losses are notched.

THE STRUGGLE IS REAL, CANES FAM

This past week saw supporters of “The U” hovered in the anger and bargaining stage—seething over the brain-dead play call that handed the Yellow Jackets a game that was won with a kneel-down—while attempting to rationalize that a bounce back in Chapel Hill could serve as a reset and wake-up call moment, ultimately resetting these Canes for the second half of this 2023 season.

Working it backwards, nobody expected Miami to undefeated this year—a program that’s only had one double-digit win season (2017) since joining the ACC—so get that first loss out of the way and, refocus and go make things right, as wins over North Carolina and Clemson would put the Georgia Tech upset in the rearview mirror for good.

Easier said than done, of course.

Vegas odds only had North Carolina a three-point favorite on Saturday night—a belief that these two ACC foes were evenly matched on paper—while ignoring the fact that Miami hadn’t beaten a Top 15 team on the road since knocking off No. 3 Virginia Tech in Blacksburg back in 2005.

As the game unfolded, it became crystal clear that these Tar Heels are further ahead in their journey under Brown and that Drake Maye is a total-package quarterback, while Tyler Van Dyke can be a stat-padder who puts up some good numbers, but when it’s all on the line late in a tight or crucial moment, that deer-in-headlights energy is prone to return. Especially these past two weeks as the Canes too a few steps back.

Going into Georgia Tech week, Van Dyke was statistically one of the best quarterbacks in the nation.

288 yards, one touchdown and three unthinkable interceptions later against the Yellow Jackets—ESPN cameras caught the dead-eyed quarterback looking shell-shocked on the bench, before roommate, sidekick and go-to receiver Xavier Restrepo visibly lifted Van Dyke’s chin, knowing that cameras were panning the bench for a reaction.

The timing of Van Dyke’s gaffes were unforgivable; an end zone interception into triple coverage late second quarter (which at worst should’ve been a field goal), a late third quarter pick that gave the Yellow Jackets the ball on the Canes 26-yard line (where the punched it in for a score four plays later) and the third and most-egregious turnover, a drive-killing cough-up on 3rd-and-7 from the Georgia Tech 25-yard line, where the ball was a mile behind Jacolby George and returned to the Canes 20-yard line, resulting in a field goal after Van Dyke thankfully chased down the culprit and stopped him from reaching pay-dirt.

For all talk that a shit coaching call blew the Georgia Tech game killed this team’s mojo, Van Dyke’s body language and spaced-out vibes feel equally as detrimental as all early-season chatter about the quarterback being back to his 2021 self and putting 2022 behind him; the emotional regression over the past eight quarters is impossible to ignore and cause for concern, lest he post a big outing against Clemson this weekend.

Tyler Van Dyke threw one interception in Miami’s first four games and five over the past two losses.

EARLY LEAD VANISHES IN SECOND HALF AGAINST TAR HEELS

Miami hung tough early against North Carolina, overcame a goal line fumble by Henry Parrish Jr. in the moment—though leaving seven points on the field loomed bigger as the game went in.

The Canes scrapped their way back to a 17-14 halftime lead, though it was gone just as quickly after the Tar Heels owned the early third quarter—driving 74 yards in four plays, capped by a 56-yard strike to Devontez Walker—his second of three haul-ins of the night.

The Canes started to move the ball on the ensuing possession before the defense quickly got it back, only to see Van Dyke cough up an interception that gave the Tar Heels the ball on the Miami 23-yard line. Three plays later a 33-yard hook up between Maye and Walker on a 3rd-and-20 where the Canes defense couldn’t get off the field, pushing the lead to 28-17.

Another three-and-out for the Canes, another lengthy scoring drive for the Tar Heels—63 yards on nine plays—including another massive conversion on 3rd-and-10 going for 30 yards and proving why North Carolina is one of the best third-down teams in the nation.

The Lance Guidry-led Miami defense gave up 508 yards on the night to a balanced attack—273 through the air, 235 on the ground—while the Canes secondary was generally lit up; superstars like safety Kam Kinchens even falling victim to getting burned, being out of position or not making plays. Same to be said for Oklahoma transfer Jaden Davis, who looked strong against Texas A&M but has faded in the weeks since.

On the other side of the ball, Miami’s offensive line no longer resembles the world-class unit it looked like earlier this year—resulting in Van Dyke not having the time or protection he saw in September where he surgically picked apart secondaries, while the running game hasn’t seen many big plays or bursts in weeks.

Parrish carried the load with 13 carries for 73 yards, while Don Chaney Jr. ran five times for 23 yards and Ajay Allen got 13 yards on two carries—Miami failing to reach the 100 yards mark with 91 on the night. Meanwhile, no sign of the speed Chris Johnson, while freshman sensation Mark Fletcher Jr. hasn’t seen the field the past two weeks due to a nagging foot injury.

An inconsistent offense, a defense making mental mistakes, a quarterback that’s lost its mojo, an offensive line that’s been brought back down to earth—as well as disappearing acts from players like Colbie Young—who looked ready to take a massive step forward earlier this year, but only had six receptions for 76 yards and no touchdowns the past two games; the Hurricanes are regressing at the wrong part of this football season.

In fairness to Miami, it handed a win to Georgia Tech on a silver platter and it lost to a North Carolina team that is probably looking at an 11-1 regular season and is on track to face Florida State in the ACC Championship game in December.

The Canes fell by 10 points on the road to a Tar Heels team that is no slouch—and despite a painful week being the national punchline for a loss to the Yellow Jackets, Miami brought the fight. North Carolina just proved to be the more skilled fighter. The better, more-experienced team simply played a cleaner game—zero turnovers to the Canes’ four—and the more consistently-coached program dominated the second half the football game, going on a 24-0 run at one point.

REDEMPTION AGAINST CLEMSON; STOP THE BLEEDING

Lucky for Miami, another chance at redemption as Dabo Swinney and Clemson head to HardRock next Saturday night for another nationally televised showdown.

The two-loss Tigers are a far cry from what they’ve been over the past decade under Swinney—but they’re still loaded with talent and a win over Clemson would be a big shot in the arm for a Miami squad that faces Virginia and travels to North Carolina State in the coming weeks—a little mid-season rally potentially getting the Canes up to 7-2 before a road trip to Tallahassee if Miami can find a way to stop hemorrhaging, which starts with finding a way to get back into the win column.

Saturday marks Clemson’s first trip back to play Miami at HardRock since a Tigers-led, 58-0 beat-down in 2015.

