Why is Miami mired in mediocrity? ‘Maybe this is kind of who the Hurricanes are’ 

CORAL GABLES, Fla. — Joe Zagacki has been broadcasting Miami Hurricanes football games since Howard Schnellenberger took over as coach in 1979.

He’s been around for all the highs (five national titles, dozens of first-round picks) — and the past 18 years’ worth of mostly misery.

Why has it been so hard for Miami to win since it joined the Atlantic Coast Conference in 2004?

“Probably the same reason Texas, Florida and USC have been stymied — roster management,” Zagacki said last week, a day before Florida State humiliated Miami 45-3 in front of the first sellout crowd at Hard Rock Stadium since 2018.

“Football is always a battle of attrition, and Miami loses the battle of attrition. They don’t hold on to their players. Therefore, your roster is never properly layered. They’ve never used the word rebuild, but they’ve always been rebuilding it without saying it — trying to meet these impossible standards.”

Miami won five national titles, went 212-42 with an NCAA-record 58-game home winning streak and finished in the top five of the AP Top 25 poll 13 times in a 21-year span from 1983 to 2003. In the 19 seasons since, the Hurricanes have had only one 10-win season. They’ve gone 140-95 overall and were blown out in one conference championship game appearance (2017) by Clemson. Miami has finished the season ranked in the AP Top 25 only seven times since last winning the Orange Bowl in 2003.

The days of Pro Football Hall of Famers and perennial Pro Bowl players wearing Miami colors have become a distant memory.

The marquee names playing on NFL Sundays these days are Calais Campbell, a 15-year veteran and six-time Pro Bowl selection, linebacker Denzel Perryman, a one-time Pro Bowl selection, receiver Braxton Berrios, who was named an All-Pro last season as a return man, and recent first-round picks Gregory Rousseau and Jaelan Phillips, elite edge rushers.

The team that got blown out last Saturday and fell to 4-5 didn’t appear to have very many — if any — draft-worthy players.

“This version of Miami is not the one that I expected because they’re worse than I typically expect them to be,” said ACC Network and ESPN analyst Roddy Jones, a former Georgia Tech running back (2008-11) who thought Miami was headed toward an eight-win season with ACC 2021 rookie of the year Tyler Van Dyke back at quarterback.

“But let’s be honest,” Jones continued, “we’re kind of getting to the point where you have to ask yourself: Did Miami just catch lightning in a bottle for 20 years? Because outside of those 20 years — and it was the highest of highs — it’s not like Miami is a program with a history or tradition like say, Tennessee, where 20 years of mediocrity can be excused. Miami is almost the opposite. We get excited about Miami because we remember the end of that 20-year period, and people older than me remember the middle to end. But my brother doesn’t remember Miami winning at all, and he just got out of college. I mean, how much longer does Miami get the benefit of the doubt? Maybe this is kind of who they are.”

Miami’s administration has gone all in on trying to make sure the glory days return. It lured Mario Cristobal back home from Oregon with a 10-year, $80 million deal and is spending hundreds of millions more on facility and staff upgrades to put an end to the mediocrity. So far, though, the only place Cristobal has made a dent is in the program’s recruiting efforts.

A good way to explain why the program has tailed off since its last major bowl victory in 2003 is to share a list of what else Cristobal has to change. We sought the advice of former players and the voice of the Hurricanes to help size up the challenges.

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1. Put an end to player entitlement, selfishness

One thing that didn’t exist when Miami was winning national titles was extensive recruiting rankings. Rivals.com first began attaching star ratings and individual player rankings to thousands of recruits in the early 2000s.

Before Randy Shannon, Miami’s 2001 national championship-winning defensive coordinator, replaced Larry Coker as head coach in 2007, he was already complaining about how he had to get the young players he was bringing into the program to drop the sense of entitlement they had being tabbed five- and four-star recruits. That sentiment has been echoed over the years by former Hurricane greats.

“A lot of guys when they go to Miami are super talented,” said Malik Rosier, who led the Hurricanes to an ACC title game appearance in 2017 and is the only quarterback since Ken Dorsey to lead the Canes to a 10-win season.

“But at the end of the day, that doesn’t get you to the NFL, and I think a lot of guys get that mindset when they come here. Like, ‘I made it to Miami, I’m going to the NFL.’ And so sometimes they don’t buy in the way they need to, or put in the work or trust the coaches and stick with the process. We weren’t a super-talented team in 2017 — the 2014 team was more talented — but we didn’t play selfish football. We played more together. Guys bought into the idea of helping each other get to the NFL. We put winning first.”

