Bad Reputation
Unlike Joan Jett, teenage males do care about your bad reputation. Miami had swagger, lacking real tradition such as Michigan, Texas, or USC; they were the rebellious outsider of college football. Miami came from nowhere with National Championships in 1983, 1987, 1989, 1991, and 2001.
Manny Navarro in Intruders breaching UM's local recruiting wall, warns of a hole in Miami’s control over the best of South Florida. While this is a good article, it leaves a void by not exploring the why. A simple question with a simple answer: The Canes no longer have the swagger or the wins to attract the top players. 2001, for those of use over 30 was a mere eight years ago. For a 17 year old that same journey in time is nearly half a lifetime. Don’t blame the high school, kid for not knowing about the great tradition that was the U, understand that the futility of the past four years does little to sell the Miami image.
Common in the world beyond that of college football is the, “What have you done for me lately?” that perhaps those devout followers of Sebastian the Ibis are seeing that the support of the past was just a veneer of bandwagon jumpers. This not a prediction that Miami will forever be mired as an average team in a below average BCS conference, rather a bright light on the fragility of Miami football and to a larger extent any college football program. Notice that in 2008 The cover of Phil Steele's Florida Edition featured three teams from the Sunshine State--UF, FSU, ans USF but not the Canes.
On November 28th 2009 Miami may play the most important game of their season against the University of South Florida which will for 2010 determine the pecking order for BCS football programs in Florida.
What Have You Done For Me Lately (Karaoke)
posted by Brian McCormack at 4:12 PM
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