Miami hasn’t beaten Clemson since a triple-overtime road game in 2005 and has never beaten the Tigers in South Florida since joining the ACC—blowing a halftime lead in 2004 before falling in overtime, falling again in overtime in 2009 when Clemson drove the field for a game-tying field goal in regulation and of course the 2015 massacre in South Florida, where Swinney sent Al Golden to the unemployment line after a 58-0 ass-kicking.

Clemson opened this season getting rolled-up 28-7 at Duke—before smacking around Charleston Southern and Florida Atlantic. A week later, an overtime home loss to Florida State, before eking out wins over sub-par Syracuse and Wake Forest squads—the Tigers sitting at a similar crossroad as the Canes, also 4-2 with six to play.

Miami’s chances at playing for an ACC title are pretty much out the window barring a miracle—winning out, a well as needing teams like North Carolina, Florida State or Duke to stack up some losses—so all that’s left right now is the cliché sentiment of playing for pride and to prove that this team is everything these players and coaches proclaim that it is.

“This team is special,” Van Dyke shared post game. “We know what we’re capable of. We can’t fold.”

His head coach took a similar path, with the intent of regrouping and keeping the wheels on going into another big home game and redemption-type moment.

“The way our organization is built, there’s no time for self-pity, no time for negativity or pointing fingers or getting in a shell and balling up,” Cristobal shared. “It’s really addressing the things that we gotta get better at, and getting better. That’s it. That’s all we can be focused on.”

How all that coach-speak and robotic player rhetoric translates to the rest of this season, time will tell—but the bigger focus remains on the future and an acceptance that everything Cristobal and staff are doing here in year two is to build Miami into a contender again over time—as two decades of incompetence and irrelevancy don’t change overnight, no matter how tired fans are of both.

Yes, a fast start with a win over Texas A&M, as well as rolling the “other” Miami, Bethune-Cookman and Temple by a combined score of 127-17—it absolutely got the juices flowing and hope was alive—as Hurricanes fans have championship muscle memory and remember days where this dominant program was consistently winning titles, or was at least in the hunt for one year after year.

Two decades of eating shit and being a college football punchline—set up to fail year after year—it not only stings, it has fans losing their minds and getting too high after wins, too low after losses and taking out years worth of frustration and failed past regimes on whichever staff is currently trying to lead the next comeback.

Miami hadn’t seen 4-0 start since Mark Richt got this thing to 10-0 in 2017—before finishing 0-3, going 7-6 in 2018 and abruptly retiring after getting wrecked by Wisconsin in the Pinstripe Bowl. Three years of Manny Diaz followed—along with his dismal 21-15 record—and when that low-rent experiment failed, the Canes finally ponied up, paid big and brought in a proven head coach like Cristobal; now Miami’s third head coach in five seasons and sixth since 2006.

Beyond head coaching turnover, there is also the musical chairs game this program continues to play with coordinators—Van Dyke now in a comparable role to what Kyle Wright went through between 2003 and 2007.

Over that five-year span the can’t-miss, 5-Star quarterback from California not only had two head coaches in Larry Coker and Randy Shannon—he also had the misfortune of four different offensive coordinators over his five-year run; Rob Chudzinski, Dan Werner, Rich Olson (as well as new quarterbacks coach Todd Berry) and finally Patrick Nix—while Van Dyke landed Dawson this year, the bland Josh Gattis in 2022 and high-flying Rhett Lashlee in 2021.

And we wonder why quarterbacks regress, offenses aren’t consistent and player development has suspect at “The U” year after year…

SOLID REBUILDS DON’T HAPPEN OVERNIGHT

Circling back to Brown, despite North Carolina owning Miami during his tenure—the Tar Heels were a dismal 7-6 his first season, 8-4 during the COVID-strapped 2020, 6-7 in 2021, 9-5 and Coastal Division champs in 2022—and are now 6-0 halfway through 2023; their best since 1997 during Brown’s first stint in Chapel Hill.

A similar slow start for Mike Norvell at Florida State as the Seminoles also sit at 6-0 in what is his fourth year in Tallahassee—and while fans may love what he’s doing right now, a quick look back at his first couple of year had the former Memphis head coach looking like a laughingstock—while Seminoles faithful were trying to figure out how the program could afford a buyout after the millions they’d just paid Willie Taggart to walk away in 2019.

Mike Norvell has turned FSU around, but his first season with the Noles saw him going 3-6 and taking a 52-10 beating via the Canes.

3-6 out the gate in 2020 during the shortened COVID season—including a 52-10 loss to Diaz and an average Canes team. Year two, a 5-7 run where Florida State finally beat Miami—ending a four-game losing streak to the Canes—but not before an 0-4 start and home loss to Jacksonville State had Norvell starting out 3-10 overall and sitting at 6-12 before a late-game comeback against the Canes that November.

By year three, a 10-3 season unfolded—albeit not beating the three ranked teams on their schedule (No. 22 Wake Forest, No. 14 North Carolina State and No. 4 Clemson)—and getting to face a 6-6 Oklahoma team in the Cheez-It Bowl. Still, the Noles blew out the rival Canes 45-3 and going back to last fall are now riding a 12-game win-streak under Norvell, who for a while didn’t look like he’d even survive year two.

Shifting to next week’s opponent, another head coach who finally got it together—but not before a strong learning curve.

Swinney’s run in Clemson started in 2008 when taking over for Tommy Bowden— fired mid-year during his tenth season—and far from a fan-favorite as his resume saw him coaching up wide receivers for the Tigers for five years, prior to six years with pretty much the same title at Alabama when the Crimson Tide were a run of the mill program.

Clemson’s new leader went 4-3 down the stretch followed by 9-5 his first year at the help in 2009, 6-7 -year two and 10-4 by year three—though the ACC Championship season still ended with a thud when West Virginia rang Clemson up to the tune of 70-33 in the Orange Bowl, which led to Swinney wisely tapping former Oklahoma defensive coordinator Brent Venables to head east for year four, which is where the transition finally started.

Still, it took Clemson time to even play for a national title—which they did in Swinney’s seventh year, and lost—before winning their first natty (since 1981) his eighth season in 2016, before a second two years later.

Not the kind of stories ornery, pent-up Hurricanes fans want to hear—after literally not playing for anything meaningful since having a natty stolen in the 2003 Fiesta Bowl—but the facts are the facts and it’s been a long an arduous journey for a lot of programs that have been rebuilt and are just now, or recently, achieved the type of success Miami has been chasing.

Give it time. Patience. Trust the process. It’ll get there.