Former Hurricanes punter Brian Monroe, a pregame and postgame analyst on Miami’s local radio broadcast team, said the Canes have badly lacked player leadership over the past few years.

“You can have a bunch of talent, but if you have no leaders you’re not going to win,” said Monroe, who played for Larry Coker (2003-05). “The 2017 team had Shaq Quarterman and DeeJay Dallas, two hard-working guys that wanted to be leaders. Leadership isn’t fun. It’s tough. Not everybody is cut out for it.”

Miami has had excellent recruiting classes. Rivals has ranked five Miami classes in its top 10 since 2004 (most recently in 2018), and another nine classes were ranked in the top 20 during the recent 19-year span. Roughly 45 percent of the 429 high school recruits Miami signed from 2004 to 2022 were categorized as blue chips (five- and four-star recruits). But that hardly means opponents feared the teams Miami put on the field.

“We never feared them. We knew they had really good players like Allen Bailey — who I played against in high school,” Jones said. “(Linebacker) Sean Spence was fantastic against us. (Safety) Ray-Ray Armstrong had a field day against us. I lost to Miami three times. So I do respect the talent they had. But I never felt like Miami was the best defense we played. And I think that’s the case now. Nobody looks at Miami as fearsome like those earlier championship teams. I always thought why we lost was because we didn’t play well against Miami. Not because they were unbeatable.

“I always felt like guys went to Miami and expected to be Reggie Wayne or Ed Reed, and for whatever reason there wasn’t the infrastructure to get those guys to become that. I think that’s what Mario is trying to get back to. While recruiting these guys, you have to change the attitude of what they’re walking into — and that’s hard to do in one year.”

On Monday, Miami offensive coordinator Josh Gattis, last year’s Broyles Award winner, said his group needs to play with more “selflessness.”

“It takes unselfish players,” Gattis said. “We’ve got to have a group of men that care more about winning for Miami than they do about their own individual recognition, or whatever it may be. Ultimately, when we get to that point, we’ll have the culture of the team that we want.”

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2. Marry talent to scheme

Miami is on its sixth head coach since 2006. There have been nine offensive and defensive coordinators over that span — including four offensive coordinators in the past five seasons. With each new coordinator come different schemes, playbooks, language and ways to operate. It leads to confusion and player frustration and slows down development.

With Cristobal locked into a 10-year deal and an administrative commitment to spending on assistants and analysts, Miami should eventually be able to settle into a consistent coaching approach. But Cristobal needs to put the players he recruits into the right schemes. Miami struggled mightily in his first season trying to play in the run-based, power-spread offense Gattis installed. Unless Cristobal recruits the offensive linemen and running backs he needs to execute it, the concept may never pan out.

Rhett Lashlee, SMU’s head coach, had success as Miami’s offensive coordinator the past two seasons because he ran an up-tempo spread offense and simplified the playbook. Manny Diaz had success as Mark Richt’s defensive coordinator, in part because Diaz ran a much more aggressive attacking scheme than his predecessor, Mark D’Onofrio. It fit Miami’s personnel much better than what D’Onofrio and Al Golden were trying to do. But the Canes have always seemed to struggle on at least one side of the ball.

“I still remember it being fourth-and-1 and our linebackers being 5 yards off the ball when it came to playing, like, Georgia Tech’s triple option,” Monroe quipped. “Mark Richt did a very good job bringing in talent, but then you look at the offense and say, if he just modernized the offense a little bit, we probably would have been a really good team because Manny Diaz had the defense playing very well.”

Said Zagacki: “This is an era where you’ve got to score points. The guys who win in college football score 40 points or more, put up 500 yards a game.”

Jones said Cristobal needs to have the humility to make changes to his staff after the season.

“I think Mario likes the scheme,” Jones said. “So maybe that’s not the place where he’s going to change. Maybe it’s the way you’re teaching the offensive line or backs and receivers.

“But you look at what Tennessee is doing and imagine what Miami could be if they were running that offense, too. You’ve got the athletes to do it in the state. What TCU is doing, Ohio State has done, there’s a power running element to that also. Same with North Carolina. If I’m Mario Cristobal, I would make a call to (North Carolina offensive coordinator) Phil Longo.”

Zagacki said the bigger issue for Miami has not been scheme or coaching. It’s roster management.

