Former Miami Hurricanes Edgerrin James And Kelvin Harris Discuss What Miami Is Lacking
It’s been twenty two long years since the Miami Hurricanes last won a national championship. The Canes have given up 45 points at home three times this season in blowout losses to Duke, Florida State, and the shocking defeat to Middle Tennessee. They had a 9 quarter stretch without scoring a touchdown.
2022 has been painful enough for Miami Hurricanes fans, but even more so for the former players who put THE U on the map.
I had the privilege of interviewing Pro Football Hall Of Famer Edgerrin James and 3-time national champion Kelvin Harris this week on my Locked On Canes podcast.
James told me “The U made the NFL easier. When I got to the NFL I was expecting it to be so much tougher,” he said. “People didn’t realize. I said, you don’t understand what it’s like to be out there every day on Greentree (Miami’s practice fields) when your teammate is trying to knock your head off. It’s a different type of feeling.”
It’s the feeling head coach Mario Cristobal, who won two national titles as a player at Miami in 1989 and 1991, and another as an assistant in 2001, wants to bring back.
“I don’t think a lot of the guys (on the Hurricanes) right now understand what it’s like to be a Miami Hurricane in that locker room.”
I asked James if Cristobal can ever bring Miami back to what it used to be:
“Mario knows the formula,” he said. “You can know the formula and know exactly how to do it but it comes down to the players. Keep South Florida players in South Florida. We’ve got the best players in the nation in South Florida and the state of Florida. Keep those players (in Miami) and you’re gonna have national championships. If you let them get away, the national championship gets away.”
Edge is clearly frustrated by recent trends of schools like Alabama, Ohio State and LSU, just to name a few, poaching so many Florida players.
“South Florida has some dominant youth programs. We’re building these up and the other guys are coming and taking these kids and making their programs successful.”
Miami currently has 19 verbal commits for the class of 2023. It’s a superb class overall, but right now only five of these players – Ray Ray Joseph, Robby & Bobby Washington, Antione Jackson and Frankie Tinilau – reside in Miami-Dade or Broward County. Tinilau grew up in Australia and relocated last summer to enroll at Miami La Salle.
In today’s college football you need to win in recruiting both nationally and locally. Miami is working hard for several additional South Florida recruits like 4-star RB Mark Fletcher, 4-star EDGE Rueben Bain, 4-star CB Damari Brown and 4-star RB Christopher Johnson, among others. Cristobal, a Miami native, would love nothing more than to rebuild the pipelines with the local high schools.
Former Miami Hurricanes center Kelvin Harris was a teammate of Cristobal’s both at Miami and in the World League.
“We’re gonna be alright,” Harris said. “It’s just like any other change of regime. There are going to be some malcontents who are loyal to the last staff. They either assimilate into the new structure or they get kicked out. We’re kind of seeing it right now… guys who don’t believe in the system or transferring or told to see the door.”
Harris, as I do, predicts a lot of roster turnover between now and next season.
“The guys who are not (Mario’s) guys, they’ve gotta make a decision and make it quick. Either I’m down with the program or I am gonna go ahead and go somewhere else.”
Harris speaks with Cristobal frequently and assured me that Mario knew what he was getting into when he left his stacked roster at Oregon to try and turn things around at his alma mater.
“He wants it to be like how it was when we were there. We’ll see.”
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