Not exactly chicken soup for the jaded soul as the Canes’ sixth head coach in 17 seasons looks to do what nobody has been able to do in Coral Gables since alpha-dog Butch Davis was brought home to do back in 1995; rebuild “The U” from the ground up.

While it’s tough to admit in the wake of back-to-back losses, Miami has undoubtedly taken a step forward year two under Cristobal—again, easier to admit at 5-1 if the Georgia Tech collapse never happened, but it did and this is where we’re at. Dawson and Guidry haven’t gotten things all figured out yet, but they’re first-year coordinators feeling out this roster, working with what they’ve got and trying to gel with Cristobal and this program six games into their inaugural seasons.

A harsh, obvious reminder to all that it’s a long way to the top when 5-7 was last year’s basement—a slew of hurdles between losing at home by double digits to Middle Tennessee State and dethroning undefeated conference foes further ahead in their rebuilds in Chapel Hill and Tallahassee.

As far as year two goes, every week is a new opportunity to regroup grow, teach, learn, correct mistakes and to figure out how to be better every next time this team takes the field—so as o now all eyes are set on some form of redemption against Clemson and ending a two-game losing stream—the same Tigers that beat the brakes off the Canes, 40-10 in Death Valley last year, despite what was thought of as a “down” 11-3 season for them, considering it was only their second three-loss season in eight years.

BUILT FROM THE GROUND UP STILL MATTERS

Back to the grind as hard work and growing from setback experiences is a must for a program trying to grind their way back to relevance. There’s no excuses or short cuts to circumvent that.

Yes, the transfer portal and this NIL world can help fast-track the old school type of five-year rebuild that took several organically-built recruiting classes to solve—but there still is no overnight fix; as proven by what the college football world is currently witnessing as media darling Colorado sits at 4-3 after a 3-0 start that was made to be a bigger deal than it really was.

How ol’ Deion Sanders and Colorado fare in the long run, time will tell, but proof that even a brash leader, a brand new roster—with an NCAA-most 68 new transfers—and some early success aren’t enough to rewrite the tried and true playbook of process and rebuilding the right way from the ground up.

Chemistry matters. So does teaching, learning, grinding and putting in those 10,000 hours it takes to master a skills set—be in the weight room, the film room or just the standard camaraderie that comes from teammates hanging, bonding and growing together over time.

All that chatter about the blood, sweat and tears that champions wax poetic about when standing on the podium when handed the trophy—that’s really how it all went down; the suffering and sacrificing that it took when you start at the bottom and wind up on top.

Georgia might not have necessary been basement dwellers when the program parted ways with Richt in favor of Kirby Smart back in 2016, but again—a six-year journey for Smart to take the program Richt had knocking on the door for 15 years an to get the Bulldogs their first national championship since 1980. As well as an administration that dumped low nine figures into football with Alabama as their blueprint and inspiration; their “Do More” campaign directly aimed at pushing a little bit harder across the board to become the next Crimson Tide.

Mark Richt handed Kirby Smart a Georgia program that was 49-17 the previous five years, but still went 8-5 year one.

Kirby went 8-5 year one—on the heels of Richt going 9-3, 10-3, 8-5, 12-2 and 10-4 his final five years in Athens—proving this was hardly a strip-it-down-to-the-studs rebuild for the Bulldogs.

By year two, 13-2 and a title game berth against Alabama, with a soul-crushing overtime loss. Close, but no cigar.

Back-to-back SEC Championship losses years three, four and six—twice to Alabama (2018, 2021), once to LSU (2019)—with a quirky 2020 pandemic season sandwiched in-between, with regular season losses to Alabama and Florida—before this current, dominant run started.

Now in year eight, Smart the Bulldogs are riding a 24-game win-streak and have supplanted Alabama as the odds-on favorite every year to win a title—while Georgia’s new head-honcho is the modern day Nick Saban and king of college football… until somebody eventually knocks him from the perch, as goes in this cyclical sport.

History has proven nobody stays on top forever in this ever-changing game. It’s simply a matter of timing, chemistry, winning recruiting battles and putting all the necessary pieces together—remaining obsessed with success and the ongoing chase of rings, making history and ultimate glory.

Christian Bello has been covering University of Miami athletics since the mid-nineties. Getting his start with CanesTime, he eventually launched allCanesBlog—which led to a featured columnist stint withBleacherReport. He’s since rolled out the unfiltered, ItsAUThing.comwhere he’ll use his spare time to put decades of U-related knowledge to use for those who care to read. When he’s not writing about ‘The U’, Bello is a storyteller for some exciting brands and individuals—as well as a guitarist and songwriter for his Miami-bred band Company Jones, who released their debut album “The Glow” in 2021. Hit him on Twitter for all things U-related @ItsAUThingBLOG.

MIAMI HURRICANES HOLD COLLECTIVE FATE IN THEIR HANDS AT NORTH CAROLINA

Georgia Tech is in the rearview, undefeated North Carolina is on deck, the Miami Hurricanes are 4-1—one play from 5-0—and this program finds itself at another fork in the road as the reality of an avoidable setback now amplifies the heaviness of this weekend’s monumental showdown; one that will define the rest of this season and the narrative surrounding The U’s long-awaited comeback.

No need to re-litigate what took place at HardRock stadium last Saturday night as it’s been beaten into the ground by insiders, outsiders and every talking head in-between—pundits trying to be more outraged or clever than the big-mouthed clowns before them for the sake of clicks, shares and likes.

The only reminder worth focusing on here, fervent supporters of The U—the fact that it always was, always is and always will be the Miami Hurricanes against the world.

The hate us ’cause they ain’t us. Period, full stop.

Look no further than media coverage this week and the way this coaching staff has been opened mocked, while players photos and videos became memes and the entire college football world not only got their quick laugh at the Miami program—but the made it personal, malicious and showed their asses regarding just how much they loathe our Canes.

Mario Cristobal and offensive coordinator Shannon Dawson certainly deserved legitimate criticism for a bone-headed coaching decision on Saturday night—and they got it—but the joy that outsiders are taking as they revel in the Canes’ pain and make UM this week’s punchline; let it serve as a wake-up call—these mouth-breathers not only fear any rise back to the top of the college football rankings, they remain visibly jealous of the Magic City having any legitimate sports success.

MIAMI SPORTS REMAINS PUBLIC ENEMY #1

Skeptical of the call-out? Travel back six months at unpack the Miami Heat’s unexpected run and a magical NBA postseason—one where they knocked off #1 Milwaukee, #4 New York and #2 Boston en route to The Finals.

