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Miami Hurricanes Football: Can the Miami Hurricanes Get Back to Dominating the College Football World?

By Justin Fessenden

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Surprisingly, I believe the answer is, yes. Unfortunately the Miami Hurricanes football program is far from ‘dominating’ as they finished 6-7 on the season, but what needs to happen for the Canes to get back to their glory days?

There are two things that need to happen.

First, the University of Miami needs to get with the current times by offering coaches more money. You get what you pay for (this season Coach Golden reportedly made 2.25 million, which ranks 7th in the ACC alone). If the university is serious about football, they need to offer serious money. A quality head coach is the first and most important step to getting the Canes back to dominating the college football world.

Secondly, the Canes need to win games and win games consistently. Once the Canes win consistently (possibly even winning a national title) the snowball effect will be so great that other teams around the nation will be trying to play catch-up.

So what makes me so confident that this is all that needs to happen in order for ‘The U’ to add to their 5 national titles? It’s simple, really. Recruits want to play for a consistently successful program. In order to prove my point, let’s look at the top 5 recruiting classes the past 5 recruiting cycles according to rivals.com.

In 2010, the recruiting rankings were:

  1. University of Southern California (9-4 record in 2009)
  2. Florida (13-1 record in 2009)
  3. Texas (13-1 record in 2009, Lost in National Championship game)
  4. Auburn (8-5 record in 2009)
  5. Alabama (14-0 record in 2009, National Champion)

In 2011, the recruiting rankings were:

  1. Alabama (10-3 record in 2010)
  2. FSU (10-4 record in 2010)
  3. Texas (5-7 record in 2010)*
  4. University of Southern California (8-5 record in 2010)
  5. Georgia (6-7 record in 2010)*

In 2012, the recruiting rankings were:

  1. Alabama (12-1 record in 2011, National Champion)
  2. Texas (8-5 record in 2011)
  3. Florida (7-6 record in 2011)
  4. Ohio State (6-7 record in 2011)*
  5. Stanford (11-2 record in 2011)

In 2013, the recruiting rankings were:

  1. Alabama (13-1 record in 2012, National Champion)
  2. Ohio State (12-0 record in 2012)
  3. Notre Dame (12-1 record in 2012, Lost in National Championship game)
  4. Florida (11-2 record in 2012)
  5. Michigan (8-5 record in 2012)

In 2014, the recruiting rankings were:

  1. Alabama (11-2 record in 2013)
  2. LSU (10-3 record in 2013)
  3. Ohio State (12-2 record in 2013)
  4. FSU (14-0 record in 2013, National Champion)
  5. Tennessee (5-7 record in 2013)*

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Out of the last 5 recruiting cycles (25 teams) only 4 teams finished in the top 5 in recruiting with losing records. You can even see teams like Texas and Florida feed off of national championship appearances from years prior. Even Stanford showed up in the top 5 of 2012 because of a good season in 2011. Notre Dame finished 3rd in 2013 because of a national championship appearance the season prior. My point is that it’s much easier to recruit players when you are winning, and winning consistently (see Alabama).

Now imagine a team like Miami winning consistently while in the fertile recruiting grounds of South Florida. If the Canes could keep the majority of the South Florida talent home, it wouldn’t even be fair to the rest of the college football world. This is how the Canes won in dominating fashion in parts of the 80’s, 90’s and early 2000’s. I still believe this recipe would be successful to this day. Of course there will still be some kids from South Florida that would like to get away to see new landscape and to experience things outside of the tri-county area (which is understandable) but to get the majority of South Florida kids to play for Miami would be a recipe for success, no doubt about it.

Now some people may ask, “What about the other issues at Miami, such as facilities and lack of attendance?” Winning football games consistently will solve these issues as well. I would almost guarantee a recruit could care less about facilities if the team won all the time. This was the case for University of Miami football many years ago, and I believe would still be the case today. Winning football games will fill the seats as well. The city of Miami is known for its fickle fan base. If you have a losing team, you will have trouble filling seats in Miami. However, if you are winning, people will fill the stadium, I promise you that! That is the way the city of Miami operates, along with many other cities as well, don’t be fooled.

Lastly, I’d like to go back to my first point about the University of Miami offering coaches more money. The problem that the university has had in the past is that once their coach has become successful they have left for jobs in the NFL. When the University of Miami finds a coach that can win on a consistent basis, they need to dish out the big bucks in order to obtain him. I understand that the University of Miami is a private school but once the winning starts it will be easier to raise money for the athletic department. If the University of Miami is serious about football and wants to return to the dominating the college football world, they need to offer a respectable amount of money to a proven head coach, and his staff. Once the winning starts, the snowball effect will take place. Unfortunately, learning to make a snowball (how to win) is the biggest problem right now.

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