THE MIAMI HURRICANE
Sept. 29, 2021- Oct. 6, 2021
SPORTS
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M football incapable of recreating previous success?
sciences. who has been s. h being as good as the as long as they were is of competing for a naike a failure. hanged since the glory
d Rock Stadium is a far Bowl, the former home Hurricanes, located in
dium and in losing that students wanting to go ,” Alvarez said. “It bel the way up to Miami
s looking for instant ng in a city like Miami options are endless, to Hard Rock without will win has become a
Problems with recruiting have accelerated Miami’s fall, with universities now recognizing the immense wealth of high school football talent in South Florida. When Howard Schellenberger came to UM as head coach in 1979, he upped the program’s recruiting efforts in South Florida by declaring Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm-Beach counties the “State of Miami.” Jimmy Johnson, head coach from 1984-1988, made a point to continue what Schellenberger started. But competition has stiffened, as every Division I program now recruits players from South Florida. “If you are a guy coming from Palmetto, South Dade, Northwestern or Central and Nick Saban flies a helicopter to your field and asks you to play football for him, I mean that’s pretty impressive,” Rothwell said. The fact is that many other college football programs have become more attractive to potential recruits, with better fan bases,
better facilities and more money to work with, not to mention recent success. “I laugh when people say President Shalala didn’t care about football,” Rothwell said. “They do care about it, but they also care about their business school, their medical school, and the law school. All of them have budgets and expectations.” As a private school with 11,000 undergraduate students, Miami’s financial situation is different from most of the larger, public institutions that are consistently at the top of the college football rankings. “I think if we could let loose the purse strings and everybody could do what they want, we probably could be back there,” Mullane said. “But we’re trying to look at Alabama, do you know anything about Alabama’s academic reputation, that people don’t go there for that.” Analysts have said that problems with the program’s fan base, facilities and financial situation stem from a disconnect be-
Julia Sanbe// Design Editor
tween administration, the athletic department and the coaches and players. “You have an athletic department that clearly is not really showing that this is something that they are willing to try to make changes,” said ESPN analyst Kirk Herbstreit on College GameDay Saturday morning. “You look at the powerhouse programs, Alabama, Clemson, Ohio State — president, AD, head coach — same vision. They are aligned in their vision for what needs to happen. recruiting, budget staff, that’s what it takes. Miami doesn’t have that.” Since 2006, Miami has averaged a 7-5 record and has had five different head coaches, with the constant turnover contributing to a decade of mediocrity. “It has to be a perfect picture,” Alvarez said. “All those things have to fall into place and full commitment from the fans, from the players, from the coaching staff, from the administration. And then it clicks. And then it just becomes a machine.”
