Strong fan support for Miami Hurricanes will impact recruiting

After a pair of upset losses, the Miami Hurricanes return to Hard Rock Stadium on Saturday night. The Hurricanes coaching staff and Players are urging the fans to come out and have the cheers drown out the boos.

In spite of all the problems under Mark Richt in the last 11 games, the Miami Hurricanes have created a strong home-field advantage under the former Canes quarterback. In Richt’s three seasons as the Miami Hurricanes Head Coach, UM is 15-2 in regular season games at home.

Miami enters Saturday’s game against Duke with a 13 game regular season home winning streak. The Hurricanes last regular season home loss came October 13, 2016, to North Carolina 20-16. The Canes did lose in the Orange Bowl at Hard Rock Stadium 34-24 to Wisconsin last season.

The atmosphere for home games can be a huge attraction to getting a recruit to commit. When Miami played in the Orange Bowl during their era among the nation’s elite in College Football from 1983 through the mid-2000s the Hurricanes had one of the best home field advantages in college football. That was especially true at night.

Some of that atmosphere returned last season when the Miami Hurricanes hosted back to back Nationally Televised games on ABC’s Saturday Night College Football Game of the Week. The crowd was loud and electric in Miami’s blowout wins over Virginia Tech and Notre Dame.

With another Saturday night game coming up against Duke, Richt and some of the Hurricanes players implored the Miami fans to come out strong and supportive on Saturday night.

Freshman tight end Brevin Jordan created the biggest moment for Miami this season when he caught the game-winning touchdown pass against Florida State. Jordan is hoping the Hurricanes fans will be supportive against Duke.

"“Hopefully our fans are there…That’s the main thing. We hope our fans aren’t giving up on us because our season isn’t close to over.’’"

Richt stated the importance of the fan support and the impact it can have when recruits are visiting Hard Rock Stadium. He was asked about the impact that the fanbase has had on Miami’s 13-game home winning streak.

"“There’s a reason for that…and that’s because of the support of the fan base. And that helps a lot. The other thing too is I know our fans follow recruiting pretty close. And if they want the recruiting to go well, the better the atmosphere the better it is for the recruiting.We’ve had great crowds. The home crowd against Florida State was fantastic. It was an exciting game, an exciting finish. We couldn’t have asked for more. Those guys came out of there, all those recruits came out of there happy [and] excited about what’s going on. A lot of that had to do with the atmosphere that we have at Hard Rock.So, yeah, it’s very important. I know our fans love this team and I know they’ll support it.”"

Could the constant negativity on social media from the Hurricanes fan base and media infiltrate Hard Rock Stadium on Saturday? Richt doesn’t think so.

"“Oh, I don’t know,’…The goal is to go to the game and cheer your team on, so I would think the fans that are there would be more apt to want to cheer than anything else.”"

After improving their national rankings in each of Richt first three recruiting classes with Miami the 2019 class has fallen off into the high teens low twenties in the national rankings. Richt spoke about the importance of the home crowd impressing the recruits.

"“I know our fans follow recruiting pretty close and if they want the recruiting to go well, the better the atmosphere, the better it is for recruiting.We couldn’t have asked for more and all those recruits came out of there happy and excited about what’s going on. A lot of it had to do with the atmosphere we had at Hard Rock. It’s very important. I know our fans love this team and they’ll support it.”"

Miami needs a strong performance at home in front of their home crowd. After two straight games on the road with a bye week in between the Hurricanes go back on the road the next two weeks before finishing the season at home against Pittsburgh November 24.

In a six week span in the middle of the season, Miami has one home game and that’s Saturday against Duke. With it being the only home game in a long stretch a strong performance against Duke can create a lasting impression on the Miami fanbase.

With many of their season-long goals now over or out of their control the Hurricanes need a strong finish to 2018. Miami was able to close 2016 with five straight wins. That propelled them to the ten game winning streak to begin 2017.