Better Know an ACC Opponent: Miami

In case you’ve blissfully forgotten, the Pac-12 is dead and Cal is now in a conference named after the other side of the country. If you’re reading this, it means that this new reality is not a deal breaker for you. Over the rest of the off-season, we’ll profile each and every member of this conference that Cal has joined, that will definitely 100% exist it its current form for years if not decades.

Previously: Boston College; Clemson; Duke; Florida State; Georgia Tech; Louisville

Give me the basics

The University of Miami is a private school located in Coral Gables, just southwest of Miami proper. The University was founded in 1925, the same year that the town of Coral Gables itself was founded as a planned community, and the two grew up together. It was an unlucky time to found a university, as the institution barely survived the Great Depression.

But Miami survived those early struggles and expanded their offerings in the 40s and 50s, and their national renown was certainly not hurt by the exploits of the football team in the 80s, 90s, and early 00s.

Do they have any relevant history with Cal?

There’s a decent chance you have some good memories associated with Cal vs. Miami!

In 2008, Cal defeated Miami in the Emerald Bowl in San Francisco, and it was pretty much all Jahvid Best. Cal gained a tepid 4.9 yards/play when Jahvid didn’t touch the ball (despite one 74 yard passing play!), and 9.3 yards/play when he did. They maybe should’ve given him more than 20 carries? Regardless, it was enough production to hold off Miami for a 24-17 win to cap off a 9-4 season.

And in 2010, Cal WBB defeated Miami at Haas Pavilion in the final of the WNIT, 73-61. It was a happy send off to Alexis Gray-Lawson, and a launching off point for the core of younger players like Layshia Clarendon and Talia Caldwell who would later make the Final Four.

Cal football also had a pretty memorable home-and-home with Miami back in the Bruce Snyder era. In ‘89 the Bears went to Miami and lost pretty comprehensively to the team that ended up winning a consensus national title. One year later Miami came west to play the much improved Bears, and although Cal fell 52-24, to a Miami team that would end the season ranked #3, Russell White announced himself as a big time player. Cal would end that season 7-4-1 with a Copper Bowl win.

Cal baseball is 1-7 all-time vs. Miami baseball (more on them below) but that one win? It came in the 1980 college baseball world series when Bob Melvin and the Bears eliminated the Hurricanes. Interestingly, Cal head coach Mike Neu was an all-American pitcher with Miami in the late 90s.

When Cal MBB plays Miami at some point next season, it will be the first time the two teams face off.

You may remember me from such Pac-12 teams as:

If you were making comparisons any time between 1980 and 2005 or so, the USC comparisons would have been impossible to deny. A small private school in a major metro area with oodles of talent, a brash attitude, and a dim view of the rules? Come on!

But since firing Larry Coker, Miami is 123 and 91, with one ACC championship game appearance and zero conference titles. Over the last 20 years Miami just hasn’t been a football power.

So yeah, Miami is a party school in a major metro area where nobody ever ears close toed shoes. Everybody thinks should be much better than they actually are at football but they constantly self-sabotage.

Miami is Arizona State.

I want to get on their good side. I should agree with them about:

“I don’t know who the greatest college football team of all time is, but I damn well know that the 2001 Hurricanes were the most talented college football team of all time.”

I want to troll them incessantly. I should make fun of them for:

[If you are a Cal fan younger than, say, 28 years old] “Wait, Miami has won a national title?! Wow, when did THAT happen?”

Alternatively: “Man, why couldn’t you guys have ever stolen any of the GOOD Oregon head coaches?”

What should I know about their current coaches?

Mario Cristobal, former Miami football player, is one of the very best recruiters in the sport and one of the very worst in-game managers in the history of football coaching. In just a few years he has brought in borderline top 10 talent to Miami, but that didn’t stop him from blowing multiple winnable games en route to a 7-6 finish last year.

To be fair, he did navigate Oregon to a Pac-12 title and Rose Bowl win, so it’s not like he’s wasting talent every year, but he’s one of college football’s most obvious “major strength and major weakness” head coach.

MBB coach Jim Larrañaga is, by a wide margin, the most successful coach in the history of the program. He’s earned 6 of Miami’s 11 NCAA tournament appearances and 11 of Miami’s 15 total tournament wins. The 74 year old first came to prominence when he led George Mason to the Final Four, and he’s kind of a universally beloved college basketball grandpa at this point. Plus he got the best out of former Bear Charlie Moore so I appreciate him. The downside of coming off a down year when you’re 74? Rampant retirement speculation, though he’s coming back for at least one more year.

WBB coach Katie Meier collected 369 wins and 10 NCAA tournament appearances across 19 seasons at Miami, but retired after last season and has been replaced by Tricia Cullop from Toledo.

Which alumni keep them stuck in the past?

Where do you even start? Ed Reed, Devin Hester, Frank Gore, Warren Sapp, Ray Lewis, Jim Kelly . . . and I haven’t even listed every former Hurricane that’s made the pro football hall of fame.

Which alumni will they pretend they’ve forgotten?

Um, Osama bin Laden’s half-brother went to Miami’s business school, but his (alleged) crimes are related to white collar business shenanigans in Saudi Arabia rather than global terrorism.

Miami fans probably don’t think about him much, but boy is this San Francisco Giants fan sad about what an awful human being Aubrey Huff turned out to be.

What’s their school tradition that they take way too seriously?

Miami didn’t really have much in terms of history or tradition before brashly winning a bunch of titles while thumbing their noses up at the traditional powers in the sport, which is to say that Miami isn’t known for traditions other than recruiting the most talented kids from Florida and then turning them into the most terrifyingly dominant pros you’ve ever seen.

What non-revenue sport do they care about most?

Baseball for sure. Miami actually has as many baseball titles (4) as they do in football, and interestingly across a nearly identical timeframe in the 80s through the early 00s. Though Miami’s baseball alumni aren’t quite as star-studded as football, MLB was still littered with former Hurricanes in the 90s and 00s, and Miami continues to be a regular college baseball tournament participant even if they haven’t quite had the same level of post-season success of late.

Should I go see Cal play a game there?

Miami is the 2nd biggest tourist city in the United States, so it’s got plenty going for it. Granted, much of that is related to beach going. Personally, I’m not sure I’d deal well at all with Miami humidity, but I think I’d take the risk to enjoy Cal sports and the best Caribbean cuisine you can find in the United States at the same time.

Miami has the misfortune of playing their home games in the home stadium of the Miami Dolphins, which is a 30 minute drive north away from Miami’s actual campus, and for that reason I’ve noticed that Miami tends to rank very low on any lists ranking stadiums in the ACC.

Honestly, it would be tempting to go see Cal basketball play in Miami, because if there’s a time to go to Florida for the weather it would certainly be in the winter. The Watsco Center is about 20 years old and seats 8,000 on campus, and looks like a solid enough place to see a game.

Is Cal better than them at sports right now?

No, but it’s close enough to be intriguing.

Miami was one solitary game better than Cal football last year despite probably facing a weaker schedule strength, which is really funny when you compare each team’s recruiting rankings before the season started. Since then Miami brought in the #4 ranked high school recruiting class and the #10 ranked portal class (both per 247) which is to say that the talent gap isn’t narrowing. That said, much of Miami’s talent is on the younger side, so it might be better to get Miami now rather than later. Say . . . early October in Berkeley?

Miami MBB seemed decent enough in early February of last year, then lost 10 straight to end the season. On the other hand, they’re bringing in the #12 ranked high school recruiting class plus six transfers, so there’s been a major talent infusion. Between that and Larrañaga’s well-established coaching record, Miami will likely be a challenge.