What would’ve been a feel-good story for literally any other underdog in the sport—the consensus was to trash the Heat and to root for anybody Miami was facing this postseason.

Got past the Bucks? No shot against the red-hot Knicks. Took out New York? No worries, Boston will dismantle those pretenders—ESPN even running a graphic on social media that the Heat only had a 3% chance to upend the Celtics.

By the time it was Miami and Denver in The Finals, everybody was all over the Nuggets and celebrated when the Heat were done in five.

Weeks later when the conversation shifted to Damian Lillard wanting out of Portland, with Miami his preferred destination—a full-blown sports-nerd meltdown about how out of line his demands were—to the point the Trailblazers front office took an anywhere-but-Miami approach and dragged ass for months on the trade.

After Lillard ultimately wound up in Milwaukee—moving the Bucks to the frontrunner to win it all in 2024—nobody gave a shit that the rich got richer. The haters were simply thrilled Miami didn’t land its big fish, while openly mocking the iconic Pat Riley for coming up short.

DIFFERENT PLAYERS, DIFFERENT BALLGAME

Shifting back to college football’s and last weekend’s biggest storyline—for the sake of argument let’s swap out Miami for Colorado, Cristobal for Deion Sanders, Don Chaney Jr. for Shedeur Sanders and let’s play out the media’s reaction to a phantom fumble that would cost the Buffs a game like this.

It’d be Hands Across America for the injustice and every sports commentator would ramble on about what a travesty it was to steal a game from those kids who clawed their way back from a 17-10 deficit to a 20-17 victory.

Why? Because the media knows no bounds when protecting and glorifying the ones they love while trashing and making a punchline out of the afterthoughts.

Getting a little too conspiracy theory for some of you? Grab your plutonium, let’s get the DeLorean up to 88 m.p.h. and take it back to October 31st, 2015 for Miami’s eight-lateral return at Duke to steal a last-minute victory in Durham—”steal” being the operative word for sports media members who were sideways over this play come Sunday.

USA Today went on to run an article with the headline, “The ACC Needs To Overturn Miami’s Crazy, Controversial Win Over Duke”, despite officials with a lengthy review of the play, confirming the call on the field and awarding the Canes a touchdown.

“The result needs to be vacated and Duke should be awarded the game that was stolen from them,” spewed For The Win columnist Chris Chase—selectively outraged because the Blue Devils were the victim—whereas when it’s the Hurricanes on the wrong end of things, it’s always been generally blown off, justified or even mocked.

MIAMI IS ALWAYS THE MARK

Cleveland Gary and his phantom fumble at Notre Dame in 1988 which wound up costing Miami a shot at a national title. Who give a shit? Tony Rice is a feel-good story, baby. Go Irish.

The BCS screw-up in 2000 where computers sent Bobby Bowden and his Seminoles to the national championship against Oklahoma, despite Miami knocking off #1 Florida State and #2 Virginia Tech and ratting off nine solid wins after losing a close road game at #14 Washington early in the year—Saint Bobby in his post-Orange Bowl interview with some aw-shucks, maybe-the-Canes-would’ve-given-them-a-better-game-than-we-did old man ramblings.

Same to be said for a bogus pass interference call against Glenn Sharpe in the 2003 Fiesta Bowl—stealing a 34-game win-streak and bid for back-to-back national championships when a jaded asshole named Terry Porter decided to chuck a flag after fireworks lit up the Tempe skyline and Miami players rushed the field ripping open bags of Tostitos chips in celebratory fashion.

The jadedness is rooted in many things, but a huge part is South Floridians getting the best of both words and sports fans in other regions simply hating that.

Philadelphia, Cleveland, Green Bay, Pittsburgh, Boston, Chicago, Cincinnati, Minneapolis—what do these cities have to look forward to other than frigid cold winters, ungodly summertime heat and generally little else to rally around life-wise outside of their beloved pro sports franchises?

Same to be said for all these podunk southern college towns where football reigns supreme and their fans live to play the attendance game with Hurricanes fans.

I’ve lived in both Tuscaloosa, Alabama and Gainesville, Florida—one-horse towns where the RVs start pouring into town on Wednesday and the entire city shuts down by Friday if there’s a Saturday home game—as college football is literally the lifeblood of regions like this.

Contrast that to a large, diverse metropolitan city Miami; a tropical paradise with beaches, ideal weather, nightlife, culture and a countless options when it comes to figuring out how and where to spend one’s entertainment dollar on any given night.

Miami is an events-driven town, not a traditional sports city—which is why HardRock is a sea of empty aqua-colored seats when UM is playing a lesser foe, but packs it out when a big-ticket rival is in town—turning a college football game into a full-blown event.

This is precisely why The U’s marketing department rolled out black jerseys and an 8:00 p.m. ET kickoff for Georgia Tech last Saturday night—to give it a party vibe to lure in spectators who would’ve blown off a 12:00 p.m. or 3:30 p.m. kickoff for the average ACC foe.

BUT IF THEY HATE HIM WHY DO THEY LISTEN?

There’s a scene in the Howard Stern movie Private Parts where his nemesis program director incredulous questions why the shock-jock’s ratings are so strong.

The answer to the query; the Stern supporters listened on average for 90 minutes per day, while the Stern hater tuned in for two-and-a-half hours—both groups citing the same reason for tuning in; they wanted to hear what he what he’d say next.

The same can be said for the Hurricanes; a large portion tuning in to see Miami win—while even more are there to see “The U” eat shit—as seeing a hated rival lose results in as big an endorphins rush as seeing one’s preferred team emerge victorious.

This is precisely the reason the media loves to force-feed the “Is Miami back?” narrative early in any season the Hurricanes have an undefeated September and win a few games. The haters will clap back and share the articles with vitriol and double down on the effort weeks later when Miami finally stumbles—the media getting a two-for-on and the clicks they desire, as UM always moves the needle one way or another.

The biggest problem with irrelevance surrounding this Miami program these past several years is the indifference that .500 type seasons breed—as the only thing worse than being hated is being ignored.

The Hurricanes’ best years took place when Miami fielded talented teams that rolled heads, much to the chagrin of the haters—and UM had been flying under the radar a bit this year, as ESPN and others have focused on their energy on the Colonel Sanders’ narrative out in Boulder.

Without that, there’d have been a lot more “back” chatter after Miami’s convincing win over Texas A&M—which was no fluke considering how the Aggies have looked since taking their lumps in South Florida; beating Auburn and Arkansas, while conservative play calling saw them falling by six against Alabama last weekend.

