Miami Hurricanes lead way in Power Five football in Florida

The best of an awful lot or a program on the uprise? Both can probably be said about the Miami Hurricanes football program in relation to its Power Five in-state rivals.

In separate articles this week by Dave Hyde of the Sun Sentinel and Andrea Adelson of ESPN.Com the three Power Five Football programs in Florida were chastised for their current state versus where they have been in the past. The Miami Hurricanes are at least in a better place than they were before Mark Richt was hired in 2015.

When Richt was hired, the Miami Hurricanes were 8-4 and had fired Head Coach Al Golden seven games into the 2015 season. Miami would lose in the Sun Bowl to Washington State with interim Head Coach Larry Scott to finish 8-5. Scott finished 4-2 after taking over from Golden. In four-and-half years at Miami, Golden was 32-25.

Golden came to Miami despite having a 27-34 record in five years at Temple. He was 17-8 in his final two seasons with the Owls. Richt took over at Miami after being fired following a 9-3 season at Georgia. He was 145-51 in 15 seasons leading the Bulldogs.

While Richt doesn’t yet have the Miami Hurricanes football program where he would like it to be, the Hurricanes are in a better place then their two Power Five rivals at Florida and Florida State. The Gators and Seminoles starts have been near disastrous in their first seasons under Dan Mullen and Willie Taggart.

There was extreme disappointment all around from anyone connected to the Miami Hurricanes after they lost 33-17 to LSU in the season opener. Up north the starts to the college football season have been much worse.