“There have been a lot of fingers pointed at different coaches here,” Zagacki said. “They told me (former offensive line coach) Jeff Stoutland couldn’t coach, and he’s with the undefeated Philadelphia Eagles. They told me (former offensive coordinator) Thomas Brown couldn’t coach for Mark Richt. Well, he won a Super Bowl last year with the Rams. They told me (former offensive line coach) Stacy Searles couldn’t coach the offensive line, but he put up 700 yards on Miami with North Carolina a couple of years ago and is now coaching Georgia. So maybe Miami does not have a coaching problem.”

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3. Do better with local recruits, expand ‘the net’

One criticism all Miami coaches face is getting more elite local recruits to stay home. But the real trick isn’t just keeping highly ranked players from leaving Miami-Dade or Broward counties for Alabama, Georgia, Ohio State or Clemson. It’s making sure the ones who do stay — or are brought back through the transfer portal — are actually worth having on the roster. That requires doing excellent homework, then recruiting your rear end off.

Since 2015, 45 high school seniors from Miami’s backyard have been ranked in the top 100 nationally of their recruiting classes.  Miami has landed nine of those recruits (20 percent) and brought two — receiver Frank Ladson and cornerback Tyrique Stevenson — back home through the transfer portal. Not all of those upper-tier recruits Miami kept home developed into superstars. In fact, most were pretty average. Some were busts. Receiver Mark Pope, a Rivals five-star, never reached his potential at Miami and transferred to Jackson State this spring. He is no longer playing for Deion Sanders.

The elite local recruits who have become college and pro stars are usually the top-ranked South Florida players in their class. Most didn’t end up signing with the Canes. That list includes 2015 standout receiver Calvin Ridley (Alabama), 2016 edge rushers Nick Bosa (Ohio State) and Brian Burns (Florida State), 2017 receiver Jerry Jeudy (Alabama), 2018 cornerback Patrick Surtain Jr. (Alabama), 2021 edge rusher Dallas Turner (Alabama) and 2022 defensive lineman Shemar Stewart (Texas A&M).

“I understand the history and the pride we have with our high school football, all the way down the optimist leagues,” Zagacki said. “I also know this: We live in a time where there are great players everywhere because you can play football all season long with seven-on-seven. And for whatever reason, Miami has been pressured to cast a smaller net. I don’t know why.”

Cristobal, a former national recruiter of the year at Alabama, has 14 in-state commitments in Miami’s 2023 recruiting class, including the top two ranked players in Florida (five-star cornerback Cormani McClain and offensive tackle Francis Mauigoa). But he has also gone out to the West Coast to pluck a few players, including four-star quarterback Jaden Rashada. Diversity could serve the Hurricanes well in changing the culture of the locker room. Nobody has more in-state players on its roster in the ACC than the Hurricanes do.

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4. Start putting quarterbacks back into the draft

Before Cristobal hired legendary Hurricane Alonzo Highsmith, an NFL scout for 23 years, to be the program’s first football general manager, Highsmith said one of the biggest reasons the program had slipped was it no longer brought in NFL-caliber quarterbacks.

Since Dorsey’s final college pass fell incomplete in the 2002 national championship game, the Hurricanes have seen only one of the 23 quarterbacks signed out of high school — 2017 sixth-round pick Brad Kaaya — get drafted.

Kaaya never threw an NFL pass and is now in film school. Before Miami’s dry run, Dorsey, Scott Covington, Craig Erickson, Steve Walsh, Jim Kelly, Bernie Kosar and Heisman Trophy winners Vinny Testaverde and Gino Torretta played quarterback for the program. All were drafted.

It’s the local misses over the past 15 years that sting the most.

“They had a chance to sign Teddy Bridgewater and Lamar Jackson and what happens is when you get into all these coaching changes, it affects the continuity of your program,” Zagacki said. “Teddy Bridgewater was committed to the University of Miami for three years. Every game he was in the locker room standing next to Jacory Harris, and the pressure to fire Randy Shannon sent Bridgewater to Louisville with Charlie Strong. That’s two program-changing quarterbacks they missed on. Miami is a hard place to play quarterback, and it takes a special individual.”

Bridgewater, Jackson and Geno Smith, the Seattle Seahawks’ NFL Comeback Player of the Year candidate, all played high school football within driving distance of Hard Rock Stadium. None suited up for the Canes.

“Quarterback is what it’s all about,” Monroe said. “Just look at the ACC. Who won the conference last year? Pittsburgh. Kenny Pickett led them, and he was a first-round draft pick. Clemson has dominated. Who have they had? Deshaun Watson and Trevor Lawrence.”

Rosier said he would list quarterback ahead of defensive line, offensive line and defensive back as the most important positions Miami needs to bring to an elite level.

“When I was at Georgia, those were the four big categories they were really focusing on,” he said.