The way the Canes lost to the Yellow Jackets—Miami was reminded of everyone’s true colors and just how this program is loathed nationally. The joy the critics have taken in knocking these Canes and leaving them for dead—in a game that was literally won with a knee-down—should serve as fuel for Cristobal and staff as Miami prepares for a monster road game at North Carolina on Saturday night.

KNOW YOUR ROLE AND PLAY YOUR PART

Don the black cap, accept the role of villain and bring on the hate—knowing everybody wants to see you lose, so they can call the Canes a pretender, the Aggies’ loss a fluke and can point to a stupid personnel decision derailing the entire season for a fragile team; one that coaches “lost” when not kneeling out the clock.

Outsiders work overtime trying to pour gas on this fire, instead of water. Talking heads and click-bait commentators rambling on about breached trust and how the locker room will never get over this—yahoos from across the country with no insight to the inner workings of Miami football or with any real clue how these players and coaches have been dealing with Saturday night’s setback.

Miami has a big chance this weekend to flip the script in Chapel Hill—a place the Canes have only won three times (2011, 2013, 2017) since joining the ACC back in 2004—and if this coaching staff has gotten these kids to bounce back from last weekend’s self-inflicted wound, this could be a net positive in the long run.

There’s no denying that Miami looked lethargic against Georgia Tech, while Tyler Van Dyke was a deer in headlights—locking onto go-to receiver Xavier Restrepo—while not going through his progressions and forcing balls into double- or triple-coverage.

Conversely, the Canes’ offensive line wasn’t the dominant force it was in past games, the ground game didn’t break any big runs and UM’s defense has a bad taste in its mouth from getting burnt on that final drive.

The compare contrast game between Miami teams of old and present day is a bit played out, but its worth mentioning the Hurricanes with a disastrous late season loss at Syracuse in 1998—where a win puts Miami in the Orange Bowl against the hated Florida Gators.

Instead, the Canes were rolled up 66-13 by the Orangemen—and there’s a great clip on “The U: Reloaded”—a documentary by former UM running back Najeh Davenport—who played in that ill-fated game.

Former receiver Reggie Wayne explains how coach Curtis Johnson brought all of his wideouts back onto the field to watch Syracuse’s celebration—the standard remember-this-and-know-this-feeling life lesson for a foundational class of difference-makers who would start the return to prominence.

The more-important footnote to this story; the fact that Miami had #2 UCLA on deck the week after Syracuse—a game that for all intents and purposes it’s not far-fetched to say the Hurricanes arguably wouldn’t have won if they’d beaten the Orangemen a week prior, as the fuel and drive to pull off that upset came from a week of stewing and the embarrassment that resulted from getting their asses handed to them in what was the unofficial Big East Championship game.

Then-head coach Butch Davis famously explained Miami’s pre-Bruins week in the December 14th, 1998 issue of Sports Illustrated—citing the 1992 NFC Championship game between San Francisco and Dallas when Davis was coaching the Cowboys’ defense under Jimmy Johnson.

His message to the team; Miami wasn’t going to stop UCLA and all their superstars—but by staying on the field and generally wearing the Bruins down, the Hurricanes could win the football game.

“The Niners were a machine against us, ran up all kinds of yardage, punted once the entire game—but we hung in there and beat them,” Davis recalled when reliving the 30-20 victory en route to Dallas rolling Buffalo in Super Bowl XXVII.

Miami and North Carolina in 2023 bears no resemblance to a game played 25 years ago at the Orange Bowl, outside the fact that pain and embarrassment remain timeless motivators and these Hurricanes are feeling the sting on a national level after that final half minute against the Yellow Jackets.

THE TIME IS HERE AND NOW

The only unknown entering this weekend; how does it translate? Past Miami teams—as recently as last year—packed it in after faced with adversity, embarrassment or setback; a loss to Middle Tennessee State putting a fork in the 2022 season.

Is this team different? Are guys really buying into what Cristobal, Dawson and new defensive coordinator Lance Guidry are selling? If so, the misstep against Georgia Tech will have been forgiven and Miami will show up with a chip on its shoulder this weekend—ready to throat-punch a North Carolina program that’s on a four-game win-streak against the Canes.

An unexpected make-or-break moment in a game that should’ve been a gimme en route to 5-0 until the unthinkable happened—it needs to result in a rallying cry, pulling within to lean on each other and that us-against-the-world fuel that has always driven this program—as anything less lets the bad guys win and creates the kind of doubt that is the difference between all or nothing.

Christian Bello has been covering University of Miami athletics since the mid-nineties. Getting his start with CanesTime, he eventually launched allCanesBlog—which led to a featured columnist stint with BleacherReport. He’s since rolled out the unfiltered, ItsAUThing.comwhere he’ll use his spare time to put decades of U-related knowledge to use for those who care to read. When he’s not writing about ‘The U’, Bello is a storyteller for some exciting brands and individuals—as well as a guitarist and songwriter for his Miami-bred band Company Jones, who released their debut album “The Glow” in 2021. Hit him on Twitter for all things U-related @ItsAUThingBLOG.

MIAMI HURRICANES STILL CHASING ‘SIGNATURE WIN’; FOURTH STRAIGHT LOSS TO NORTH CAROLINA


Raise your hand if you’ve heard this one before. The Miami Hurricanes lost another late-game heartbreaker to the North Carolina Tar Heels.

Despite dealing with this reality and reading a similar headline countless times since the University of Miami joined the Atlantic Coast Conference in 2004—a whopping five head coaches ago—a disgruntled fan base remains unable to wrap their collective heads around two decades of irrelevance and incompetence that have defined “The U”.

In defense of long-time supporters of this one great program—yes, a 2-3 record five games into the Mario Cristobal era absolutely stings.

No, Miami shouldn’t have lost to a glorified high school from Murfreesboro, Tennessee a few weeks back.

Yes, a home win over the Tar Heels was absolutely within reach and squandered away via a handful of boneheaded plays.

No, these coaches didn’t singularly piss away this football game—and yes, lambasting the staff weekly in knee-jerk fashion year one of their tenure is rather ridiculous considering this program has been a dumpster fire for almost two decades.

While these treks down a not-so-memorable Hurricanes Lane feel repetitive and burn like gasoline on an open wound, too many are still spitting nails while not letting the numbers, or hard-to-digest facts penetrate their thick and stubborn skulls.

For those of you still stuck in the 80’s, early 90’s or even the rebuilt early 00’s—knee-deep in what was, instead of what-is—a few greatest misses regarding the past two decades of Hurricanes football for the delinquents in the back.

Miami entered this football season 118-85 since getting crushed 40-3 by LSU in the 2005 Peach Bowl. When that number is divided by 16 seasons, the Hurricanes have averaged 7-5 every year since—while only reaching double-digit wins once since the 2003 season.

Cristobal is now UM third head coach in five seasons and sixth since Larry Coker was sent packing after going 7-6 in 2006—Miami’s worst season since 1997—Coker slowly bleeding out the powerhouse Butch Davis handed over to him in 2001.

Regarding the lack of balance and inconsistency moving the football, the Hurricanes are also on their third different offensive coordinator and system in four seasons.

Add it all up and it’s hardly a model of stability or consistency in Coral Gables since that last national championship season.

WHAT IS AND WHAT NEVER SHOULD BE

Equally as bad, a series of low-rent, poorly-vetted, cheap hires—including Randy Shannon and Al Golden back to back—pissing away nine rebuilding years at Miami. An on-fumes, big name alum was handed the keys in 2016—a clean resume with 15 close-but-no-cigar seasons at an SEC power that chewed him up and spit him out.

Mark Richt dazzled with his 10-0 start and upset of third-ranked Notre Dame in 2017, while his behind-the-scenes efforts regarding UM’s football infrastructure definitely put things in motion. But his miracle little “Cardiac Canes” run in year two was a house of cards, built on a few last-second, miracle wins that would’ve had Miami at .500 if everything that needed go right, didn’t.

The Canes were fast-exposed after a regular season-ending loss to a four-win Pittsburgh squad, a no-show in Miami’s first ACC title game appearance—a five-touchdown ass-beating handed out by Clemson—followed by a double-digit, fade-late showing against Wisconsin in the Orange Bowl.

Given a mulligan and No. 8 ranking to start the 2018 season, Richt’s Canes were wrecked by No. 25 LSU in the opener, smacked around a few nobodies over the next month and then lost four in a row—barely eking out bowl eligibility and getting a low-rent rematch against the five-loss Badgers in the Pinstripe Bowl, with an even uglier result than the NY6 showdown a year prior.

Exit Richt, enter Manny Diaz—after a rushed, lazy “search” process—which ended 21-15 and the second straight do-over after a three-year run. Diaz managed to lose to a commuter school year one, face-planting against a former UM head coach (Davis) and a rag-tag Florida International commuter college, followed by a double-digit loss at Duke and a bowl shutout at the hands of Louisiana Tech.

For those quick to dismiss the notion of “culture” issues inside UM’s walls—a reminder of a recent report from former players, that teammates would hype up minor injuries to skip practice with no fear of losing their jobs.

Story continued that Diaz was quick to let things slide—everything from minor team rules violations, to in-game penalties and missed tackles. Unless it was drug-related where the university got involved, the head coach was content sweeping the rest under the rug, in effort to be a a liked and accepted, friend-of-the-players’ coach—opposed to a feared and respected, alpha-male leader of men.

These weak and limp beta-style character traits defined the program and fueled the broken culture narrative, as the rookie head coach was under immense pressure to win and feared losing his most-talented players to the transfer portal, or NFL Draft.

Miami is less than three years removed from an FIU upset where its quarterback Jarren Williams missed curfew, but still started.

Then-starting quarterback Jarren Williams even broke curfew the night before the FIU debacle, yet was still allowed to start, as Diaz had created a consequence-free environment—one where players feared nothing and scoffed at rules, regulations or repercussions for their individual actions.

For lack of a better saying, the inmates were running the asylum as recently as this time last year—yet Miami fan’s still can’t wrap the their heads around a lethargic effort, or inability to close out football games?

All of these aforementioned events happened less than three years ago—with Diaz at the helm the next two seasons, which included last fall’s 2-4 start and an embarrassing November loss that ultimately ran him out of a job after the 2021 season—yet so many remain bewildered that five games into the Cristobal era, years of a cancerous ways are yet to be flushed from the system?

In the wake of an ugly loss to Middle Tennessee State, left guard Jalen Rivers talked about Miami overlooking their lesser opponent and admittedly coming in “unmotivated, kinda slow” before trying and failing to respond after getting “punched in the mouth”—while center Jakai Clark talked about the Canes not being “locked in” during pregame and called his team’s attitude “lethargic”.

Tyrique Stevenson—who muffed a crucial punt in a loss at Texas A&M weeks back—shared in a recent blog posting that when pressed by Cristobal about what took place against the Blue Raiders, the cornerback had no answer.

“I don’t know, coach, we just have to get back to work”—players now with their own say-nothing version of coach-speak.

CONTENDERS DELIVER, PRETENDERS QUIVER

There’s zero attempt to compare modern era Miami football to all that Nick Saban is accomplishing at Alabama; the iconic head coach racking up five national titles over the past 16 seasons in Tuscaloosa. Though there is a discussion to be had regarding player awareness, attitude, confidence and football IQ for a moment—especially in light of comments from Rivers, Clark and Stevenson.

This recent article by Michael Casagrande—beat writer for the Crimson Tide, who used to cover the Canes for the Sun-Sentinel—is built around a game-changing, heads-up moment by cornerback Terrion Arnold in Bama’s close-call against Texas A&M on Saturday afternoon.

Arnold was a 5-Star prospect out of Tallahassee—the second-best safety in the state of Florida arguably staying home had one of The Big Three been more impressive recently.

Instead, Saban reeled him in and the defensive back stepped up big in a gave-saving moment—Alabama’s back to the wall, up four with three seconds remaining and Texas A&M—ball at the two-yard line and one play from a colossal take down of No. 1 for a second straight season.

Not on Arnold’s watch. The redshirt freshman not only catching Aggies’ head coach Jimbo Fisher tipping off where the plays was headed, the safety was also in position to keep A&M receiver Evan Stewart out of the end zone, even if he had caught the well-guarded pass from Haynes King with that final attempt as time expired.

Alabama, 24, Texas A&M 20—disaster averted.

Crimson Tide safety Terrion Arnold (#3) knew where the ball was going and stopped a goal line stand as Alabama survived aTm, 24-20.

Winning has a way of curing all in sports. Alabama survived and is now 6-0 halfway through their 2022 season. Had they fallen to the Aggies, the fact they were without starting quarterback Bryce Young would’ve been the first attempt at reasoning—but the oddsmakers still saw the Crimson Tide as a 24-point favorite, to an underachieving Texas A&M team that was upset by Appalachian State in early September, and an 18-point loser at Mississippi State last weekend.