Miami also hasn’t had a first-round pick at linebacker since Jon Beason in 2007. This is the same school that produced Ray Lewis, Micheal Barrow, Jon Vilma and Dan Morgan.

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5. Match the facilities, staffing of elite programs

It’s finally happening, but for years Miami was criticized for having lackluster dorms, weight rooms and no indoor practice facility. When the Hurricanes were winning championships, none of that seemed to matter.

But it’s a different world now. Getting on the same level with Alabama, Clemson and Ohio State from a recruiting standpoint required the Hurricanes to improve what they offered athletes, and they’ll soon do that in the next few years. New dorms opened on campus recently and Miami is investing hundreds of millions to upgrade its on-campus facilities and expand its indoor practice facility to 120 yards instead of 70. Opponents have made fun of Miami for that since Mark Richt helped opened the indoor field a few years ago.

“A lot of schools were negatively recruiting against us because our dorms were terrible,” Monroe said. “To be a great team, you have to invest in the program. It’s just one of those things maybe some fans won’t understand. But I understand it now because you just see it talking to the coaches and players.”

Rosier spent the 2020 season working under offensive coordinator Todd Monken at Georgia. He said he likes what Miami is doing to expand its facilities but thinks the expansion of the recruiting department and hiring of more analysts and staffers is a bigger deal.

“When I was with Manny (Diaz in 2019), it was kind of like a skeleton crew,” Rosier said. “When I went to Georgia, it felt like I was in New York City. People were flying around the building, doing stuff. It was busy.

“For me, when I was a quarterback at Miami, if I had an issue with (offensive coordinator James) Coley or Richt, I’d go to our grad assistant and talk to him. The people who are really helping the kids are the grad assistants and the other people on staff. Because coaches are busy. The guys underneath them are just as important, if not more.”

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6. Keep veteran players from leaving early for the draft

Receiver Charleston Rambo was an All-ACC second-team selection for the Hurricanes last season — and the latest example of a player who had eligibility left and decided to leave early for the draft. Rambo didn’t get drafted and isn’t on an NFL roster.

There are other recent examples of underclassmen leaving early and not being drafted: cornerback Trajan Bandy, receiver Jeff Thomas and running back Joe Yearby.

“We’ve had that problem forever, even when I was in school,” Monroe said. “The difference was you wouldn’t leave unless you were a first- or second-round pick. Now, people say ‘Oh, you’re a fifth-round pick.’ ‘OK, cool. I’m leaving.’ You can’t have that because that’s your ceiling if you do everything perfectly in a workout or the combine.”

Having Highsmith on staff, Cristobal said, should help veteran players get a better idea about whether they should enter the draft.

“Who is telling these guys to go?” Zagacki said. “Who told (2018 fifth-round pick) RJ McIntosh and (2018 seventh-round pick) Kendrick Norton to go and why? What was their motivation? Because they were Miami Hurricanes? Because the Hurricanes have had success in the NFL? That wasn’t the right thing for those kids.

“It might’ve not been the right thing for Duke Johnson. If you’re a No. 1 pick, great, go. But if you’re not, what did you accomplish? What is your legacy? Go ask Brad Kaaya why he left. Miami just hasn’t survived the battle of attrition, and they can’t replace guys that fast. It’s impossible unless you develop like Alabama and are stacked all the way through.

“We can talk about all the noise and this and that, but I go back to the beginning. Roster management.”

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Will Cristobal succeed? Monroe points to his success at Oregon, where he left a talented roster behind for Dan Lanning to take to the next level.

“We’ve been a seven-win team consistently for the last 15 years,” Monroe said. “Something’s not right. It’s not an overnight process. As frustrating as this has been to watch, people need to sit back and let him do his thing.”

Why does Zagacki have faith Cristobal is the right guy for the job? Because he’s convinced the former Miami offensive lineman won’t be influenced by outside pressure.

“He is headstrong and driven, and probably has the backbone that has been needed for the last 18 years,” Zagacki said.

“Nothing is going to get in his way. And let’s face it, there have been a lot of grenades to toss at Miami football. Whatever you want to call those grenades — from outside attacks in recruiting to flying banners on airplanes — it ain’t gonna matter to Mario. He’s on a singular mission. And he’s not going to be knocked off his course. Come hell or high water, whatever happens this year doesn’t matter to him. He knows exactly what he wants to do, and how he’s going to do it.”

(Top illustration: John Bradford / The Athletic; photos: Jamie Schwaberow, Jack Gorman / Getty Images; Mark J. Terrill / Associated Press)