Translation, Alabama had no business being in a position where Texas A&M had the ball on the two-yard line, down four, with a shot to cap off a 69-yard game-winning drive—yet that’s precisely where they were when championship-caliber DNA kicked in and the Crimson Tide made another season-defining play.

Disaster was also averted weeks back when No. 1 Alabama trailed unranked Texas, 19-17—the Longhorns playing most of the game with a back-up up quarterback—before Young kept the drive alive with his wing and wheels, setting up a 33-yard field goal attempt with :10 remaining, escaping Austin with a one-point victory.

It’s a tried and true, age-old formula. Winners and winning programs win, while losers with losing muscle memory lose—until something eventually gives and a tide is turned.

This adage is also why Cristobal and this first-year Miami staff work tirelessly to break these Hurricanes of deep-rooted bad habits, with an emphasis on process—because once the correct process is in place and a team learns how to win, the victories follow.

TAR HEELS HAVE OWNED THE CANES FOR YEARS

Going into this latest annual match-up, North Carolina had beaten Miami three in a row—and if delving deep into the heads and subconscious of every player on that field, it was the visitors riding the win streak, with the history of winning the close ones, who believed to their core they would emerge victorious—as losing to “The U” wasn’t part of their muscle memory; most of these Tar Heels nowhere near the program the last time the Canes notched a win in this series, back in 2018.

Recent history tells the entire story and the record books will show that Miami has reinvented ways to piss games away against North Carolina.

After digging themselves a 17-3 hole in 2019, Miami went ahead late third quarter via a Will Mallory touchdown, but failed on a two-point attempt—trying to make up for a missed PAT earlier in the game.

Clinging to a five-point lead with 2:55 remaining, the Canes followed up a clutch third-down sack by allowing the Tar Heels to convert on a 4th-and-17 attempt that could’ve ended the game. Five plays later North Carolina was in the end zone and after converting their two-point attempt, took a 28-25 lead—which proved to be the final score after a Miami game-tying field goal attempt sailed wide.

A year later, with Coastal Division title hanging in the balance on Senior Day in Miami—North Carolina scored 34 unanswered in the first half, taking a 34-10 lead into intermission, before falling 62-26 and surrendering 554 rushing yards—the Tar Heels proving that at home, or on the road, they had Diaz’s and UM’s number.

Last fall, another slow start for Miami on the road—North Carolina up, 31-17 at the half—while the Canes finally pulled within four going into the fourth. UNC pushed their lead to 11 points, UM scored and converted and it was now a three-point game with just over three minute remaining.

Miami’s defense forced a three-and-out, giving the Canes’ offense and Van Dyke their moment to shine—one week after a potential game-winning field goal attempt doinked off the goal post in a home loss to Virginia.

Van Dyke—who threw for 264 yards, a touchdown and two interceptions up to that point—saw his third-down attempt from the UNC 16-yard line batted into the air and into the arms of a Tar Heels linebacker, ending UM’s final attempt to win it, which also blew a fourth down attempt at a game-tying field goal and push for overtime.

Defeat snatched from the jaws of victory in 2019 after Miami gave up a 4th-and-17 at North Carolina, the Heels prevailing, 28-25.

All of which bring us to the misery surrounding this latest missed opportunity and chapter in the rivalry’s history—the Heels now with an 11-8 record against the Canes since 2004, the win-streak now pushed to four in a row.

True to form, Miami scrapped back late, but it wasn’t enough. Down seven early in the fourth quarter, the Canes saw a 65-yard, game-tying drive come to a screeching halt when running back Jaylan Knighton converted a 4th-and-1 with a nine-yard run, only to get half-heartedly stripped as he didn’t secure the football.

What should’ve been 1st-and-10 from the UNC 17-yard line, with momentum—it was Tar Heels’ ball, followed by an 81-yard, clock-chewing drive and conservative field goal attempt, pushing their lead to 10 points with just over four minutes remaining.

Van Dyke responded with a clutch 63-yard drive and 16-yard touchdown to Colbie Young, which set up an improbable miraculous and acrobatic onside kick recovery—negated as Al Blades Jr. stepped out of bounds, without reestablishing himself before touching the ball. Still, the Miami defense forced the three-and out, took possession with 1:08 remaining and again needed a field goal to force overtime, just like their last-ditch effort in Chapel Hill last year.

The Canes made it as far as midfield, before another amateur-hour mistake—Jaleel Skinner not getting out of bounds after a six-yard reception—which set up a clock-running, frazzled 3rd-and-4 attempt. Van Dyke rushed his throw, which in a deja vu moment was again tipped and intercepted to end a football game and another three-point loss.

While Knighton’s fumble was an inopportune brain-fart at a momentum-killing time, it didn’t lose the game anymore than Van Dyke’s interception sealed Miami’s fate. Same for an early 53-yard field goal attempt from Andres Borregales sailing wide—which could’ve had a different outcome and the Canes not giving up a five-yard sack on third down.

The mistakes were occasional and spread out, starting with blown coverage on the first score of the game—Kam Kitchens not providing safety support to Stevenson, allowing J.J. Jones to break free—hit in stride by freshman quarterback Jake Mayes for the 74-yard touchdown.

No, this was another death-by-a-thousand-cuts, collective loss by a football program cloaked in failure for almost two decades; the type of game Miami has lost a variety of ways for too many years—and when that negative muscle memory kicks in, the struggle indeed becomes real.

Alabama had its back to the wall at Texas and again this weekend against Texas A&M and what happened with their championship-caliber players and plug-and-play coaching staff—as well as a fan base used to winning big? All of Bryant-Denny Stadium had their, “Chill, we’ve got this” moment and the Crimson Tide prevailed. Conversely, the Aggies again showed their true choke-job colors—snatching defeat from the jaws of victory, slipping to 3-3 in a season that started with them ranked No. 6 in the pre-season.

Winners win. Losers lose.

COMEBACKS ALWAYS BEGIN WTH SIGNATURE VICTORIES

Miami used to be Bama-like in their ways during championship-caliber ways of the 1980’s, early 1990’s and even the 2000-era rebirth—breaking back through with that late comeback against No. 1 Florida State in 2000, after five consecutive losses to the top-ranked Noles. Miami’s 17-0 halftime lead slowly evaporated, and with a minute and change remaining, the Canes—down 24-20—mounted a game-winning drive, capped off by a “wide right” field goal attempt, for the 27-24 victory.

Weeks later the Canes ended another five-game losing streak, taking out No. 2 Virginia Tech for the first time since 1994—and then closing strong with a Sugar Bowl rout of No. 7 Florida, proving Miami was the best team in the nation and should’ve had their crack at No. 1 Oklahoma for the national championship—not the Seminoles squad they beat head-to-head months prior.

A year later, the eventual national champions hit the ground running—before everything almost derailed after a four-interception outing at Boston College and late game fumble put the Eagles in position to end a 17-game win-streak, while also derailing the Canes’ title-game plans.

Ed Reed wasn’t having it. Not after suffering though 5-6 as a freshman in 1997, including that 47-0 massacre at Florida State. The senior safety had his own, “Chill, we’ve got this” moment as he tore an intercepted ball from the hands of teammate Matt Walters and scampered furiously towards game-sealing pay dirt.

Well-built, mentally-tough, physically-superior Miami football teams were hard-wired to step-up—while the brand of football on display the past almost-two decades leaves players, coaches and fans physically feeling the failure in the air and disaster on the bring the moment things start going south. The battle is literally lost before it’s even begun.

Had every Hurricanes fan been miked-up the moment Knighton coughed up that ill-timed fumble, it’d have been some version of, “Here we go again… this one’s over.”

We’ve all watched this movie on repeat for the last couple hundred games and we know how it ends.

It took Butch Davis until year six for a program-defining, “signature win”—beating FSU in 2000 after five straight losses against the Noles.

North Carolina and their spirited little four-game win-streak aside, stepping up and sealing the game late—the theme is all too common; this loser-driven, lactic acid needing to get pushed out and worked out of Miami’s aching muscles by a first-year staff. Another new crew of well-intended coaches—with zero ties to the losing ways over the past 16 seasons, or the type of failure that’s hovered over this program since the waning years of the Coker era.

Fact remains, Miami hasn’t been right since joining the ACC—the third-ranked, undefeated Canes inexplicably gifting the Tar Heels (3-4 at the time) their first-ever win over a Top 5 program back on October 30th, 2004.

North Carolina racked up 545 yards against a slipping Miami defense—279 yards on the ground, mostly from a third-string tailback—before one final defensive collapse set up a game-winning 42-yard field goal.

A week later Miami blew a 17-3 halftime lead against Clemson, shutout in the second half and falling 24-17 in overtime. By early December, a conference title was left on the table when falling to Virginia Tech, 16-10—the first ACC season for both Big East defectors.

To date, Miami is 0-for-18 regarding ACC championships—winning the Coastal one measly time (2017) and getting whooped by five touchdowns in the title game. Conversely, the Hokies won the ACC four times between 2004 and 2013 and took the division six times, before their backslide began.

Miami has been a broken, beat and scarred program since joining this “basketball conference”—unable to even get through the weaker division for a shot at glory—when originally invited to the ACC to improve it’s football pedigree; visions of the Canes and Noles teeing it up in December with big implications on the line.

All for naught.

Miami has seven more one-game seasons on deck and fans have a choice to make; either accepting what-is and buckling in for a rebuild, or living in the past—expecting Hurricanes’ ghosts to win football games, with some foolish belief that the “U” on the side of the helmets and a glorious past win football games, instead of these current players who just did three years under Diaz and staff.

The Miami Hurricanes many of you root for, talk about and believe in—that program is dead and buried, while this new version is experiencing it’s fifth rebuild in 15 years.

Tired as some of you are of “rebuilding”, time to face the hard fact that the last handful of do-overs were nothing more than homes built on bad foundations—which results in a disaster. Cracked walls, uneven floors and moisture damage causing wood rot and mold, which results in a complete tear down and rebuilding on a new foundation—which is where Cristobal and staff sit halfway through the 2022 season, whether you can accept that or not.

Winning has a way of masking inefficiencies—Alabama cheating death against Texas and Texas A&M could expose weaknesses at year’s end—while losing tends to expose all warts, while killing any ability to extract any positives or steps forward by young teams working towards getting better.

Cue the “there are no moral victories” crowd and those old schoolers talking about “lowered expectations”—as if the product on the field hasn’t hit rock bottom several times since the glory days—but there were signs of life against North Carolina last week and things for Miami to build on as the head to Virginia Tech this weekend.

There are mistakes to clean up and players must continue growing up fast and weekly, while  learning on the fly—but them’s the breaks in year one of yet another coaching regime change.

Deal with it.

Christian Bello has been covering University of Miami athletics since the mid-nineties. Getting his start with CanesTime, he eventually launched allCanesBlog—which led to a featured columnist stint with BleacherReport. He’s since rolled out the unfiltered, ItsAUThing.com where he’ll use his spare time to put decades of U-related knowledge to use for those who care to read. When he’s not writing about ‘The U’, Bello is a storyteller for some exciting brands and individuals—as well as a guitarist and songwriter for his Miami-bred band Company Jones, who just released their debut album “The Glow”. Hit him on Twitter for all things U-related @ItsAUThingBLOG.

MANNY DIAZ SHOW : BREAKDOWN OF MIAMI VERSUS NORTH CAROLINA


While it’s easy to get frustrated with the advent of social media or college football message boards and all the harm that wave of technology has brought to the sport—there are some modern-day benefits as well; starting with videos like these.

Where fans used to be limited to morning-after newspaper quotes from a post-game presser, or at best—critics giving their Monday morning take on the big game, via sports talk radio—we’re now in an era where videos of a head coach breaking down film and offering up and in-depth study of a game is easily accessible for those who want it.

The embedded clip below is a 21-minute deep-dive between Miami head coach Manny Diaz and long time voices of the Hurricanes; Don Bailey Jr. and Joe Zagacki. Where the latter two can go full-blown homerism, these in-depth segments aren’t capable of being fluff pieces—as it’s an assessment of the X’s and O’s; what went right, what went wrong—and why.

Understandably people are still frustrated by the loss to North Carolina; though many are (obviously) dragging over a decade’s worth of anger-over-irrelevancy into their inability to process the loss.

This video won’t suddenly make a loss to the Tar Heels somehow feel better—but Diaz’s assessment of things should at least bring some comfort as the Canes’ newest leader seems very clear-cut on what was, what should be and what it will take to get things corrected at the University of Miami.

First 13 minutes is a recap of the Miami / North Carolina match-up—while the final eight minutes of the segment features Diaz and Bailey Jr. breaking down film and individual plays / drive from the game.

Honestly, if you don’t have time for the whole thing, at least make time to watch from the 13:00 mark on. Fans love harping on social media about losses being unacceptable and what not, without a fair assessment of what played out, as well as a slowed down look at every aspect of the play—the good, the bad and the ugly.